Painting Revelation Blog

Note: In 1 Samuel 7:12 Samuel sets up a “stone of help” or Ebenezer to commemorate God’s help. God has helped me too.

My Sanibel Ebenezers

If this beach were stone not sand
I’d build an Ebenezer
I’d build four

One for Vivette, fourth grade friend extraordinaire
Grande Dame of Istanbul
Who taught me French
Sent me to France
Whose keen eye, an ibis with an accent
Cracked open the book of civilization
Turned the page to beauty
And pointed at me

The next for Winnie, reader with an ear for words
Writer of the seemingly ordinary
Whose dry humor pulls back the curtain
For curious children and peeping toms
Good, she says with a star
No, she writes with exclamation
Up every morning to walk and write
Her clock-like life runs on time
Through time
She gave me time
And the applause I needed

The third for Sherwood and his gorgeous palette
White shell house overlooking the Gulf
Azure, tangerine, sea foam green
Hang in perfect balance
Leave shadows on the wall
While Betty’s bended clay
Lets light seep between the well-placed cracks
Even though the tracks of his mind
Crisscross and the bridges
Have collapsed
He proffers a kiss, a pat on the back
A bright smile
Paint what you love, he told me
Dance your feelings on the canvas
And I did

The final one for Martha, Miss Martha
My North Carolina Mambo
Who understands the heart
Discerns the darkness
Had courage to institutionalize Duke
Before drink was the death of him
Her stories rivaled only Vivette’s
Her accent too, and sense of style
Always forgive, she told me
I still hear her laugh, see her tears
Feel the unspoken love she hugged into me

These four pillars
“Stones of Help”
Support the platform of my life
Where I have built my nest
Like the osprey—or better yet the eagle
Whose tree was toppled by the uninformed
The ignorant, the blind
Some rough worker acting by impulse
Not design

Yet rescue came, a giant crane
Deus ex machina from the neighborhood
And now the nest withstands hurricanes
Stands firm, out in the open
So all who look up can see
The satisfied pair
And the eaglets who return
Year after year

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