I am an aging, like everyone else, and yet, when the holidays come, whatever holiday it is, I become a child again....that little girl that has spiritual tradition or belief, whether religion or custom or modern politics goes with that or not. For that I can thank my parents who never ushered me into adulthood in a hurry. I think as children we know what is right...maybe not the fine tuning, but the basic instinct of right and wrong, or good .
The image at the right is from my imagination mixed with the real part of my life. While sitting on a snowy, rainy day, literally stuck in our cabin in the Trinity Mts., I started thinking of a friend and her baby's babysitter Olga Michael, and how later, this woman from Kwethluk, Alaska, had been canonized in the Russian Orthodox Church as a saint. We just knew her as Hope's babysitter and a typical Yup'ik woman...full of nurtering and love, and common sense, one of the Grandmothers of our time. and full of belief that the mothers she helped with babies, and that this little girl that she took care of on a paid basis, and her mother, needed something that she could offer.
I am fascinated with icons, no matter where they are from, and their relationship to the child in us. So, while this painting is just a sream of thought about those who go before us in age or time, hanging stars in the sky for us we do not have to grow up yet, we have already created visual images to embody them in.
And as we approach Christmas, Hannukah or any other tradition that brings out the child in us, I hope the memories of how we celebrated these new periods of hope and memory bring out the child in us that felt like there was a lifetime of possibility to look forward to. And since most of us who are reading this are not children in age anymore, it is a time to reflect, not only on all those childhood dreams that have come true in one form or another, but on all the possibilites that are still open to us.
If you are a writer, pull out all those manuscripts that didn't get finished and see what the possibilites are that lie within them, and for those of us that are visual, go back to sketches and think about the excitement they were produced with. The child in us knows that they were good. Don't let the adult in you doubt that.
Is it possible to get prints of your paintings? All of them speak to me, but this one in particular I would love to give to my in-laws who spent a number of years as missionaries in northern Russia.
ReplyDeleteThis is just beautiful! I love it! Happy Holidays!
ReplyDeleteThank you Loni, and Happy Holidays to you.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Susan, I sell giclee prints of my paintings. ANGELS OVER OLD KENAI is 10x20" and is $170 plus $20 for shipping.
My e-mail is tsloat@sonic.net.
It looks like you have some great blogs as well...how do you keep up with all of them? I am happy to say this picture sits in the home of a women from Yakurkst, Russia who loved it as well.
Thanks, Teri. I'll have to see if my husband loves the print as much as I do!
ReplyDeleteExcept for my daughter-in-law blog and my church blog, most of my blogs are simply ways to organize great resources that I come across on the Internet--for preparing Bible Club lessons, for preparing school lessons, and for writing.