Gratitude Practice 2020 Day 26: Icebergs and Broken Bows
While living in Texas, Burke and I became big fans of the Dallas Museum of Art and visited often. Lots of late nights and slow Saturdays were spent casually exploring this impressive collection. While we could each identify a few favorites, one very large painting made a lasting impression on both of us. In 1861, Federic Edwin Church created "The Icebergs" which became a part of the permeant DMA collection in 1979. This painting is massive and beautiful and a tiny bit haunting. According to the DMA website, "The seductively inviting colors, glowing subterranean light, and glossy, tactile surfaces of the icebergs attract the viewer’s eye. Yet in reality, the scene is an inhospitable place filled with danger, as the broken mast in the foreground indicates." I can't tell you how many times Burke and I would wander through the museum and yet somehow alway find ourselves standing in front of this painting. To say it left an impression would be an understatement and I've been thinking about this masterpieces on and off for weeks.
Inside my faith practice, there is a story about how a middle-aged hard working ever faithful husband and father suddenly looses his ability to provide. This untimely and inconvenient "bow breaking" experience seems to stretch his capacity and try his faith. It appears this unwanted growth opportunity is exasperated by critical onlookers and the pressure and expectation to protect and provide pushes him towards seeking unimaginable wisdom and clarity. Eventually, his weary yet consistent prayer practice coupled with some impressive out-of-the-box thinking results in a new creative solution and he develops an entirely new method for meeting his families very real needs.
Burke and I will each turn 44 this year. And if my math is correct we have officially reached mid-life. Yippee! And like the Book of Mormon hero mentioned above, we are deep in an unwanted "bow breaking and bow creating" season of life. Lots of parallels popping off the page as we are currently re-grouping, re-evaluating, re-prioritizing so many of our big and little details. Bows break for everyone...it's just a matter of time. Jobs end. Patience gets tested. Skill sets get sharpened and identify and developed. Dollars somehow stretch. Faith gets tried. And most people are really like Frederic Edwin Church's Iceberg...way way way more going on under the surface than we ever really want to admit. Grown-up life sure ain't for sissies and I know that I'm in good company right now because just about everyone I know is wrestling with at least one iceberg big concern or another. Medical concerns. Financial concerns. Spiritual concerns. Marital and familial concerns. Political concerns. Social concerns. Way more going on for all of us under the surface than we ever let be seen in the light of day.
Tonight, I am grateful for the way a loving God is shaping and teaching and refining me during this never wanted totally frustrating super inconvenient bow breaking experience. Grateful to be reminded that pretty much every one is walking iceberg and is deep in either the bow breaking or the bow repairing business. Gratitude for the absolute flood of answered prayers and tender mercies, for the kindness of strangers and for dear dear friends. Gratitude for those who continually show up and create space of us as we slug through this super fun season of reflection and refinement. Grateful for our reserves, our education, and our networks. Tonight, I am grateful for the sacred bow breaking and bow making iceberg-esk moments of life.
https://collections.dma.org/artwork/4171219
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jennifer-paustenbaugh/when-your-bow-breaks/