A post I wrote a good few weeks ago, but never saw the light of day.
So, here it is...
Sometimes life it just wonderful.
Wonder-ful.
Full of wonder.
Many of you know that I was never much of a fan of Facebook, but I was 'tricked' back into this strange world to fundraiser for Into the Light just over two years ago. The page wage was managed for me. I just suggested what could be written on it. I stayed away from this scary place for a god while. But, alas, eventually I wrote a few words myself, and added pictures, and then even wrote on my personal page, not just my Art page ... I know...
But, as life moves on, I have moments when I actually like facebook...
Being part of that world, has brought me in contact with many other creative, I would not have met otherwise. I don't get out into the real world all that often.
It led to giving puppet making classes.
It led to some amazing (many private) conversations, about birds, and books, and art.
About healing, and illness, about challenges and gratitude.
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| Goldcrest |
Birds and books
A photo of a little bird which had flown against my kitchen window. The photos of the bird brought a discussion about what kind of bird it was, many got involved. It also led to a conversation with a fellow nature lover, also living with M.E. Selina is currently in Scotland, and we "visited" each other's gardens, through sharing images, taken from our homes.I loved that!
Also, recently I was contacted by a lady who's drawings I had posted in a post last year about Severe M.E. Linda had come across a version of this post on the Disability Arts Online blog. Linda and her husband Greg, then found themselves exploring my website, and made contact with me on facebook. We are both creatives, like to write, love the birds, identified in such similar ways in terms of the experience of illness. Linda's symptoms are much more severe. Being grateful to have seen some light in my journey, I decided to post a copy of Into the Light to her. Just felt right. As Hatched is about my first eight years of illness, when I was still pretty shook, they downloaded the book from my website: Linda:"I really am moved by the words and pictures and they touch my own experience."
When Into the Light arrived at their doorstep, we were all catapulted into a place of wonder and excitement. Linda was awake during the night and felt compelled to write her thoughts on the book. Greg got inspired to create a beautiful page on their Stonebird Website. I felt overwhelmed by their kindness, and what the creation I had made, made such an impact on people I will most likely never meet in person.
“What we love about this in essence deconstructed and elegantly transformed book, is how it brings accessibility, where an ordinary book is too heavy, too complex and often too many pages and too many words to manage.
The imagery and photography convey so much to me personally – they elicit a recognition and deep resonance in my heart of my own experience, yet bring hope. They seem to bring a multi dimensional aspect because it resonates so deeply with what I know myself also from my own very severe illness and helps me recognises a bond of knowing between us, carried through the messages, words, imagery, beyond what is physically seen – the gift of not aloneness, the comprehension of pain, the need to surrender to the experience yet not to give in, the triumph, the resilience of the human heart and spirit despite intense physical suffering.” (Linda Crowhurst - See more at the Stonebird website)
What can I say.
It has been an amazing week.
... And to top it all, at the very moment I was writing this I heard a motorbike stop outside my gate. Followed by a knock on the door. The driver has seen one of my prints I have displayed on the wall...
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| 'Into the Light print: 'The blessing for which we hunger are not to be found in other places or people.' John O'Donohue - Anan Cara |
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