Completing the Circle

Everyone asks, "What have you learned?"  "How has this changed you?"

I was already asking myself these questions before I left Africa, and have been pondering them seriously since my last post....and I still don't know if I have an answer.  My heart is full of things that I've yet to examine.   I've been walking quietly, trying not to trip, jostle or jar myself for fear that the contents of my heart will overflow and spill out before I've sorted through everything. 

Here are a few things that I'm still marvelling at:

Artists all over the world are just waiting for permission to be the creative person that God created them to be.  Just the story of my own journey in this area gave others the encouragement to follow their passion.

Art opens doors.  It opens doors to new places and new experiences.  It opens doors  to communication when there is no common language.  It opens doors to people's hearts and minds.

Art heals.  When words cannot reach the deep areas of hurt in a life, art can.

I went on this trip uncertain as to what I had to offer.  I learned that my story has power to encourage others to live their stories fully.  I learned that I can do something as simple as hand out soup and bread to someone in need, and that action makes a difference.  And, I relearned something that I already knew: just being with someone, listening to them, and letting them know that you see them and hear them, is the most powerful thing that you can do for another person.  If I have no other skills, I can to that.  Martin Luther King, Jr. best sums up what I experienced:

"Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve... You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."

I'll continue to sort through the things filling my heart forever, but particularly as I'm creating paintings inspired by the trip.  I'm so drawn to the people that I met that my paintings will focus on them and the stories in their eyes.  Here are photos of the first two:

Thanks for sharing in this experience with me.  Thank you for all of your kind words and encouragement.  I'll post photos as I continue to complete additional paintings, and I let you locals know when the show goes up at Woodmen Valley Chapel.

Love, Julie