A rose is precious, sweetly scented, tender, soft, beautiful.
It blossoms and its petals surround, protect.

When one petal falls, the rose feels the loss,
but if early, compensates in time and heals.

When more than one petal falls, the loss is greater.
The rose may not survive.

When petals fall,
some are carried away in a warm, spring breeze,
and gently land in healing fields.
Over time with intense care,
the petals find the rose and smile in the bright sunlight again.

When petals fall,
some are swept away by a harsh, cold wind,
and land in a murky pond.
Over time they wither and then
pulled under, like a paper boat in an ocean tide, never to rise again.

A rose that is wise sees her petals,
and asks the gardener to check them often.
For if one becomes weak, the mend is easier
and the rose can enjoy the sunlight in the warm summer breeze.

May the angel cast the last of these petals.
May there be no more petals fall.

(OK, I am not a poet, but I hope the message is clear.)


In its wee early stage, this started out as my Valentine Moon Angel, but the more I worked on this, the more I was
thinking of ^JunkbyJen 's Think Pink Contest II, the breast cancer awareness that has been
going on and Jen's personal battle with cancer. We need to be aware of all cancers. So, the concept and design of this got drastically changed and a new idea and work was born.
The petals are a metaphor for the parts of bodies that are affected by cancer. The rose and some petals.. the person as a whole.

This past month, a friend of mine was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.
She and her family is devastated, but she is not giving up hope.
I ask that you visit her website at [link] and if you pray, please submit to the prayer map.
You'll see a couple of mine and =MelGama 's angels there. If you wish to make a piece of art/graphic
for encouragement for her, I'm sure she'd be delighted and will post it on her site.

Painting a rose walk-thru
Ruffling Skirt Tutorial

Close-up images and before/after at 100%

Credit:
Lovely lady by Thank you!
How I used her stock photos:
[link] (Upper part of body/head, minus the arm)
[link] (Lower part of body)

Medium: This was mostly digital painting, but with manipulating also.
So, it goes into Miscellaneous or Mixed media.