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This is the sketch I did during our breakout about Fruitful Friction. With Michael Lennon we discussed how often it happens that before a more complex form emerges there is a state of friction, of discomfort, like a squishing of the baby in the birth canal.

This sketch shows the state of intense pressure that comes with confusion, disorientation, conflict. That state feels dark and chaotic in. Then just like the whirl of water that emerges from the friction of running water onto a rock (taking Michael’s metaphor here), the shape of the process is a funnel that moves upward.

The sketch shows the opening up, the rising into more possibilities that happens after the dark times.

Making this image helps me see the bigger picture, it helps me to surrender when I feel inside the tight squish whether it’s for my personal story or our global one.

The watercolor will be sent in a tube. Contact Gaia if you wish to buy it matted and/or framed.