Month: January 2015

a blessing in times of trial

A blessing for the trials of life When the winds blow sideways and the candles flicker, giving way to a black wick and a small smoke trail and when life brings fears more numerous than joys; may you climb up under God's wings to escape the burning barn. And when...

a blessing in times of trial

A blessing for the trials of life When the winds blow sideways and the candles flicker, giving way to a black wick and a small smoke trail and when life brings fears more numerous than joys; may you climb up under God's wings to escape the burning barn. And when...

green martyrdom

Green is a color associated with life.  In precious stones it is often an emerald as in this broach; and yet green along with blue makes up a large part of what we see when we look at our planet. Green is also the color of martyrdom.  The church has...

spontaneity

The ego is one of the great barriers to the spiritual life; and spontaneity is its arch enemy. Dangling like this tear-drop emerald, the ego sits engorged and angry-drunk on a make-shift throne like a twelve-foot slug on a velvet love-seat. Spontaneity, on the other hand, is, I believe, a...

birds and the art of the spiritual life

This diamond bird broach is six inches high and would have been quite the fashion statement in its day when work on the chest of a lady in black. The bird is a frequent symbol in religious art and often represents the Holy Spirit, but turns up frequently in scriptures...

sparkling in our being

This diamond bow must have sparkled from the bodice of the elegant woman who funded it. Feminine, quiet, even simple in its drapes and folds, the craftsman who made it was able to give it textures of fabric even as metal was being formed to make the most of sparkle....

…don’t you dare! …or perhaps…

These wisps of diamonds and platinum are the final curls of a bird's tail in a massive, bold broach from the Brilliant exhibit at the Denver Art Museum.  The entire broach is of diamonds, and yet at the end of this tail are these two green stones sparkling like green-wigged...

a life of clear “yes” and “no”

Color works in reverse.  This smooth-cut emerald is green because it absorbs other colors and rejects the color we see.  Black absorbs all color which is one of the reasons why it is so often associated with death. When an emerald rejects blue and yellow we see green, and so...

friendship’s adventures

It can be so easy to spend our inner life in the suburbs of our soul rather than venturing forth to the rocky coastline of risk and vulnerability.  Within the gated communities of our mind are house after house, street after street, lamp post after lamp post of repetition.  What...

friendship’s faithfullness

Yesterday friends and I talked for many hours.  We allowed the space between us to midwife deeper friendship and the presence of God was palpable. Making friendship is a craft which seems to be a molten core of the Christian life and even the human life.  Deepening trust, sharing longings,...