While traversing some of the most remote mountains he had ever seen he suddenly felt as if he were being watched. There was no one in sight, but he could still feel her presence in the cloud-covered mountain peaks, her eyes watching over his every step. Tilting his head up to the sky, he finally saw her and something about her felt incredibly familiar, as if they had met before. Their proximity felt like an echo that had reverberated longer than either of them could comprehend.

This was in fact, not their first encounter but one of an infinite number of first encounters scattered across space and time. They always seemed to find each other in every lifetime, in every dimension. Across the seas and through the mountains, no matter what separated them, they always met and never wanted to part. In this lifetime, they would meet early in their lives in the mountains but in the next they might find each other in old age on an entirely different continent.

In another life, they might be two birds who happen to land on the same branch and in another, two rocks sitting side by side at the edge of a canyon enjoying each other's company in complete silence. In whatever life they exist, and whatever form they inhabit, they always circle one another, finding peace in each other's presence.

This piece accompanied me through one of the most challenging chapters of my life. I began it before my cancer diagnosis and continued working on it throughout six months of chemotherapy. In many ways it holds more than just paint, it carries love, endurance, and the presence of someone who never let go of my hand.