Mini Hiatus with a Side of Vulnerability & Tattoos

I apologize for the silence of the past week... my personal life pretty much exploded and I needed to get away.

I usually don't do mushy, and I typically do not like to be overly-religious on my blog, but in light of everything in my life right now, I can only listen with an open heart and do little ballet steps around my room.

Hello, vulnerable Erin on her blog.

"There's a peace I've come to know, though my heart and flesh may fail;

There's an anchor for my soul; I can say, "It is well".

Jesus has overcome, and the grave is overwhelmed.

The victory is won, He is risen from the dead!

And I will rise when He calls my name; no more sorrow, no more pain;

I will rise on eagles' wings before my God, fall on my knees,

and rise."

I've been thinking about getting a tattoo for a couple of years now.
It's been a slow process, because I want to be REALLY sure I'm getting something that will be with me throughout my whole life. Being an artist, of course I have to draw the design myself.

When I lived in Italy, we went to quite a few different Italian cities to study the frescoes on the cathedrals, duomos, and churches. In Renaissance art, the peacock was often a symbol of rebirth and the resurrection, and appeared in a lot of images accompanying Christ. I saw the fresco to the left, and drew the peacock sitting in the window into my sketch-diary as a reminder.

Since then, I have wanted a peacock feather to be incorporated into my tattoo. Everytime in my life when I have felt despair, hopelessness, fear; especially during my lowest of lows, there has always been a quiet, steadfast, abiding faith, and after time has passed, a knowledge that I have risen, and can see life in a new light and continue on.

This weekend I visited one of my very best friends, who has been there for me time and time again, and we went to a banquet together; I was completely surprised and completely not surprised to find that my prayers were answered when I heard "I Will Rise" for the second time in my life; the first being when my boyfriend of 6 years left me suddenly, totally blindsided. I nearly burst into tears over my dinner roll at this fancy-pants banquet (which was actually quite lovely indeed), when I heard the line that struck me the first time, 5 years ago:

"There is an anchor for my soul".

There has been no greater truth I can confess in my life than this, and I am planning to design an anchor with a peacock feather intertwined, with that line under it. I'm hoping to get it tattooed onto my right wrist as a constant reminder.

Whoever you are, if you read this whole blogpost, thank you. I wrote this more for myself than anyone else; just one of those things you have to get out, you know? But thank you just the same.

"But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles. 

They will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint." - Isaiah 40:31