On the rooftop of the house here in San Miguel is a table
with four chairs. On the table is a
planter with desert succulents. My first
week here I notices a dandelion making its way up through the other
plants. I thought of pulling it but I
left it. I watched it bloom; and then it
was gone. No doubt the gardener pulled
it from the planter. I was surprised to
see it here in San Miguel. But there it
was finding its way. Last week I noticed
that it was coming up again; and not only a dandelion but clover as well. Here in the midst of the high desert
mountains, clover and dandelions finding their way. Perhaps they do not belong but they make me smile
and laugh at God’s good humor and how things have way of making a way where
there is no way and things surprise us and can bloom even when we don’t expect
... sometimes don’t want them. They just
do. In the midst of all our plans, life –
in ways we may not expect, or think we want – will find a way; it just
does. There it was. What makes a plant a weed and another
not? Is it perspective or desire? Perhaps at times, what comes up for us needs
to be pruned or pulled, and then perhaps, it may simply be new life finding its
way where we may not expect it to be.
I have continued to paint each day at an art studio. It provides me a place to go and be apart and
simply paint. I paint for two to three
hours and then I am done, able to leave it behind until the next day. It is a process, step-by-step, day-by-day, watching
it take form.
I am currently working on my fourth painting. The second is finished. The third is almost complete. The fourth is in its infancy. The second painting was a shift but still in
my mind in the direction I am wanting.
It is a painting of Nuestra Señora de Refugia (Our Lady
of Refuge). Jesuits brought a copy from
Italy to Mexico. From there the copy was
re-copied, some baroque, some primitive.
She became an important image/icon for the people of Zacatecas, a mining
town in Mexico. The mines were their
livelihood and dangerous. She was looked
to for solace and protection; she also adorned many home altars. In the darkness of the mines, they saw her, a
feminine image of the divine, the God-bearer, as a mother who cares for her
children. The devotion of Our Lady of
Refuge was so widely spread that in 1832 Pope Gregory XVI acceded to a petition
by the Mexican hierarchy and authorized her commemorative day for July fourth,
the day of her recognition as “Queen of Heaven.” I felt drawn to her and wanted to honor her
and my time here in Mexico.
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