For me, the sparrow symbolized letting go of what I could not make right, and the unknown path ahead of me. Hers represented leaving behind an eight year stable (yet unfulfilling) career, and moving across the pond to start her own design business.
The tattoos came out terrible. To top it off, hers scabbed and I had an allergic reaction to something, so neither held their color. Ironically, or perhaps serendipitously, the following year and a half held difficult challenges for us both.
Last week she came to visit and we spent a few days talking, soul searching and sharing. Inbetween we shopped, drank, ate, went to the spa for massages, and headed down to Holy Mother to have our birds touched up by the insanely talented and cheeky Jayson.
As her business is taking off and her life is now a whirlwind, her bird now appears to be in flight and is surrounded in swirls and movement. In choosing my new art, I realized that my journey wasn't a literal one. While I did physically move, the search was for something within myself. I'm no longer that sad, battered looking bird. I've learned that life is more about being true to yourself and hope-FULL, no matter what life throws at you.
I encircled my sparrow in a bright orange circle surrounded by six red petals, like a Chakra. If we have our survival needs met in the Base Chakra, we are able to discover there is more out there that what we have learned, and this creates desire, which gets us to move, to reach out, to grow and to change.
Before when I would look at my wrist, I was reminded of the challenges of my past. But now my sparrow is vibrant and beautiful, surrounded in color, and symbolizes not only what I have learned, but what I will continue to learn as I grow and change.
