Life in Wonderland: another remix

I painted this a while ago.  I posted it on Deviant Art in 2006, so I know it was either painted in that year or quite possibly earlier.

This piece is titled Passion.  I was young and full of combustible energy when I painted this.  I remember thinking that in good and bad times we should live life dancing in the fire.

I still feel that way.  Looking back at this painting and thinking about the girl, who enjoyed every stroke that created those flames, makes me a bit sad.  My life is fuller in ways it wasn't then, but it's also a lot more predictable and so much slower.

I'm not sure if I'm dancing anymore.  I haven't stopped moving, but it's more of a swaying now.  The girl who went in to that fire has changed.  The fire taught her about love, struggle, history, life.  It's still teaching her about all that and more and she's still enduring and dreaming of the future.

The fire may not be as bright, but now she's brighter.