Becoming Me

This picture - Catching a Break - emerged from the scan of the side of an orange crate.

"Listen attentively, and remember that true tales are meant to be transmitted-to keep them to oneself is to betray them." Anonymous (Found in the book Creating A Life Worth Living by Carol Lloyd)

When I was young, my mother would appear by my room, and excitedly beckon me to come see something quickly. Dragging my feet I would leave my television show, only to find she wanted to show me a sunset, a cloud formation, or a bird resting on one of our trees. My response was often a groan, and a quick return to the TV. Sometimes indignant that she could have thought such "things" more important than my show. At this moment, what pops into my head is Joni Mitchell's line, "don't know what you've got til it's gone."

Sorry, Mama, really sorry. You tried so hard to share your love and appreciation of the ephemeral beauty. Each a unique and special moment never to exist again. Maybe you knew something about the importance of being a witness. I don't know I never asked you. I am humbly grateful that without pause I stop to witness: the crow alight the tip of the tree;
the leaf falling in whirls, the child's toy skittering across the miniature parking lot ponds leaving wakes and waves.

I grew up in a house that was never without canvases, drawing pads, pencils, paints, crayons, easels, artist's palettes. I never even had that thought until yesterday. Except for a quick foray in selling art for greeting cards in my 20's, I didn't do much in creating physical, tangible art for decades. But, I have always kept a wealth of various art supplies, often giving some of them to others that I thought might use them, but never without them. Then, again, I love paper in various textures and colors, pens-marvelous marking tools, pencils in a myriad of colors. Maybe, it's because they have always been part of my life, maybe they are pieces of my childhood, or maybe because they are wondrous things.

In honor of my mother, I invite you to see some interesting things I've found:

Cloud Appreciation Society. Did you know they had one?

Lost & Taken as a lot of good texture freebies like 7 Ink & Tea Stained Paper Textures ("These high-res ink & tea textures were soaked in weak tea.") & 25 watercolor textures. Plain fun to look at and admire as well as use.

"I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and your laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom." Clarissa Pinkola Estes

May you be as well as do

(And, Mama, it wasn't just you, sadly, "they" still have a hard time pulling me away from the TV.)