Silent whispers
Call again to paint
An empty canvas on the easel
Bright acrylics dot a waiting pallet
I reach for a medium wide thick brush
Inspiration comes
A circular brush stroke
Layers overlap into a sun
A thin brush between my fingers
Smoothes in a translucent green angel
The painting done
Is put away like others
Until one day I find the sun
Spread out inside a wild daylily
In perfect bloom of budding swords
That is not all inside
A small praying mantis
Opens her transparent wings
She is the angel in the risen sun
Wisdom again whispers radiant beauty
I join her in prayer
That I may learn more
From these lessons of sight
Momentary flashes of great light
That our blessed Lord loves to share
I was drawn to canvas to simply let the paint and brush go crazy. I had no idea what I was even drawing. In the end I felt it was an angel in the sun. Like normal I put it into my collection.
In New England, Daylilies pop out for their one day in July, and this year, because of the rain, there was not very many. However, stepping out of a trail, I happened upon a couple in bloom during an overcast sky. I providentially looked directly inside one of them and saw an immature Praying Mantis which had her wings open for a brief second. It was profoundly like I had painted and I could not help but pray and thank God. The new insight: everything has a moment of beauty and then, like the Daylily, it might not be there the next day. We need to become aware of these moments when the angels in our lives need us to appreciate them.
For further reflection: Tobit 5
Friends, family and even total strangers often offer moments of inspiration. However brief they may be, my own personal goal is to thank them for it.