DAY 180: HUMBLED: The Least as First, in Real Life

The kindness and generosity - and talent -  of some people never ceases to amaze me. 

   

I haven't had the best past few days, but my spirits were lifted when I got a message late this afternoon from a Facebook and Marion County 24/7 friend who instructed me to look out on my porch, in the swing.

She'd left me something while I was out.

What I found simply astounded me!

She is an artist who loves to paint, but the only people who can acquire the fruits of her talent are friends or people who buy her work in support a charity.

She'd told me a month or so ago that a certain picture I took at the Lebanon National Cemetery at the Memorial Day celebration had inspired her somehow, and asked if it would be okay to use that picture as the basis for a painting. Naturally, I was pleased that anything I'd done that day might bear fruit in another form. But still, I was more than surprised that she'd paid attention to this certain photo:

And never did I expect what awaited me on my front porch swing from her!

First, a beautifully framed (with easel, no less) painting of one in her series depicting fruits and vegetables - "Veggievention" (pictured at the beginning of this entry). She wanted me to have it because she said it reminded her of my appreciation for yummy veggies! LOVE. IT.

And then a large one that she calls her "practice" painting inspired from my photograph that is for "my eyes only", as she put it. She calls it "Courageous Spirits", and plans to complete the one she will auction off for charity by this Friday. I wish I could post her "practice"...it's great. I have hopes to publish her final draft.

Here is what she said with regard to "Courageous Spirits":

"What I felt from your photo was just a heavenly breath of courageous spirits that gave their life for us/America.  It is my hope that my final piece will reflect those courageous spirits swirling in the heavens, the trees and wind as we pay our respects to their standing stones; it moves me to believe that their spirits are with their loved ones as they come to visit the cemetery, even if it is on two different planes of being."

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Now how beautiful is that?

Honestly, in the lengthy series of photos I posted of that day at Lebanon National Cemetery, the very one that inspired the artist is the very one I almost did not post. There was an evident smudge on my camera lense on that particular photo. It really bothered me a lot.  But despite the smudge, I let it in (almost didn't).

I'm glad now that I did.

Isn't it just something what might inspire another person to great heights?

I am very humbled that what I considered among the least of my photos of that day is the very one to have spurred my friend on to produce what I believe is a very inspired painting.

The first shall be last. The least shall be first.

We just never know what will resonate with someone and bear fruit.

Thank you, Kassy Jaglowicz!

Comments

[JCH]

that's a nice painting.