You can see the official name of the artwork is “Rise Above”, but this is my title, “A Work in Progress”.
The first part of the story is the picture frame. It doesn’t look finished. I don’t know if it is. It’s a work in progress too. Its made from the guardrail I made for the crib that my three boys used along with one of our friends’ boys. It went through 4 kids. It started as a tree, then a 2×6, then cut and sanded to fit the crib. Along the way it got painted, then used by 3 kids all at once. Then it got disassembled and went in the attic for years and years until a new use emerged. It got cut again, cut some more, cut some more, and assembled into the frame you see.
Building this frame was one of the scariest things I’ve done. I can compare it to the anticipation of going on a roller coaster and the adrenaline while being on it. It’s kind of like that, but with the knowledge of being hurt the last time you were on a roller coaster. The last time I used the saw blade to make this frame I ended up in an emergency room for 3 days for urgent surgery to fix an open fracture on my finger. It’s been almost 10 months, 2 surgeries, and more physical therapy sessions than I want to count. My heart was racing, but I knew this time the setup was more safe. I bought a radial saw so that the frame pieces can be clamped to a table and the saw moves over the wood while my hands are safely out of the way. That’s another story. You can see the link below.
Really, I’m the one who is a work in progress. A lot of the story is heartache; adding link after link to the burden of pain that I bear. Another part of the story is joy; graduations, wedding, births and birthdays. The problem is that the heartaches seem to accumulate more than the joy. Now I’m learning to let go. Caylah’s poem is easier said then done, but “the chains that bind, we’ll cast away, in His embrace, we’ll find our way…in Jesus’ name, we’ll touch the sky”. I’m learning to let go of the chains of pain and looking towards the sky. It’s a work in progress.
