Foundation

Foundation

16x20

collage

I decided to

return to my abstract work today for a change. Looking through my boxes upon boxes of scraps, I found the word, foundation.

The word got me thinking about so many things.

The way we walk;

the direction we are going and have been before; and

the impressions that we make upon each different

surface- a collage of sorts.

Each day I walk my dogs in snow, mud, or grass.

Most days I go with Manuella, my neighbor ,who has 3 little dogs.

She also has 4 horses, 2 cats, and a bunny. I believe that people who own so many creatures have an innate ability to understand and train these animals, especially horses.

She is a wealth of knowledge and I am always learning a new horse or dog tid-bit.

Today she told me that it takes about a year to train a horse to gallop properly. I had no idea that horses were taught this. I thought it was natural.

Her last words before we parted were that they forget faster than they have learned.

That brought me full circle with the meaning of foundation. I pictured a horse galloping with effortless grace. The hind legs reaching forward to the front legs. The importance of maintaining such mastery led me to this poem .

FOUNDATION

Cautious steps for many years

too slight for prints in sand

have made me walk a stronger walk

by reaching

for His hand.