Not Enough Hands

 

This week I focused on using Prismacolor Art Stix for my hand drawings. They have become a strong favorite in my sketching arsenal. Even though they are technically the same material as Prismacolor wax-based colored pencils, their shape of thick, square-cut sticks makes a huge difference in how they are applied. They feel closer to crayons.

Ironically, my vast fun in October with Boku-Undo sumi inks, a wet medium, taught me how to use dry Art Stix better. The inks made me think in shapes instead of lines, and when I’m using thick Art Stix, I have to think in shapes, too. Sometimes I use a finer pencil to refine a shape afterwards, but if I retain a sharp corner on the Art Stix, I can use it to draw relatively fine lines, too. It’s a versatile medium.

Meanwhile, I learned that a sister of my long-time yoga instructor has been hospitalized with COVID-19. She has a long way out of the woods. The most heartbreaking part of it is that she is developmentally disabled, so she doesn’t understand why her usual support system of loved ones can’t be with her. Except for her healthcare providers, she must endure a long, probably grueling recovery – completely alone. The entire yoga community I am part of is flooding her with prayers, but it hardly seems enough. Are there ever enough hands in prayer when a loved one is seriously ill?

Are there ever enough hands in prayer when a quarter-million Americans are now dead of COVID-19?