Fall Fearless and Fly - #3

Challenge #3:

Headline: Triumphs and defeats. What do you see as your greatest triumphs and defeats? What have they taught you? Which have you learned more from?
Colour: Black and white
Quote: Not in the clamour of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Hop on over to Artists in Blogland (see the Fall Fearless and Fly button in the bar) and see the fabulous challenge answers over there.

Wow! This one was a real toughie. As you can see, I couldn't stay completely black and white, but mixed a little cream in there, too, just to get some texture going. This is the second piece. The first one wasn't at all to my liking. From that 'defeat' I learned that I needed a little cream in there :)

So, I just about did the colour prompt, used the quote, but what about the headline? Well, this really made me think. I don't really see my life in terms of 'triumphs and defeats'. What usually happens is that I make plans and God laughs at them because He has something else in mind. And I have to admit that He knows best.

For example, I had my heart set on going to Durham University, but ended up in Sheffield instead. But that was where I met my husband (who also, by the way, wasn't planning to be in Sheffield). So was it a defeat? Absolutely not! It was just a different path. If I had wallowed, feeling defeated, I might have not gone to university at all and my life would have been very different.

Triumph and defeat, as Longfellow points out, aren't anything to do with how others see it. Sometimes what others see as success in our lives we feel very differently about. And vice versa.

Triumph and defeat come from whether the heart can see the light or not.

A few projects

As I write the floor in my art room is scintillating.  As is the ironing board, my clothes, and even parts of my face. Here is the reason:

This is the fabric my 13yr old daughter has chosen for a long flared skirt. The cobwebs are in gold glitter. Which gets everywhere. 

Continuing in the black theme, my husband bought a black sketchbook for me. Here is my first doodle in it:

And I came to yet another page I had prepped in black in my current journal (what was I thinking?!)

So I lightened it with some black and white patterned paper I picked up recently. Then it was crying out for some red, so I added a heart. Then I needed some words so, rifling through my book of miscellaneous useful stuff I found a quote by Henry Vaughan:

Sickness and death you are but sluggish things and cannot catch a heart that hath got wings.

 Of course, now wings needed to be added to the heart.

It set me thinking about what makes a heart fly even in the face of difficult circumstances. 

For me, it would be hope and joy. In the words of the old hymn, I 'have a hope that is steadfast and certain' in my faith, and a joy that is deeper and more long-lasting than simple fleeting happiness. These things I have irrespective of my circumstances.

What makes your heart fly?