Tuesday---Muse-Day

Moon Mama, self portrait, age 12

The quote at the bottom reads:
What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart!
What jailer so inexorable as one's self!
Nathanial Hawthorne

Look at that face----
SUCH sweetness, such innocence.....
Yet forlorn and frightened...
Part teenager, but still part little girl...

What a beautiful age.
What an awful age.

This was the first actual self portrait in the series I've started, a replica of the original photo.
Some of you may have seen it before, when Christine of BlissChick and I talked about the sad transformation that takes place around the time a girl turns twelve.

Even though there was a bit of the wild child left in me at this time in my life, look more closely and you'll notice a certain hesitancy, a slightly bitten lip, a sadness in the eyes.
I had discovered that who I really was could be frightening to others, unacceptable, uncomfortable at the very least.
This is the time in my life when that door had been slammed shut so many times, it stuck closed.

As Teresa of Maggie Grace World commented a couple of weeks ago, I've got my foot in that door, and now it's time to kick it wide open!

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Speaking of Teresa, her kidney was removed on Friday and she is home from the hospital today!
The miracles of modern medicine coupled with a strong, unstoppable woman wrapped in a blanket of prayer from friends and strangers alike......and WOW...amazing things happen.

Teresa's blog friends have started a blog on her behalf---www.HealingMaggieGrace.blogspot.com
Artists from all over are making donations of their work to be auctioned off, and there is a PayPal link if you'd care to donate funds to assist in Teresa's care.

Because This IS What We Do---

Yes I Can spoon pendant by Teresa of Maggie Grace Creates

Although this has weighed heavily on my mind for the last week, I have, maybe foolishly, refrained from writing about it.
I've needed time to process, I suppose; but now's the time to stop feeling angry and helpless and share with all of you Dear Folk, and ask for your help and support.

My dear friend (who happens to be Sam's girlfriend's mom) and fellow artist, Teresa has kidney cancer. She thought she was struggling with a kidney stone just last week, only to find that there is a huge mass in one kidney, and that she will lose the entire kidney.

I've sat here all week, wondering what I can do for the person who does it all for everyone else.
Fortunately she has other artist/blogger friends who did more than sit---they created this blog to help Teresa and her family out--- www.HealingMaggieGrace.blogspot.com

I know of your goodness and your generosity, and it's time to call on you to show them.
Please do what you can to help!
MaryAnn and Jen are asking for donations of artwork, gift certificates to your Etsy sites or to other retail establishments, anything appropriate for a raffle which will be held Mother's Day week.There is a link on the blog to a paypal account if you prefer to donate cash.

Teresa has no idea the support she's been to me; she's one of my biggest cheerleaders!
So it's time to return the favor.

original painting by Jennifer Schildknecht, aka Moon Mama