Days 69 and 70 of 100

I am holding onto joy these past couple of days. God has directed me to NOT journal about the rough moments. Rather, He wants me to come directly to Him, work it out with Him, and then LET IT GO.


Easier said than done. I'm doing the best I can. Have needed to go to God frequently these past few days. Going through boxes and boxes of STUFF all through my house and finding what feels like an unending stream of broken dreams. I'm working on clearing out my home, and the end of it all will be wonderful, but the process is HARD.



In being obedient to God's urging to NOT write about these feelings, I have found much solace in the daily paintings.

Day 69

I have no clue what they are "about." I just know that I sit, reach for the colors that seem to call to me, and then apply them in ways that something deep inside me tells me to.

Day 70

I think it's safe to say that that deep thing inside me is INSISTING on beauty and harmony.

As I was typing up this post, another wave of tears swamped me. I reached out to God and asked for help, right now. He spoke to me through the words of a hymn: "Holy Spirit, source of gladness, Come with all Thy radiance bright; Lift all burdens and all sadness; O'er Thy children shed Thy light." Thank You, God.

Day 68 of 100

Happy day. Volunteered. Studied the Bible with a friend in preparation for Sunday. Worked in the deepest, dustiest, buggiest part of my house: The Cellar. Threw away lots. Got more for upcoming yard sale. The amount of stuff Down There seemed Way Too Big to manage at first, especially since the cellar is only a "half" floor, meaning I have to bend over at the waist the whole time. But a little voice said, "Just one box at a time. Just one box. You can do it."

So I did. Got maybe a dozen or 15 boxes gone through.

Wriggled my way out, washed up some, and then painted.

Painted happy.

Yahoo.

Days 65,66, and 67 of 100

I've still painted each day. Honestly, I'm pretty proud of that. But daily posting has been beyond me. This week is the world-famous Sturgis Bike Rally that brings several hundred thousand visitors to our cluster of very small towns.

I, like many others, volunteer quite a bit during this time.

Add in some frighteningly beautiful thunder and lightning storms (which require unplugging one's computer, rendering one unable to post daily paintings!).

Stir in the daily ongoing challenges of living life with as much dignity and love and joy and compassion as one can manage.

The result: slipping behind on posting and reading other blogs, email, laundry, cleaning, etc etc.

Day 65--I painted a very NOT ROYGBIV rainbow. Just 'cause that's the way I wanted to do it. Then, that night, I volunteered at a concert whose middle section was rained out. The end of the show was graced with a spectacular double rainbow . . .

Day 66--lots of things felt very out of balance to me. But I hung on to my signature aquamaureen colors, painting the swirls I was feeling caught in, and kept the center calm and still and very dense and strong.

Day 67--more play with the wax resist stick. Sunshine colors. Just played.

Day 64 of 100

Ooh, I really really had fun today. You'll only get a teaser photo, 'cause this piece is my submission for ThursdaySweetTreat's prompt of "over the moon."

Check in therehttp://thursdaysweettreat.blogspot.com/ sometime on Thursday

if you want to see the whole painting . . .

Day 63 of 100

Had fun today. Tried wax resist stick for the first time. Played with the rigger.

Ya know what's awful? I can hear this teeny weeny voice whispering,

"Play? THAT'S all you do when you paint? Just play???"

Yes, actually, it is.

And Teeny Weeny Voice, I mean this in the nicest way possible,

but please, shut up.

Really.

Day 62 of 100

Sweet day.

Productive day.

Tired day, but in a very good way.

Day 61 of 100

Here is today's offering, hot off the presses. Or I guess, more accurately, wet off the presses.

My favorite is this closeup, still juicy wet. Kinda overflowing like this day has been.

I've held back from much creative writing for weeks. Intense journaling got me through some rough personal growth. Much time has been spent sorting and moving my belongings, as I transform my house from a former home for my family, into a place just for me and my art.

These past 60 days I've reveled in daily painting.

It has been a touchstone on often wavery and unsure days.

Today the writing just couldn't be contained. A call for submissions, for which I could, at best, have only one piece accepted, has caused me to edit and submit two previously written pieces. Another 2000 words of a fresh story is ready to be revised, and as I painted today's offering from 11pm until midnight, I jotted down a rough draft of a fourth piece.

Yep. Juicy and overflowing. And I love it.