This came to me as I worked on a drawing today:

I have hung on to my pain and mourning for 5 years. I have grieved long enough. I take the ashes of my heart and scatter them to the winds ~ for out of them, it rises anew like the phoenix of the long ago stories. I am an artist. My soul is renewed.

So mote it be.

That came about after reading something that Auntie Mame (from Auntie Mame's School of Exuberance) said about the difference between artists and shadow artists as well as remembering and reliving that stupid event where my artwork was put down just as I was entering into a competition ~ I don't know why it stuck the way it did, but it has. It has hurt. It has darn near artistically crippled me. I am ready to let go of it ~ ready to move on.

Looks as if I may have two artist prayers for this week. The other one came about as I was composing a message on the same forum...which I thought that I e-mailed to myself. Evidently it hadn't come in when I went offline (3 and a half hours later...sheesh.)

Here is what I wrote on paper to be burned, in a ritual releasement:

I release you, old pain ~ my old friend.
I don't need you anymore.
You're free.
Blessed Be.