[L, diary, ephēmeris] 1) BLOG
Blessings on Display
It is only...from a place of gratefulness that we can perform beautiful acts —
from a place of absolute, ravishing appreciation for the sheer wonder of being alive at all,
each of us an improbable and temporary triumph
over the staggering odds of nonbeing and nothingness inking the ledger of spacetime.
But because we are human,
because we are batted about by the violent immediacies of everyday life,
such gratitude eludes us as a continuous state of being.
We access it only at moments,
only when the trance of busyness lifts and the blackout curtain of daily demands parts to let the radiance in,
those delicious moments when we find ourselves awash in nonspecific gladness,
grateful not to this person, grateful not for this turn of events, but grateful at life —
a diffuse gratitude that irradiates every aspect and atom of the world,
however small, however unremarkable, however coated with the dull patina of habit.
In those moments, everything sings, everything shimmers.
In those moments, we are most alive.
--Maria Popova--
It's been a month since last posting and two weeks since the students received their personal sketchbooks, a gift from the Urban Sketchers of Ashland group we were invited to join. If you follow the link in their name, a posting of them with their sketchbooks along with seven 'comments' beneath showcasing their first sketches. Thank You's and descriptions of their work included.
This last weekend, due to possible showers, we opted for quick photos to sketch from, rather than plein air. From top to bottom, Resty Joy, Jaden, Jacen, Monica, and Jessa, here are their latest/bountiful/enthusiastic/increasingly skillful works:
Regrettably, Ludy was not able to participate last Saturday, and I have no idea where Jane Antoinette's work is but will post it later, here and to our group at Urban Sketchers of Ashland.
In the meantime, to include them in this post, to a friend I wrote:
" Ludy astounded me by the progressive skill in each of her three paintings.
Jane Antoinette told me that she'd thought she wanted to be a teacher when she graduated but, now
(nodding to her sketch book)
"I want to do this..."
Beautiful, isn't it, how alive to their abilities they are becoming..?
--Zadie Smith--
ahh...but as Thomas Mann said,
"Speech is civilization itself.
The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact
-- it is silence which isolates.
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