God, give us a boost of grace, a spring in our step, a love hitch! Help us be bold! It’s time to leap into something new together!
2020
I’ve been remembering the time a deer hitch-leaped over the hood of my car.
“Instead, the prophet speaks from a lightness that seems to come flooding in upon him despite all the hopelessness of his situation. There is a spring to his step—‘like the feet of a deer’—and his path leads upward, toward the heights.” —Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystical Hope
“Suffering [of community in crisis] cannot be absorbed by individuals, no matter how tenuous and invisible the bonds of community are. Individuals cannot respond. You must do it as a community, for safety, for comfort, and for survival.” —Dr. Barbara Holmes
2019
Grateful this morning to share this image created by the hands and hearts of ten women participating in Opening to Sacred Play, a retreat I was blessed to co-facilitate with YogaMass Author Gena Davis. In one of our exercises, we did a creative “round robin” of sorts as we each offered collaborative marks on one another’s pages while reading together Hafiz’s “We Have Not Come Here to Take Prisoners.”
2018 – Artwork for the ELCA TX-LA Gulf Coast Synod
2018
“If the Stations [of the Cross] relate a chronological story through physical space, our embodied path through them becomes another more mysterious journey of discovery. … We are each a witness to the deepest self where our longing and hope reside.” ~Cary Gibson, Keep Watch with Me Lenten Reader
2017
Cynthia Bourgeault writes about the Law of Three: “The conscious energy that it seems to infuse into any situation is itself a precious energetic boost to a world dashing itself to pieces in the rocks of either/or.”
2016
“This meal fed the weary souls gathered that evening and reminded us that we have an incredible God who has sent Jesus Christ as constant nourishment and strength for us along this journey… strength so that we might keep our eyes, ears and hearts open to the constant word of hope that God breathes into our world every day.” ~Jessie Obrecht, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago
2015
“To keep breathing, stubborn in the rhythm of intake and release by which you will fill your yearning lungs not for the waiting road but for your leap by which the road will come” -a segment from today’s Beloved blessing from Jan Richardson
2014
Marked with the Cross of Christ… Lectio Journal – A spiritual journal is a record of God’s word to you. Does anything in the Philippians 2:4-8 passage stand out to you? Make notes on what stirs you. Perhaps you’d enjoy adding color, shapes and images to your notes. Give yourself permission to be immersed in creating. Don’t worry about the outcome, just enjoy the creative conversation. Back in January, I reflected on that passage while in Peru. This is a journal page created during my time with our brothers and sisters there.
vonda drees art 