Do you ever get lost in time...just ambling along and all of a sudden you realize that several hours have past? I ambled along and lost a few months.
There are reasons for all things and I won't bore you with details, but lets just state for the record that I have learned a great deal in the past few months. Some of the learning was simple reinforcement of lessons already learned and some was new information. The most startling was something I should have already known.
Fear tells lies. I know who is the author of fear and I know he is a liar, but, I guess I never thought about it. I can tell myself rationally that the whatever that is going bump in the night is probably nothing to be concerned about. I am bigger that most of the bumpy things in my house. The fear that something might jump out at me is terrifying, however. My blood pressure rises and my heart rate increases. Most of the time I see nothing at all.
That kind of fear isn't really what was bothering me, however. I am going to college to earn first my Associate's Degree in Graphic Design and then I will go on to earn my Bachelor's Degree also in Graphic Design. To get my degree there is a class that must be taken and passed. That is Life Drawing. Any of you who know me know that I don't draw people. I also don't draw nudes and drawing in the nude wouldn't appeal to me at all! Well in this class I was going to have to draw myself in a mirror and the professor preferred for us to be nude or have really tight-fitting clothes so that we could see various "landmarks." The landmarks that I was totally unprepared to view, let alone draw, were the scars from my mastectomy. I hadn't really faced them. I had glimpsed them, but...putting off dealing with them to another day, week, month, year was just fine with me. In Life Drawing class, I had to face them. I fully expected to see and draw heavy, ugly lines that made me look and feel ugly. After completing the drawing, I realized that fear had been lying to me all along. There weren't dark, ugly scars. The redness had faded and what I did see made me grateful for life. Wow! It was liberating. God was orchestrating the events of the day and He was with me every step of the way. It was a beautiful day!
All that brings me to this. While I have been lost in time, forgetting to write, not painting and not accomplishing the things I wanted to do, I have been working and learning and accomplishing other things. I am ready to get back to work on your painting lessons. So for any of you who would like to begin, email me at emeraldlaneart@gmail.com to let me know what you would like to paint. I am here and will be working so I may as well make it something we would all enjoy. Take care in this new year and learn as many new things as you can. It makes life richer! Go with God!
