The Journey: Beauty Shared is Love Multiplied (AAQI)

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.
                             - Mary Oliver 



We must take care of ourselves, first. And then, and only then, are we in a position of body, mind, and spirit to help others and be there for our families. Crisis points in our lives change us. They can make us weaker where we take flight, or they can make us stronger, where we feel the beauty of spirit and our own power and from this place of en-lighten-ment, we bring that light to shine its path into the darkness,  and a new life, a new self is born.

Shown above: Another of my small format art quilts that was donated to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) and is heading off to Houston this week for IQF

13,841 - Beauty Shared Is Love Multiplied 

Will be for sale at the AAQI Booth: Houston International Quilt Festival 2013

Michele Bilyeu
Salem, OR USA
Width: 11" Length: 8.5"

Materials/Techniques: Asian fabric, metallic free motion quilting, and glass beads.

Artist Statement: I found this beautiful piece of Asian fabric and was delighted to be able to feature this young pair of Chinese Crested Pheasants as they await the arrival of new love and beauty into their lives.
Contact Michele
 
Dedication: For those who love, those who give and those who nurture others. May the beauty of the love you share be ever multiplied.
This quilt has Fast Finish Triangles.

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Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, with small format art quilts, prayer flags, and comfort quilts for a variety of charitable programs. And best of all, sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join in her Liberated Quilting Challenge and make and donate small art quilts to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) Help us change the world, one little quilt at a time!