Feathers

Sharing a sweet little bird today, "painted" in Inkist and inspired by lines from a poem by Marjorie Allen Seiffert. I worked intuitively, making layers of marks and letting the image emerge on its own.

A bird is three things:

Feathers, flight and song,

And feathers are the least of these.

Marjorie Allen Seiffert*, “The Shining Bird”

I adore the sentiment of these lines.  As lovely as birds are, their beautiful appearance is not their greatest quality.  It's the same for us.  Our physical beauty is subjective and fleeting.  We are, each of us, so much more than what people see on the outside.

What is truly beautiful in you and me is eternal.  We radiate beauty when we fulfill our purpose...loving God and loving others with all our heart.

I always said I would grow old gracefully but when gray hairs first appeared on my head I admit I panicked just a bit.  I even covered them up for a while but I eventually got over it.  Now I'm quite happy with my gray "feathers".  They are like a declaration of contentment proclaiming, "This girl is headed into the next phase of life without reserve or pretense."  I'm really so much happier when I just am who I am.  (It's a whole lot less expensive, too.)

So here's to flying high and singing our songs and radiating a deeper kind of beauty.  I hope all you gorgeous birds have a fabulous weekend!

Linking up today with:

Paint Party Friday

* Marjorie Allen Seiffert was an American poet in the early 20th century.  Biographical information on her is a little hard to come by but a collection of her poems, A Woman of Thirty, may be downloaded for free from The Gutenberg Project.  I also came across this intriguing story of her involvement with a hoax feigning the existence of a literary school called Spectra.  The story is worth a read if you're interested in a little literary trivia.

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