Busy as bees…

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Joy

Oh, the absolute waterfall of words that could tumble out after this long silence! It’s been such a good, good time. The last forty days of quiet have just been what this ENFP/INFP addled brain needed. On a retreat last week, I relearned more about my personality type, and it was a true revelation because I was quiet enough to hear it! I’m sort of a centrist when it comes to the E or I- I’m neither wildly introverted or wildly extroverted. It really depends on what is going on in my life at the time. But I’ve realized I tend towards extroversion in the internet/work/art space, which means the danger is that I can get all those waterfall of words falling so fast that I near drown in the mental noise. Ahem.

(A peek at the brainstorming…more on the snippets of Scripture later!)

That being said, many wonderful projects have been under wraps, and I can’t wait to share. First up: my dear friend, Elizabeth. We’ve been busy as bees, completely overhauling her blogging space, which had come to resemble very much a lady whose skirt had shrunk in the wash, with petticoat and slip poking out every which way, links and broken links and six years of blogging, oh my! So I stitched together a fabulous new dress. Or should I say dresses? It seems such a small gift for such a lovely friend.

In the blooming…

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Joy

She’s blooming now, pure white leaf unfurled against a canopy of green.

It’s Good Friday. The Bright Saddness is nearly over. As the liturgy comes to an end today, the whole church will be stripped of its colors, the altar bare, no garments to hide the nakedness of our need. And then the lights will be blown out, one by one, till we leave in darkness and silence.

I eye the dogwood and want to push the fast forward button to the joy of Easter, the delight: “Christ is risen!”

But there is the darkness that will endure till the dawn of Sunday morning, when the light is carried back into the church; Friday evening and Saturday can’t be ignored. We know the rest of the story, but I wonder about the first family of faith, the apostles, the sisters in the faith gathered round them, the believers that believed before everything was made plain. What an aching trust that horrible Friday must have been! The grief and love that cried out to the heavens from their lips that day, not knowing the end of the story. Just knowing the need, and knowing that He was there to fulfill it, and that was enough. We call ourselves the Easter people, but what would it look like if we were the Good Friday people, too? What would make that horrible gray day Good? Trust. Faith. Hope. Surrender. Love. Above all, the greatest love.

Let me whisper to you the Story of the Good Friday people?

“And so the girls did what they would never have dared to do without his permission, but what they had longed to do ever since they had first saw him-buried their cold hands in the beautiful sea of fur and stroked it, and so doing, walked with him. And presently, they saw that they were going with him up the slope of the hill on which the Stone Table stood. They went up at the side where the trees came furthest up, and when the got to the last tree (it was one that had bushes about it) Aslan stopped and said,

Oh, children, children. Here you must stop. And whatever happens, do no let yourselves be seen. Farewell.”

-The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis. Chapter 14.

Let us bear witness. And let us trust the Lion of Judah?

I’ve walked in suffering the last three years, and it is this I return to. Good Friday people, Easter people? They walk in hope and trust. With sorrow at our sin, but with the glorious hope of Christ, and trust in His sacrifice. Even if things aren’t plain, even when things don’t make sense, even when it seems like our salvation is slipping away from us with tortured last life-breaths. To live Good Friday and Easter, I have to let it go. Only in the laying down can the trust be taken up, and the seed of Christ bloom.

If you look close, the reddened centers are just peeking about. I’ve seen the blue jay and mourning dove, woodpecker, sparrow, and cardinal all alight on her branches with their joyful trills. May I ever be like the dogwood, a place of safety; a place of testimony.

Art Friday, Lent, Week 5

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Joy

The time is edging near. There is but one more week till Holy Week, and glorious Easter- this time of renewal and quiet will come to a close. Glory be to Him.

A small, sweet glimpse of the joy coming out of the paintbrushes and gluestick this week. (It is so hard to stay still…I’d love to show you everything. But it is not to be so, not yet.)

So, so quiet, but here I share words that have inspired me this week:

Tools The Heart Needs, Kelly Sauer

Especially Not That, The Gypsy Mama

Grace’s Greatest Offender and Boys In the Bed and the Calm in the Storm, Amber Haines

Two wonderful things for mothers that have unveiled these last few days:

Mother Letters, Seth Haines and Amber Haines (and a whole bunch more)- go read. This began a few years back, and what beautiful fruition.

A community of mothers by mothers, the heart-gift of Sally Clarkson: Mom Heart Online.

And two poetry loves:

Get poetry delivered to your inbox each day, jewels and sweets of artful stretching: Everyday Poems.

John Blase, of course. Here I sign off, with his Older.

Art Friday, Lent, Week 4

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Joy

Somewhere this week, I was reading how icons are painted from darkness to light; that is, the darkest colors go on first, then the mid-tones, and so on. I was fascinated by that concept. I was trying to find some photographs I had taken at the Chrysler Art Museum last year- there was a whole gallery of iconography. They have tremendous depth- you as much as see through them as you see them in two dimensions. The really good ones almost make you feel as if you are viewing something in three dimensions, not two. So this week I wanted to play with that concept. The texture it creates is amazing. I played with this one using traditional colors- deep violet, forest green, ivory, metallic gold watercolor…I’m fascinated by what might happen if I used some non-traditional colors- what would that look like? I’ve been splitting my time between a few projects- one for a dear friend, one for a dream, and my exploration time. I feel like I have found a solid rhythm now, a workable rhythm, and it makes me so happy!

I don’t have any link love this week…not because there isn’t any, but because I am woefully behind on reading. Which is okay, but I love bringing out things that inspire me creatively, artistically, and spiritually. So here’s the deal- leave a link for something you wrote or something you’ve read this week that has inspired you. I’d love to hear what’s on your mind!

Art Friday, Lent, Week 3

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Joy

A pouring out. Things spill over. I’ve made an intention to enter my tiny really-a-bedroom studio with prayer, to greet the paint and paper with prayer. To see. To hear. I’ve noticed as the weeks slip one into the next that this has become more than just a thing I do when I sit down to create; it’s beginning to color my entire world. Never before have I committed to a Lenten practice that runs this deep- Fasting in some areas. Cultivating in other areas. And through it all, the quiet.

It’s sad how all the idle, ill-spoken, complaining words will come back to haunt you when you finally still the tongue. I’ve had to repent so much. Ask forgiveness. Confess.

I’m realizing that this is what Lent is about- an emptying out so that we can be filled with God. The way He sees things.

I’ve been thinking about what Katherine had to say this week.

“There’s something about crafting words, something that touches the depths of my heart. But I worry about the words I share and I’m never at peace with them. But it’s this fear and trembling that will protect me from the tempest of my words. Only fools speak free and much. Every time I open my mouth, every time my fingers race across a keyboard, I set my feet on perilous ground. ”

- Katherine Johnson, “Deliver Me From Idle Words”

Please go read the whole article- such meat for thought there. I think it’s not just writing- it’s creating of any sort. It’s our creative act as mothers. As fathers. As friends. Lovers. Sisters. In whole, our lives–will we pour out the grace that has infused our lives and changed us, or will we trip and fall over barriers of our own making, shattering, sending shards of hurt flying?

As an artist and writer, I find myself asking her questions as I enter the creative space:

“Let there be light. When I write, I ask myself, do my words bring forth light in a world veiled in darkness? Let the dry land appear. Do they offer a sure footing for my neighbor or have I set a deadly snare? Let the earth bring forth fruit. Do my words bear fruit in the ones who receive them?”

- Katherine Johnson, “Deliver Me From Idle Words”

I pray for my life and my art to be a living peace-giving, a blessing, a spilling out of grace. If so, there is a lot of cultivating in my heart-garden still left, a lifetime of work.