Heart Story by Lindy Jerlow

Lindy Jerlow with her painting "Walled Garden."

"Waiting" series available in the retail area by the fountain.


"Chloe" watercolor by Lindy Jerlow.

If you've ever slowed down long enough to savor all A Spot For Tea has to offer, you quickly discover there is more to this place than meets the eye. Venturing further back beyond the dining area there lies a painting entitled "Walled Garden." It is one of my favorite paintings that I have recently completed not because I felt more accomplished as a painter but more so for what it has taught me personally.

I wanted to feel lost in the garden but not forgotten and alone. This wall is not meant for containment and restraint but rather protection and shelter. I hope the viewer finds challenge in this pathway. The end is not clear and only when ventured can one find where it goes.

This has been laid upon me - the concept of daily life and which direction we are moving in. Do we find ourselves moving in a walled garden with a path directing us or are we lost in the forest outside the shrub with a path directing us or are we lost in the forest outside the shrubbery wall? What have we chosen?

Life is constantly giving us choices and I find myself having to be more deliberate in those choices. There are obvious choices of what we are watching and reading, saying and thinking. But what about the choice to face the paths in that we avoid but know we are to walk? Are we facing those paths? Are we going through them, or, are we avoiding and stumbling in the thicket to make our own way, a way we were not intended to pursue? We blame the things around us, the people from our past and present, and the chances we never had but now what? Where does that leave us?

I'm convinced that we are always moving no matter our beliefs. Whether forward to backward we are never standing motionless in our decisions because we are constantly choosing. Dance the irony of moving but being still. Feel the place of PEACE in letting go. May you be challenged to not just taste chance but savor the risk of trying today; trying to move in a purposeful direction led by you heart's compass and His hand.

A Spot For Tea has been a "Walled Garden" for me and those I love, therefore, I cannot end without expressing my thanks to the owner, Tammy Seibert. She is a woman who has shown me the door of possibility. Tmmy is a doer. To exist in the world of Tammy is to find all dreams tangible. She is the reason I have been inspired to move and not just move in comfort but live in a world of limitless potential. Standing next to someone so strong in belief can do nothing short but inspire the greatest of hopes and persistence. These inspirations have cultivated into my latest series located by the fountain area entitled "Waiting." Through these paintings my prayers have been answered and I have fallen in love with the joy of simply holding a brush again.

Lindy's painting "Walled Garden" that she gave as a gift to a Spot For Tea is on display by the elevator at the back of the dining room. If you are interested in purchasing prints or watercolors in the "Waiting" series they are available in the retail area by the fountain. Lindy has also painted teacup note cards that are available. She is a special friend of A Spot For Tea and we wish her success in pursuing her creative dreams.

Psalm 25:4-5 "Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;
guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long."