When I was about 6 or 7 years old, I had a Strawberry Shortcake doll. It was a small plastic figurine.
Our old house in Millwoods had a black fence that was hollow...it had 2 layers of boards with a gap in between (I'm sure there's a proper term for this). Anyways, there was a small hole in one of the wooden boards, smaller than the size of a golf ball, but big enough for my Strawberry Shortcake to fall in. I must have been playing on the deck and around the hole in the fence (WHY? I don't know). Well, down she went, and I could see her at the bottom.
In the 'rationale' of a child, I dangled a piece of string down the hole, hoping she would grab onto it and I could pull her out. Instead, I'm pretty sure the string landed inside the abyss, never to return.
Then I begged my mom to buy me another doll, and foolishly I tied her to the string and I'm embarrassed to say, she didn't come back. So now there were 2 Strawberry Shortcakes in the hollow of the fence, and my mother refused to buy me a third doll.
I started a mini series of watercolour paintings, the subjects being childhood toys, memories, or themes that are repeating themselves in my life. Little Miss.Strawberry reminds me of this verse from Proverbs 3:5-6:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Obviously I'm not tying bits of string to toys and trying to fish things out of fence holes anymore, but as an adult, I'm still making foolish mistakes all the time. We humans are so limited in our understanding. I need to ask for wisdom.
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