"...trailing clouds of glory"

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;

the Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

hath had elsewhere its setting

and cometh from afar;

not in entire forgetfulness,

and not in utter nakedness,

but trailing clouds of glory do we come

from God, who is our home...

-William Wordsworth (1770-1850),

from his poem: Ode on Intimations of Immortality

the day the red sea parted

peace on earth

winter...

the snow

has come early

this year,

and with it

the familiar longing

for solitude.

like the she-bear

who enters

her cave in fatness

to ride out

the lean time,

i, too, am ready

to hunker down.

winter...

makes me hungry

for god.

-stacy wills (12/22/2011)

embracing the learning curve

as i mentioned in a recent post, i have signed up for life book 2012. when i signed up, i was able to take one of tam's other online courses. this is the third painting i have completed for the M3 class, the style of which was inspired by one of my favorite artists, marc chagall. i love the little birds that showed up, wanting to be part of the picture.

a close-up of the face shows the hundreds of tiny beads that make up some of the strands of my mermaid's flowing tresses. did i ever mention that the little mermaid was a favorite fairy tale of mine growing up?
and here she is in all her glory! when i began drawing mandalas back in december of 2005 i had no idea really what i was doing, but what i did know was that i had found the creative outlet i'd yearned for. i never imagined then that i would be able to draw or paint anything else - though i wished i could. when i came across tam's website and saw what life book was about, something in my soul said, "yes." so i'm diving in - i still don't know what i'm doing, or where this journey will take me, but i'm in...all in. there's a steep learning curve to be sure (and i have MUCH to learn), but it's a curve i'm embracing.