I am a Tree
Over my lifetime I have embraced many identities--only child, big sister, student, artist, teacher, wife, mother, grandmother, friend. As I said before, identity is fluid, ever changing and each of us is, perhaps, the person least able to describe ourselves. It has always been, for me, that the person I hope I am is the identity I try to embody and may not reflect how others see me. So in responding to this challenge of "identity" I once again took a reading of who I am at this stage of my life and found, again, that it has shifted.
Years ago I heard Garrison Keillor talking about the elders in his family--aunts, uncles, parents as figures, in his eyes, of tall, solid, dependable,"like the oldest trees in the forest." Over the last twenty years I have lost all my elders. That generation is now gone and I am now one, among the oldest trees in our family forest and I now embrace the idea of being a tree, still standing tall and solid rather than something old and no longer useful. I can identify with roots and branches, with history hidden in the rings of years, secrets and memories beneath my skin adding strength and vitality to the core. As a tree I am firmly connected to earth and reaching for the stars. I live to shelter and nourish and take my own strength from the love and companionship of those coming after me. I have enjoyed many sunny days and weathered many storms, learning to bend and recover unbroken.
I am complete. I am still growing. I am finished with this and just beginning with that. I am eternal. I am ephemeral. I am a tree.
Terry Grant
I am a Tree
14" x 40"
hand painted fabrics, fused and stitched
