I’ve just completed this new print for sale on Etsy, featuring a frolicking elephant and one of my husband’s favorite sayings, “All Sunshine Makes a Desert.” It’s a traditional Arabic aphorism handed down to my husband by his mom, who has a wealth of interesting phrases and sayings from Lebanon, where she is from. It basically means that if things were perfect all of the time, it might not be such a good thing, or, put another way, that we need all different experiences, including adversity, to make us well-rounded people. My husband tends to bring out this phrase when I’m complaining about something!

The elephant in a rainstorm was inspired by an episode of BBC One’s show Africa. It’s the same as their show Life, but focusing just on Africa, and I highly recommend it if you love nature shows! In this particular episode a family of elephants is looking for water during the dry season in Africa, and spoiler alert, it ends fairly sadly for one elephant. But it really illustrates the point that things like rain and grey skies are definitely necessary, even if they ruin our picnics and keep us inside on a Saturday, and in the case of an elephant rain is what allows him to thrive. So my elephant is rejoicing in the rain, and is full of colorful patterns and flowers that are being nurtured by the rain.

The print is for sale here, and I hope you remember “All Sunshine Makes a Desert” the next time your pool party is rained out!