Blog-hopping For Lila

”Lila is a beautiful 4-year-old girl, who lives with cerebral palsy and hasn’t been given a fair chance at life.  We, Lila’s parents, are on a quest to give her that fair chance by allowing her to have a stem cell treatment this coming summer.”

It is strange to write about someone you have not met in person. Lila is the “someone” in this story. I came to know about this beautiful girl from Sarah, during a discussion held on the island of the Creative Coconuts. We had decided to do a blog hop, and Sarah suggested that we do it in honor of Lila. Our tag line for the hop is: “blogging for hope, blogging for awareness, blogging for smiles”.

Reading about Lila on her mom’s blog (Mommy, you know what?) makes me think about how life is a gift. It is something to be cherished and protected, something which needs growth, light, water, love. Life needs nourishment. Love is the food we all need. There is no life without love. Without love, there is only fear.

I believe that Paul said it best:

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; Does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. […] And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13

So, how can art become an expression of love? I believe that this can happen only when art takes the form of a shared meal. If you were to invite a loved one for dinner, who would clean your house, set the table, prepare the food with thought and care for the other person. This dinner that one offers is a work of art, it is a creation of pure love. Or at least, this is the kind of art I am interested in creating. What we share through our art is life. This is what we give and this is also what we take back.

Lila is someone I would love to have over for a meal. I would learn from her, how to be strong, how to love unconditionally, how to have faith. I would remember how to be a child. We would paint together. She would teach me a song in English. I would teach her something in Greek. We would laugh together. It would be a blessed day.

Since we live so far away from each other, I wanted this post to be my way of sending love to Lila. It was a while ago that I created this clay angel on the right.

I had no face painted on it, because it had no face for me yet. Lila’s face is the face I see on it now. This is Lila’s precious gift for me.

The angel is for sale on my etsy shop. If you are interested in buying either the angel or anything else for my shop, pls e-mail me at malexopoulou@yahoo.com. (50% of the earnings will go to help Lila’s parents in financing the stem cell treatments she needs.)

Thank you for visiting me! God bless Lila on her journey...

Next on this blog hop is tami

Read more on Lila here: Mommy, you know what?

Thank you Sarah (what is design?) for this blog hopping.

 (photography of Lila has been provided by Maria B.)