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What We Are Made of is Unbreakable

7/11/2019

4 Comments

 
​"What We are Made of is Unbreakable" - mixed media on gallery wrapped canvas, 30" x 40" x 1.5".  Ready to hang.  Available here and at Artfinder.

​
How I have cried over spilled milk! And cracked pots, dented car doors and fried hard drives.  I've cried over jammed fingers, bee stings, broken bones and surgery.  I have sobbed over the loss of parents, the pain of a struggling child and the suffering of aging pooches.  I've cried with sorrow, cried with fear and shed a bucket of tears over loss.  But at some point, "we can be healed by the paradox that while life at times feels unbearable, what we are made of is unbreakable." (Mark Nepo)
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What We are Made of is Unbreakable

Now this is surely an ironic quote to connect with, given this girl has the spine of a dried flower in a stampede of wildebeest.

And yet - I am not broken  Not broken by the milk or the surgery or the loss.  Ok, deflated, agonized, irritated, depressed, angry, upset and crabby - but not broken.
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It isn't what I intended, that puddle of (macadamia nut) milk.  I didn't intend for that bee to sting me.  Never intended for my children to be hurt (by anything or anyone) or for a long line of tail-wagging best friends to come to the end of their lives.  And we never intend to lose the ones we love.  But Nepo (you knew this was coming, didn't you?) has an answer for that: "This inevitable struggle between what we intend and what life provides is how we apprentice in the art of acceptance."    

No hold on a gosh-darned minute!  I don't recall signing up for this particular apprenticeship.  It's like the "P-word" (patience) all over again.  Sigh.  Sometimes life provides lemons,  And sometimes it is raw onions, which makes lemons look like candy.   And Pongo would eat either one with glee, so who am I to complain?
4 Comments
Carl Stoveland
7/11/2019 07:31:19 pm

Boy ain't that the truth. I have been reading a lot of Nepo of late. He seemed like the right author to follow along in the woods while I photographed and thought of nothing at everything all at once. (Thanks for the suggestion on that Jen.) At the end of anguish and pain there is grace that I do not think we have any other path to. It is what really links us all together is the art of having survived and come out the other side to appreciate life even more.

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jen
7/11/2019 09:49:40 pm

Carl, I cannot imagine the splendor of reading Nepo in the woods! And "nothing and everything all at once" - beautiful. You are SO right (and sounding very Nepo-like) about anguish often being the only path to grace, and the glue that links us all. :)

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Carol Edan link
7/14/2019 05:07:29 am

Have to get back to Nepo, although I find him sometimes hard to understand. "Unbreakable" that is a hard question.Wish it was true! It is really sad when someone does "break"! The loss is sometimes insurmountable! There are times when I question how/why I am still here!
LOVE LOVE your painting! Busy but holds together-- do you have a secret formula? That red just sings! The black lines and movement.
Stay strong! Brachot!

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jen
7/14/2019 10:21:09 am

Carol! Nepo makes sense to me when I am wrestling with emotions or life events...but not on other days. It's like my heart has to be wide open to "hear" him.

The questioning...we all do it. And yet we are still here! Unbroken! You are a gift to the world, my friend.

Secret formula is to let there be the semblance of large shapes. In this piece, the dark section holds together as one large shape, which balances the energetic markings and brush strokes.

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  • Home
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