a new medium

I’ve been busy and distracted and rather unmotivated lately and haven’t done nearly as much “creating” as I’d like to do. The only thing that has kept me from being completely unproductive has been the oil painting class that I’ve been taking at a small art school in Seattle for the past few weeks. This has been my first experience with oil paints, and learning to work with them has been both fun and frustrating. I love the richness of their color and texture - they blend beautifully and have a “creaminess” that I haven’t seen with acrylics. But they can take a loooong time to dry, which means you must have patience when layering paint or covering up mistakes. And clean-up time is a chore, since brushes must be cleaned with paint thinner or turpentine (acrylic and watercolor paint brushes can just be rinsed with water). Nonetheless, I look forward to continuing to play with this new-to-me medium. Below is one of my first stabs at a still life, painted during my third class. It still needs a little work, but it’s a start…

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growth

My little window-sill herb garden really took off in the past couple weeks, so I took advantage of the sunshine today to do a little transplanting. Shane filled our new, larger pots with soil, I gingerly placed our little sprouts in them, and we now have basil, parsley, dill, cilantro, thyme, and rosemary happily taking root out on our back porch. Another few weeks and things should be ready for the picking (I cheated a little and bought the rosemary and cilantro as plants, rather than starting them from seed, so they’re much farther along than the rest). It was nice to be outside - I spent a lot of time curled up on the couch this weekend, and I think a little fresh air did me some good. I’m obviously still mourning the loss of my grandma, but each day I find more peace with the fact that God has called her home. Much thanks to everyone who has reached out with their words of comfort.

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tears

I got that phone call last night that anyone with a sick family member dreads - it was my mom and dad, calling to tell me that my grandmother (”Nannie”), who has been quite ill for several months, had taken a turn for the worse and seemed to be nearing the end of her life. I was upset, but I somehow believed that she would pull through this decline, as she has done in the past. Dreaded phone call #2 came this morning - Nannie passed away sometime during the night. Emotional numbness allowed me to make it through the work day (”keep busy, don’t let the tears start”, is what I kept telling myself). But the second I stepped off the bus this evening and turned the corner onto our street, the floodgates broke and I began to sob. This hurts. This is my first adult experience with the loss of a loved one, and I am frustratingly fumbling through what it means to grieve. I know that the grieving process looks different for everyone, but that is what’s so difficult. I want a formula to follow, steps to go through, milestones to accomplish. I have spent an evening curled up in bed, crying while Shane rubs my back and prays for my family. I have called my dad and cried with him over the phone. I have cried on the couch. I have cried in the shower. And just when I think I’m about cried out, my eyes start burning and the tears start falling again. I am of course saddened by my loss of my grandmother, but what pains me so deeply is the knowledge that my grandfather has had to say good-bye to his wife of over 60 years. Their marriage was a testament to the meaning of devotion. Nannie spent so many years nurturing her husband and children, taking care of the house, preparing meals, being an active and attentive wife, mother, and grandmother. But as she became weaker and was able to do less and less, Grandaddy didn’t hesitate a bit to fill in where he was needed. When Shane and I visited them back in Maryland last fall, I was touched and humbled by how lovingly he prepared her breakfast, helped her to the bathroom, made sure that at any moment she had everything she needed and desired. We woke up one morning to find him baking cookies, rolling snickerdoodle dough in a bowl of cinnamon and sugar. He said that although Nannie rarely had much of an appetite anymore, she did love those cookies, and so he would gladly bake them faster than she could eat them. It was clear that he wasn’t doing these things out of habit or obligation - these were genuine labors of love. Devotion is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

So…what now? Do I cry some more? Do I try to distract myself? I suppose the best I can do is allow myself to feel sadness, but rejoice in the fact that my grandmother lived a life in which she gave and received so much love.

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