Tara

Comes now the story of Tara.

Tara grew up in a creative home with a mother who was a concert violinist and a father who was a painter. She enjoyed her creative upbringing, dividing time between concerts and gallery exhibits. She felt it was a charmed life.

As Tara grew older, she knew that she wanted to have the life of an artist. Tara wanted the freedom to bring her imagination to some type of reality. But she struggled to find her outlet.

Tara loved music and art but as she came of age, the arts and education thereof fell out of fashion with the public. Earning an education and therefore career as an artist was increasingly becoming an option only for those who could afford it. Tara’s family, while comfortable, could not provide such an education.

So she was relegated to receiving an education in something more practical which was accounting. Her parents lamented that they could not afford to send her to a college where she could explore avenues of expression. But they told Tara to keep looking for her creative soul on the side while she earned a living counting numbers.

Tara took to the mathematics of accounting principles but she hated it. The field was opposite of art for her because creativity in applying tax codes was actively discouraged in the profession. After finishing her courses and an appropriate amount of time as an intern, Tara finished her education. She became deeply depressed because she was embarking on a life she did not want but there was no alternative.

Tara returned to her parent’s house rather than finding her own. She wanted to stay in the home of art and creativity. Her parents indulged her and told her she could stay as long as need be.

One evening the moon approached her outside and told her to go for a walk. Tara asked why but the moon did not respond. It projected its light more profoundly and illuminated a path away from her parents’ home and into a nearby wood.

She proceeded down a winding, ascending, lunar-lit, earthen path. The bright moonlight illuminated the trees, the leaves and the roots springing from the ground in the rocks. On the forest floor there were mushrooms, acorns, flowers, berries, branches, bushes and grass. The path eventually opened up into a clearing. She stepped into the middle, unsure of what to do.

On the ground, she found an array of pebbles, leaves and twigs. Tara took note of them. Not knowing why she gathered them up and then piled them in the center of the clearing. She sat on the cool grass and arranged the detritus into an intricate abstract circular image. The process thrilled Tara. She enjoyed the creation and the exhilaration of bringing her creativity to life. As she stepped back to take in her recently created land art, the moon took the opportunity to shine even brighter so that she could get a better look at her work.

Tara had found a passion. For the next several weeks she spent hours outside her parents’ home picking up rocks, branches, heavy stones and various bits of flora. Tara would use the organic matter to create sculptures and displays on the ground that were incorporated with its surrounding landscape. No one could see her work but she didn’t care. It was the process that Tara was addicted to.

Her parents loved what she was doing. They were thrilled to see her ecological artwork dotting the land around their house. Tara was fulfilled but there was no way for her to make a living out of her work. Not wanting to be a burden to her parents, Tara took a job working as a junior accountant for a small firm.

As with her education, she hated the job. All she could think about was finishing the work day and then running home to explore her woods and make her next landscape piece. Years passed and she never left her parents’ home. They were never eager for her to leave because they saw that she had found the artistic outlet she had so desperately sought.

The job wore on her soul. Tara wanted nothing more than to quit. Her parents could see the damage of her being torn between a profession she never wanted and the artistic expression she needed. The internal division became too much to tolerate.

Her job would have been more satisfying if she had felt it was worthwhile. But much of her work was allocating finances to make it easier for a transition to tax shelters. Essentially, Tara was making the rich richer while she suffered.

One day she realized that her work was being funneled into a covert process designed to hide money which made the situation ripe for exploitation. Using her knowledge as an accountant and channeling the creativity of her artistic nature, Tara began siphoning off some of the funds into an offshore account that she opened. Tara was certain to take an amount that wouldn’t be noticed in a manner that wouldn’t be discovered. A few years passed and Tara felt she had taken enough and she ended the skim.

By this point, her parents were older and in need of care. The stress of her job mixed with their medical needs made Tara’s situation untenable. She surreptitiously transferred her laundered nest egg to a more accessible account and then quit her job. The firm asked her to stay and even offered her more money. Tara refused. She could not subdivide her soul between her job, her parents and her art. Tara quit.

Her life became bearable. Tara spent her days working on her art and, when needed, shuffling her parents to medical appointments. For the first time in her life, she was happy. Tara had the finances to live comfortably while expressing herself. She felt no guilt at taking the money from the wealthy client who unknowingly were patron of the arts.

In time, Tara’s parents both passed and she inherited their home. She lived a long life, traveling to new places to create her art, constantly expressing her soul.