Storm Moon - Original Painting
*Painting is 9x12” acrylic on canvas board and does NOT come framed.
In February of 2022, On the night of the Storm Moon
I went into labor as a first time mother.
I was not afraid, as I trusted my body
Surrendered to the pain
And most of all- trusted in God to lead me through the process.
However my labor did not go as expected
And after 2 long nights I was rushed to the hospital
where at last my son was born- Totaling 37 hours of labor
But even after his birth were met with more complications
And my healing was much slower than I expected.
2022 also came with an unexpected loss of a friend
Who I fully believed God would heal.
There were several moments this last year that I cried out to God
And felt completely abandoned.
James 1:3 says
You know that when your faith is tested,
It stirs up power within you to endure all things.
I read this verse almost a year after my labor
and It spoke to me so much.
If all things were possible with God, why not these two great things I fully believed in?
But I can see God in it now where I couldn’t before.
And I also see these things not only tested my faith…
it broke it. But-
It rebuilt it even stronger.
So for everyone out there who has been going through their own storm
Testing your faith…
Maybe you were like me where you could no longer find it for awhile
May this season stir up the power in you to endure all things
And come back stronger than ever before.
This painting The Storm Moon, comes with a poem that goes with another painting of mine, From Ashes. Because From Ashes was my first painting created after the night of the Storm Moon… I was still in my restructuring phase, and that painting will always hold a special place in my heart as I will always remember how broken I felt while creating it.
This painting, titled The Storm Moon (even though it’s not actually about the moon at all), I feel should share the poem From Ashes because they are part of the same story.
From Ashes
All I am
All I’ve known myself to be
Broken and shattered
Stripped of my identity
Even in you, Oh God
My faith is being tested
For the chaos of life has become so loud
I can no longer find the place inside
Where your still small voice is found
Clinging to what hope I have
Every day feels like something more to overcome
My strength is fading, my light growing dim
For my whole world has been undone
Spirit, Mind and Body
Once so connected and whole
Feels so foreign, so broken…
Shattered to the depth of my soul
Who am I oh God
When I cannot hear you any longer
Where my cries and prayers go unanswered
And all my world seems somber
Feeling defeated by my own transformation
Like rubble left upon the ground
And the only seed of faith I have left
Reminds me that I am already found
For you are with me in this place
Your wind blows upon the ashes where I lay
Resurrecting the flame to life once again
Held in this broken jar of clay
For I was never forsaken in the darkness
My unanswered prayers didn’t go unheard
And as your love revives me to life once again
Like the phoenix, I will rise a new and stronger bird.
-Camille Soltani Icely