Friday 25 November 2016

The Butterfly of Life.


Yesterday I took the brave step of standing in front of a group of people and with my gruff voice and spoke about painting and art as I threw paint at a canvas. I was tasked with talking about the use of texture on canvas and acrylic paint. 

The days leading up to the event I must have been difficult to live with. The owner of the painting above gave me words of encouragement as did some very dear friends. But I must still have been difficult to live with.

Now you might wonder why this was so? I have been a minister and stood in packed churches with almost a thousand people in them and preached from just a few notes. I have stood in front of classes of teenagers  and taught them lessons sometimes they might not have wanted to learn. So what was different? What was making me so full of self doubt/

I will tell you. I think for the first time in my life I was very conscious of just how wrong it could all be. Paint does not always respond the way you so want it to. It almost has a mind of its own. I have had no formal lessons or training so I knew just how easily it could all go wrong. 

So for two weeks I was thinking hard about all the things that could go wrong. 

The people I met were marvellous and so understanding  and they were relaxed and full of questions. They made me feel at home and my two weeks of agonising had got me prepared for just what could go wrong. At the end of the evening I had not managed to finish the artwork but I think in a day or two I will and will post it here so they can see it.

This morning one of the people there was up at the waterfall I had spoken of as being my inspiration. he was there taking photographs how happy I felt that he had been inspired enough to make that trek up the glen.

So all of the tension of the  last two weeks was worth it. Thanks to all at Kirkcaldy Art Club and all those who encouraged me. It is a lesson for life. let me finish with a tale of the butterfly. 

One day a young boy was looking at a small gap  as it appeared in a cocoon, through which a  butterfly would appear. 

A boy, who had stopped watched how the butterfly was trying to get out of the cocoon.

It took a lot of time, the butterfly was trying very hard, and the gap was as little as before. It seemed that the power would leave the butterfly soon.

The boy decided to help the butterfly. He took a penknife and cut the cocoon. The butterfly immediately got out, but its body was weak and feeble, and the wings were barely moving.

The boy continued to watch the butterfly, thinking that now its wings would spread and its would fly.

However, that did not happen.

The rest of its short life the butterfly had to drag its weak body and wings that weren’t spread. It was unable to fly, because the boy had  not realised that an effort to enter through the narrow gap of the cocoon was necessary for the butterfly, so that the life-giving fluid would move from the body to the butterfly’s wings and that the butterfly could fly. 

The boy had forced the butterfly to leave its shell fast and easily,  he thought he was giving it a helping hand.

But it was the struggle to break free that would make it  stronger and it  would be able to grow and develop.

If we were allowed to live without meeting difficulties, we would not be viable. Life gives us challenges to make us stronger.

Every challenge adds to our lives experience. 

I know I am late today but I hope you all have a great and challenging day.

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