Family.

If we're lucky, we grow up in a good family. If we're really lucky, we get to create another later on. Some families seem perfect. Some not so much. In the end, it's your family, and like everything in life, it is what you make of it.

This image of my daughter and husband during a family bike ride break is among my favorites. Such a precious moment in time and before I know it, she will be grown, flying from the nest to go off and create her own life. Her own career. Her own family. So it's moments like these that I relish. They make the challenges of every day life worth every battle.

Not all families are as fortunate, and I feel for them. Mine is certainly not perfect; the cracks and rusty parts are invisible in images like these but they are there. Despite the flaws, I am still fortunate - or maybe because of them I am fortunate. Those challenges, after all, make us stronger. Smarter. Better. Maybe not right away, but eventually, if you're willing to see it that way. And I am.

This image inspired the below painting. Another adventure in the use of the faux gold leaf paper, and not an attempt to replicate the photograph but instead, replicate the image it inspires within me.

My little family.