BLESSED BE .....

I've been making one of my spiritual pages again ... as you know, I do this from time to time.  At one stage I considered keeping a separate journal for this kind of work, but then it seemed to me that all my pages belong together - without differentiating between spiritual and more earthly concerns, or indeed the complaints I sometimes commit to paper!  It seemed artificial to have part of my life in a separate box, instead of putting everything into one.

So that's why I break out into this kind of page occasionally, as and when I feel moved to do so.  Which I must have done on this occasion, because some man on the TV had got on my nerves and started me off thinking how glad I've always been to be female.  I love it, I've always enjoyed being a woman (although there are some design faults I might take up with the Almighty one day) and want to celebrate that loudly and often.

All these thoughts reminded me of a wonderful modern Psalm, written by Janet Morley - this is only part of it but you can find the rest in her book called "All Desires Known" if you can find it anywhere: it is probably out of print now.  If you've been with me for a while you will also know that I relate very strongly to a female God (without denying the Father aspects).  God is neither of course, but this is one way of relating that I just happen to find particularly helpful.  Try it and see?

And that's why I ended up drawing another beautiful lady deity, because (idolatry aside) I like to picture God as very calm and serene, and it kind of goes without saying that she'd be beautiful.  I drew direct to paper with a waterproof fine liner pen, and then as you can see below began to add colour - most of it with Caran d'Ache crayons, but the face and hair have been done with Promarkers with the addition of a gold pen to highlight.

You will notice that at some stage I decided I didn't like the pink background and gave her a heavenly sky full of stars instead - much better!  The words speak for themselves I think, and go right to the heart of it for me ....

And although I'm still dotty about my husband, I've always needed women friends too.  I particularly like the part about delighting in their company - the sisters who've walked with me on my journey have been among the most precious things in my life, excepting only my man and our children.  It was nice to celebrate that ....