Feel the wind It blows through you and around you It is my spirit embracing you
Hear the wind In the chimes that ring out in the breeze It is my spirit reminding you
One with the wind I am forever free running through meadows of memories It is my spirit within you
~ Kim McElroy
Casanova was a beautiful paint gelding who became an angel too soon. When his owner Alicia contacted me she shared her deep grief, which was still vivid even after several years. He was more to her than a companion, he had been her solace and her only joy at that time in her life.
When she asked me to paint his portrait, I suggested that I could meditate with Casanova’s spirit and ask for guidance. She agreed and felt this would be comforting to her. She believed he was still with her in spirit. She had even had a sign from him. One day after he had passed, his halter in the barn had suddenly fallen off the rack when no one was near it. Even though she couldn’t refute this physical sign of his presence, she missed him too much to feel comforted by the connection..
In addition to losing Casanova, she had lost most of the photos of him in a fire. The remaining photos weren’t ideal to convey his beauty for his portrait, but I assured her I could work with what we had.
In meditation with Casanova I saw his eyes with my inner sight and felt drawn within his spirit. I become aware of the sound of wind, and of wind chimes, and I felt the feelings of his warmth and love for Alicia. I saw a vision of his mane blowing in the wind with an eagle feather in his mane. These insights became a part of the portrait when I painted it. The meditation allowed me to not only see Casanova’s beauty in his photographs with my eyes, but to feel his spirit with my heart, and all of those feelings and visions went into every stroke of my pastel chalk.
Alicia told me that now that she is able to look into his eyes in the portrait, she feels his presence more vividly. She even had a large print mounted of the painting to hang in her barn near his stall, so that he is always with her, inside and out.
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