WOW – Dismissal – vonda drees art

Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
And how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows
That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

-from Bob Dylan’s – Blowin’ in the Wind

Welcome to Day 38 of the Wonders of Worship (WOW) series. Today we ponder the Dismissal.

I remember a moment after a particular morning shower, decades ago, when I noticed my exhales were creating swirls in the steam. If I breathed out with too much force, the swirls disappeared.

Ever so gently,

breath swirls form – grace in motion.

We’re dismissed in peace.

Ways to Engage:

Practice Visio Divina (receive, reflect, respond, rest) with the painting.
Notice something moving around you — cream swirling in your coffee, leaves dancing in the breeze, a bird or squirrel going about their day. Are you influencing the movement at all?
Download the B&W image. Color it on your own or with a friend. Color in silence or while listening to some Bob Dylan music. Let it inspire further contemplation/conversation.
You do you. Trust your intuition and engage in the way your heart desires.

To download the black and white image for personal use: on a computer, click and drag the image to your desktop; on a phone, press on the picture until it gives you the option to save it to your photos. The image is formatted to fit on an 8.5″x11″ piece of paper, but feel free to print it whatever size you’d like.

Background: I created a series of forty 5″x7″ watercolor paintings inspired by the elements of worship. It was work commissioned by a project with Nourishing Vocation with Children at St. Olaf College, a program funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative.

As the paintings are shared, you may notice a pattern: