Violets & Sunshine: We All Have Wings...But Some of Us Don't Know Why....

I enjoy all things winged--except the mosquito...it's hard to draw uplifting analogies from the mosquito. However, give me birds and butterflies, bees and dragonflies and I will have the time of my life creating with those images. There's something about flight that shouts "freedom." We talk about giving our souls and our hearts wings. We use terms like "soaring" and "flying" when we do what we love or when we experience joy.

So lately I've been contemplating what it means to fly. (More specifically, what it means for me to fly.) It's more than doing what I want or even what I love. Those are part of it, but let's be honest, if doing what I want or what I love to do was the sum total of what it means to fly, I wouldn't get a whole lot of air time. Being a part of a family, a part of a community, naturally means that there will be a lot of time spent doing mundane things (like laundry) or less than thrilling things (like cleaning up after my children when they are sick). Things I'd rather not do. But does it follow that my wings get clipped and I get grounded every time I don't get my way? Ugh. There's no freedom in that.

St. Irenaeus was purported to have said, "The glory of God is man fully alive." And it seems to me that the meaning of flight for me is found in that same idea. I fly when I am fully alive, when I am living in wide-eyed wonder drinking in all that God has created. When I am giving Him glory by choosing to do the mundane, or the less than thrilling, for no other reason than to serve others so they can feel their value and worth. When I'm creating for no other reason than because that is what I was created to do.

I think there's more to flight than freedom. I think we see in the flight of birds and butterflies, bees and dragonflies...and, yes, even the mosquito, if we're honest...we see in them the beauty of creation doing exactly what it was created to do. Creation, fully alive.

So today's project is the outgrowth of some of these thoughts. I used a 6x6 canvas board and covered it with Skylark paper by Close To My Heart. I then started layering all kinds of media: pearl paint, gold glimmer spray, icons cut from the Skylark paper, stamps, Skylark fabric, etc. I used Mod Podge to adhere it all. I then added a little quote--from my head? from something I read? I have no idea. But I wrote it out on vellum using Sharpie markers and glued it down using Mod Podge as well. When everything was dry, I went back over the quote with the Sharpies to make it pop a little more. And that's it. (I put a list of supplies at the end of the post.)

Here are some close ups: