It's Friday. Is the Biopsy Report In?

Sunnybank, 2012

Yes.  Yes it is.  And it is Good and it is notsogood.....


I thought he would live forever.  Some days I wanted to kill him.  Some times I thought he would kill me.  Most days were roller coaster rides with James on the front seat, barking, "Faster! FASTER!"

I hung on for dear life, learning skills I did not know were within me. 

He's never done anything slowly. He has barreled thru Life, calling all of it "his due," and making us stop and take notice of his 

Incredible  Magnificence 

(his words, not mine)......

And we have.  We All have.  

Never a Champion in the Breed Ring.  Never a    High in Trial in the Obedience, Rally, or Agility Rings. 

But allow him to make his own way, write his own script, choreograph his own dance......and there you have an Incredibly Magnificent Collie.

Perhaps that is what he came here to teach me...

Choose your Path.  Don't be stiff.  Don't even be brave.  Just expect your Public to love you and be thrilled you are in their midst. Bark at thunder.  Allow children to put their tiaras on your head.  Rush up to people in wheelchairs.  Trade valuable objects for a taste of food.  And dance!  Dance because you know they want to see you dance. 

Broken

Taking the challenge here....a five minute writing challenge.....Just to get me in the Blog again.....

Keyword here is "Broken."

I do not Like broken things.  For a person who collects and rescues many things, Broken Ones soon find their way to the trash.

Broken, chipped, cracked,unfixable.......Nope.....as my grand baby said......"No Want."  Not in my cabinet, not on my coffee table.

Several years ago I was introduced to a magical world of Mosaic. My friend Joanne had some beautiful flowerpots in her home, mosaiced with all sorts of whimsical items and broken pieces of pottery and plates.  Even cup handles and teapot spouts!

Intrigued and not just a little envious, I cajoled her into inviting me over the next time she and her Art Friends convened to create mosaics of their own.

Never having been acquainted with the "visual artist" types, I sat mute before my large flowerpot while the others nipped and stuck and laughed and praised.

Slowly, I reached my hands out to a chipped Christmas dinner plate I had contributed to the stash of raw materials.  It was one of a set of dishes that had golden trumpets on it with red poinsettias--- a beloved pattern that had called my name many years before. I did not even wait until the
after-Christmas sale to purchase them. Omigosh! Trumpets, Christmas, and Red--- allinone.

I was so sad when the chip appeared.......I did something I never had done before.......I did not toss it in the trash.......I put it back in the cabinet.....on the bottom of the stack.  There it remained, year after year, unused, hidden, a silent reminder that I no longer had a complete set......

I took the nippers and broke off a piece of golden trumpet and red Christmas flower.  Dabbed a bit of mastic on the back, and carefully found the perfect contour of the flowerpot.

One of the artist-friends had brought a ceramic letter"T."   She held it out to me, smiling, knowing before I even knew, what was to come into my life.

And, this was the beginning of a new discovery within me.  The discovery of  the Artist Inside Toni Bailey.  Emerging in the sixth decade of her life to create beautiful works out of Broken Things.

I now have a Studio in a corner of our storage barn.....My iPod plays while the dogs lie peacefully on the ramp in the evenings.  The cool winds waft thru or the portable fan blows its breeze.  My creations come from the not-so-ordinary into the world of re-acceptance.  What was broken or chipped or even tossed aside has a New Life and is declared beautiful once again.

So......bring your broken thangs to me.  I, the Artist, will transform their brokenness.  Or, better still, I can introduce you to your Artist Within.  She exists in all of us.