… watching for the brushstrokes of God
I have been pondering Resmaa Menakem’s concept of clean and dirty pain. “Paradoxically only by walking into our pain or discomfort- experiencing it, moving through it, and metabolizing it – can we grow.” ~ My Grandmother’s Hands
Where are your growing edges?
Art should capture the hypostasis or “the substance of things hoped” that the writer of Hebrews speaks of, to serve our culture to reveal the “evidence of things not seen.” ~ Makoto Fujimura
How do you capture the substance of hope?
Describe the greatest and most memorable, joyful moments from last year. How did you feel? Who was there with you? What were you doing? What smells, sounds or tastes do you remember?
What dreams does it invite for the new year?
If you are looking for some creative reflections at the beginning of this year check out the free YearCompass at http://yearcompass.com
I played with some new paper recently that acts completely different with watercolor. We enter a new year guided by old patterns on a new surface. What paths may we be invited on? How will we listen and watch for them?
What a waste it is to be surrounded by heaven, by a sky ‘made [brilliant] by Angels wings’ and to be unaware of it. Perhaps the first step is that we really should want to unearth God in our midst… [to] let the mundane become the edge of glory, and find the extraordinary in the ordinary.“ ~ Esther De Waal
How do you look for possibility not perfection?
Blessed are you
in whom
the light lives,
in whom
the brightness blazes—
your heart
a chapel,
an altar where
in the deepest night
can be seen
the fire that
shines forth in you
in unaccountable faith,
in stubborn hope,
in love that illumines
every broken thing
it finds. ~ Jan Richardson
How does the light live in you?
With the Eyes of the Heart 