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vonda drees

journaling the Spirit's stirring

Keep Watch with Me

Keep Watch with Me – Advent 2017

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“God’s entire divine nature is wholly and entirely in all creatures, more deeply, more inwardly, more present than the creature is to itself.” —Martin Luther I’ve been pondering the direction of rising. Yesterday I spent some time on the coast, mesmerized by the movement of the waves. I know there’s lots of physics at play... it was hard to predict how they would act as they came close. All the while there was steadiness, calm, peace in the distant horizon. Last night while watching a movie, I worked on this page without thought. This morning it seems to somehow connect with yesterday’s experience at the coast. Love rises in ways, unpredictably all-ward... Christ’s wholly morning. Happy Easter, Everyone! Christ is risen. #vondadreesart

“There is some kiss we want with our whole lives, the touch of Spirit on the body. Seawater begs the pearl to break its shell. And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild Darling! At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come and press its face into mine. Breathe into me. Close the language-door, and open the love-window. The moon won’t use the door, only the window.” —Rumi In the fullness of breath, we breathe YHWH. With every breath we get to practice a pause that holds together our inhale and exhale without any required fanfare of its sacredness. When Jesus exhaled, why did the world keep breathing Love’s trajectory? #vondadreesart

“Love seeks out the tears of hidden hearts And turns not from the Lovers of the Dawn. Is there a remedy for the pain of love? Or is it too unbearable for thought? One taste of the medicine And you will realize just how sick you have been. Those who plead in the defense of love In love’s judgment shall find grace And to that court, Hafiz May your heart fly...” ‘Wings of Love’ —Hafiz “...what is it to realize that there is an endless source of love at the very root of who we are?” —Alana Levandoski “God protects us from nothing, but unexplainably sustains us in all things.” —James Finley #vondadreesart

I’ve come to the point in the seven-theme project that I’m close to wrapping it up. Just like reading the final chapter of a good book, I don’t want it to come to an end. So, what do I do? I pick up on another project, trusting that the next mountain will move me, too. In days to come the mountain of YHWH’s house will be established as the highest of the mountains, and raised above the hills; all the nations will stream toward it. —Isaiah 2:2 In mountain moments, peace comes unexpectedly, convergent oneness. #vondadreesart

“The zest for living requires a sense that our lives are making a difference in terms of the whole that has not yet fully come into being. ... God allows the Divine Self to be somewhat textured by what happens in the creation that God has made incarnate... By entering into the flesh of the Cosmos, ...God takes the whole cosmic process into the Divine Self and is interested that that world becomes such as to be able to open itself fully... and that’s a process.” —John F. Haught in an audio interview with Brie Stoner at the Omega Center “We are always looking for ways to concretize or name the ineffable experience of [the] objectless sense of intimacy in our Cosmos.” —Brie Stoner #vondadreesart

“Moments of knowing can never be planned. They are given to us. Our responding ‘yes’ is given to us as well. We can not force it. We can only recognize it and then gratefully receive it.” —Gunilla Norris, Sheltered in the Heart . ‘Yes’ opens something within that renders wholeness, a dollop of grace. . Grateful for Anne Edison-Albright’s invitation to create some images to accompany a new resource for worshiping communities on an academic calendar. I believe the resource will be called Blessed is the Lectionary: Seasons and Texts for the Academic Year. This creative work is being funded by a Vital Worship Grant from the Calvin Institute on Worship. . #vondadreesart

“It is in the womb of silence that we can grow ideas for the best course of action to take and ensure that such action is rooted in compassion and wisdom.” —Mirka Knaster I share here what is likely still becoming the image for the theme of “Thriving.” It was the first of the seven images that I colored and I learned some things that I chose to do differently in subsequent images. Still... to me this image has something to convey regarding Palm Sunday, the day we shout Hosanna, the day that marks the beginning of Passion Week. “We cannot make the kingdom of God happen, but we can put out leaves as it draws near. We can be kind to each other. We can be kind to ourselves.” —Frederick Buechner “How can we say what silence and quiet attention reveal to us? In every moment, we are presented with arrays of some assorted light, too complicated to name or fully notice. Yet in an instant we can rest upon a small ‘pointe vierge’ and there be born anew...” —Anne Marie Walsh, an excerpt from her poem, “Deep Within” #vondadreesart

This image is about the theme of wandering. It figures that my journaling to accompany it would also feel like a Wild Goose chase. I’ve gone from watching Cinderella’s bippity boppity boo scene (because you know, wand-er) to Slinky tutorials to Psalm 107. It’s a big tangled mystery... and my deliverance? It comes in the form of the OK and Share buttons. #vondadreesart

This image’s inspiration was the theme of complaining. I wanted to convey the idea of how our grumbling fractures the body and that this brings about great sorrow. Still, we are held in a flood of love that won’t let us go. It brings to mind the heartache and longing of Jesus to gather us as he was about to enter Jerusalem. As I sit a bit longer with this image, I see baptism. #vondadreesart

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