I recently attended our Writers by the Sea meeting in Fernandina on Amelia Island, Florida. A lot of effort goes into organizing the membership and coming up with programs, etc. Thank you to Nadine Vaughan D'Ardenne, the leader of this wonderful pack of creative folks. We had two interesting speakers. Our local award-winning poet, Nola Perez, shared her rich story and how it impacted her poems. The second speaker was Linda Hart Green, retired from Christian ministry and an artist on and off through the years. She and three partners have opened The Shady Ladies Art Studios and Gallery. Located on 8th Street in Fern, as our family calls the town, the name of the shop was inspired by the huge oak tree out front.
One thing stood out to me as I listened to Linda. My words, not hers: Artists and writers are the eyes for the world. As I thought about this, I realized I am and always have been an observer. I could not have written my Goodbye Lie series of novels and had this blog for five years without being observant. Here is what I mean.
I was going through some photos I had taken and found this wonderfully sweet picture of the two "lizzies" on the heads of the cherub statue in my front flower bed at Stately Martha Manor.* Now some out there may just have passed by and never noticed the lizards, let alone take a picture of them. It's that old stop and smell the roses thing. I'm all about that. To this day, our granddaughter, Ava, and I will see a picture or look upon a swatch of patterned material and search for as many different colors, shapes, identifiable images, etc., as we can.
I love details. When my husband, Bruce, and I watch an old recorded movie, I will rewind it to see the costuming or reread the closed caption to make sure I heard it correctly in the first place, if I didn't quite understand the dialogue. Or in musicals, I love them with closed caption. You can read the lyrics of what the chorus is singing.
As for these four legged little guys on the statue heads, note they aren't looking at each other. Perhaps they had a spat over who ate the biggest gnat, yet because they are resting on those cement angels, it makes me think of a couple committed to each other for life. Maybe the angels beneath their tiny feet are their way of being blessed by God. All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all.
So, I beg you, slow down every once in a while, pick an object of some sort and just plain examine it to see how it's put together. In the meantime, I will continue to observe and share in my writings what I discover. May what I see and write about in this blog and my novels, bring you wonder, entertainment, drama, mystery, romance and peace.
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*We used to call our home Stately Malcolm Manor. Yes, it's a direct rip-off of Batman's Stately Wayne Manor. When Martha Bear entered our lives and hearts, she quickly took over. Everybody knows we live in Martha Bear's house. -jmm
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