In honor of the Halloween weekend, I wanted to share a couple things.
1) Saturday's MMDA went to the two little girls who came into B&N with the greatest names and costumes ever.
Big sister, Lily, was Darth Vader.
Little sister, Lucy, was the Chesire Cat. And she was the fuzziest, pinkest, and purplest stripey Godluvit I've EVER seen.
If I hadn't been "on duty," and it wouldn't have been seriously creepy, I would have taken pictures of them.
2) http://www.cockeyed.com/incredible/fandango/fandango1.php
This was on the Page-a-Day Calendar at work on Thursday.
On the site, he goes into detail and gives step-by-step instructions and pictures on how he made the costume, but here's the finished, prize-winning product.
I thought that was pretty stinkin' groovy, especially since I was sans Halloween costume this year. Well, with the exception of my Secret Garden costume, which I did wear on Halloween, since we closed yesterday.
It was probably my favorite "last show" experience thus far. It was probably my best overall performance for the whole run, so I was glad to end on a high note (Wah wah waaaah...).
It was probably filled with some of the most beautiful people I'll ever have the pleasure of collaborating with in my life.
Our director, as those of you who've been following a while know, is a member of the church I attend, and he's also a brilliant artist. The sermon series for the past couple of months has been a study of the Lord's Prayer text, and each week there has been an offering from several of the artists in our congregation that corresponds with the portion of the text we're studying that day. Yesterday the altar was decorated with his painting of a single rose to go along with the text "...on Earth as it is in Heaven." There's an insert in the church bulletin with descriptions of the artwork from each of the contributing artists, and his said this:
The Rose: A pure and simple expression of God's love to the world. Mysterious and beautiful, it has become a powerful symbol of love one for another.
I painted this solitary, unadorned rose a few years ago in the springtime. At the time, it was intended as a personal prayer for peace and understanding and was inspired by the beauty in bloom right there in my back yard.
As an artist, I had long wondered about the nature of beauty; beauty's meaning and beauty's true value to the world. Why was beauty so important to us all? Considering God's work on display in the view from my studio, I came to the conclusion that, for me, a flower's "true" reason d'ȇtre must be His promise of forgiveness and rebirth. This unadorned rose could be my only statement.—Paul Looney
It's a painting of light pinkish-peach rose, which, aside from being my very favorite color rose, is also the color of the roses I planned on getting to pass out before the last show to those who helped to make the show as lovely as it was. For those of you who don't know, I have a particular interest in flower meanings. Pink roses say "thank you," and those with a peach hue express "sincere gratitude." When I saw that painting at church, and read Paul's words, I had one of those "where I'm supposed to be" moments. At that moment, it was all so wonderful and perfect.
I'd be lying if I said that every moment of this rehearsal process was wonderful and perfect; they were not. The 8 weeks leading up to yesterday's performance were fraught with frustration and anxiety and summoning forth all the patience we could muster to make this show as gorgeous as we all thought it deserved to be. And through the toil, we did; amidst the strife, we were able to cull the beautiful moments and bring them to life.
"You clear away the dead parts so the tender buds can form, loosen up the earth, and let the roots get warm..."
The show is all about finding the beauty within the pain and the hurt, and the show is all about that rose; it's all about rebirth and forgiveness.
Life is all about that rose, too.
We can't cut ourselves off from the pain and the suffering, and we especially can't cut ourselves off from the relationships that sometimes prove to be the sources of that pain and suffering.
I have always tried to keep the relationships I have at the forefront in my life; sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I fail, but it must be said that they are the roses of my life; the people whom God has graciously presented to me and my story are the beauty, and I ask God to take care of them, and to help me to do the same.
♥
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