January 28

I wrote this haiku in 2020 to accompany the day’s leaf oil painting:

As light shrouds a leaf,

the silence in me is seen.

Love’s warm-hearted gaze.

I remember the moment that little leaf first caught my curiosity as I walked from the River House to the Grünewald Guild Centrum for a morning staff meeting. It took a few attempts to get just the right angle, just the right composition for the photograph. Some time later, I relived that moment again and again, taking apart its wonder and putting it back together again, stroke by stroke, in an oil painting.

I was taken recently by a mantra of bell hooks, “margin to center.” I love a good mantra and this one makes both painterly and gospel sense to me. It’s in the process of seeing and re-membering that we are freed.

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

“Teach us to know that Thy love is so whole and healing that nothing less than all of us can rise to meet Thine all-encompassing care. …we lay bare all that we are to Thy love and Thy understanding, O God.” —Howard Thurman, *Meditations of the Heart*, p. 31-32

“Seven Years of Wonder” is a daily look back at my creative journaling posts since 2014. I began this journey on Feb. 11, 2021, and hope to continue through Feb. 10, 2022. What am I learning about my art and faith journey thus far? What has remained constant? Where have I been changed? How is this impacting present and future art-making?

A deep bow of gratitude to you for keeping me company on this journey.