Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Chapter 6, Page 19 A strange calm.

I don't feel sad any more.

This was a really hard strip to do and my schedule for the last week has been crazy. That's my excuse for getting this done so late.

And I apologize, but I don't think there's going to be a Friday episode this week. There's a field trip that day for my art history class, and I have no idea how long it's going to last. (Considering that just the trip there and back will take 4 hours, I'm guessing all day.) I didn't even know colleges did field trips.

Anyway, back to the comic. *Really* hard to do. The second panel was bad enough. I had to redraw the fourth panel because the perspective was all off. It probably still is, but at least it's closer.

The second panel was really hard, though. It's supposed to be a shadow caught out the corner of Mary's eye. She also felt a presence she took for Dad. Not easy to portray in a visual medium.

2 comments:

Acacia H. said...

That's an echo of what happened when I encountered the Divine myself.

Almost a decade ago, I was with my grandparents on a Bermuda cruise. While that may sound cool and all of that, there was a bit of a problem with it. First, my grandparents chose a cruise ship suited for older people. Thus there were very few people my age. Second, we were hit by an anti-cyclone, so just about everyone was seasick. Even I felt a touch of it when I was on the 11th deck and saw a wave wash up over the windows. (My stomach and brain conspired to get me the heck out of there and back to my safer cabin. ^^)

We finally got to Bermuda... and event after event that the cruise ship offered was canceled because of the inclimate weather we'd run across. Several snorkling events were canceled and pretty much I was feeling absolutely miserable and like I was wasting my time. And I was.

There was a parade going on but I didn't feel like going. I didn't feel like much of anything but wallowing in self-pity and sadness. So I stayed on board and was up on deck, just looking up into the partly-cloudy skies. I was feeling so miserable at one point I started to try and manipulate the weather, gathering energy to draw in rain so that the very skies would match how I felt.

That's when I realized "you're being an idiot. Why ruin other people's fun just because you're feeling miserable?" I grounded out the energy into the ocean... which turned out to be a stupid thing because the ocean is the engine that generates weather. ^^;; But the rainstorm that hit (and caused the parade to be canceled an hour later) could have been natural... and I didn't intend for it to happen. ^^;;

Anyway... I was still feeling rather sorry for myself when suddenly I felt something. I felt... like I wasn't alone. That there was someone around me. And it was a very feminine presence; when I say feminine, I mean female rather than girly or anything like that. It was immense... and focused on me.

And it... she loved me. It wasn't sexual or anything. It was... far greater than that. It was a glimpse into the divine, with a love that transcends reality itself. It was the love of a parent to a child, the love of a friend for another, it was... I don't know really how to describe it, and I paint with words.

I was loved. And I realized I loved her back, that I loved this Goddess that had visited me and let me know that for all my faults and all my loneliness... that I wasn't alone. That I was worthwhile. That I was loved.

It's been almost a decade, and that love is still a part of me. It lifts me up when I'm sad. It holds me steady when I stumble. It gives me strength when I feel weak.

The closest I can think of describing it is what the Born Again Christians claim they feel. That they glimpsed God and realized God loved them and that God forgave them of all their faults. Yet this was a female divinity. ^^

I do think that if I ever return to Bermuda, I'll fly next time. ^^;; Still... the trip was worth it, if only for that one glimpse into something far greater than myself... and to know that out there is one who loves me. Faults and all.

Rob H.

Brigid said...

That is a wonderful story. Truly inspirational. ^_^