Not as much time to write as I had hoped this week, with our first Monthly Gathering tomorrow (with 22 RSVP's!), then my spiritual direction peer supervision group and women's group in the afternoon and evening to recharge my soul. Then Saturday I lead a workshop down at the Priory and stay overnight for our first Oblate meeting of the year on Sunday. My own little whirlwind of activity, I am grateful for an open week next week to write and to be. In my blog journeying today I found two things that especially touched me, an image and a quote:
Art is by Michael Lightsey, "Whirlwind"
I found this lovely piece of art over at Church for Starving Artists evoking the image of God answering Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:1)
Then at Coming to the Quiet, I found this wonderful quote about tears:
"You never know what may cause them. The sight of the Atlantic Ocean can do it, or a piece of music, or a face you've never seen before. A pair of somebody's old shoes can do it. Almost any movie made before the great sadness that came over the world after the Second World War, a horse cantering across a meadow, the high school basketball team running out onto the gym floor at the start of a game. You can never be sure. But of this you can be sure. Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go to next."
–Frederick Buechner, from Whistling in the Dark
May you be blessed with tears of joy and tears of sorrow. May you hear God speaking to you through them of where your heart finds its deepest longings. May you listen to the tender places and moments that stir you to great feeling. There you will encounter the Holy One.
A wonderful weekend to all of you, dear readers.
-Christine Valters Paintner