tiny bricks of beauty

On By Anna EastlandIn motherhood, Poetry

Have you had the chance to do much art lately?

I ask my artist friend as she chats 

confidentially with her toddler on her lap,

which is blossoming with baby belly

under her bright pink shirt.


Not too much, she replies, 

Just surviving and getting ready for baby,

but looking forward to nursing as a time for inspiration.

Yeah, I reply, It’s that quiet contemplative time 

that is the source of inspiration for sure.

An openness to the divine, she replies, 

That’s where art comes from.


I want to tell her that right now 

she is cooperating with the most divine creation there is—

that of a human life—the artistic triumph of the world, 

a piece of art that is by its very nature immortal

but I get interrupted by one of my kids who needs a new towel.


So I can’t tell her that she is weaving with sinews of love

painting with brushstrokes of hope

writing with stories strung on tiny ropes of DNA

forging new paths for faithfulness

strengthening family bonds with tiny bricks of beauty

cells diverse and unique 

splendidly forming into 

a new child of promise.


  

12 thoughts on “tiny bricks of beauty”

  1. Beautiful, Anna! I’ve been telling some of my old artist friends that Gabriel is the best art project I’ve ever worked on. I have been feeling the creative itch again since he was born. I shoved photography to the side a couple of years ago when I began experiencing a conversion, as I couldn’t seem to reconcile both “identities”. Now I feel like perhaps there is space for me to be “an artist” again. Marc tells me I never stopped being an artist even though I haven’t picked up a camera or been in the darkroom for a long time now. The other day I jokingly suggested we should submit a project proposal to an art gallery: Marc, Gabriel and I sit quietly in a dimly lit space that is empty apart from a massive spotlit crucifix. We’d title the show “Sacrifice”. Performance art? Credit: Husband and wife in collaboration with God.

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    2. Cool! Never doubt that God our creator loves artists as He is the artist par excellence and rejoices where we create with Him. For me, spiritual life and creativity are very connected and interdependent.

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