Light and dark

Monday to Wednesday, the algae bloom has taken hold. I can’t imagine that it will dissipate in the time I will be here, I can only imagine it will continue to grow and thicken. Although I do not know, since I have never lived on the water’s edge. Apparently this is an annual event on the western edge of Lake Erie, due to farmers over applying fertilizers which wash off into the waterways. The heavy rains on Saturday and Sunday contributed to the timing of this bloom event, or so I have read. 

It’s interesting though, to watch the water current move the scum around. It shifts by the hour moving across this inlet lake. Except where this cottage is, where the currents can’t quite reach and the algae seems stuck and has increased daily. 

I booked this Airbnb on December 31 for three weeks of sabbatical time. It was supposed to be a week in July and two in August, but I had to shift it to three weeks in August. Timing is every thing, right? I came here with a plat read and practice painting icons, to rest and find renewal. Life does not always turn out as one anticipates. Why is my once in a lifetime sabbatical challenged by COVID-19, travel limitations, and now toxic blue-green algae? Well, it just is. None of this is about me, except my yearning for rest and renewal and quiet time spent experiencing creation and God in creation. I yearned to rest my eyes and my soul on the flow of water, on light and dark. I did not anticipate a green scum covering the surface of the water. Still, the current shifts the scum in curious ways. In the morning it is closer to this cottage and this side, in the evening it shifts to the other side and there is some view of water in the setting sun. However each day the algae is thicker, so that may not be the case in a day or two. 

Yesterday I painted the halo on the icon. It begins with several layers of dark, red that is toned down with a little brown. Then I painted several layers of gold over the red, which gives the gold a bit of a red cast. Very interesting. 

Today I will apply color to the rest of the icon, beginning with the background. The background of an icon is not a scene from this world, not nature like water or trees or sky. The background of an icon is light. As if the light were radiating off of the halo. It represents the kind of light that was there before the beginning of creation, the light is of God. It represents a spiritual reality. I’ll begin with that.

Then I’ll move to painting the robes and applying the first layer of color to the skin. Unlike the last icon I want to practice with applying the color of the skin using a more translucent paint. Last time the paint was too opaque, and I could not get the glow on the face that I wanted. The glow that would represent that same spiritual glow of light as if one were standing in it, rather than it being just the background. That same glow will be reflected in the clothing, but I can create that with lighter paint colors. I hope to capture a bit more translucency in the skin, as if the spiritual light is emanating out from Jesus as well as being in the “air”.  

We’ll see if I am able to do this, create a sense of light within the dark. It might just end up as opaque as this algae that seems to be literally increasing before my eyes, taking over the entire surface of the water. Alas. 

Oh God, in the morning light you show your glory

The brightness of the sun, 

Contrasted with shadows of the earth creatures

Light and dark are both of you

On this rainy day, a day when many of us

Will go to the polls to vote,

To engage in our civic duty

A hard won right to vote

For many of us

Guide us in making good decisions

Which will elect leaders who

Care for the people of your earth

And help every one live a

Whole, sustainable, healthy

Good life. 

This I believe is your hope for us too.

Amen.