Heavy Wings
I took the presidential election like many people have – hard, like a punch to the gut. My reaction shocked me, since I was never one to invest a lot in politics. But some things are everyone issues, not just some people issues. This is an everyone moment. This makes my heart hurt. I do not wish to alienate anyone in saying so, and it is not personal, and the sadness I feel is not directed in anger. It is a reflection of the hurt many are feeling.
In the wake of the election, I sat inside thinking and reading articles and watching news clips and sitting some more. I didn’t want to do anything. I felt such a deep sadness and I didn’t know how to fix it. And honestly, I’m not sure how to fix it completely. I’m not someone who can feel okay when so many are scared. But then, at about hour 35 of my wallowing, I realized that I also wasn’t helping anyone and that felt just as bad as not caring about the people who are suffering.
So I asked myself what I can do, and my only answer in the moment was to create. I believe that everything we create from the heart is a gift for someone else whose heart needs to receive it. That is the glorious thing about creating – it is a true reflection of the soul of the artist. From my heart to yours, I hope you will receive this image in the spirit it is given, with so much love and kindness, nothing more or less.
To find hope in the darkness.
To spread our wings when they feel heavy.
To look in painful places when it may hurt.
To believe in the power of kindness.
My mission is redeemed in this moment. To be a voice and force of kindness. To loan my wings to those who feel theirs are lost. To create from that painful place of darkness so that someone may be lifted out of it. To give.
Many hugs my friends, and thank you for listening to a sentiment that is being echoed frequently these past few days. Nothing new here, just another voice in the crowd chiming in for goodness.
10 thoughts on “Heavy Wings”
A beautiful, honest and moving post Brooke. As I watch from afar, yet I feel the sadness echoed in my own country’s issues, I am given hope because there is comfort in knowing there are more and more kind people in this world… I am not alone xx
Thank you Margherita! Your support is so important to me!
When we woke up the next day, everyone here in Portugal was shocked! How is it possible? Such a result has led many people to say that Americans are the stupidest people on the planet! As if we here are the most intelligent!! And that leaves me in a great sadness, because if there is an American whom I am very proud to know, it is you. Whenever they said that, I think of you. A person who believes that everything we create from the heart is a gift for someone else whose heart needs to receive it, can only be a good person. I have some concern for this result, but not fear. We are not alone and together we will find hope in the darkness and believe in the power of goodness. Thank you for being who you are. xx
<3 <3
Absolutely love this!! can you only purchase your prints through a museum?
Thank you Julie! Prints can be purchased through my galleries here, whichever is closest to you: http://brookeshaden.com/prints/ 🙂
This is absolutely incredible – your words and your art. Thank you for sharing. I have been feeling the same way. <3
This reaches me at such a personal place. My heart is aching. I am in so much pain for myself – as a woman, as someone who identifies as queer. But I am also in pain for so many of my friends who have spent years fighting for liberties only to now worry about them being taken away. I am in pain for a country divided by hate. I have been in mourning for all of this and more since Tuesday.
Like you, I decided it was time to create. I’m not doing conceptual work these days. I’m dressing up and taking personal style photos. But despite the heaviness in my heart and my complete lack of motivation, I dressed up, I photographed, I wrote.
Only one thing is certain to me now: keep making art. All kinds of art. Any kind of art. We are going to need art more than we’ve ever needed it before.
I was so disgusted with this entire election process, it was such a sham all the way around.
I have been planning to move out of the US for a year now, and this has just sped up the process.
I mostly just separate myself from all of it, I don’t read or watch the news, and I don’t talk politics with anyone. I like to live in my own world, where it is the way I like it. This is the best way to survive these days, reject reality. Now you all really think I am crazy! LOL
Wonderful photo, and a big hug to you and everyone else. 🙂
So glad you didn’t say silent. Glad you let us see you struggle in times like this because it helps to know that even the most joyous of us can have moments of fear, doubt and sadness. And just by making work through it you have given me and I am sure many others inspiration. It was easy to shut down after the results and say ‘I am too sad to make work’…seeing this and hearing your words let me know that aside from activism it’s the one thing we can do to let ourselves and others heal. Hope you are enjoying this celebration of gratitude, but I know you didn’t need a special day to remember to be grateful. <3