some rain must fall...

every once in a while, an idea will come to me and then pretty much make itself come to life. when that happens, i am so excited and frantic to get it out of the realm of my head and into the real world that i almost can't contain myself. i work in a frenzy, but a very focused, calm, directed frenzy. i am only the hands and the vehicle for the piece to become.

in this case, it started with the cover of the blind pilot cd. after seeing them, i was inspired to do some sort of raincloud piece.

at the same time, i was becoming very fascinated with the properties of laguna agate, particularly in relation to depression. in her book love is in the earth, melody says this about laguna agate:

"... it can be used to increase flexibility in ones life and ones body and mind. in addition, it assists in decreasing the shallowness of ones character. it enhances precision and provides stimulus to intellectual pursuits... laguna agate has been used to help one return from the depths of depression to a state of openness and acceptance of what IS.

in addition to those properties, this particular laguna agate has a "self-healed fracture", which means that it broke while it was forming and then repaired itself. when i learned that, i had to have it. that is very symbolic to me, as someone who has battled depression my entire life.

when the stone arrived, i looked at it and it all came together. i realized this was what would make the raincloud piece possible. how could i look at that gorgeous stone and see anything but rainclouds? stormy skies? turbulence mixed with calm?

then i had to find the just right words to put on the back. in the end, it was henry wadsworth longfellow who got it just right. (the runner up, also his words, was "the best thing to do when it is raining is to let it rain.")

i felt compelled to put my sparrow stamp and initials on a raindrop. i worked straight through on this piece, from start to finish. it turned out exactly how i had envisioned it. every last detail happened how i hoped it would. so there it is. "some rain must fall". i am so very very pleased with how it turned out.