Right Relationships

Half way through Lent and we find ourselves praying for more cleansing and more purity in our relationship with Jesus. Purity in the time and setting of Jesus meant ordered ness. It meant having right relationships with God and thereby with all others and all of creation. We are freed through our faith in Jesus and his resurrection, but we are not freed from our own self-imposed exiles. Israel was loved always by God, but they did not always use well the freedom which that love provided. We can grow quite accustomed and flippant with our being loved through Jesus, taking it for granted rather than as granted through the Spirit.

These days of Lent we can go, Nicodemus-like, in the secrecy of our private prayer, to celebrate more publicly, the death and resurrection which infinitely consummates God’s love for us. We can pray with the realization of our little exiles, our secret ways of avoiding our living faithfully God’s calls and invitations. Lent is a prayerful time to rake away the coverings of deadly winter so that Jesus’ personal love can rise, spring-like in our spirits and actions. By Larry Gillick, S.J., in Daily Reflection, Creighton University. Read it all HERE.

Seen above: "Face of Christ" by Mary Jane Miller. The artist says that this is a copy of Rublevs Icon, of which legends say it was found as a stair-riser to the choir loft in a small church. It had been turned upside down and used for wood, and because of that the image was preserved.

The Dark Deep Within

We are but shadows
cast by divine love.

Missing that luminous dimension,
we stare into the dark deep within
and long for light.

Words and Image by Diane Walker.

Jesus Falls The First Time

"The weight is unbearable. Jesus falls under it. How could he enter our lives completely without surrendering to the crushing weight of the life of so many on this earth! He lies on the ground and knows the experience of weakness beneath unfair burdens. He feels the powerlessness of wondering if he will ever be able to continue. He is pulled up and made to continue." From The Stations of the Cross at Creighton University (online).

Seen above: Station 3 from the Stations of the Cross series by John Giuliani.

The World Of Relationship

"This world is the world of relationship, of I and Thou, self and other. It is a world dependent on balance, interdependence, and harmony. If you focus only on yourself, you treat the world as an It, a means toward your own ends; and in so doing you isolate yourself from others and exile yourself from the world." From Ethics of the Sages: Pirke Avot, translated by Rabbi Rami Shapiro

Seen above: Bronze Sculpture (Small Fountain) by Connie Butler

"My Whole Life Has Been Dreams"

The Minnie Evans Sculpture Garden and Bottle Chapel
by Dan Hardison


Bright colors, mythical animals, religious symbols, and a natural garden setting – words that could describe the artwork of visionary folk artist Minnie Evans. It can also describe the Minnie Evans Sculpture Garden and Bottle Chapel, a memorial installation at Airlie Gardens in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Gatekeeper/Artist

Minnie Evans was a self-taught African-American artist known for her works depicting a world based on her dreams and visions. Born in 1892, her family moved to Wilmington from Pender County, North Carolina, during her early childhood. Evans left school after the sixth grade to work, married at the age of sixteen, and would raise three sons.

“My whole life has been dreams. Some times day visions,” Evans said, “They would take advantage of me. No one taught me to paint. It came to me.” It was on Good Friday 1935 that Evans said she heard God’s voice tell her to draw. She began creating drawings with wax crayons and colored pencils – later using oil paints as well. Her work was filled with vivid plants, animals, piercing eyes representing the all-seeing eye of God, angels, and demons. A member of the AME Church, her work was filled with religious symbolism. Of her work she said, “This art that I have put out has come from the nations I suppose might have been destroyed before the flood… No one knows anything about them, but God has given it to me to bring them back into the world.”

For twenty-five years from 1949 to 1974, Evans worked as the gatekeeper at Airlie Gardens in Wilmington. This setting undoubtedly influenced the plants and flowers incorporated in her art. Sitting in her little wooden gatehouse collecting admissions, she would often work on her drawings during slow periods.

Evans never aspired to be an artist nor sell her artwork. It was not until 1960 that an out-of-state art scholar visiting the gardens discovered what Newsweek magazine would later describe as “breathtakingly gifted”. Her first art exhibit was held in 1961. Evans died in 1987 at the age of 95 and is today considered one of America’s most important visionary artists.

A Historic Garden

Airlie Gardens began as a private garden for a wealthy industrialist in 1901. German landscape architect Rudolf Topel was commissioned in 1906 to transform the stretch of land along salt marshes into a formal garden incorporating European and Southern garden styles with an emphasis on azaleas and camellias. The gardens were opened to the public in 1948, but remained in private ownership until its purchase by New Hanover County in 1999. Today Airlie Gardens consists of 67 acres of the original 155-acre estate. Among the time worn trees draped in Spanish moss you will find walking trails, themed gardens, 10 acres of freshwater lakes, and a 450 year-old live oak.

A Memorial

In August 2004, the Minnie Evans Sculpture Garden and Bottle Chapel was dedicated in honor of Minnie Evans. The centerpiece is a bottle house conceived and created by local artist Virginia Wright-Frierson. Primarily a painter and illustrator, Frierson was commissioned in 2000 to paint a large ceiling mural for Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, as a memorial for the tragic shooting that occurred there.

The bottle house was constructed as a 16-foot high roofless outdoor chapel built out of bottles of various sizes, shapes, and color. The bottles were arranged to create images and symbols found in the work of Minnie Evans.

Just inside the entrance to the sculpture garden, a bas-relief sculpture featuring Minnie Evans in the window of her gatehouse was created by Hiroshi Sueyoshi. Two angel sculptures by Dumay Gorham sits to either side of the Bottle Chapel. At the center of the Bottle Chapel is a copper tree by Karen Crouch filled with metal birds created by Michael Van Hout. Brooks Koff, assisted by local schoolchildren, created mosaic tiles used in the walls and walks surrounding the Bottle Chapel. There is also a fountain created by Sueyoshi featuring images from Minnie Evans’ paintings just outside the Bottle Chapel.

Minnie Evans never thought of her work as art, yet her work has been shown internationally including the Whitney Museum of American Art and is today in numerous collections including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. Her life and work has also been captured in a book and a documentary film.

The Minnie Evans Sculpture Garden and Bottle Chapel pays tribute to a woman who merely followed the command given her – to draw. “I have dreams of the thing,” she said, “and I feel God gave me this mission to do this.”


View additional photographs of the Bottle Chapel
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20509217@N08/sets/72157603154123668/

View artwork by Minnie Evans at Smithsonian American Art Museum
http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?StartRow=1&ID=1466&showtext=1#827

View artwork by Minnie Evans at North Carolina Museum of Art
http://www.cameronartmuseum.com/details.php?id=5&limit=17

Words and Image by Dan Hardison

Melodies Eternally New

Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail
vessel thou emptiest again and again,
and fillest it ever with fresh life.

This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales,
and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.

At the immortal touch of thy hands my little heart loses its limits in
joy and gives birth to utterance ineffable.

Thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands of mine.
Ages pass, and still thou pourest, and still there is room to fill.

Words by Rabindranath Tagore
Image by Barbara Desrosiers

ECVA "Gifts" Exhibition

ECVA's latest exhibition is now online. Titled "Gifts," it is ECVA's first open-studio exhibition and features great diversity. Take time to visit HERE.

Seen above: Annunication 1, by Laura Fisher Smith.

That Promise Of Blessing

It keeps us going --
this time of year,
when winter resists the pull to spring
and daffodils shiver in the cold --

Thoughts of the harvest:
that promise of blessing
that follows each pruning;
the vine and the branches
exploding in color:
in leaves, and in tendrils,
and rich, lush fruit.

Blunt cut,
we cling to the vineand await the slow ripening.

Words and Image by Diane Walker

From The Liquid World Of Dreams

does the poet—
the poem—
have an obligation to speak
literal truth?

or can it weave its
words poetic
to grasp the deeper meaning
out of simple, imagined
birdsong?

when you ask
“did this really happen?”
or “who is this dappling
your poem?”
i must answer
with staunch certainty
from the liquid world of dreams,
“it is true! it is all true!”

Words by Sr. Ellen Porter, OSB, author
of Some Small Flower of Honesty

Image: "Symphony" by Roger Hutchison

Transfiguration

Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into
ever-widening thought and action-
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,
let my country awake.

Words by Rabindranath Tagore

Image: Transfiguration by Moses Hoskins

Lent Feels Dark

“In a dark time,” Theodore Roethke wrote, “the eye begins to see.” The dark times in life are not our enemy. Dark times empty the world of the things that would otherwise distract us from seeing the important things. Lent feels dark. Enter the darkness with confidence.

Words by Joan Chittister

Image by Leah Reddy

Stitched Together

Who makes
this comforter of stars?

Who stitched together
the firmament of heaven,
first weaving rainbows into
fabric of the night,
then, torn and spun into patterns,
carefully refabricates,
backing with a cushion of light,
tying it all together with silver threads
to drip the morning dew
and tucks it in around us?

Who tiptoes from the room
leaving the door
open just a crack
in case we should awaken;
Who leaves this thin gold beam of light
to reassure us in the dark?

Words and Image by Diane Walker.

Luna

beneath the surface
dances the light of the moon
God breathing new life

Words and Image by Roger Hutchison

When To Begin

How do I know when to begin?
When a force is kindled in my heart.

When do I stop work?
When there is a quiet sense of completion.

Words and Image by Connie Butler.
Seen above: "Threshold," painted plaster sculpure.

Lament

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

Lament: The Stations and other Images of the Cross:
A Lenten Exhibition of Woodcut Prints
by Margaret Adams Parker.

Read an introduction to this exhibit HERE.

Seen above: "to have seen what I have seen" by Margaret Adams Parker, 2006, woodcut over collagraph with Solarplate etchings, 23 x 17 inches. This print is based on the experiences of the artist’s son during his medical school rotation in the psychiatry ward in a VA hospital. Most of his patients were Vietnam veterans, although a few had served in Iraq; however, their common problem was their inability to block out their memories of war.

The title is taken from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It is a fragment of Ophelia’s lament as she observes Hamlet’s feigned madness: “O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown…O woe is me/ to have seen what I have seen…” Ironically, while Hamlet is sane, Ophelia herself goes mad.

A Garden Retreat

Quiet safety can be found in the garden retreat of my mind. The garden retreat is that mystical place of untroubled silence, my Sanctuary within. It is the Holy Space where I come to enjoy the cool breeze of the morning, listen to the birds sing their song of greeting. It is my Sheltered Place where I can look up at the rolling clouds and speak to my God with peace.

During that time, I can plant flowers in my garden: the sweet P's of patience, pardon, peace, persistence, piety, poetry, poise, praise, practice, prayer, and psalms. I can smell the sweet fragrance of the thornless roses. I can watch the lilies of the field and the grass without fear of tomorrow's burning drought. I can experience the growth of my soul with wondrous awe and know the true fruit of the spirit will be ready in its time.

Words by Connie Backus-Yoder

Image by C. Robin Janning

This Art

"In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest where no one sees you,
But sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art."

Words by Jalal al-Din Rumi

Image by Virginia Wieringa

Lent Felt Different After That

by Robert Epley

I enrolled in a photography class because I didn’t have my own darkroom in our new apartment. With this class there was, of course, a term project. I chose to photograph an abandoned cemetery located in Engle, NM.

Engle had been a thriving community in the early 1900’s when it was a railroad stop for local cattle ranchers. The community is gone and now, only a few buildings remain. The long-abandoned cemetery shows the ravages of time and the natural elements.

When at last I had the pictures that would fulfill the project requirements, I spent some time really seeing what I had been so busy photographing. Several rock mounds didn’t have any markers. Others with metal markers had no discernable information. A few graves had protective fences around them; however, most of these were broken down. Wooden crosses alone marked several graves. Two or three of the headstones had obvious spelling and dyslexic problems. One grave was surrounded by an expensive iron fence that had been shipped in from Ohio.

I spent quite some time at a weed-covered mound of rocks with a wooden crucifix. Several times in the years after doing this project I felt drawn back to this image. I wasn’t sure why until recently, when it suddenly fit together with, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Always before this I had understood that death and decay were natural processes. It had even begun to be clear that eventually this would happen to my body. But what thundered in on me as I kept looking at this weedy mound of rocks and weathered cross was not death and the decay of my body.

I have fond memories and a sense of meaning from my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. I even have a few material objects that are touchstones for these memories. But of these ancestors as it will be for me, it is only the memories and feelings, the human connections, which will endure. Who these people were for me comes from who their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were for them. And so it will be for our children and grandchildren. The affect we have on family, friends and others is all in this life that will endure and have lasting value.

What made the Engle cemetery different than any of the other cemeteries I have visited? A community cemetery is close to the place where people live, work and play. Family and friends of the deceased have their own lives to lead and in due time they carry on. Daily life continues.

The Engle cemetery is different because it doesn’t have a well kept lawn, busy streets, and a bustling community. And while there isn’t a grave mound or marker for it, Engle itself and its way of life is gone. A way of life with people raising families, working together, and helping each other has ceased to be. The community context for lives is gone. While people died and were buried in the Engle cemetery, so also their community and its way of life died.

Sitting there in the Engle cemetery I became very aware that when I die everything I am doing with family and friends here and now will stop. I won’t be doing these things anymore. The Engle cemetery helped me see more clearly that I will leave behind everything that I am doing in this life. It’s hard to keep this in mind amidst the needs and presses of daily life. This is why I turn to this image for Lenten meditations. It helps me work on keeping all that I do in perspective.

While writing about this image and describing the cemetery, several graves with badly weathered wooden crosses came to mind. For each one, the cross that had been a grave marker is now a simple crucifix. No clues are given about the life of the person whose remains were buried there; except to say that they were given a decent burial. The wooden grave marker as it was changed into a simple crucifix has become an eloquent statement about life after death. As a life ends there is also a new beginning.

Image and Words by Robert Epley, all rights reserved.

This Living Water

by Diane Walker

Drink up, my friend —
This living water's given for all who grieve.

Words & Image by Diane Walker, all rights reserved.

An Invitation To Renewal

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

"The season of Lent is a time for renewal of our spiritual lives. Consider making a pilgrimage to Trinity Cathedral and experience the beauty and power of this sacred art form. Twenty-three exquisite icons will be on view in Synod Hall between now and the first week of Easter." Read it all HERE.

Dissolving Otherness

by Diane Walker

We are Other,
you and I,
yet they are We,
to them.
They are separate,
and yet together;
We are separate from them.

What will it take
for all of us to become We?
A puppy chasing its tail before us
'til we all dissolve in laughter
and the borders dissolve with us?

Or some hideous ball of flame in the distance,
driving us to cling together in fear?

What hand will you extend,
and how will you extend it?
If there is no room to climb the stairs,
What steps will you take?

Who will start to build our circle of trust?

Words & Image by Diane Walker, all rights reserved.

Lent

by Connie Backus-Yoder

The altar frontal above represents the entire season of Lent. At the beginning, our minds are not focused on the serious aspects of our lives when it comes to the darkness that is in our hearts. The fabric is a little flowery and very, very light. Then as the days and weeks progress and we look forrward to Good Friday, we see ourselves in a different light. Still loved by God, and precious apples of His/Her eyes, but as we turn inward we see ways that may not be pleasing to our Loving Father.

Three glimpses of Easter are represented by yellow/gold satin on the Quilt and represent the Trinity. The darkest nights of all is the darkest fabric, which is where the last representation of the Trinity occurs to hearken to His resurrection at Dawn.

The thorns are a copy from the floor of one of the chapels in England, and represent not only the sufferings of our Savior in His precious work on our behalf, but also our own suffering as we apply His principles into our weary, worn lives.

Seen above: Altar Frontal "Lent" by Connie Backus-Yoder

That Which Hides You

Rood Screen
by Diane Walker

Help me always to remember:
that which hides you
also draws my attention to you;
that which masks may also reveal --
and yet,
that which most enhances your allure
is exactly what keeps us apart.

Words & Image by Diane Walker, all rights reserved.

It Is The Same Life

Icon of St. Francis of Assisi
by Virginia Wieringa

Stream of Life
by Rabindranath Tagore

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Canticle of the Sun
by St. Francis of Assisi

"...Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,
especially through my lord Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and you give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars;
in the heavens you have made them bright, precious and beautiful.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
and clouds and storms, and all the weather,
through which you give your creatures sustenance.

Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water;
she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom you brighten the night.
He is beautiful and cheerful, and powerful and strong.

Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth,
who feeds us and rules us,
and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs ..."

And you must see:

"Dancing" video
by Matthew Harding

Please note that all credit for this inspirational and fresh combination of "image and spirit" goes to Virginia Wieringa.

This Landscape

by Diane Walker


This landscape,
clothed in dark and light,
success and failure,
death and resurrection—a canvas
on which you paint the golden glow of hope.

Words & Image by Diane Walker, all rights reserved.

We Are Stardust

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

"Stanford Quad" (above) painted by The Rev. Eliza Linley and quilted by Deborah Rasmussen is shown this week at Episcopal Cafe. About this piece, the artist writes: "The arches of the Stanford Quad open here onto deep space. Images brought to us over the years by the Hubble Telescope put us in touch with a cosmic truth: we are stardust; the atoms that make up our bodies were present at the dawn of creation. The stars we see today are echoes of a drama that took place millions of years ago. This perspective gives us a more complete understanding of our place in the universe and our responsibility for the care of our planet."

Read more here.

Burr Oak Leaf

by Ruth Councell

As I was beginning to draw this leaf [above] in a botanical art class, the instructor said, "Pay attention to the central vein of the leaf. It is through that vein that the leaf gets its life from the tree. The whole structure of the leaf is built off of that vein."

When I saw the leaf in that way, the drawing came much more easily and naturally.

And it occurred to me that this was about more than drawing leaves.

It was a reminder to me that by paying attention to the source of life, everything else will flow from it.

Words and Image by Ruth Councell, All Rights Reserved.

Who Calls Us?

By Diane Walker

What bright moon
slices through the trees
to cast her golden net
across the water?

Who is it
that calls us to
this liquid wholeness?

Words & Image by Diane Walker, all rights reserved.

The Artist's Purpose

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

"Just as there are many ways of being in a place, there are also many ways of seeing..."

So begins President Mel Ahlborn's post, expressing the gratitude of the Board of Directors of Episcopal Church & Visual Arts to Episcopal Cafe and to the many generous supporters whose 2008 contributions make possible this work." Read it all HERE.

On View: "Communion" by Camilla Armstrong. Oil on linen, 1998. As seen in Visual Preludes 2006.

Eyes To See

"Lord, purge our eyes to see
Within the seed a tree,
Within the glowing egg a bird
Within the shroud a butterfly
Till, taught by such we see
Beyond all creatures, thee
And harken to thy tender word
And hear its "Fear not; it is I."

Words: Christina Rossetti quoted in "God Has No Religion: Blending Traditions For Prayer" by Frances Sheridan Goulart

Image: Haleconia, by Suzanne Charleston

New Horizon

"What is the new horizon in you that wants to be seen?"
by John O'Donohue in "To Bless the Space
Between Us: A Book of Blessings"

Seen above: Photography by Diane Walker

Restoration of the Spirit

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

"Over a period of several years, Anthony Caro has been working on a major series of sculptures and architectural features to form the restoration of a chapel at Bourbourg in Northern France, about 12 miles east of Calais." Read more here.

Invocation

"Creator and sustainer of the universe, known in so many different ways by so many different people, we rejoice today in the privilege of living in a society in which peaceful political change is possible. We rejoice in our power to do a new thing, to act on our beliefs and to amend our ways. We rejoice that today marks a milestone in our life together that many of us thought we would live and die without seeing. We rejoice in the witness of all who gave their lives so that we all might inherit freedom, and we pledge ourselves to be worthy of their sacrifice, to strive always to be the people they died believing us to be.

We ask your blessing upon Barack Obama as he takes up the heavy burden of his office. We ask your blessing and protection upon his family as they share him with us, and upon the challenging life into which they now move. And we ask your blessing upon all of us, that we might find, each of us in his or her own way, the means to support his leadership and develop our own, for the benefit of all people everywhere.

All of this we pray in unity of heart and purpose. And let all the people say, AMEN"

January 20, 2009, by The Rev. Barbara Crafton

Seen above: "Hope" by C. Robin Janning

Hope

by Diane Walker



I watch in prayer,
suspending breath
as hope strains to emerge again.

See how she works to extricate herself
from hearts grown calcified:
Cracks extend like helping hands,
radiate from center outward --

Will these long-buried wings
break forth in light;
remember flight?

Words & Image by Diane Walker, all rights reserved.

Magnifying Light

Rebirthing King, Rebirthing America:
A Covenantal Pledge on January 19-20, 2009

"On this rebirthing day, January 19, 2009, Martin Luther King's Birthday, on the eve of there coming into office a new government to represent the American people, I join in covenant with other Americans:

I commit myself to give a new birth in America and in the world to the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, to call ourselves and every nation now to develop an overriding loyalty to humankind as a whole, in order to preserve the best in our individual societies;

I commit myself to work toward a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond any tribe, race, class, or nation; to call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all humanity and for the web of life upon our planet;

I commit myself to fuse power with compassion, might with morality, and strength with sight; to choose nonviolent coexistence rather than violent co-annihilation; to speak for peace and justice throughout the world—within and beyond our doors and shores.

I commit myself to take specific actions.

I do this in the knowledge that tomorrow is today, that we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long, hard, and beautiful struggle for a new world."

The text above is part of Sr. Joan Chittister's "Vision and Viewpoint" e-newsletter, and is part of an initiative from the Shalom Center.

Seen Above: Photograph by C. Robin Janning

The Sower, Parable Project #2

by The Rev. Earnest Graham

This is the second in a series of graphic novel translations of the parables of Jesus, which are found in Matthew's gospel (Matthew 13:1-9). See more here.

Ethiopia Calling

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

"For most Episcopalians today a church’s holiness comes from the gathered body of believers who are created in the image of God and blessed by the spirit of Jesus. In Ethiopia, the presence of the ark makes the church holy. This in part explains why so many churches have circular or octagonal designs and concentric regions of holiness expanding from the ark at the center. Genuflection, prostration, dancing, loudly-chanted prayers, processions, a strong reliance on rhythm and drumming make church a more physical experience in Ethiopia." From "Timkat and the Ark of the Covenant" by Malcolm C. Young. Read it all here.

Image by Malcolm C. Young.

Malcolm C. Young is a photographer, theologian, and Episcopal priest in the Diocese of California. Educated at U.C. Berkeley and Harvard, he currently serves as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos. He is the author of the forthcoming book The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau (Mercer, 2009). "Ethiopia Calling" is on YouTube here

Herewith

By Gene Black


Here with my faith I stand in a valley
Surrounded by fear, my losses I tally.
Fear, I have little.
I feel a strong hand.
My soul reaches out grasping, hoping.
Admiring the wonder, I travel this land.
I seek truth in beauty, my path upward sloping.
Herewith, content I will be, and yet I still seek
The wonder of wonders, a Holy mystique

Words and Image by Gene Black. All Rights Reserved.

After The Epiphany

by Diane Walker


All the signs are there:
this path will take me off the page:
The clear blue welcome of home
recedes into the mist;
new fences bar the way,
declare new ownership,
new rules,
new life.

Someone has coated this bright road with silver
to lure me down the trail
but I've been here before
and know the stronger light means darker shadows.

Hold my hand:
Perhaps in sharing this downward rush
I'll beat the odds,
and will not slip this time.

Words & Image by Diane Walker, all rights reserved.

Mountains And Fog

your sky is sister
to the sky that walks above my head
and holds my heart in thrall

Photograph by The Rev. Scott Fisher, St. Matthew's, Fairbanks.
Words by C. Robin Janning.

After Antietam

by Diane Walker

When all my hard-earned seeds
Have been pecked free by
Tiny yellow birds,
And I am left
standing in this God-forsaken field,
Feathered in owl-gray husks,
Trailing woolly remnants
In the blue-clad night of winter,

Who will call to me,
Sing me down the wind,
Draw me with moonlight,
Through the cold dark earth
And into the star of wonder?

When will I get my own wings,
Who will give me voice to cry
the sweet spring's chirp of rejoicing;
a tongue to sip the nectar of the sun?

Shivering in death-scented darkness,
Fragile, chilled, awash in darkness,
Lost, afraid, alone in darkness
I wait, and listen for the Light.

Words & Image by Diane Walker, all rights reserved.

Gracefully

"Living gracefully is knowing what time it is, and acting in sync with it. If it is planting time, plant; if it is harvest time, harvest." (Rabbi Rami Shapiro in "The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness: Preparing to Practice." Forward by Marcia Ford, SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2006).

Seen above: Pen and Ink drawing by Joseph Fox.

Toward A Happy New Year

A Morning Offering

I bless the night that nourished my heart
To set the ghosts of longing free
Into the flow and figure of dream
That went to harvest from the dark
Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
Welcomes the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn;
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Waves of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

Amen.

By John O'Donohue in "To Bless the Space Between Us"

Seen above: 11:00 a.m. and -50 degrees New Year's Eve by The Rev. Scott Fisher, St. Matthew's, Fairbanks.

Dominus Illuminatio Mea

The Art Blog at Episcopal Cafe

At Episcopal Cafe's Art Blog, we find words and image declaring a search for illumination. Read more here.

Seen above: "Dominus Illuminatio Mea," Photography by Jan Neal.

Bending Low

"... what God did for us in that baby in a manger, we are called to do for others. Jesus spent three years in ministry bending low to help those under the crushing snows. But it wasn’t just about those he helped. It was about showing us what a life as his disciple was supposed to look like: Healing the sick, feeding the hungry, finding the lost.

If you look around and see the beauty of Christmas and hear the joy of children in the season, look a little deeper. The very thing that causes the beauty might also be bending some to the breaking point. Bend low with them, and help them up.

'For lo! the days are hastening on, by prophet seen of old, when with the ever-circling years shall come the time foretold when peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling, and the whole world send back the song which now the angels sing.' Amen." by Rev. Anne Robertson, read it all HERE.

Seen above: "There Came A Light" by C. Robin Janning