It is MORE than Enough
I want to share the latest piece of Poetry Art that I have finished and reproduced, (in greeting cards and signed prints.) I wrote the poetry in Krakow, Poland after traveling into Ukraine four times in 5 weeks to do what I could to help displaced Ukrainians and those who had to shelter in place with their children. The poetry was inspired by a story that I was told of a young lady who was keeping a journal while bombs were falling all around her in Mariupol. As many of you understand, at least those of you that follow the news, this city has been decimated by constant shelling and bombing. In the diary that someone found, she told how she no longer cherished faraway dreams or even her future, but was thankful to just wake up another day. It was "enough" for her.
This story changed my life. Every morning, I sit in bed now and pray (as I usually do,) but now I tell God that it is enough that I am alive, it is enough that I can breathe, it is enough that I can see and hear, it is enough, it is enough, it is enough....a million times over. Life is such a fragile and precious gift.
The girl's journal was found in rubble, but at this time, her body has yet to be recovered.
The sunflower represents Ukraine, as they grow millions of sunflowers every season. Sunflower seeds are a cash crop, as they make sunflower oil from it and ship it worldwide. The blue and yellow in the background represents their flag. Blue for the sky and yellow for the crops of wheat, also an important crop for the economy. While I was traveling in the west and southwest of Ukraine, I saw so many farmers on tractors plowing up the earth. I was told that these fields and so many more in the west have never been cultivated. Yet, they are now being sowed because the eastern part of the country is actually the bread basket of this fertile land, but because of the war and all the damage and devastation they cannot plow as usual. Now the west is having to do the lion's share to make up for the deficit and to feed the entire country. I painted this piece in record time-one week, after returning from my impactful trip to Ukraine.
Here is the artwork:
If you look closely, the seeds in the middle are people's faces, those whom I know, whom I met and several whom have perished. Along the stem are people in various positions of displacement, Around the stem and leaf are portions of Psalm 91 in the Ukrainian language and in the blue background is the entire chapter of Psalms 91.
Details:
Here is the poetry:
IT IS ENOUGH
It is enough that I have awakened to a new day
And that the sun warms my face
It is enough that I can taste another gulp of breath
And that it is delicious
It is enough to feel my chest rising and falling
To know that my heart is thumping in rhythm
It is enough to see the faces of my family
And hear them bantering like downy chicks in the yard
It is enough that our Father in a turquoise heaven adores me
Has memorized my name-Precious
It is enough to rejoice and worship unfettered, completely
In this simple sacred moment
It is enough to understand that all of these things are
Unwarranted gifts, irresistible and magnanimous
Now I realize that I don't need faraway dreams
Nor audacious plans to sustain my silent soul
Because of this present anguish and bewilderment
Ideas have melted like a mist
Today, in this very moment
I see with perfect lucidity...
It is enough
Being alive is more than enough!
This is being offered on WWW.Globalimpactworldrelief.org & https://www.etsy.com/shop/PoetryArtbyLauna
as signed prints for $35. and cards 5 for $20.
All sales benefit Ukrainians and work being done in that country with our partner,
Mercy Projects. (Mercyprojects.org)
