Portrait of Dora Maar by Pablo Picasso

During Christmas break I visited my brother in Seattle. At the time the Seattle Art Museum had a Picasso exhibit from Musée National Picasso in Paris. It took me almost three hours to walk through the entire exhibit. I learned a lot about Picasso's life, his muses, and what influenced him. This painting if one of my favorite portraits by Picasso. It is of Dora Maar who was one of his muses. The works he painted during the "Dora Maar period" are my favorites. I love the way he painted from opposing perspectives and the way in which he used vibrant colors.

"Joyas Voladoras, " by Brian Doyle

"So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment. We are utterly open with no one, in the end -- not mother and father, not wife or husband, not lover, not child, not friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps we must. Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart. When young we think there will come one person who will savor and sustain us always; when we are older we know this is the dream of a child, that all hearts finally are bruised and scarred, scored and torn, repaired by time and will, patched by force of character, yet fragile and rickety forevermore, no matter how ferocious the defense and how many bricks you bring to the wall. You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant, felled by a woman's second glance, a child's apple breath, the shatter of glass in the road, the words I have something to tell you, a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die, the brush of your mother's papery ancient hand in a thicket of your hair, the memory of your father's voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children."

I read Brian Doyle's entire essay, "Joyas Voladoras" in high school. Doyle's words greatly impacted my life. I have this particular passage hanging on my wall. It has been many years since I first read this passage but as I have grown older I recognize the truth in his words. The pain of growing up is learning that in life "we live alone in the house of the heart." I think some people believe this to be a sad realization but, to me it is somewhat comforting. Only I know what lies in my heart. The hard part is trying to keep it together when others try (or accidentally) break it. If anything, this passage taught me that no matter how hard you try sometimes you can't keep your heart from breaking. Some dreams don't come true, sometimes love doesn't last, and sometimes people (including yourself) fall short of your expectations. However, life is full of sweet surprises and joyous days. The last line in the essay describes a father making pancakes for his children. This is a positive image that left me with hope. In life things happen that make you so happy your heart can't help but to shed it's defenses and be free for a little while.