Snippets and Snatches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I said, ‘Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!

I would fly away and be at rest –

I would flee far away

and stay in the desert;

I would hurry to my place of shelter…

far from the tempest and the storm.’ ”  Psalm 55:6-8

 Wilting Flower, oil pastels

“O Lord my God, I cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed me.”  Psalm 30:2

I started this in a workshop today and finished it later…

Upon further reflection in this quiet night, I feel it is about hope and the love of God and others that sustains the wilting flower in its weakened state.

 This still life I drew of a handmade rag doll(given to me many years ago by my sister) was captured in an oil pastel drawing before one of our puppies chewed her up to pieces.  I don’t remember which pup would do such a thing, I just know this rag doll has not reappeared in attic boxes or potential yard sale treasures for many years and there’s no way I would have given her away, so she must have suffered an unthinkable fate in the jaws of an ornery puppy.  But I do remember doing this drawing at a time in my life when I was single and away from home in graduate school, living in Louisville, Kentucky.  She somehow is a symbol of home, the place I grew up in, Washington, Pa. and the sisters and brothers I shared my soul and space with for my entire childhood.  I’m sure I missed them terribly along with my parents, my gram, and our house on Magnolia Drive.  I’m glad I have the artwork as a reminder and record of my life, small and humble as it is, to lift my spirit and help me recall the love I was blessed to know as a child, imperfect love of course, as all love is I suppose.

I just returned from the place I call home, though I haven’t lived there since I moved away when I was a mere 18 years old.  Though the house I grew up in is long gone and the visits now entail seeing my mom in her apartment at the assisted living facility she has lived in since before my dad died three years ago, I still feel like I am going home because home is where my heart is and my heart is there with her.  It doesn’t matter that the walls that house my mom are so different from the walls that housed six children, several dogs, my parents and my grandma.  The memories are deeply ingrained in an eternal place of my mind and heart that just a glance of a picture from photo albumns can bring a flood of memories…things I don’t get triggered to remember until I’m there or even driving the long highway through the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia to visit her.

The tough part is knowing that life is changing, we are all growing older, and there is no way to keep the past preserved in the present or the future except through memories, photos, and stories of those long gone days.  Instead of clicking my ruby heels three times like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, I only need to hug my mom, drive around my hometown, and look at an old piece of artwork that came from my homesick heart when I was very young to truly know without a doubt: There’s No Place Like Home!!!

 I rest in peace, O Father,

Your hands are holding me.

All is by You directed,

You lead me tenderly.

I rest in You, safe hidden,

O Father mine, most dear;

In every care and sorrow

Deep peace may I find here.

I rest upon Your bosom,

Your heart beats there for me.

It knows full well each suffering,

And plumbs each misery.

I know that You directed

All that will come to me,

Each pain You give me serving

My soul’s true destiny.

My heart in fear or sorrow

May dwell in quietness.

I trust in Your will wholly

And that is blessedness.

by Sister Basilea Schlink

 

 

 

 

“Dandelions” acrylics

Spring Fever…my favorite seasonal malady that has me itching for beach walks and garden tours, neither of which I have embarked on just yet.  It is an early spring with azaleas, dandelions, dogwoods, and yellow-green leaf buds bursting forth in full color everywhere in this southern landscape.  I imagine God, the Master Artist, with His brush and palette of spring colors (very different from the autumn palette) splashing colors from the heavens in joyfully wild Jackson Pollack style.  The yellow green pollen dust falling vaporously like magic fairy dust from His pastels brings the sleeping earth to life and has some people sneezing and others complaining because their cars are dirty.  Yes, I am one of the latter who wasted fifty bucks at the car wash a few weeks ago (well, I did get the interior thoroughly cleaned so it wasn’t a total waste of money) but I am trying to see this phenomenon for the gift it is to the world, announcing the arrival of spring and new life!  Inspiration stirs within after the cold silence of winter.  May I shed my own deadness to embrace the glories of spring with a renewed and grateful heart that even appreciates the beauty of the commonplace dandelion, a nuisance of a weed to be eradicated for most, but also a gift of tiny suns shining like gold from the earth.

Weavings | Hope Springs Eternal.  This is a great article from a trusted journal that never disappoints called Weavings.

To let go does not mean to stop caring, it means I can’t do it for someone else.

To let go is not to cut myself off, it’s the realization I can’t control another.

To let go is not to enable, but allow learning from natural consequences.

To let go is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.

To let go is not to try to change or blame another, it’s to make the most of myself.

To let go is not to care for, but to care about.

To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.

To let go is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.

To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their destinies.

To let go is not to be protective, it’s to permit another to face reality.

To let go is not to deny, but to accept.

To let go is not to nag, scold or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.

To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.

To let go is not to criticize or regulate anybody, but to try to become what I dream I can be.

To let go is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.

To let go is to fear less and love more and…

To let go and to let God, is to find peace!

Remember, the time to love is short.

….author unknown

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In the course of holiday activities my husband found time to work in the attic and present piles of stuff to the grown children for them to sort through and decide what to keep and what to get rid of.  He presented a long forgotten pile of artwork to me from college and grad school that I was very happy to rediscover. A nagging question of late surfaced in that pile of artwork: “What happened to the artist I was?” Where did she go, that young, passionate girl who was driven then to follow her artistic path? I found pieces of her in the pile of artwork and I intend to give her time to create and room to breathe.  This is my hope for the new year.

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Where is the glory in this autumn season when leaves fall and the earth prepares for the deadness of winter? The light dance of golden leaves torn from their branches by icy winds seems silent and cold. They fall to the creek and float out with the tides to join the mammoth river without choice or say in the direction they must take. It seems a sad, lonely fate has befallen them all. It is possible to ignore or deny the obvious signs that the leaves are telling us: Change is on the way! All I have to do is close my eyes or look the other way because it hurts too much to watch so many little deaths. It seems the natural world is falling apart in autumn and in some places, at least, it happens in a blaze of color. Whether I choose to notice or not the seasons are going to change and life will be different once again. Instead of denying the inevitable I might as well embrace and appreciate the beauty in each season of life’s journey. The old passes away and the hope of new life is born. This happens to all things and to all life in God’s time not mine. There IS glory in the fall!