When I attended NCTC for my associate degree in Nursing I took some courses through the Virtual College of Texas that was offered through NCTC. The Virtual College of Texas offers online classes from different colleges in Texas, once the course is completed, they assign the credit to the college that you are enrolled in, which for me was NCTC. This really helped me save time because if NCTC did not have an online option for a course I needed to take, I would go to the Virtual College of Texas, look for the class I needed and ask NCTC to reserve me a seat in that class. For a working mom like me, this option was incredibly efficient. And to make my life easier, or so I thought, I would go to all the different colleges that offered that class, I would open up the syllabus that described the course’s requirements including all the assignments, and I would pick the class that I thought would be “easier.” When it came the time to take Art Appreciation, I picked out a class according to the “easier” required work delineated in the syllabus. The required work was, for each art style, I would pick out a painting-either online or from a nearby museum, and write a descriptive essay. Well, I was wrong, writing a page long essay to describe a painting is not necessarily the easiest assignment.

The thing with paintings is that they are finished pieces, there is no room for “what ifs.” What is, is what is.

For example, Frida Kahlo’s self portraits, all with her original full-eyebrows are simply that- Frida’s eyebrows.

And Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile is the true representation of beautiful ambiguity. She carries a calm and guarded demeanor with a confident yet mysterious personality. In regard to her emotion, it could be regarded as happy or melancholic; we would never know, because we did not know her personally, all we have left to do is to admire the finished piece.

And the famous “Woman” painting by Willem de Kooning, it is whatever it represented in his mind, in his emotions, or in the abstraction of life. A finished, complete, perfect in its own way, piece of art.

There is a psychological phenomenon called the “Zeigarnik effect” that refers to our tendency to fixate on unfinished tasks. When it comes to relationships, this phenomenon keeps us in an open loop of what ifs, ruminating and dwelling on relationships with unresolved conflict, relationships that lacked some sort of closure, it keeps us searching for answers. But the fact is that like in the paintings, the final stroke ended all the what ifs, all there is left to do is to appreciate what is, live with its perfection or imperfection, and move on the next painting.

And with this thought in mind, I am proud to present to you my new company Lienzo: a place where women rewrite their stories. Lienzo is a Medical Offices Cleaning Service that offers janitorial services for medical offices. It provides general liability and all cleaning products except for trash bags. We don’t disinfect medical tools or remove sharps/hazardous waste containers. The service will not require any contracts, it can be cancelled any time. It is launching its services with Solutions Medical Clinic as its first client.