My Chair

Red Flowers
Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas
24x30
Available in my studio

I am so glad you stopped by! Please come on in! I am sitting in my favorite chair  in my little room. It is an amazing oversized chair covered in a yummy vintage floral fabric. I spend a lot of time here reading, praying, writing, thinking and always creating. I tell people my brain clicks about 100 miles an hour all day, but when I am in my chair the clicking seems less rushed somehow, maybe more organized. My thoughts are quieter, orderly and yet more vivid. When I am in my chair colors are brighter and ideas are clearer. I love my chair. I have three baskets of books at my feet and as we speak  I actually have six books in the chair with me.
I must admit as I am sitting in my chair this morning I am a little weepy. My nest is very quiet this morning as two of my little birds are off at college and the other three are in high school. It is unusually still. I have sent a couple of notes to friends who are taking children to college for the first time and to one sweet friend in particular who took her son today and he is the last to leave home. She and I have talked about empty nest at great length, but I can only imagine how her heart will feel tonight when she sets the table for two.
I have to say my Luke is a senior this year and I have lost my breath more than a couple of times thinking about this year. I know it will fly by. But I am going to do my best to savor every minute! Last night we were hanging out in the kitchen and Luke was in the middle of a story and for the life of me I cannot remember a single word. As he spoke I felt like I was in  slow motion watching his mouth move but I heard nothing because as I looked in his eyes my mind traveled back to his kindergarten class and my eyes welled up with tears and I had a lump in my throat the size of a watermelon. If this is any indication of how I am planning to "savor" every moment, I won't make to september.
My sweet husband and I have worked hard to prepare Luke for his senior year and college. It is just that it got here sooner than I expected! As we begin to "push" him out of the nest, I was thinking about how I might pray for him. Crazy, but I thought about my children's camp application. It asks the question "What do you hope your child gains from camp?" Think about that for a minute. What do you hope your child gains from high school? I feel like we could make list a mile long... good friends , good grades, good study habits...etc.
Okay, radical but what if we changed the question from gain to give? What do you hope your child gives in high school? With our self absorbed culture do we even think it is possible to give rather than get? So what if our prayers for our children were for them first and foremost to love God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their mind and then their neighbor and then put themselves last. What if we prayed our children to be mighty men and women of God and to glorify Him. To reflect Him in the classroom and on the field. What if we prayed for them to praise God rather than seeking praise from man? Crazy? Impossible?  With God, nothing is impossible. So as our children grow and prepare to leave home, what's your desire for them? To gain or to give?
love love love Ruthie