Visual Meditation: The Sun
-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts (photos taken at Golden Gardens in Seattle)
October 8, 2008
-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts (photos taken at Golden Gardens in Seattle)
Our 25th Poetry Party and over a year of poetic inspiration! I had no idea when I began these how meaningful they would become to me and to those of you who participate by writing or reading. Thank you for the wonderful creative community that forms around each of these. I select an image and suggest a title and invite you to respond with your poems, words, reflections, quotes, song lyrics, etc. Leave them in the comments or email me and I’ll add them to the body of the post as they come in along with a link back to your
Go see the delightful collage lucy made inspired by reading from my book! You can order your own copy here. For those of you looking for a creative twist on an ancient practice, there is an entire chapter on using lectio to pray contemplatively with art, music, life experience and more as well as using art-making to respond to your lectio divina experience. Come back tomorrow for a very special 25th Poetry Party! PS — if you are thinking of joining us for the Contemplative Art & Movement Retreat let me know– there is only one spot left! Register here.
Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures -Francis of Assisi (dogs encountered across Austria, swan in Hallstatt, Austria)
Two weeks ago I went to a Shabbat dinner at the home of my good friend who is also a rabbi. On occasion she will invite her “women of faith” friends to celebrate this welcoming in of the Sabbath so central to Jewish life and ritual. There we were, one Jewish rabbi, one Benedictine Oblate, two ordained Methodist ministers, and two Tibetan Buddhists (one of whom has taken robes). We gathered around the table lighting the Shabbat candles while singing a Buddhist mantra. We read the prayers in Hebrew, washed our hands, and broke the challah bread and drank wine. As
Last night at sunset, on the night of the new moon — the time when we return to promordial darkness — the High Holy Day of Rosh Hashanah began. It is the Jewish New Year and begins the ten days of awe ending with Yom Kippur. It is a time of introspection, of reflecting on the year that has past, a time to consider how you have wronged others and to seek forgiveness. In my yoga class yesterday morning, my teacher began with a meditation in honor of this time. We were asked to think back on the year that had passed
What does real life look like to you in your best moments, your quiet moments? What is it that you yourself actually want–down deep–and how much are you willing to give up to get it? What really gives you life? It’s time to consider what makes a thing life-giving and the point when even the life-giving becomes death-dealing for you. Then it is time to define life differently, perhaps. It’s the moment to put down what it is we’re doing that can be done but does not really need to be done, at least not by us. We need to
On returning from our summer travels I recommitted myself to a deeper exploration of two practices — Sabbath-keeping and yoga. I believe so strongly in the power of Sabbath, as a witness to a different way of being in the world, as an act of humility that says the world will get by if I lay down my work for a while, as a time to remember who we were created to be. Moving more deeply into a yoga practice is really a reclaiming for me of something that once played a more significant role in my life. There are
-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts (photos from the Salmon Homecoming Festival 2008 in Seattle) * Make sure to visit this week’s Poetry Party *