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Invitation to Photography: Listen With the Ear of Your Heart

Welcome to the our second Abbey Photo Party

This is a new experiment and sort of a twist on the regular Poetry Parties.  Instead of my selecting a theme and image and inviting you to respond with words, I select a theme and poem and invite you to respond with images

Since you can’t post images directly in the comments section here, I invite you to add them to the Flickr Group I have created.  Please do leave a comment below to let us know you have joined the party and feel free to link back to your own blog and post your image there too.  If possible I’d love to have them all in the Flickr group as well (joining Flickr is free)!  Share as many as five of your images in response to the theme. Feel free to take your image(s) in any direction and then if you have a blog, please post the invitation and encourage others to come join the party!

On Friday, July 17th – I will draw a name at random from those who participate and send the winner a copy of Sacred Poetry: An Invitation to Write.

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Photo Party Theme: Listen with the Ear of Your Heart

ears listen, eyes look,
hearing, seeing below ground
to the sacred source

I am away leading a retreat on Lectio Divina and creative expression.  I am inviting the retreatants to explore the rhythms of lectio (read, reflect, respond, and rest) with a listening and seeing heart (Rule of Benedict and Ephesians) through different mediums of art-making.   How might photography be a process of lectio with the world?  

Let this Photo Party be an exploration of what we discover when we listen and see deeply.  Feel free to offer images that invite different interpretations of the theme.

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© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

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20 Responses

  1. Huh. I don’t know what I did to not get them in the right place in Flickr. I guess I am Flickr challenged. I did post them on my blog here…

  2. I added comments to your wonderful photos over at Flickr. Although I don’t think a couple of yours ended up in the photo pool because there are 7 comments here but only 5 people who have submitted at Flickr.

  3. I posted 5.. I hope the memories that are associated with the photographs will ring true with the poem. In each case, there was a silencing of conversation or expectation as we watched and listened together. They were “thin” moments – when the distance between earth and heaven is very “thin”…

    Deb

  4. Thank you Christene for the inspiration, container to share and the link to other creative souls, whose views and expressions are sublime.
    I added pictures which invited me to look beyond the obvious and I was astounded and thrilled to find within them the mystery of life and light.

  5. Have some questions regarding Flickr’s FAQ, but there
    are so few people around now that it’s summer, I’m not sure
    you’ll get a big response on this, so have posted a photo —
    and I hope others will join in too. It is a project well-worth
    our efforts!. Christine says:

    ears listen, eyes look,
    hearing, seeing below ground
    to the sacred source

    Thoughts of ancient people putting their ear to the earth —
    but the creatures come to mind too, with their wide range
    of sensitivity to vibrations, color, scent, etc. I settled on
    a photo of a ladybug beetle holding on to a windblown
    fleabane daisy for dear life (that’s me)!

    ~ kigen