A Birth Painting for a Friend

EACH MOMENT A WHITE BULL STEPS SHINING INTO THE WORLD

                                     by Jane Hirschfield



If the gods bring to you

a strange and frightening creature,

accept the gift

as if it were one you had chosen.



Say the accustomed prayers,

oil the hooves well,

caress the small ears with praise.



Have the new halter of woven silver

embedded with jewels.

Spare no expense, pay what is asked,

when a gift arrives from the sea.



Treat it as you yourself

would be treated, brought speechless and naked

into the court of a king.



And when the request finally comes,

do not hesitate even an instant –



stroke the white throat,

the heavy, trembling dewlaps

you’d come to believe were yours,

and plunge in the knife.



Not once

did you enter the pasture

without pause,

without yourself trembling,

that you came to love it, that was the gift.



Let the envious gods take back what they can.


I decided to do these pieces for my friend, Ed.  In January of 2011, he visited me.  He had just been diagnosed with throat cancer.  Late one night he brought out a book of poetry and read this poem to me.  It made tears come to my eyes as I grasped the meaning of the poem.  I have revisited it many times since and each time I have come away with a new meaning.  In October, 2012 he pushed me to let him go and I agreed.  I "plunged the knife."  During the time I've known him, he regularly told me that I was never out of his life even though I was not with him physically.  I want him to know that I have come to believe this.  He hasn't been out of my life since I met him.  No one can take him away from me--not even him.  He is still here and I will always love him.  He touched me in so many ways and I have grown from that experience.  "That you came to love it, that was the gift."

Thank you, Ed.

Prayer Flag for Newtown, Conn Families

Artist, Leighanna Light has put out a Call to Artists this past week for Prayer Flags to be made in honor of the Newtown Familes who lost their children. Here is my version. The crazy quilt motif seems to be a good metaphor for me. I believe that sometimes our lives are held together by mere threads. It's the people who love us that help keep us together over all. Life is crazy sometimes. It might seem that there is no rhyme or reason to what happens around us. Life is one big jigsaw puzzle to be but back together piece by piece. Here is one piece of love to help put them back together.

My good friend, Ross sent me this:

Aloha!


I've been back to Facebook to look at your flag several times now. I'm captivated by the buttons and the symbolism they represent. My thought is that they represent the great forces in our lives where we find support-such as family, friends or other things we turn to in times of need (writing, creating art, or cooking, for example). So even as the stitching becomes loose and our lives start to fray, the button is there and can be hung onto to help prevent everything from unraveling completely.

Anyway, I really love your contribution, which should come as no surprise to you because I really love you too!

Merry Christmas!

New Pieces

New 2012 Holly Christmas Cards

I love Holly.  Every year I do a new Christmas Card featuring Holly.  Here are two different styles.  The green/blue backgrounds use a textured handmade paper.  The Coral use a hand painted paper but are much lighter in feeling.  Every year I do holly but they always look different.  

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