Leah--third helpings

I am so glad that we are finally creating. I think with my hands, and I, by definition, am a creative person, because I love to create.

This week we chose 10 images from all of our research so far. The narrowing down process was a little difficult, but I like tasks like that, so I enjoyed seeing what I had come up with that had substance. I realized that they were really all quite interrelated. A theme of nutrition-->nurturing-->wholesomeness-->holiness emerged (I guess that's what you get when you start with a jar of beans.) But really, it wasn't really a surprise to me that these were the ideas that emerged. I have been thinking about wholesomeness and holiness since at least last semester, and the nutrition thing really fits perfectly with those ideas. After we had time to look at our wall of resource materials and connect ideas and themes, we made a sculpture out of newspaper. At first I was worried about what I would make, and then I decided to just play with the paper and let it tell me what to make. It made a bird and then a nest. I was more interested in building the nest than the bird, and when I had this insight, I realized that I was really the one who was nesting. This made me think about motherhood and mothers, and that led me down the path that I am knee deep in right now--making my "work" for this week. Pretty much as soon as Jana told us that we needed to make something, I had a flash of an idea, and I'm running with it. I don't want to give too much away, because I think it will be better as a surprise. (The lack of a working hot plate sort of put a damper on things, but I think it will be ok still.)
For part of my work, I'm drawing all my mothers. And sometimes the drawing doesn't really look like the woman it portrays. But the real purpose is to meditate on the woman I am drawing at the time. And as I draw every laugh line and every crow's feet, I am in awe of how many beautiful, nurturing women I can call a mother figure.

Even though this week I've been a little home sick-- or maybe a better term would be "people sick" (meaning, I'm missing people and not my home) I can still say: God loves abundantly. Meditating on all of my "mothers" makes me aware of how much I am loved, and how God doesn't just put one amazing woman in my life (my natural mother) but God put more beautiful, nutritional women in my life then I can count on two hands.

Here are a few photos of my week. I think that with everything else going on I kind of forgot about "collecting, collecting, collecting." C'est la vie.