Drawing and St. Francis

It's been far to long since I've posted anything. So, what am I up to? I'm glad you asked.
Lately, I've been getting in touch with my inner artist. Ever since I was a kid I've lived under the impression that I couldn't draw. I distinctly remember a friend of mine, in about the fifth grade telling me that I couldn't draw worth a flip. I've always assumed that drawing was just an area in which I was untalented.
Then around Thanksgiving I started drawing little cartoons on the white board on my mom's refrigerator. I didn't think much of them, but when my brother seemed to be impressed by them it made me start looking at it differently. Then I took a theater class in design and I started to realize that art could be a lot of different things. So, I started to look at all the little doodles I kept making in my notebook as art. Then, the other day I found a sketch pad that I had bought for a class and barely used. I started drawing pictures in it and, to my surprise, I discovered that I liked them. So, I thought I'd like to learn a bit more about drawing. I went out and got a book about drawing dragons, and I've started working through it. I've been picking things up much more quickly than I thought I would. It feels really good to be learning to do something that I always thought I couldn't do.

Before I go there's something else I want to post. It was on my mind the other day and I wanted to put it up here, but for some reason I couldn't log in.
This is called "The Prayer of Saint Francis". The author is unkown, but it got its name because it was found in Assissi near a picture of St. Francis.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we recieve,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen

This prayer has been in my mind a lot lately as a reminder of what I want my life to be about.