Day: February 6, 2012

Meg In The Pasture

Dogs On The Lawn. Dusk.

In 2004, some giant rats, drawn by cans of rotting grain in the barn, swarmed over the farm. Even Rose wouldn’t go near them, and they lived in the stone wall by the barn. Some were huge, the size of small dogs, and even though I tried, I could not shoot them accurately with my .22.

A farmer brought me Mother and said she would help me out. She was just a year old, and seemed affectionate. One by one, the rats showed up at the back door, dead and dismembered. Some were the size of small racoons. After the got rid of the males, she went to work on the females, and then the babies. She would sit on the wall for hours waiting for one to venture out, and then there would be some shrieking and tussling, and then all was quiet. The rats piled up for days, even weeks, and then one day, there were no more rats, and very rarely, a mouse.

I suspect there will never be more rats, as long as Mother is around. She still appears easy going and affectionate, although I know better. And she still loves to hover at the top of the wall. Every time I take a photo of her, I think, this is the last thing the rats saw.

If I have a religion, it is perhaps a belief in the Creative Spark, with which I believe we are all endowed. For various reasons, some of us pursue it and some of us won’t or can’t. I believe it is the sacred part of us, and it is also the core of my relationship with Maria. We encourage one another.

For Christmas, I gave Maria an enamel chalk set, and I haven’t heard about it.  She never shows me her work until it is finished, and even then only once in awhile.

But I know Maria, and creative tools are an addiction for her. Like a mouse with cheese, she will come to it and try it out. This morning, she showed me her first drawing – it is of part of the living room. She did it while I was trying to watch the Super Bowl Sunday and free my inner male. That didn’t really work out, but the creative spark did its work, and this gifted and loving artist produced yet another work that is bright and affecting. We encourage one another, and she is selling her work and a few of my photos on her website. This lifts my heart, and it is has been pure joy to see the creative spark emerge and deepen in this talented woman, my love.

She has worked so hard to get to where she is. Because we both know you can’t just wish for things. You have to be open to the infinite expectation of the dawn, and work like Hell every single day.