… watching for the brushstrokes of God
I was creating faith treasure maps with the youth the other evening. Some messy fun with paper, tea, coffee, flame and ponderings. What are the openings along the path? What are the stuck or treacherous places?
Who are the people, places, stories, and songs that lead you deeper towards God?
Be silent.
Be still.
Alone.
Empty
Before your God.
Say nothing.
Ask nothing.
Be silent.
Be still.
Let your God look upon you.
That is all.
God knows.
God understands.
God loves you
With an enormous love,
And only wants
To look upon you
With that love.
Quiet.
Still.
Be.
Let your God—
Love you. ~ Edwina Gateley
“When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
What helps you remember?
“The blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal existence alive in one’s aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism.” ~ Ralph Ellison
How do you find your way into resilience?
Where are we? Where to next? How do we get there? … Any pondering of the first question immediately demands an exploration of where we have come from because the past has left it’s signature on the present. Ruminating …is an important part of understanding… ~ Evelyn Woodward
Where are the spaces to ruminate on past, present and future?
Spring is full of new life and it caught my attention that new life follows a period of rest or apparent death…whether seedlings poking through the ground, flowers coming up from bulbs, butterflies emerging from their chrysalis….
How do we pay attention to the rest and stillness that comes before new life?
With the Eyes of the Heart 