While I was in Chicago my Mom and I visited the Chicago Institute of art. There is just nothing like seeing paintings in person. There is a life and spirit there that isn’t in a print or photo of the painting. What is it?

I heard a mom say once that the difference between the two peanut butter sandwiches on her table was that one of them was made while she was watching the end of a TV show, and the other one was made while she was thinking about and praying for her child.

Simply put, it was made with love.

She swore that the sandwiches would actually taste different, and she offered the one “made with love” to her toddler and ate the other one herself.

And you know what? I believe her. There are intangibles all around us because we live in a world that contains far more than what we can touch and see.

I believe that the paintings that were actually touched by the artist, messed over, perhaps cried over or even prayed over, contain at least some small part of that artist’s soul.

I can feel it when I walk into the room and it stays with me when I go home.