Yvonne Wall: Music
Rise Above It All
(Yvonne Wall)
“RISE ABOVE IT ALL”.
If you read my biography you know this song was written for a “HERO’S SERIES” project by Eric Hendershot. However, I have since had an experience that made the second verse take on a deeper and richer meaning.
FYI: The 2nd verse goes like this:
Show me a beautiful picture
It’s just shadows on a canvas of white
You see divine works of art could not be created
If there wasn’t both darkness and light.
If you’re not to done in with reading this page yet, you can read the following “picture” experience/story. I call it the Parable of the Bucket.
“The Parable of the Bucket”.
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine, Candy, twisted my arm into taking an oil-painting class at the college with her. The last time I had painted anything was in my kid’s water color paint book many years ago. . . . .before that, more water colors in the 9th grade. So. . . .this was quite a leap for me. I would never have signed up for the class on my own, and only did it so she would have someone to go to class with. (She had as much experience as me!)
The class teacher was Del Parsons. You would recognize a number of his paintings because they grace the covers of many publications of the Church Ensign, and on countless LDS manuals. His most famous painting is Christ in the red robe, and adorns almost every member’s home.
Candy and I felt a little out of place, as most of the students were young and gifted. They had a knack for painting and were excelling at something they were already good and confident at. Candy and I were just a couple of old fuddy duddies feeling about a sweet as an onion in a chocolate factory, nervously waiting for our first lesson. After a few days of learning some of the basics in color and art, he announced it was time to paint. He dumped an old tin bucket of apples on the table, arranged them “just so” and said, “Let’s Paint!”
Del, of course, was painting too, so we would pull our easels right up front next to him so we could have the “best view”. . .and we tried to duplicate every single color and stroke he made. As he mixed the colors we would ask him exactly what he was using, and try to emulate everything he did. Day after day we would arrive early so we could claim our territory next to Del and anxiously discuss how our pictures were coming along.
After a week or so of painting, we were getting close to finishing our first “masterpiece”. Anxiously we went in early as usual, hoping a fresh pair of eyes would help us put on the finishing touches. We looked at Del’s . . . . . we looked at ours. . . . . . “How does he get his bucket to shine so bright”? Candy asked.
We studied the paintings, compared the colors. His bucket was exactly the same paint color as ours. It didn’t make sense? We stood back and looked at my bucket, Candy’s, then Del’s. His bucket looked brilliantly silver, though we never used silver paint. It was shiny and bright. How did he do that? We picked our paintings up off the easel and held them right next to each other, the paint on his bucket looked like the very same color we had on our buckets. . . . but his shined so bright. We were completely baffled, and wondered what the secret to his bucket was.
He strolled into the class as usual about 5 minutes before we were to start. We pulled him aside and began to question him. We needed an explanation. He then affirmed that his bucket was indeed painted with the exact same paint as ours. Then continued to explain and pointed the shadows behind the bucket. He said “the darker the shadows, the brighter the bucket”. His shadows were just a tad darker in comparison, and that’s what made all the difference. I had one of those “aha!” moments, the synchronicity was amazing. . . . . . .
My parable.
I have found over the years, that as I have experienced difficult times and dark hours of despair, my faith becomes tested and inevitably I become strengthened. The fabric of who I am has been woven from the very tribulations of life that are often filled with feelings of hopelessness and discouragement. Looking back, those trials have become touchstone moments. I now see those ventures as simply brush strokes from the master’s hand helping my soul to become brighter and more brilliant. More like Him.