Abbey of the Arts

Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

  • Welcome
    • Prayer Cycle
      • Introduction to the Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle
      • Day 1 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Cathedral
      • Day 2 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Scriptures
      • Day 3 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Saints
      • Day 4 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Spiritual Directors
      • Day 5 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Icon
      • Day 6 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Sacrament
      • Day 7 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Liturgy
      • Prayer Cycle Leader Resources
    • About the Abbey
    • About Christine Valters Paintner
    • About John Valters Paintner
    • About the Wisdom Council
    • Monk Manifesto
    • Join the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks
    • Subscribe to Our Love Notes
    • Website privacy notice
  • Books
    • Breath Prayer:
      An Ancient Practice for the Everyday Sacred
    • Sacred Time:
      Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
    • The Wisdom of Wild Grace: Poems
    • Earth, Our Original Monastery:
      Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
    • Dreaming of Stones: Poems
    • The Soul's Slow Ripening:
      12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred
    • The Wisdom of the Body:
      A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women
    • Illuminating the Way:
      Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics
    • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
      Eight Practices for the Journey Within
    • Eyes of the Heart:
      Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice
    • The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom
    • Desert Mothers and Fathers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings Annotated & Explained
    • Lectio Divina–The Sacred Art: Transforming Words and Images into Heart-Centered Prayer
    • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements
    • Awakening the Creative Spirit:
      Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction
    • Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening & Awareness
  • Poetry | Art | Music
    • Music + DVD
    • Poetry by Christine Valters Paintner
    • Poetry Videos
    • Dancing Monk Icons
    • Other Art Collaborations
      • Monk in the World art series by Kristin Noelle
      • Saints & Animals art series by David Hollington
      • Sacred Time art series by Alexi Francis
      • Mary block print art series by Kreg Yingst
  • Programs
    • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color Book Club
      • God Alone is Enough: A Spirited Journey with Teresa of Avila (Book Club – February 2021)
    • Community Online Retreats
      • Dancing with Fear in Troubled Times
      • Novena for Times of Unraveling
      • Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life (Spring 2021)
      • Sky, Sun, Sea, & Stone:
        Celtic Spirituality and Creative Writing
      • The Two HT’s-Harriet Tubman and Howard Thurman-on Being Free
      • Writing Into Bloom
        with Christine Valters Paintner
      • Revelations: The Mysticism of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe
    • Self-Study Online Spiritual Retreats
      • Creative Flourishing in the Heart of the Desert:
        An Online Retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen
      • Dreaming of the Sea:
        A women’s discernment journey through the story of the Selkie
      • Earth, Our Original Monastery
        A Companion Retreat to the Book (SELF-STUDY)
      • Exile and Coming Home:
        An Archetypal Journey through the Scriptures
      • Eyes of the Heart:
        Photography as Contemplative Practice
        (Companion retreat to the book)
      • Honoring Saints and Ancestors:
        Online Retreat for the Season of Remembrance
      • Lectio Divina:
        The Sacred Art of Reading the World
      • A Midwinter God:
        Making a Conscious Underworld Journey (SELF-STUDY)
      • Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea & Stone:
        A Creative Retreat with the Elements (SELF-STUDY)
      • Sacred Seasons:
        A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year
      • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
        Eight Practices for the Journey Within
        (a companion retreat to the book)
      • The Soul's Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred (a companion retreat to the book)
      • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire
      • Watershed Moments
        in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures
      • Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist:
        A 12-Week Companion Retreat to The Artist's Rule
      • The Wisdom of the Body:
        A 10-Week Online Companion Retreat to the Book
      • The Wisdom of Mary and the Sacred Feminine
    • Live Programs: Pilgrimage & Retreats
      • Writing on the Wild Edges (Ireland)
      • Hildegard of Bingen (Germany)
      • Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts (Northwest)
  • Calendar
  • Reflections
  • Contact

Monk in the World Guest Post Series

Monk in the World Guest Post: Johanneke Strydom

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Johanneke Strydom's reflection "Wasting Time. . ."

I have this fear of wasting time…  Not to do something worthwhile.  Not to be able to show something for my time spent.  Not to produce…I measure the success of my day in the things done to make the world a better place.  Things produced…  Beauty created. And the hours in between as wasted.  Wasted with things like cooking and washing and reading and relaxing.  The mundane.  Nothing to show.  What a waste!

We are brought up this way.  To use our time well. This precious time we are given on this earth.  To make every minute count, for the good. To act responsible.  To use our talents. Not a moment to lose…  All very good and noble.

?But I get a sense in this, of a restless, hurried heart.  Even frenetic. A kind of arrogance, seeing the self as so important, to get all these important things done. Driven.

And I wonder how much we miss along the way.  Miss of the journey, the scenery, as we rush past?  Past the moment, the now. Rushing past our fellow man…Past God?

But I don't get this sense of urgency when I read my Bible.  When I read about Abraham waiting for the promise, he had to wait more than 20 years…  And that man Noah, he worked and waited 100 years for that first rain to fall… I can go on.  The Israelites in Egypt must have thought, after 400 years, forgotten and forlorn… And then Jesus.  It seems as if He wasted a lot of time…  When his good friend Lazarus was ill, He waited some more days, before going to him.

?He was never too busy to tend to the needy, the sick, the children… Nothing too unimportant for His time.
I get a picture of Him as relaxed, unhurried…

Then I read His words in Mat 6:26: "Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God.  And you count far more than birds… "

Jesus says further in Mat 11: "Are you tired?  Come to Me.  I'll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
And I yearn for this: freedom and lightness… In my daily life.

And I come to see that it is not in the doing, but in the being, that we learn to live in His grace every moment.  That time is His.  That I cannot "waste" time that wasn't mine in the first place to take, to possess.  I come to see that all of life to be sacred.  Because I share it with Him.  Every act becomes a small sacrament of love.  Not wasted, but consecrated.  To hang the washing against a blue sky, to cut the beans…  Nothing wasted…  Everything part of the whole.  I can only pray: "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

And I ask the Spirit to teach me how to move at the pace of grace, rather than my own hurried, self-driven pace.  To live an unhurried life.  Connected deeply to the One who is rooted in Eternity…


Johanneke Strydom is a fulltime artist who finds her inspiration in the natural world around her: rocks, trees, skies, hands and faces.  She conducts creative retreats in her area and opened a creative centre for disadvantaged children and uses art to heal their emotional scars.  She lives on a remote farm in South Africa with her farmer husband and 4 homeschooled children.
You can find her on her website: johanneke.weebly.com
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Leave a Comment April 11, 2018

Upcoming Programs

Dancing with Fear in Troubled Times
March 13, 2021
with Drs. Jamie Marich, Kellie Kirksey, and Christine Valters Paintner

Novena for Times of Unraveling
Becoming a Monk in the World

March 17-25, 2021
with Christine & John Valters Paintner, and Simon de Voil

Recent Reflections

  • Hildy Tales 7: An Nead by John Valters Paintner
  • Sacred Time and Slowing Down ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 6: Céim uile an domhain ~ by John Valters Paintner
  • Join us on a Desert Journey for Lent ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 5: Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin ~ by John Valters Paintner

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