Monthly Archives: July 2013

July 30, 2013 · 22:33

The Face of Life Changes

It does sometimes, doesn’t it?

As I try to step back into routine, somehow I have found that my routine has changed. It  doesn’t seem like routine to me.

Yet.

After all, isn’t routine what we settle into once an adjustment occurs.   What do we call that time in the interim?

Ah.  Maybe transition?  Whate’er.   Life is different right now.

Back in March, I got a big art commission that is demanding a huge chunk of my day.  So, I am looking for about 5 extra hours each day.  Do you know where those hours are?  Did you swipe them from me?   Many things have been tossed aside so that I could meet the first deadline of this project.  I finished it yesterday.  So my old routine returned today.  But will be gone tomorrow when the second part begins.

Marian University (Indianapolis) is building a Nursing/Osteopathic Healing Center School.  They chose me and five other artists to enhance the aesthetic beauty of the building.  I much obliged.  I designed 5 images that I felt best depicted their value missions of the University.   They are: prayer, stewardship, forgiveness, justice and peace, and dignity of the individual.   The project is for me to take my 1 sq. ft. paintings and create mosaics that are 6′ x 6′.

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Pack it up time for installation.

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Combine the crate that we built to transport and the mosaic, we figured the thing weighed at least 300 lbs.  It was cumbersome and SCARY.

Delivery.

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A lot of resting  goin’ on here and there.  We were frightened  to continue on with opening it and getting the thing up on the wall.

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But we soldiered onward.

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And there it sits.

Now I only have 4 more to complete.

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The thought of doing 4 more of these things and transporting them up the highway is daunting.  But, God willing, it will get done.  Please pray.

I am grateful for this job.  It feels good to be needed and/or wanted, doesn’t it?

I look forward to  the transition of my day to become routine so that I can resume fun things like blogging, walking in the woods,  buying food for my family,  taking showers, brushing my teeth……..saying hello to God.  All that fun, necessary stuff.

Food for the soul.  And family.

God bless,

Karen

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July 13, 2013 · 23:48

Empty Wagons Rattle The Loudest

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What?

A friend quoted this old saying on Facebook a few days ago.   I have never heard this before and for some unknown reason I couldn’t let it go. It struck a chord in my pea brain .  When things rattle for a while in my head, there is usually a reason.   

I looked it up and some of the definitions for this witty saying are:

The least intelligent of us are the loudest.  

One who uses many words to make up for the lack of substance.  

I even  came across the quote:   “A loaded wagon makes no noise.”      It is to mean people with real money don’t talk about it.  Huh?

Who makes this stuff up?

I didn’t grow up in a family that used witty old-time sayings.  I’m a little dim in this department.  But they are fun.  Especially if we can make up our own definitions.

Before I had a chance to look up the meaning,  I had made my own mind up.

Perspective is everything, isn’t it?  Experience is everything, isn’t it?  And really, what is reality?  Is it a concrete thing?  My reality surely isn’t the same as yours.  Sometimes I even question whether my siblings grew up in the same house as I did.   Their reality is not the same as mine.  Mine is not the same as theirs.

Oops.  Sorry.  Getting off track.  Get back on the wagon, girl.

My interpretation comes from my experience.  For much of my life my heart  felt empty.   And since I am very symbolic and use symbols in my art a lot, I saw an empty wagon as an empty heart.   In my art,  I use  boats and vessels to represent people.  They speak holders of our souls.  Wagons …not too different than boats and vessels.

Soul Intervention

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Okay……So I got my empty wagon.

Rattle the loudest.  Have you ever seen a child (of course,  you have) that makes a lot of racket because he isn’t getting attention?  A child that has been abused or neglected or has a sad heart that is rebellious in order to make himself  be heard?  The class clown in school desperate for attention?  The guy with the lamp shade on his head?

And to the other extreme, the people who lash out hurting and/or killing people?  Their cage is rattled, so they need to rattle everyone else’s cage.

Or an adult that doesn’t know how to express the wounds they feel  or dont know how to go  about healing those wounds so  it is manifested through loud, rattling anger?

It wasn’t too far in the distant past that I felt like I was an “empty wagon rattling the loudest”.  My heart hurt and I wanted people to know it.  I wanted ME to know it.  But I didn’t know how.   There was no peace in that wagon.  It’s like a baby crying for her bottle and can’t ask kindly because she doesn’t know how to speak.  So it all comes out ugly and creaky.  And cranky.

How do we heal from our wounds so that we can fill our empty wagons with a calm and peace?  For me?  I had to  admit to myself that I hurt and ask God to help me heal.  He is very clever.  He uses many people in my world to help in that process.  I just have to be open  and accepting of  that help  and be willing to do what I am told.

At all costs.

Prayer.  Prayer and more prayer.   It is a miraculous journey to see the hurts dissolve and be replaced with strength, hope and joy.  I think for many, many years I was not even cognizant that my wagon was empty.  But the clanking in my ear grew stronger and stronger.  It could not be ignored any longer.

My wagon aint full everyday, let me tell you. There is some clankin’ around here and there.   But it hasn’t been buck empty for a long time now.   It gets easier to  notice when I am rattling louder and louder and I load up the wagon with soft fluffy pillows.  It is work, but anything worth doing is work, right?

I think I like that old saying,

Empty wagons rattle the loudest.

God bless,

Karen

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July 4, 2013 · 21:44

The Early Birds Catch The Miracles.

I wanted desperately to stay in bed on this holiday morning. No one had to work today, so  last night was partay time.  Splurged  on TV and dessert and stayed up past my bed time.   I was hoping Pops was going to volunteer to get up to do the animals.   Puulleeease??  I peeled myself from the sheets and waddled to the door.  Old people waddle.  I am a waddler.  Everything all creaky and rusty.  At least I didn’t get resentful for something he didn’t even know I was thinking.  I am good at that. Resenting him for things he is unaware of.

Boy, I was glad I got up.  Little baby bluebirds fluttering everywhere I looked.   3 or 4 of our bird houses have had babies very recently and they are all making their way into the world.  They were strutting their stuff.  Watching them fly is like watching the gem, Lapis, flying through the air.  I ran in to get my camera to capture this wonder but, of course, they were done showing  off.

It seems my senses are heightened when I have my camera around my neck.

Our weather has been so wet.  Mushrooms abound.  Pops was going to throw some in a pan last week to sautee.  I said, uh, no thank you.  I think people die eating certain mushrooms.   They are a plenty however.

Early morning walk with some of the peeps:

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It is really worth getting up early to just smell earthly scents.  It is all so rich and inviting right now.  When I walk out in the early morning hours, it is almost as if I am sneaking into another world where they have their own gig goin’ on.  I consider myself lucky to be witness  of it before the day takes over their world.

Try venturing outside with your camera.  It may help you see and hear more than usual like it did me.

As I sit and write, I hear fireworks from afar.  Too bad I am too tired to go see.  Got up too early.

I pray you are having a safe and wonderful holiday.

God bless,

Karen

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