The Ecstatic Joy of Heaven

This is my card 'studio' (aka the corner of my bedroom). It's been a pretty lonely place lately. It's been just over a month since my sweet little kitty, Bliss, lost his battle to cancer.
Every Friday, we had a tradition to sit on my floor together and bust out some new Lisscat Creations cards. Well, thinking back, I did most of the work, while Bliss would oh so helpfully chew on paper, ribbons, paint brushes, and whatever else was necessary in the making of that card.
In Bliss' absence,  I taped a picture of us to the wall in the corner. The only problem was, it didn't help inspire me, but only reminded me of how much I missed him.

So, needless to say, the card 'studio' has been quite neglected. For those of you who have received cards in the past month, its miraculous those ever got done!

Whats funny, er, not funny, but ironic is.... The night before Bliss died i started writing a blog (it was never posted). I was grieving, but was ready. I was ready to let him go, and ready to let his constant playful joy in life inspire me to keep actively following my passions. But as soon as he was gone, any joy I thought I would have was overshadowed by grief, loneliness, anger... all those feelings no one likes to feel. So sadly, I confess, I let myself grieve, and ignored my art that I had wanted to create inspire others.

Then on Wednesday I received a text from a friend. The preview of the text read "In memory of Bliss".
When I opened the message, I saw this....

My dear sweet friend and her amazingly talented husband thought to draw this out for me. I was floored! Aren't you? Its so freaking amazing and beautiful!
For the first time in a month, I was reminded of how a little drawing (made with a little love) could evoke such joy. When i opened the text, i smiled. Really smiled, like one of those big cheesy grins that make your face sore. :-)
So.... THANK YOU so much to Laura  and Marco Garcia for the beautiful picture, and for digging out a part of me that needed to breathe.

On a final note: Since he was young, Bliss endured so many surgeries, procedures, medications, etc. But he was a fighter, and he chose joy. Despite all the pain and sickness, he was always playing and NONSTOP purring. I want to be like that. I want to ignore the circumstances, and CHOOSE JOY.

bliss  (blɪs)
— n
1.	perfect happiness; serene joy
2.	the ecstatic joy of heaven

Glow

I feel like I have 1000 thoughts buzzing through my mind. They all want to explode out onto this blog as one massive deep thought...BUT all of those thoughts must have bottle necked because that one massive, deep thought is not here yet!

I've spent alot of my free time lately trying to nurse Bliss back to health. When he's sleeping I am finding time to paint or read or pray. All the things I need to and love to do, but dont seem to find just enough time for.

I just finished a book called "Heaven is for Real". It is about a 4 year old boy who went to heaven during surgery, and later tells his parents everything he saw. There were so many parallels in this book that mirrored my situation with Bliss. Just from the stress and struggles of caring for a sick one, to the unknown, to  the miraculous outpouring of emotional and financial love from friends and family. Somehow this book acted as a comforting reminder of God's love for me.

The book also talked about how many colors there are in Heaven. It sounds AMAZING! So I was inspired with this weeks painting. In the midst of life there are always gonna be dark days. Things we dont understand. But like a cooling summer breeze, God's presence is weaving its way in and around us while we  struggle to stand on our darkest days.
This is a mixed media painting on canvas with everything from spraypaint to latex paint, acrylic and watercolor. The dark texture in the back was back from layers of spraypaint and droplets of acetone.
I then layered vibrant strokes of watercolor over the top to give off the colorful glowing effect.
This painting is titled "GLOW" - 7" x  9" and is available for $35 (free shipping). If its for you, send an email to melissa@lisscatcreations.com.

Also, thank you to all of you who helped with Bliss. He was doing better, but now is not feeling quite him self again. Healing prayers are still appreciated! :-) Hope you all got your cards that "he" sent out out this week too!