Honored to Pause

Morning light slipped onto the sill.
Rays arriving with the dawn rarely reach this niche of glass,
rarely attract notice.
Dispersed refractions glimmer among the prisms; 
brilliance within a microcosm, serendipitous and transient.
Honored to pause, 
witnessing the gift ...
acknowledging too,
the multitude of random wonders that flourish unseen.

May you witness the gifts,
Lisa 

A Window to the World

A window to the world,

over the kitchen sink.

This was one of my mother’s major considerations when house hunting, which was done more than two dozen times due to the nature of her husband’s career. 

Her best loved homes provided a view to the outside world as she orchestrated meals and mounds of dishes for eight. In the Georgia pines a tiny house gifted her with backyard views of her young children at play and clothes drying on the line. The St. Louis house had an expansive bird perching hedge just beyond the sink glass. In Minnesota and Virginia, split level designs raised the view beyond the sink to mid tree heights and vistas of neighboring yards. Across the years, from state to state, she enhanced the daily scenes with feeders inviting the birds, brilliant blooms spreading along a fence line or hanging in planters, and a picnic table welcoming meals outside. It was a priority, even I as a child knew, the kitchen window was a priority.

Then there came a house with many fine attributes, historic and gracious. It became our home despite lacking the longed for window above the kitchen sink. Progressively, across the decades of living there, the wall above the kitchen sink was transformed into an exhibit provoking thought and covered with beauty. She curated  an assemblage of small art prints, inspirational quotes, clever cartoons clipped from the paper, prayers, scripture, poems, paintings from greeting cards or magazines. The spread was taped and pinned, fitted and aligned as a publishing house would arrange and edit its best quarterly press release. As a young adult home to visit, reading mom’s collection above the sink became an honored tradition and fodder for deep conversation over morning coffee  ~ a window to the inner world of a our mother’s intensely creative mind and deeply spiritual soul. 

Linking with the communities at Coffee for the Heart, Tell His Story, & Give Me Grace.

The Thin Space Between Dark & Dawn

Slender light slips dim and slow through the window. 

Darkness still clings to the corners while tea steeps. 

Candlelight flickers on the kitchen table in honor of the 

thin space of heaven’s portals between dark and dawn. 

Cold rises from floor tiles, seeps around window panes carrying the scent unique to crisp winter air. 

Socks layered within slippers. 

Sweater layered over flannels. 

A scarf too, in a cozy loop around my neck. 

I stand at the window, 

a small witness to the new day’s splendor. 

A singular heart’s praise for the persistent majesty

of God's cosmic order.

Linking with Small Wonder, Tuesday Afternoon, Weekend Whispers,& Give Me Grace.

Readings Around the Web

Many mornings I begin with a steaming cup of green tea along side the laptop, scrolling through various favored sites that expand my devotional reading as well as inform and inspire my faith practices. I'll share these few. Perhaps your heart will be encouraged.

~

Christian poet Jane Kenyon  wrote beautiful poetry and essays on faith. A while back I wrote about her expressions of faith in her last book, A Hundred White Daffodils. It has recently been highlighted in this BrainPicking link. Kenyon is quoted, along with other writers, on the characteristics of pursuing a focus and routines that contribute creative living, specifically, a writing life. 


Jan Richardson wrote a fascinating book, A Sanctuary of Women, exploring the faith stories of selected Christian women including the earliest cloistered women of faith. She also writes an online Epiphany retreat for women each year. The retreat is a collection of short writings and engagingly beautiful art, designed to facilitate reflection and prayer. 


Jeanne Oliver is a multimedia artist who founded a website that offers online art workshops lead by several female artists. Each year the women also offer a free online faith workshop that is scripture based, video clips of women telling their faith story. This year's theme is LISTENING. Their stories cover the full range of a woman's experiences. Regardless if you are an artist or not, there is encouragement here. After you get to the site, click on Week One of the video's listed down the margin.

~

The days are cold. The hot mug warms my hands. People sharing their faith through words or art, warms my heart and kindles awareness of holy presence. Whether I hold a hardcover book or travel across the internet for words that inspire, God's hand is in it all. 



Linking with Weekend Whispers, Still Saturday, and Simple Tuesday.

November: Invitation to Gratitude {Transforming Power of Gratitude}

November 8: Invitation to Gratitude {Transforming Power of Gratitude}

"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world." 

Sarah Van Breathnach

I began recording just one blessing that I noticed each day. That small step primed my mind to be more vigilant, more attentive, cued to my world with a different eye. The daily notations increased and seemed to stream from the pencil, my hand urgent to record quickly lest I forget some one gift before I had scribbled them all down at the end of the day. One daily recording, became a multitude of daily gifts. I pursued the practice of listing daily blessings for nearly a year, reaching a goal of one thousand recorded gifts. One thousand. The weight of the journal with the number of pages filled was stunning. The tangible evidence of this new spiritual discipline. 

The deeper reward, 

the more constant outcome, 

was the heightened sensitivity of my soul 

and the groundbreaking transformation of my demeanor and perception of daily living. 

Even without daily listing of blessings I still saw them daily. I noted the abundance daily. I praised God's presence in those blessings daily. 

I continue to add to the list periodically, recording full pages at a time. Today there are hundreds more with nearly fifty praise and thanksgiving scripture verses intertwined with the bounty of blessings. But it was the initial daily listing that successfully trained my heart and my eyes to internalize a habit of maintaining a grateful heart, an awareness of God's hand in all things, in all places, at all times. Gratefully, that remains the blessing carved deep into my soul.

"...if a joyful heart is good medicine, then giving thanks is my daily prescription." Ann Voskamp

"Without gratitude there is no joy." Brene' Brown

View Dr. Brene' Brown's interview on the topic of JOY here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKV0BWSPfOw

Additional Posts in An Invitation to Gratitude Series:

Day 1 Attentive Listening
Day 2 Boundless love
Day 3 Time Away
Day 4 New Roads
Day 5 Legacy
Day 6 Indian Summer

Linking with the Weekend Whispers, Still Saturday, Coffee for the Heart, and Tell His Story. 

Click on the buttons below to read posts by these communities of faith filled writers.

November: An Invitation to Gratitude Series {Indian Summer}

November 6: An Invitation to Gratitude {Indian Summer}

Indian summer bliss,

those brilliantly bright days of late fall, warm like melting butter on pancakes. Foliage rustles in rich color, breezes move with a gentle warmth. Folks linger on patios with their coffee, faces upturned to capture the sun’s last kiss of warmth before crisp temps return, forcing us all back behind windows to watch leaves spilling from the trees. 

In some regions its called a "little summer"; a brief nod to the mid-day warming reminiscent of a bygone season. Though the light and the scent is distinctly different; the lights angle lower, recognizable as fall, the herbed aroma of dried leaves inescapable.

Our area has basked in this "little summer" all week. Cafe patios overflow with business. Park playgrounds are bustling with post halloween super heroes and princesses going down the slide. Hopeful end of season fisherman cast lines across the ponds. Kids walk home from school with hoodies stuffed in backpacks. 

Its temporary, appreciated because its fleeting.

Raise your head from distractions. 

Neither of us wants to miss it.

Additional Posts in An Invitation to Gratitude Series:

Day 1 Attentive Listening
Day 2 Boundless love
Day 3 Time Away
Day 4 New Roads
Day 5 Legacy

Linking with the Weekend Whispers, Still Saturday, Coffee for the Heart, and Tell His Story. 

Click on the buttons below to read posts by these communities of faith filled writers.

November: An Invitation to Gratitude {Love}

November 2: An Invitation to Gratitude Series

Little guys. A joy beyond words. Born this month five years ago. Twirling dervishes of exuberant life! Exploring, building, creating; engaging with the world at a runners pace. Appreciative of the boundless love that their lives have brought to mine, as well as, the reminders and insight their unrestrained living brings to my attention.
                                          ~

Additional Posts in this Series:
Day 1 Attentive Listening

As the Cicadas Sing

After morning coffee on the back patio, after puttering with the flower pots, and after a walk around the ponds, the sun’s height begins to heat up this part of the world sending folks like myself to benches situated under the deepest shade or to comfy chairs in cozy air-conditioned spaces, anticipating the company of a good book.

Summer reading lists are iconic. Schools require them. Libraries endorse them. Newspapers publish them. Book sellers advertise them. Readers eagerly share them and scour the titles of favored choices for the season. 

Still preferring the real-deal hard copy to hold in my hands, 

these are some of the books in this month’s stack:

1. Wearing God by Lauren Winner. I really loved this fascinating exploration of the metaphors found in scripture that are used to describe God. Some were the familiar “clothed by God” and God as "the bread of life", other’s were much more surprising for instance God as “a sweet smelling savor” and as a laboring woman. Would love to read this one as a book study to discuss with others.
2. In the Sanctuary of Women by Jan L. Richardson. Written in a combined format of a daily devotional and as an informational text of historical accounts about the lives of notable Christian women including Eve, St. Brigid, Hildegard of Bingen, the Desert Mothers and others. This book has succeeded in capturing my heart for these sisters of faith. It requires a leisure pace and has been a reading in progress for several months. 
3. Eyes of the Heart by Christine V. Paintner.  The photographer in me is relishing this discussion of photography  as a spiritual practice. The work has opened my thinking to many new insights and practical suggestions to implement photography as a contemplative practice. 
4. No Man Is An Island by Thomas Moore. No doubt you will have heard of this classic and the renown Trappist Monk who wrote it. Although I was aware of the remarkable history of Moore’s devotion to a religious life of service, teaching, and writing; nothing compares to reading his own words. 
5. “Artful Blogging”, a magazine by Somerset Studio features the photographic beauty of several blogs in each issue. Pure eye candy for artistic photography and an interesting mix of tales about the blogging experience. Light and engaging creative inspiration.

Summer’s traditions include uninterrupted hours spent with well loved books. May you be blessed by an inspiring read as the cicadas sing and the porch swing glides.

~

Linking with Still Saturday, Weekend Brew, Sunday Stillness, Coffee for Your Heart, & Tell His Story. Click on the buttons below to read other posts in these communities.

A Sweet Smelling Savor

As a guest visiting a beautiful house of worship, I entered the sanctuary with much interest, anticipating a new worship experience in an architecturally exquisite church. 

Surprisingly, it was the wonderful fragrance that immediately captured my attention. 

Whispering my surprise, I leaned close to say, “It smells so good!”. 

Incense is not used in the churches of my heritage, but its presence in that sanctuary felt ancient, authentically divine, and was deeply memorable. 

As Lauren Winner writes in her recently published book Wearing God, "In early Christian worship, incense "conveyed divine presence" to the people. Jesus breathed out the "fragrance of His life" upon the cross, and that fragrance was elusively present, reprised in the incense lit during liturgy." p.77

Fragrance appears in several Biblical texts to describe the perfumed presence of the Holy Lord…

"All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia." Psalm 45:8

"...And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering 

and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor." 

Ephesians 5:1 KJV

Fragrance is also used to powerfully represent the constantly streaming prayers of God’s people. A multitude of prayers, as incense, permeating the air with sacred scent and rising up before the enthroned Risen Lord…

"...the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people." 

Rev. 5:8

Fragrance, the presence of scent, 

gathers an entirely new and elevated meaning when pondered through the words of these scriptures. 

It prompts a closer attention to the rain washed scent of baptismal waters, the aromas steaming from “our daily bread”, the fragrance of candle wax burning on the alter, the ancient perfumes of the Bethlehem story, and the bouquet of the wine “poured out for you”.

Be alert for a sweet smelling savor; Holy God leaves fragrant traces of His presence.

~

Read more from Wearing God…

"...you can discover things about God by looking around your ordinary, everyday life. There is a method here, and it is a Jesus method. Jesus, after all, specialized in asking people to steep themselves in the words of scriptures and then to look around their ordinary Tuesdays to see what they could see about holiness and life with God. This is not merely entertaining wordplay to give overactive minds something pious to do. It is the Bible's way of making us aware of God and of the world in which we meet God."  Lauren Winner, Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God

This post is linked to the following faith communities: Coffee for Your Heart, Tell His Story,  Still Saturday, Sunday Stillness, and Weekend Brew. Join us! 

Let Words Spill

Let words spill even if they must be covered up.

Occasionally a writer approaches the journal with a full heart 

and a mind turbulent with words to stream.

Yet the pencil, poised over the page, is frozen there. 

There are words of the heart that feel far too tender, 

far too skittish of white page exposure to be released in script. Though these are the very thoughts that a prayer journal has pages to receive and the power to sooth.

Let words spill even if they must be covered up. 

Let that pencil stream, dripping words of struggle across the lines, 

venting whatever there is, 

that is squeezing the life out of a heart. 

Let the pencil go to a nub releasing the soul’s troubles. 

And when interior struggles are too grey to remain in the light, 

sometimes its best to wash color right over it. 

Cover it with pattern and silhouettes of hope. 

Cover it with prayer and offer it to God’s abiding and tender care.

“Let us have confidence, then, to approach God’s throne, where there is grace. 

There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.” 

Hebrews 4: 16

~

{Writing in a journal or on a blog has scientifically been shown to have strong physical and mental health benefits. Read more here.}

Linking to Still Saturday Sunday Stillness, and Weekend Brew, join us! 

Art & Spiritual Vitality

Faith filled living, for some of us, includes the visual arts. 

Images in every medium speak deeply to the soul, often in surprising ways 

as understandings are revealed to the conscious mind that might have been inaccessible through any other exploration.

Whether it includes enjoying the breathtaking beauty of church sanctuaries, gazing intently at creation’s many majesties, studying the composition of stunning art forms, or numerous other modalities; vision and visual art forms have long been a means of spiritual  contemplation. For myself, in recent years, that inclination has been expanded to embrace creating visual images through photography, painting, and visual journaling as a faith practice. In tandem with a slow progression into the arts I searched for writings about this realm of contemplative practice, arriving, in part, to the works of those quoted here.

“In an aesthetic experience, in the creation or the contemplation of a work of art, the psychological conscience is able to attain some of its highest and most perfect fulfillments. Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. The mind  that responds to the intellectual and spiritual values that lie hidden in a poem, a painting, or a piece of music, discovers a spiritual vitality that lifts it above itself, takes it out of itself, and makes it present to itself on a level of being that it did not know it could ever achieve.” p. 34, No Man Is an Island written by Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk.

Merton so aptly describes what I have so often experienced myself, how an experience with art, in a multitude of formats, can lead one to a heightened sense of faith and closeness to God. Photography too, offers precious opportunities for walking more intimately with God, as writer Christine Valters Paintner describes in Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice …

“… one of the wonders of photography [is] to be able to frame a moment in time and, within my gazing absolute presence in that particular moment, discover holiness.” (p.5)… Photography can be an act of silent worship. When we see the world with “eyes of the heart”, we can engage in an act of both reverence and self-expression. We can discover how the living Spirit is being revealed in the world.” p.8

Paintner borrows the lyrical phrase “eyes of the heart” from Ephesians 1:18. It is a phrase that Paul uses in his letter to the people of Ephesus. Paul tells the people that he prays for them, in part, so that they will “have the eyes of their hearts enlightened” by the wisdom of the Spirit and the power of God. 

Working with inks, papers, paints, digital photography 

and the printed Word; 

is practicing the spiritual discipline of seeking enlightenment 

through God’s power and the Spirit’s sacred wisdom.

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This post is linked with the online communities of Still Saturday, Weekend Brew, and Playdates With God. Join us for more thoughts on the pursuit of Sabbath and the experience of God moments in daily living. 

Who We Love

“Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. “Proverbs 4:23

“The hands that made the stars are holding your heart.” Psalm 139:13

A scaffold of hearts, 

rolled on their sides 

and staggered vertically just to the left of center page. 

That’s where my attention fixed while scrolling through a multiple pages of beautifully designed visual prayer journal images. The inked threading of stitches and the narrow panel of dots down the side further pleased my eye. That particular art page was created and posted by robenmaries.com. 

In my imagination 

it provided inspiration for an inviting page-scape of color and form for my own journal; 

modified with colored pencil, scripted verses of scripture, 

and journaled reflections on God’s love: 

Its the loving we receive that primes the flow of our own outpouring of care and devotion that initially tumbles from our hearts. The security of protective arms that cradle us early. The hand that holds ours as a tether to keep us close, as a guide to show the way. The familiar and trusted voice that diminishes our fears in the darkness of night, or fever, or loss. We folks who walk upright, we’re innately designed to crave love, to curl tightly into the gracious gift when its given. In our human realm we seek love from our families and from the significant others who walk our way. As we approach God’s realm in search of divine love, an endeavor that has its own hardwired features, the experience can be much the same. We long for the strength that cradles us through every darkness of living. We seek the inner voice of Holy Spirit presence as well as the voice that speaks across the centuries through scared text. It is the divine loving, eternally offered from Creator God, that initiates the soul’s lifelong yearning to return to Him.

Visual journaling, the craft of combining art and print, is a prayerful activity that can be practiced for several  purposes. When used as part of daily devotionals it expands the experience into realms of visual forms and metaphor. Exploring faith meditations through art materials becomes a means of honoring God through a creative offering and articulating those art based meditations into words becomes a form of testimony or a form of prayer. Creating an artful page can also enhance the inspirational message of faith based writing. However visual journaling is used, whether to enrich ones devotional time or to visually represent elements of the faith journey or to pictorially elaborate a message of faith; the outcome is a heightened sense of communicating the power of faith.

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Linking with Playdates With God an online community hosted by Laura Boggess and Still Saturday, hosted by Sandra Heska King. Join me and the other writers gathering there to share our God Moments.  

Kitchen Memories: Winter’s Late Afternoon Light

The late afternoon sun throws rays of winter light across the kitchen, low and soft. Savory aromas rise from sautéing meat and simmering stock on the stove. Color rich vegetables lay diced across the cutting board and spices add to the scents wafting through the house. Candlelight flickers in the lengthening shadows on the counter top.

My thoughts slip back to decades ago. As a college student commuting between campus and my parent’s home, I would return from classes in the late afternoon dark of our far north region. Entering the warm house through the kitchen door I would be met by the subdued lighting under the cabinets illuminating my mother working at the counter surrounded by salad makings and the smells of supper warming on the stove. These treasured images evoked such comfort and affection. I have strived to recreate them for my own family across the years. Even in the years of a demanding career, preparing supper at home, reclaiming the house after the day’s absence, filling it with food aromas, it remained essential to create a haven that cradled myself and loved ones at the end of each day.

Warm light in the darkness, 

a safe haven, 

the promise of nourishment; 

all elements of a home …

all elements of a living faith.  

Nurture faith as you nurture loved ones. 

Guard faith as you guard the haven of your home.

Light a candle, 

put something on the stove,

savor the moment, 

offer whispers from your heart 

to our Lord.

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Linking with Laura’s community of writer’s over at “Play dates With God” and Jennifer's folks at TellHis Story.

Join us. We are sharing

our moments with God.

Summer Remembrance

Early morning temperatures dipped by almost ten degrees this weekend, 

as August bids its 2014 adieu. 

The cooler morning offered a delightfully fresh hint of the next season, though we all know we still have many more weeks of extended summer that is par for our region. None the less, there was this brief interlude, this breath of coolness, this nod to softer days of less light and a planet tipping away from the sun’s blaze. Summer’s green begins to take on that more rustic shade, edged with crisped, drying hues. Blooms are worn, somewhat ravaged by the boldness of summer. The new blossoms are unfolding smaller, dropping petals sooner, there satin beauty not lasting as long as their predecessors. 

We turn to one another and say, Where did it go? 

Every season we say that. 

Remember when we were celebrating those glorious buds opening at the ends of stems and marveling at the late-into-the-evening sunsets painted orange across the blue sky. Remember children in the pool for hours perfecting their under water skills, extending their bravery in the deep end, diving endlessly to retrieve rings thrown to the bottom. Tomatoes and watermelon have been sweeter these recent months and sweet corn is still fresh in the produce department. Remember the lazier mornings of summer with coffee on the back porch, serenaded by birds, entertained by squirrels, and occasionally visited by that resident rabbit who lives in the Indian Hawthorn hedge. We watched lizards scamper across the top of the fence and fledgling Blue Jays teeter on the edge of their nest outside the bay window. We have watched Herons catch fish as turtles basked on the pond’s banks and the Mallards floated endlessly. 

And though the events of the world were far less bucolic through this summer, it remains important to remember that which was abundant, that which was brimming with blessing and goodness. In every season harken back to treasures that came your way, whispered from the heavens by God’s grace to season your life with His love and provision.

“I will remember the deeds of the Lord...” Psalm 77:11

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Linking with these communities of writers:

Still Saturday

The Weekend Brew

Tell His Story

Unforced Rhythms

Click on the text link or any of their buttons listed below to ponder God's leading here on the internet.