by Susan E. Carr

Created on: August 12, 2009   Last Updated: December 03, 2011

As Morgan sat at her kitchen table looking at all the paint supplies she had recently purchased, the thought occurred to her that she was not really a painter, why, she had this urge to buy supplies and begin this hobby was a mystery even to her. However, she had heard that painting and writing, or forms of creativity, were beneficial to people who had undergone severe mental stress. This may be a pastime that would help her recover from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

She positioned herself so that the light would filter naturally into her workspace. For a moment she thought about what she should paint. What is my ideal of a perfect place it should be something that represents peace, she thought. Picking up her pencil she began to outline a house. As she began painting, the house emerged almost without thought into an English cottage, and it seemed that automatically her hand moved to fill in quaint comfortable features, such as a welcoming winding stone path, a garden full of flowers in bloom and tall 'sentinel-like' trees. As the picture took on life and form, she viewed it with some surprise, since even unfinished, she could see that it gave her feelings of tranquility and calm. How strange, she thought. She found herself hurrying home that week so that she could immediately begin her painting, each day adding to and coloring in details. She even painted the flowers and trees outside of the matted frame giving the illusion that the garden flowed out from the house, past the boundaries of the picture. It was somewhat unique and not bad, she thought, for a novice. Over time, more pictures emerged from Morgan's painting corner, but the house remained in the forefront of her accomplishments, and she often glanced at it with a sense of longing.

About the same time, Morgan began to feel a growing dissatisfaction with where she was living. She was definitely not happy in her apartment, it felt so closed in and stifling. I really should move and find another place to live, Morgan often thought to herself, Something with more space and freedom. She spent several months looking but came away with no possibilities within her budget. One day Morgan asked her good friend, Louise, out for lunch, since it was Louise's birthday. Over lunch Morgan said to Louise You know, I have been looking for several months for a house and I have seen a number of properties, but so far nothing suitable has come up. Well, said Louise, let's take a look after lunch and see if we can find

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