it is finished.

"and when i am old, and my body has begun to fail me, my memories will be waiting for me. they will lift me and carry me over mountains and oceans. i will hold them and turn them and watch them catch the sunlight as they come alive once more in my imagination. i will be rich and i will be at peace."
-kent nerburn-

there is this picture i have that is so dear to my heart. it embodies my hope for my life and what i anticipate to come. it was and still is my most cherished afternoon, and i can still hear the giggles and the gasps as she jumped higher and higher every time. i have this picture framed in my room, it encourages me in those dark times. i have been wanting to do something with this image, paint it, sketch it...but seeing that i can't do any of those things i skipped over those plans. i just wanted it to have more meaning behind it, so i chose to make it out of ripped/broken scraps of paper. and piece together the image of ndamangululwa jumping off the chair. it was quite a messy project and took a decent amount of time to wash the glue and paper stuck to my hands and clothes. however, in the mess and in the broken pieces t made something beautiful and meaningful (at least to me). i am these ripped and broken pieces and yet i am becoming this work of art. i used some text from the book letters to my son by kent nerburn, he has this beautiful chapter on travel and the lessons we learn in giving ourself over to the unknown. i thought at first of using the pages from my journal and that was just a little to personal for me, so instead i tea stained the paper and made it match the pages of my journal and just collected whatever stood out to me the most and wrote it down. it is not as i intended, but for now, it hangs in our hallway and reminds me of that afternoon and the hope and freedom we have in christ.