A Peaceful Revolution

Categories: Holy Days · Intentional CreativityTags: · · · · · · · · · · · ·

Side by side, we sing a heartfelt “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me” as insides stir with anxiety, our spoken words, curt. Living peace is a challenge. We desire the golden ticket placed gently in our hands:“Do this, then do this, then this, and you will live a life of peace.” We all know this isn’t the way it goes down. I went to a sweet, mid-week church service not long ago and a couple was joyful to announce their “good deed” completed for those in attendance. When it came time for giving the…

Kaleidoscope Prayer

Categories: Creative Practice · Encouragement · Healing & Restoration · Intentional CreativityTags: · · · · · · · · · ·

As I continue on as a spiritual being having a human experience*, my view of prayer, like a kaleidoscope, has slowly shifted, offering me an opportunity to wrestle as well as fresh beauty at different points in my life. Nowadays, I believe that prayer is all around us and all we have to do is tune into it. No words are necessary. Being present to the conversation, the plea, the pain, the beauty is, indeed, the prayer. What view of prayer do you have? For me, engaging in creativity and painting helps me to tend to this presence and flow. How has it shifted over time?

9pm Silence Swells (Holy Thursday)

Categories: Creative Practice · Encouragement · Holy DaysTags: · · · · · · · · · · · · 3 Comments

I continue my focus on the monastic practice of seven daily pauses. Tonight, we pause for Holy Thursday. Last week, we rested at the Twilight Hour (6pm). This week, we break at 9pm, (Compline; the Great Silence). A wonderful book greatly aiding me through this series is Seven Sacred Pauses by Macrina Wiederkehr. One by one, footsteps fall away, voices once vibrant now faded breath. Conversation, communion, prayer, all sacred imprints of presence, most significant for the awake soul. Now, the table is quiet. You remember, how, at the meal, you placed the small white manna to your lips —…

What Gift Shall I Bring?

Categories: Creative Practice · Holy DaysTags: · · · · · · · 2 Comments

What gift shall I bring to you, baby Jesus? Shall I scour and clean for your arrival? Shall I practice a song to lull you to sleep? Shall I work at the stove to make you a meal? Shall I buy you fresh clothes to wrap you warm? Shall I worship loud and long praising your name? Shall I decorate to give you a triumphal entrance? Shall I bring you riches and treasure oh so fine? (Spirit rustles, oh so soft) “No, none of that is needed. Just bring me you.” Me? But, I’m not enough. “Certainly, you are. Your…

The Gift of Good News

Categories: Encouragement · Holy DaysTags: · · · · · · · · · · · · · 1 Comment

Long ago, amid a brutal ruler, governmental systems of oppression, crooked financial systems, religious systems of rules, broken down familial systems, came news of a different sort. It wasn’t news for Christians, for there was no such thing. It wasn’t news for law-abiding Jews; it spread beyond their tribe. It wasn’t news for the rich, much to their dismay. In fact, this news first was told to the lowest of the low… the shepherds, the dregs of society, the disgrace of their families. Yes, it was this very group of outcasts, those tending to their flocks in wily fields among…