OK, by Sunday I had a nice big pile of cards (over 40). How to distribute?
There is a message board where I tacked them last year, but there didn't seem to be room to put nine or more out at a time. The table underneath the board seemed to be the way to go. I wrote a blessing, which mentioned a few of the following words... Hope, Joy, Peace, Love, and Wisdom. On the backside I placed a name.
I also decided to use my real name this year (last year I did STRATOZ), though I would like to have been in the shadows of the crowd...
One day my director gave me a meditation on Jesus feeding the 5000. I read the passage before the meditation. My imagination took off and I was firmly placed in the crowd rushing to meet Jesus, not in the boat with Jesus. I was willing to show up to be taught and healed, but I didn't want to picture myself as one who actually fed folk for Jesus, which is of course where the meditation wanted me to go. I resisted in the morning, which worked out nicely for about 30 minutes before mass I imagined myself being fed bread by a disciple of Christ. Later in the evening I would go deeper by imagining myself on the boat and helping Jesus.
So I tried to be shadow boy as I walked from my room with a stack of cards hidden in my journal. As the cards disappeared, I placed a few more down. I only once saw someone looking at the table where eventually 61 cards would be placed. The last few days of production I was making a dozen or so a day. Praying, drawing, and listening to jazz in my room. Emerging to eat, to be directed, to worship, and to say hello to the bluebirds.
shadow boy at Wernersville with his floppy hat...
OK I've read all the posts and I'm still mystified by the cards. What are they for? Does everybody do them? Do you mail them to people or are they like origami cranes - left as a symbol of a prayer?
ReplyDeletecould you imagine my poor students trying to figure out my written directions?
ReplyDelete1) the cards are gifts I make for those on retreat. I do it so I don't bring a pile of art home.
2) I don't know of anybody else who does this.
3) No mail. They are designs on a piece of paper the size of a postcard, that I leave out for people to find.
4) They can represent anything the new owner sees in them.
I find "being in the shadows" an interesting theme in several ways, but enjoy most the way you insert yourself into the Gospel, standing there in different forms of perspective.....
ReplyDeleteAnd for mine, thank you. I know that your prayers were with me this week and they really do help. I am taking it to school so that in those difficult times I know that God is there.
ReplyDeleteI think your writing is fine. It's probably that it was so obvious to you that you thought we'd understand. Thanks for the explanation. I have a friend who made beautiful multi-colored doodles in class last year - we hung them all around the room.
ReplyDeleteJim... ahh yes, you do have a bit of the Jesuit in you :") they are the folk that inspired my imaginative praying habit.
ReplyDeleteKlem--- glad to have helped you to remember that God is your classroom.
Kathryn--- you are too kind, my writing has baffled folk for years. I have a friend at work who used to fill her wall with my staff meeting doodles.