This is what a twitter I follow posted this morning: "As intercessors, He has called us Not to wonder about the future, but to create the future." Francis
FrangipaneAs an artist I create my
interpretation of the world around me; as a prophetic artist I create the world as I see it with my heart and sometimes what it could be. I was inspired once to write fiction. In fiction, I took what I knew about the world and wrote it the way I wanted it to turn out. The problem is
always cause and effect. You want the world to be beautiful, and kind, and nurturing. But most of the time we speak things that are the
opposite. And we take those
murmurings and turn them into a reality that we call truth.
Many years ago I was covering the Preakness Stakes. I personally was there for one reason: to report a history making race. From start to
finish I wrote one of my best racing stories. It just so happened that there was a huge power outage that day. The press booth,
crowded with international reporters, was an oven. The elevators were not working. The only way out was down 5
stories of stairs, with no emergency lights. Tempers were
flaring everywhere except the infield. (They had generators and ice and tents for the
VIPs)
I made my way perilously down the stairs with out a flashlight and back to the barns. I ended up watching the race on a monitor with the guys from ESPN. Now how cool was that!And I took down first person quotes as the trainers and owners
brought their horses back to their stalls
after the race. It was a
record breaking day with crowds. I never would have made it back to the barns had I not been there when the race finished. Grant it it,
wasn't the best of days; however, I choose not to
mummer. I chose to do and say all that was
necessary to make it a good experience and a good story.
As it turned out, I was the only writer there that day that wrote a positive story about the experience. It was a
memorable day. I probably
wouldn't choose to go through again, but It was still a positive experience even with the hardships.
I think we complain and
mummer too much sometimes. While we are looking at how bad things are, we forget that we still have
control over making things better than they seem. We can only do that by our attitude and by what we say. As an intercessor I should indeed be speaking Life and hope and peace and
encouragement and nurturing into every event and every thing that is around me. Especially in these days of confusion and
uncertainty. I choose to create rather than kill, I choose to make life
rather, than kill dreams. I choose to give hope, rather than bring
despaired. I choose to keep my eyes on God, rather than on circumstances I can do nothing about.
In 1998 our family took its last vacation together. My father had been to the doctor and there was a lot of worry because we
didn't know yet what kind of cancer he had. My dad wanted to show the youngest girls his childhood home and the girls wanted to visit
Chincoteague. Talk about storms.. The entire time we were at the shore a huge Hurricane was baring down on the east coast of
Virginia. After a few days at
Chincoteague we were heading down across the bay bridge toward
Virginia Beach to see Dad's sister. We stopped at one of the rest stops in the middle of the bay. The tension was so thick you could cut
it with a
knife. And it was made worse by the fact that surrounding us was boiling ocean and
driving rain and the gusts were 40mph an hour.
Dad asked one of the bridge keepers " so does the water ever get high enough to flood the tunnels." I think dad was hoping the man would say no. But the guy said yes. The water of the bay was about 15 feet from the bottom of the bridge and yes the water goes up over the bridge and right down into the tunnels because of the storm surge. He said but
don't worry if the wind gusts get up to 50 mph they will close the bridge. The next question dad asked scared him and he rushed us all right out to the car. It seems that if you are at the rest stop in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay during 50mph winds or higher they make you stay at the rest stop until the storm passes. Dad
wasn't relishing the idea of having his whole family washed out to sea because we were stranded at the rest stop or drowned in a tunnel.
The storm chased us all the way to Virginia Beach and the next day to York Town were we were very close to being washed into the York River at one point. As we headed to
Williamsburg our whole family was in misery. We were snapping at each other, the tension was terrible. My sister was driving and we wanted to go on the
Williamsburg Parkway but we kept turning down wrong roads.
Finally out of a clear blue sky my dad said something totally inane, really sarcastic and
extremely funny. It was vintage dad. I
don't even remember what he said. Just that the shock of hearing my dad be my dad stopped everyone cold. Where there was
pandemonium and noise you could almost hear a pin drop. Suddenly and simultaneously the entire family burst into laughter.
For the first time that whole trip, because my dad was the leader, he set the tone, he was strong, he was powerful he was dad and he
wasn't going to let a
hurricane, cancer, or being lost in traffic mess up his good time, or ours.
I remember saying. " Gee, Dad I wish you had said that about 4 days ago." And from that moment on we got along, we laughed, we joked. Before we drove home we took the little ones to the Mall in
Williamsburg. And we toured
Williamsburg Pottery. What could have been the most horrid family vacation ever, turned into one of the best.
Here is a truth we can all hold on to: in the mist of the storm, life
threatening troubles, stresses of the unthinkable, one person, speaking life into a situation, can change everything.
Photo by Mary Tayne
Here is the fox going to ground. I actually loved this part of the mural the best. I loved putting together those brambles and of course my signature ferns, which I usually paint in my wildlife or woodland paintings.
Here are the family dogs. I was a little nervous about the boxer because she is a brindle and such a sweetheart. The last day of painting she posed for me. It was really awsome. I got some cute photo's of her with the light streaming through the window. Notice the blue tractor in the back. We tried to get the colors as close as possible in every aspect however keeping in mind that it was all fantasy.
I got the idea for this little Mini Mural to Go from the garden shed in my back yard. There was a weird sort of opening that looked about the right size for a small animal that had been cut in one side of the shed. So I just let my imagination run wild! I showed it to my landlord's husband as i was working on it and he laughed at my wide use use of artistic liscense. Then he told me that one of the children was a farmer and had just taken some of the chickens they raised to the 4-H show. Funny art imitating life telepathicly(?) Ok that is a stretch. Anyway the painting turned out really cool. Its on masonite in acrylic polymer with a semi gloss polymer finish that glares a little too much for me to photo graph it streight on. It has holes drilled in the top for easy hanging. It can also be framed. The largest of these Mini Murals To Go is 6' by 3'. This one is about 18" by 12". I say about because we had the guy at Lowes cut the board for us. Amazing the way they do that. Then my trusty assistant, Mary, primes the surface and drills the holes( not necessarily in that order) and I plan it, draw it and paint it. I have one I am working on now that is 4' by 2' of a Dairy landscape over near Brandy Station, Virginia.
