This image holds mystery and has caused me “to wonder “about it all year. With what do you resonate? Is this about someone on a journey moving into the unknown? It captivates me as to what personal meaning it holds, but I am reassured it is gift and blessing. Questions emerge, such as, “What is this art saying? What might it be calling me to?” There is more to evolve, unfold, and speak. However, there too, trickling into my consciousness, are also elements of fear.
At this time of Advent, I ruminate about Mary, mother of Jesus, and her call to come to the edge, to be an “edge walker”, the call to carry child and deliver. For her that path had to evoke shifting degrees of fear.
Margaret Wheatley, in her recent address at the Leadership Conference for Women Religious, spoke on Finding Ground in the Age of Groundlessness and writes; “we are called to be careful listeners to the still small voice that is leading us to the edge” and, she says, that requires “surrender.” Yes, surrender can evoke fear, hence the need to continue to unpack the energy, mystery and trepidation I experience with this painting. It has been said by others before me, that every work of art moves us in some degree to greater revelation, change, challenge and is gift.
This painting, Evolving Consciousness, was created in a brief span of time in an effort to be “faithful to the moment”. In the act of continuous surrender, our own art has power to reveal and move soul into an amazing depth, writes Stephen Nachmanovitch, author of Free Play. He goes on to add, “Surrender means cultivating a comfortable attitude toward not knowing, being nurtured by the mystery of moments that are dependably surprising, ever fresh.” Through creativity, and with our humble simplistic, honest art, we can bring about awakened consciousness and way of relating with self and others and in our world. We are called into the new day where God is seeking to create through us.
TRANSFORMATIVE ACTION:
- Experience letting go by doodling. Without judging your art, notice what images emerge and trace over it a few times. How might this image speak to you?
- What thought or word do you carry forward as we go deeper into these Advent days?
MUSIC VIDEO: Echoes in Rain: Enya, 2015 - https://youtu.be/8DDHulO485k
WHILE WE WAIT – ADVENT REFLECTIONS 2016
Spiritual Ministries Network of the Sisters of St. Joseph and Associates of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada – London Site
ART and TEXT: Sr. Patricia St. Louis, csj - mshamley@csjcanada.org
Wheatley, Margaret. Transcript of Address. Finding Ground in the Age of Groundlessness. 2016 Assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious August 10, 2016 https://lcwr.org/sites/default/files/calendar/attachments/lcwr_2016_assembly_keynote_-_margaret_wheatley.pdf
Nachmanovitch, Stephen. Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art. (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, INC./Penguin, 1990)