My Hands are My Own

This painting has a little bit of a story behind it, so bare with me.  I was thinking of a dear friend the other day, a friend who was always full of love, light and happiness.  A true pleasure to be around.  What do you know, but he happened to send me an email that day for the first time in at least 5 years.  He was raising money for the heart association, but regardless of the reason, I was thrilled.  This friend had encouraged me to get the book "Simple Abundance - A Day Book of Comfort and Joy."  It is kind of like a daily devotional type book, only it is not concentrated on any one religion, and it is heavily concentrated on creativity.  Since I have been struggling (only slightly) with depression, I decided to dig it out and start being encouraged again. It is really strange, because the day I started reading it again the message was about down shifting and living in lower gear.  Which is EXACTLY what I had started to do by going to part time hours at work.  It talked about people who had chosen to slow their pace and not compete with their fast paced peers, and devote more time to their creative energy!  This is EXACTLY where I am in life.  So, I thumb through all of the days that I had missed, and picked out a page that discussed tuning in to what God (or your higher spirit) is saying to you and put that into your work.  That is exactly what I did today.  I have felt very troubled over the new immigration laws that have passed in Alabama.  I have been an idiot and have read a lot of the ugly comments that people have written in the comment sections of some of the news articles.  People are very passionate about their side of the debate, so I will try not to dwell on it.  I will just say that since I am the mother of a beautiful Hispanic girl (who is over here legally by the way) it really concerns me.  It occupies my mind a LOT.  Probably more than it should.  So, I sat down today and connected with God, and decided to paint what I thought HIS message would be on the issue.  The lyrics to Jewel's "Hands" came to mind, and this was the result.