Today I entered a world filled to the brim with color and texture, light and sound, love and laughter. A place where I could transform whimsical ideas into tangible objects. My friend Renee Bures is an art therapist who brought Alchemy Open Studio in Doylestown, PA into the world several years ago. Each Sunday, she invites people in the community to roll up their sleeves, put on smocks and by donation, come and play with a myriad of art supplies that rest on shelves that line the warehouse sized room. What doesn’t fit in their storage spaces, parade around the perimeter. Art work by others hangs on walls, a kiln and the clay to go in, beckons those who want to mold and sculpt. At previous visits, I have drawn, painted, glued and designed. Today, I was drawn to a container of rainbow shards that called to be glued to a piece of glass in seemingly random patterns. I decided that (against my desire for more structure) I would let the fractured pieces tell me where they wanted to be placed. I surrendered, which is a common experience of late.

For far too long, I had kept my own broken pieces hidden, fearing that if they were revealed, people would be less trusting in my ability to help them mend their own fragments. I am now viewing them as remnants of healing that has taken place within me.

I  was faced with a container of bits and pieces that I could decide to make into a thing of beauty. It is a work in progress; like the artist herself. I will be going back later in the week to finish it after patiently needing to step away so that there can be time for it to dry. I chose to use cooler colors (green, blue and white) on one side and warm colors (red, brown, orange) with the hues and shades meeting in the middle. Such a metaphor for life.

Eager to see how this piece of art will turn out. Eager to see how the mosaic of my life will come together.

My friend Paul Dengler (who finds some of his joy playing as Forrest Gump) sent me this song about the ways in which people are part of the mosaic of our lives.

Mosaic by Mary Ellen Kirk