(I John 3:2)
This piece is a charcoal, willow stick, and pastel sketch on 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper. My initial inspiration was thinking of all the beautiful young women in my life who were graduating from high school and college, this past spring. As I put the finishing touches on it, my thoughts went much, much deeper.
Not one of us (hopefully) is the same person we were 5 years ago. And it also "doth not yet appear what we shall be." One thing is certain: change. Transition is the only constant in life.
As women, we very much need safe places to become who we shall be. I will go so far as to say we desperately need safe relationships, in which the calling we are growing into, is as cherished and encouraged as all the things we have been in the past.
That is hard to find. Many women don't feel comfortable with change at all, anywhere, much less in you their friend. Maybe they have always known you one way...as a stay-at-home mom, for example. And then, during one life-summer-season, you "suddenly" sprout colorful wings, and begin to exhibit signs of becoming an artist.
This is no silly midlife reinvention of a life you had been unhappy with before. Rather, it is you gently "becoming"...enlarging into another part of yourself that has been there, all along.
Some of your friends - and even family members - who were perfectly fine with the Stay-At-Home-Mom, may not feel comfortable with the Artist you are becoming.
What's worse...some women may want to get close to you, so they can copy you.
Imitation is healthy, and very different from "copying". A woman might imitate you because she sincerely admires you. This is perfectly fine, and that woman can be a perfectly safe and true friend. Another might copy you because she is competitive by nature. She wants to be your friend, but she can't help herself...when she learns your heart's desires and direction, she then will attempt to one-up you.
Or there are those who just generally draw from you in ways that only benefit them. However nice a woman like that can be to your face, she is not a safe friend. That sort of woman is safe as a friendly, casual association, but not as a supportive friend.
Precious and few friends are those beautiful ones with whom we are safe "becoming". You would do well to find them.
If I begin to enlarge, to "become", and I speak of starting an art business, these true ones are not going to suddenly try to one-up me do the same. Rather, they will mirror back to me how very substantial and beautiful my gifts are beginning to be, and give me gift cards to art supply stores, and recommend top shelf resources to me, as I surf this interminable learning curve. I am so very blessed with beautiful, safe, true friends. I am safe in becoming the person who "it doth not yet appear" what I shall be.
It goes without saying that I must be a safe person, and affirm their "Becoming" as well...
Nurturing and celebrating and valuing those of us who are becoming, who are in the transition that is an inevitable part of being a woman...
...celebrating "Becoming" is part and parcel of being in the Christian Community of Women...we exhibit ourselves at our best and most winsome when our friends in Titanic Transition are loved and helped along to becoming the most beautiful version of themselves, yet to date!
Support for Becoming. Because when women become...things change.
This original is 12x12, and is available either right here, or in my etsy shop.
If you decide to get the print, you will need an 8x8 frame, and they are a bit difficult to find. (12x12 frames can be found at either Hobby Lobby, or here. Since the 12x12 is an original, you will want to leave the glass out, when you frame it. If you want the original, or your print, to come already framed for you, contact me and we can arrange it, and I will invoice you the new price. )
Your new 8x8 print would look lovely in this, very inexpensive frame...
Grace and Peace,
Sheila Atchley
All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...
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