Losing Someone Dear

 

The one year anniversary of my mom's death passed on December 19th and her birthday cam and went on March 4th.  I guess I expected to make some grand gesture in her honor or write a tearful public tribute saying all the things I think and feel to mark the dates.  I've been humbled to discover that grief doesn't

follow a timeline and the only thing that I can count on is that it will take what it wants when it wants.  I've done my best to accept the loneliness and longing that comes from losing the only person I've shared this human experience with since I was in utero.  It's strange to grapple with the truths and complexities of our relationship in my own heart and mind, without her existence to confirm, deny or alter them.  Sometimes the longing to hear her voice or feel the reassurance of her being is so painful that it feels like a gaping wound no one else can see. I'm still in shock at how surreal and unbelievable something as inevitable as death can be.   

 

 

 

Be Yourself

 

"Be yourself.

There is something 

that you can do

better than any other.

Listen to the inward voice

and bravely obey that."  

May you Sense

"May you sense around you the

secret Elsewhere where the 

presences that have left you dwell." - John O'Donohue 

Art Does This

 

"Art washes away 

from the soul

the dust of 

everyday life."  Picasso  

You Have The Answer

 

"at the center

 of your being you

have the answer;

you know who you are and you know

what you want." -Lao Tzu 

A Carver Carnival Painting

 I've been going through some old photos and found this one. Long ago when the girls were in elementary school at Carver the school hosted a yearly carnival. Someone knew I could paint and they asked me to do several large painted figures with cut out faces so kids could pose at a booth. I don't know where the other photos are but here is one funny figure I painted. I think the others were a pirate and a mermaid.

 

Good Old Mom