Hope ~ found at the top of a sunflower

 

Hope ~ God's Comma leads to new readings

Two things over this past weekend ~

1. I posted this mandala inspired by the God is still speaking campaign of the UCC on my etsy shop.
2. I read a passage from the Bible at my church.

So as I read a passage accredited to Paul, I wished the lectionary did not stop at the end of the Bible. How cool would it be to read a passage by St. Ignatius or Buechner or St. Catherine or Lamott. God is still speaking, let us read the inspired words to the masses.

 

Hope ~ to read more inviting messages

K

Today I saw a church sign that said, "if you don't have the bread of life, you are toast."
I don't dig the tone.
How about ~ "feeling toasty, get revived with the bread of life"

Today's Hope ~ how about some cool fresh air

Temperature can be seen as the ability of a substance to transfer heat energy. The greater the temperature the greater the ability.

When two substances emerge into each others space. The one with a greater heat energy would like to share some with the lower temp substance.

I am tired of being walloped by hot air. It is not making me feel energetic and I seem to lack any desire to come to equilibrium.

 

No need for words ~ Seven Blooms from the garden of our two studio row

 

Imaging hope to bring peace

Why

 

Creating Hope, one image ~

 

Streaks ~ doing what I want to do, in this case cleaning up the herb garden

Mosaic Woman found an app called streaks. Simple thing. Enter an activity. Choose how often you want to perform it. At the end of each day, check off what was accomplished. Gardening was not the first activity in my list (that was blog commenting, a forgotten habit) but I am glad I made the decision to place it there.

The backyard had reached embarrassment stage. I made it four straight days before visiting family, excessive heat, a need to prepare to teach today, and a thunderstorm kept me away from the garden yesterday. But I got a new streak going today and the perennial herb garden is happy indeed.

Does anyone use yarrow as an herb? I am curious.

 

In Preparation ~ training for a week of silence part a ~ a week with John Philip Newell

I met with my spiritual director shortly before our vacation. I told her I had a plan. The problem with telling someone your intentions is that it makes those intentions more set in stone. The first part was the easier part.

Seven days. A morning prayer. An evening prayer. Each day filled with reflections on a beatitude. I was off from teaching. Lots of time. Beautiful writing calling me into Newell's hope that we can bring peace by Praying with the Earth. It will end this evening. I would like to spend another week revisiting it, but...

... tomorrow begins a 40 day retreat. Which will take me almost to the exact end of teaching this summer. Like I said, I'm in training.

 

Becky Eldredge, the person who inspired the sunflower

I do not need 1000's of more followers, what I need to do is make wonderful connections with a few of the ones I have on twitter. Becky Eldredge seemed like a fine person to get connected with. I had fanned her page on Facebook, followed her on Twitter, and read her thoughts at her website.

Then one day she sent out a tweet asking for prayer requests. I asked for some directed towards my students. She asked about my job. A connection had been made. Yes, it is across state lines and we may never meet, but I will keep an eye out for chances. My hope is that she leads a retreat at the Jesuit Center. She does things like that. My hope is that I will one day read the book she is writing.

Yes, it is ours. She recently wrote to me responding to the word collaboration. She mentioned synergy. People saw this as one of MY best pieces, but truth be told, it would not be in this world without Becky.

First ~ she desired a piece of art celebrating sunflowers

Second ~ she shared some photos she had taken of sunflowers and when I fell in love with a flower emerging into fullness... we realized that we both love the word, unfolding

Third ~ she wrote to me about why sunflowers are important to her.

Fourth ~ she agreed with me that the design should emerge while I was on a retreat and patiently waited for that retreat to come along. I took Becky's photo and words on that retreat.

If it is one of my best pieces, it is because of the spiritual connection between plant and human, which led to this photo.

Thanks, for helping me to be a better artist.

 

Creating a Path to Jazz in Churches ~ The Thelonious Monk Septet's Monk's Music

Cleared off the top of my stereo so I could play an LP or two. Monk's Music was released by Riverside Records in 1957. It was one of the first jazz records to be in my collection, but that wasn't till nearly thirty years after it was recorded Only six tunes on the LP, five of which are tunes by Thelonious Monk, but the first tune is a less than a minute take of Abide with Me. The hymn was written by Henry Francis Lyte as he prepared for death. The opening refers to Luke 24:29, "Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent"

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;

The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

... but the music was composed by William H. Monk. Thus it is Monk's music. Thelonious Monk does not play on the tune and I wonder if that ever happened again on one of his albums. He arranged it for horns. Ray Copeland, Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, Gigi Gryce play it ~

When I first played this LP, I doubt I would have one day be a fan of jazz vespers and be planning to celebrate my 50th birthday at an Episcopalian church and with jazz. But that is where my life has unfolded.

My Garden drives A Hard Bargain

My garden has told me to back off with any camera, unless I have come to take care of it. So there I was coming home from DC to plenty of new blooms, but it told me to stay away. A painful thumb was my excuse (though it didn't seem to keep me out of the studio).

Today I went out. So it seems best to do it this way. Garden for a bit, grab the iPad take several photos of one plant, sit on the porch. garden, photo, garden...

These photos were taken before vacation. Spiderwort greeted you, below is Yarrow, Begonia, Echinacea, and the annual Rose with Buddha moment.