… watching for the brushstrokes of God
“Artists are notorious for doing work that the world initially rejects but that later—sometimes centuries later—the world embraces as hidden treasure. The poems of Emily Dickinson, the paintings of Vincent van Gogh, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, all were “discovered” later and now are essential to our culture. Could it be that what is deemed marginal, what is “useless” in our terms, is most essential for God and is the bedrock, the essence, of our culture?” ~ Makoto Fujimura
May you grow still enough to hear the small noises earth makes in preparation for the long sleep of winter, so that you yourself may grow calm and grounded deep within. ~ David Steindl-Rast
How do you grow into calm?
“The challenge of trauma is the challenge of witnessing to a phenomenon that exceeds the categories by which we make sense of the world.” ~ Shelly Rambo
How do you enter that challenge?
The air changes in the changing of the seasons. What are you anticipating? What are you letting go? What surprises?
“It is not what happens to us in any given day that gives content to our lives, but whether or not we let it’s experience sink into us.” ~ Elizabeth O’Connor
What floats up when you let yourself sink?
I bless the gift
of refuge
that was not only a refuge
but a place from which
to watch the horizon,
to face the far distance
and dream anew
of the life that might
draw near. ~ Jan Richardson
Where is your place of refuge?
With the Eyes of the Heart 