Life’s a Wild Ride! If there’s anything I ‘know for sure’, that is it. The more I embrace vulnerability and open up with people, who in turn share their stories, the more I realize how wild life is for all of us!
This past week, so much sharing of intimate life stories took place in the Bloom True class with fellow participants. It has been quite emotional and also extremely healing. As Brené Brown says in the audible speech I listened to last year, “everyone has a story that could bring you to your knees.”
This month’s Life Book 2015 focus is on community and connection. This is my take on last week’s Life Book 2015 lesson with Mati Rose. It was fun to make and I love the pink in the water inspired by Mati Rose’s use of pink. I started with a piece of paper I had pressed on top of a different lesson for the Year of Painting course to help remove some of the thicker acrylic paint that made prints similar to gelli prints.
This is dedicated to all the people that bravely shared their stories in the Bloom True class and all the online friends I’ve made over the past year (mostly through art groups and classes of some kind, like Life Book), along with my immediate family and friends that have been sharing this life journey with me (especially, my husband – we have been through so much together in our 15 years as partners!), as well as all the people that have been encouraging this Loving Rd effort in memory of my mom and truly, in honor of LIFE and LOVE. <3
It is now available on instaprints (as cards and prints) because I think it would be a nice gift of encouragement to show empathy, compassion, and understanding through life’s ups and downs. http://instaprints.com/featured/lifes-a-wild-ride-loving-rd-by-julia-osterc.html
The words/phrase I originally chose for this year were ‘thrive’ and ‘harmony’ and have expanded to included 2 more words that keep coming to me, ‘open’ and ‘free’, along with the words my husband and boys chose for the year, ‘true/truth’, ‘happy’, and ‘healthy’. These put together have evolved into a prayer/blessing for myself, for my immediate home and family, and for my broader home and family, which includes all of Earth, humanity, and creation. Yes, life is a wild ride! May it also be one full of love and light, one in which we reach out to each other, especially through the roughest weather! I now begin each day with this hope and blessing:
May we thrive,
true, open, and free,
happy and healthy,
in harmony. <3
Geri Johnson
I love what you did with this weeks lesson & the blessing prayer you and your family came up with 😀
Laura (PA Pict)
I love everything about this piece. It’s a great take on the lesson. I love the shapes and colours in the sky and in the waves and I like the repeated triangles of the sails but at the different angles to create interest. Fabulous.
lovingrd
Thanks so much, Laura and Geri! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it.
Iris
This is such a lovely piece! Really speaks to me. And I LOVE your handwriting on the sails. It’s funny, I actually let go of that piece with the boat & sail today, and here is your piece to remind me that life is a process that can take different directions. That it can be wild but it is calmed and kind of anchored by the presence of the birds floating in the air, and the sun so reliably behind.
lovingrd
Hi Iris! Thanks so much for your loving encouragement and sweet words. I love that piece you made with the sailboat, too… surely, you still have it digitally. 🙂 I love how you pointed out things I hadn’t even noticed such as the calm presence.