Behind the Art with Felecia

Love is brave. 

It is not a thing - a feeling....it is a verb - an action word.

Love opens us up. 

It throws off the mantle of convention and status and language and exposes what we are underneath.

Love puts us in positions of vulnerability.

It enables us to act with kindness and generosity toward those who may not share our beliefs, our world view, our income, our neighborhood, or any of the other millions of little things that we use to identify ourselves.

It takes courage to be some one who loves. 

Because love can be messy.

My layout is messy...and full of hearts and glitter and little shiny things...much like loving others.

I pray that I always love others well, that I have the courage to love, even when it is uncomfortable, inconvenient or painful. I pray that my heart shows...with glittery, glimmery magnificence.

I pray that people know I endeavor to be a lover...and that my endeavor shows in my life. 

I pray that love is written all over my life.

May we always be brave enough to love...

Peace, ya'll!

Behind the Art with Felecia

My final share for our month of Perspective is for my Lens of Faith layout.

This is a deeply personal project – on the subject I value as much as my own life – my faith. I believe completely it comes before all other things. I hope that it is evident to others that this faith is the lens through which I want to see all things.

There is a song by Brandon Heath that says:

Give me Your eyes for just one second

Give me Your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing 
Give me Your love for humanity 
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted 
The ones that are far beyond my reach 
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten 
Give me Your eyes so I can see

My faith has quite literally changed my life. I’ve struggled with so many feelings of inadequacy…or interestingly enough, being far too much. And as I’ve dug into God, He’s taught me to see things much differently. While I realize that my kind of Faith is not perhaps for everyone, I just couldn't side step this perspective in my own life - how much it affects my life. 

Sometimes, when we get very involved in what others think of us, the fear that we are just not “right” is crippling…and my faith has carried me through that. 

The camera stencil is an amazing symbol to use for the "lens" idea...plus I wanted to use the subtle contrast of the Distress paint against kraft paper. Faith is like that - its a step away from where you are, a different angel, a new understanding of the same situations, the same people, the same obstacles, the same challenges that life presents. The thing is that its one step today and then one step a month from now, and then maybe one step another year after that. You sort of don't realize how far you have come until you look back at the snap shots and see...

I choose to believe that Love wins...I call this my "rose colored" lens...to view life through the lens of love, to assume (and expect) the best possible outcome, to point my feet in a direction and go, dealing kindly with all I meet along the way - THIS is what a Lens of Faith has done for me. 

In all honesty, I hope my life shows this...that people don't have to see a layout to know these things about me. BUT, its revealing to write it down, to expose it for myself and to understand fully how much this is part of who I am.

Do you have a lens through which you either aspire to or actually see the events around you? Has there been something in your life that caused you to step to one side or another of where you were and look again at the world around you?

Think of it...

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it - always.

Mahatma Gandhi
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)

Make sure the way of truth and love resonates from you today on Election Day...

My New Love

I've been driving Volvos for a long time. I loved this particular car, my 2005 Volvo S60. We had a special relationship, PJ and I. Comfort, class, speed, safety...when we met, it was magic. At the time, it was the perfect match.

My lease was about to expire in October, and I had a decision to make. Do I buy the car? Do I get another Volvo?

Then one day, I saw this on the street.

It was love at first sight. I was thrilled, exhilirated. I had found the car that feels like who I am today and who I want to be. Fun, free and creative.

It took us a while to get together, but this past weekend, I finally made that leap of faith that is necessary in all great romances.

Rachel & _______ (TBD), on the day we said 'I Do' 8/31/08

I can't decide on a name. We're still getting to know each other...any ideas?

Scrapbooking and Inspiration

As someone who promotes emotional scrapbooking (and practices what she preaches), I find inspiration in so many places. Today I stumbled across a website that I found very moving:

Love and Forgive

Reading the stories and strategies on this site made me think about some of the people from my past and the part I played, and still play, in why we don't communicate any longer. I am going to think some more about (and scrap about) the people I could forgive in order to let go of pain in my past...and whom I wish would forgive me...

Here's a layout from an album I have in progress about friends from days gone by and what I learned from each relationship...

The website includes an especially good online exercise for releasing a burden...

Is there someone you'd like to forgive or someone you wish would forgive you so you could move on?