Love

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is LOVE. We could all use more love right now. The power of love can save the world. So, go out and love everyone.

©2017 Traci Van Wagoner, LOVE

Ugga Mugga Love

The world needs love, lots of Ugga Mugga love. I painted this on Mother's Day thinking of my Mom who is so far away. This also works for Illustration Friday's theme this week, Mother. Go give your mother a kiss today! Aren't ugga mugga kisses the best?

Ugga Mugga by Traci Van Wagoner ©2017

Hug More

With all the craziness going on in the world and with an uncertain future looming in America with a President Elect who is woefully unprepared and unable to govern himself, let alone a country, I have painted. We need love. We need diversity. We need understanding and empathy.

We need hugs.

Please hug someone today and bring a smile, a spark of hope, or a moment of peace and understanding. It is a small world after all and love makes it go around.

A Poison Arrow

I am saddened and heartbroken this week. The results of the election was like a gut punch from which I haven't been able to catch my breath. Seeking solace in like minded people through social media has not helped. Seeking answers to WHY to those who helped bring this about has definitely not helped. So I write. I've dived into NanoWrimo with a shiny new idea. My characters have been leading me on a merry adventure. But then I return to reality, and once again I find it hard to breath and darkness invades. So I write this in hopes of helping push the darkness away.

A poison arrow has been shot into the heart of America. You all know the archer.

I am battling the poison as it darkens my thoughts, emotions, and days, striving to turn my heart from love, joy, and laughter to anger, pain, sorrow, hatred, and fear. I mourn not only for the wrong person winning in a "quirky" electoral system, but for the people who have sided with him and let his poison do its work to darken their hearts, to bring out hatred toward others who are different from them, to feel free to express that hatred so openly with no compassion or empathy, fueled by the blowings of a giant wind bag.

The poison is spreading and America is on the brink. I fear we are no longer a land of tolerance, a place of peace, solace against the storm, a bright light in the dark night, a haven for the downtrodden and weary and oppressed. And don't forget on Veteran's Day that many soldiers have fought and died  in many wars for our sanctuary of freedom. We are supposed to be a land of hope. A melting pot. A land of opportunity. The Mother of Exiles is weeping. I am weeping.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

A poem by Emma Lazarus, graven on a tablet

within the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands.

© Traci Van Wagoner

Many of us are suffering, barely able to buy groceries and pay rent. We all need jobs. We all need health care. We need our children to be educated, to learn not just math, science, English, but art, music, and tolerance. Empathy for one another. For all.

Empathy

Empathy is the antidote to the poison. Empathy, my friends, my enemies, my fellow human beings. Fight the poison coursing through our veins. Purge the hate, the anger, the ignorance. Laugh. Share a smile with another. Play a game with a stranger. Get to know someone who is different from you. Try to understand someone else who comes from a different culture and background. Walk in their shoes, my mom always told me. We all need love, to feel welcome, to be happy, to have a home.

We are all human beings living on a small blue marble amidst a mighty large Universe. We are but small beings who should be celebrating life, love, and happiness. We should be laughing side by side at the wonders that lay around us, and we should be striving to keep our beautiful blue marble safe for us all to continue living and laughing and loving for generations.

Fight the poison coursing through our veins. Purge the hate. Let go of the anger. Laugh and love a little every day. It will get easier with practice, I promise.

I drag myself out of the depths, and I have pulled the arrow from my heart. Now, I seek to purge the poison, to learn, to get involved, to help people open their eyes. Please join me in the sharing of what is truly important. Do not close the golden door. Open your hearts, your minds, your arms. Purge the poison.

Live, laugh, love and learn.

As I finish writing this, my heart has filled with hope for a brighter future for human beings across the globe.

Traci

________


All these reasons and more is why I have signed several letters and petitions to join the fight against the archer of the poison arrow. Here are a couple links to get involved:

https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-electors-electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19?recruiter=627484676&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/president_trump_letter_loc/?cNmNCjb