like a redwood tree

aviela :: pen+colored pencil, 2013

When inspiration hits, it's best to listen.  To just put pen to paper, thread to needle, or words to the page.  To tumble in - all the way.  With that spark of idea, just a picture in my mind, I started this drawing.  I was excited to hunt down my pretty pens and colored pencils.  In the early morning, the sun not quite up and Lukas already out the door to work, I got started.

But as excited as I was to begin, I took my time.  With the first line of the first hebrew letter I felt a thrill.  Slowly, in pencil, I shaped the letters.  And as I drew I took in slow full breaths and felt calm filling the living room.  Here and there I paused to pet the cat or see just how things were coming along.  I was conscientious of filling my mind and heart with hopes for the little girl who's name I was writing. 

The work was spread out over several mornings.  At each new step - from hebrew to english, pencil to pen to colored pencil - I got excited all over again.  The days it took allowed the idea to shift and change and become better.  Now around the name of this sweet, calm, beautiful baby girl were branches from a redwood tree.  A redwood tree because this baby girl was born here in the land of these coastal giants and in a year she will return with her family to their home in Uganda.  And a redwood tree as a hope for the future.  That little Avi will grow big and strong like the redwood which starts from a small seed.