Skip to content

Home
Blog
Teaching
Commissions
Shop
Contact

vonda drees

journaling the Spirit's stirring

highlights of my work

YogaMass by Gena Davis

Coloring Meditations

Ignatian Reflection

ELCA World Hunger – 40 Days of Giving

Mystical Hope

All Anew – Women of the ELCA Triennial

Oneing Transformation

Keep Watch with Me – Advent 2017

The Divine Dance

Follow Blog via Email

Once a week, receive the image that created the most stir... straight to your inbox. Enter your email address.

Join 59 other followers

Daily Instagram

“A blessing is the natural expression of the fiery love and inclusiveness of our inner spirit. It is the manifestation of a soul-fire, and each of us can be its hearth. Each of us, you and I, can be points of reconnection, points of remembrance, points of love. We can be blessings.” —David Spangler, Blessing: The Art and Practice #vondadreesart

“The way of the feminine is about the movement of formlessness into form, from quietude to expression, a pouring of the waters of the void into the ground of being.” —Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy “...this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together...” —2 Corinthians 1:20-ish (MSG) I share this next part from Mirabai’s book because I have just an inkling of what today’s image (which has been the final page of one of my journals for months now) is about: “We cannot squeeze ourselves through the eye of the needle to reach the land of wild creativity whilst saddled to the frontal cortex...” #vondadreesart

“The house of God is not a safe place. It is a cross where time and eternity meet, and where we are — or should be — challenged to live more vulnerably, more interdependently.” —Madeleine L’Engle From the get-go, the ink blob on this page reminded me of a plowshare. And then came a funny moment this morning as I was searching for the song with lyrics I somehow twisted... I would have sworn that “Keep your hands to yourself” was sung “Keep your hands to the plow.” Restructured lyrics stir life’s soil of memories. God’s hemming humor. #vondadreesart

Grateful for the good news I heard today at @fabricmpls. #vondadreesart

“Time inhales, and I am suspended in that space between breaths.” —Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy #vondadreesart

“A miraculous event occurs when we throw the lead of our personal story into the transformative flames of creativity. Our hardship is transmuted into something golden. With that gold we heal ourselves and redeem the world.” —Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy #vondadreesart

“There is a kabbalistic story in which the boundless, formless unified Holy One wishes to know its Holy Self, and so it contracted and poured itself into vessels. But the Divine Radiance was too much for these limited containers, and so they shattered, scattering shards of broken light across the universe, giving birth to all that is. ... Humans, as the teaching goes, were created to excavate and lift the shards of light from the dense predicament of existence and restore the vessels to wholeness. In mystical Judaism, this teaching is known as ‘tikkun olam,’ the mending of the world. ... It means slowing down enough to let the pain of the world all the way into our hearts, allowing our hearts to break open, and acting from that broken-open space.” —Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy Sounds a lot like living an artful life to me. #vondadreesart

“The Divine Feminine is a prism who throws her radiant reflections in all directions.” —Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy #vondadreesart

“The way of the feminine is the way of connecting. ... To walk as a feminine mystic in this world is to recognize that our lives are interpenetrated with the lives of all sentient beings and that the One we love shines from every nexus in that web of interbeing. Whenever we tend to a single strand, we are participating in the care of the whole.” —Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy That last sentence is an especially meaningful one as it brings to mind a vulnerable conversation with a Guild intern as we talked about ways to tend that single strand. If you look carefully at this image, you may notice that there is a strand connecting inner and outer; the strand’s looping connectors have three opening inward toward the light source and three opening outward. Mirabai continues, “Traditionally, the primary concern of the mystic has been communion with the Divine, and the major issue for the prophet has been speaking truth. For the feminine, however, the line between contemplative life and social and environmental action is blurry... She turns inward, where she recognizes herself in all beings, which moves her to turn outward and act on behalf of the whole.” #vondadreesart

Search for:

Blog at WordPress.com.