Posted on

Creating well-being

I wanted to save this post from MinEmergent to ponder through Easter….
Is our primary responsibility to ourselves or to the world? When it comes to creating peace there is only one answer that makes sense. I need to be in peace myself before I can possibly help anyone else to be in peace. I have heard this countered like this: helping others has the result of also helping ourselves. But that is a fallacy. Dirty water cannot make other water clean. A hungry person cannot feed a starving person. The blind cannot lead the blind. It was not God’s intent that we should come into the world and suffer greatly for the sake of others who are also suffering greatly. That’s ridiculous. Suffering creates more suffering. But, healing creates more healing. It works the other way too. Well-being creates more well-being. It’s contagious, just like suffering is. We are all holding up a tent pole underneath a heavy canvas tarp. The higher I raise my own tent pole the easier it is for the person next to me to raise his or hers.
Stephen Muires
Posted on

Basics closeup

Amazing how you see the flaws close-up but the overall picture can still be great. A reminder to work on the details but never lose sight of the big picture.

Posted on

Basic stitching

Warmed up my color muscles, then on to the stitching muscles in the hands, feet, and mind. Some day these will warm up Christmas cards. (Hopefully in 2012)

Posted on

Old basics

Another way to free up creativity is small pieces. Cleaning up the studio I put away a collection of fabric and fused plastic from this palette from summer of 2011.

Posted on

Back to basics

Bottled-up creativity remains quiescent until an outlet is created. Returning to the basics frees the muscles to remember paths once followed and frees the mind to imagine new ones. A stash in need of cleaning, fingers in need of freeing, and a gift not needed combine to form these simple table centers, ready for hospitality.

Hands and imagination shaking off the accumulated rust of doing what is needed, to do it just for fun!

Posted on

Working on the basics

This weekend I had the urge to create something – BUT our studio looked scrambled by a whirlwind. Too many projects, too many unfinished projects, too little clean up. I spent time gathering up the remnants of projects, enjoying the colors and designs and fabric collections and pondering what I had learned from each one. Then I organized my fabric so that I can jump into the new quilt series in my head that is clamoring to be started.

Life is sometimes like my studio. I don’t get things done because I let other things get in the way, sometimes the fear of finishing something and not being satisfied with it. I want to find the courage to finish more things.

Posted on

More water

The original theme was water, but it needed a focal point I thought.  Decided to do a rock (which looks more like an open tomb) as had just finished our Wisdom installation at church, and had images of doorways to wisdom anchored in rocks in my head. How can wisdom be solid and yet grow? I started with oil pastels – next time I will use watercolor pastels on top of water color! Still unfinished.

Posted on

Christ’s presence

Our arts and worship class pondered wisdom and the presence of wisdom. We looked at how Christ embodies wisdom. Here is a quote from “Becoming a Blessed Church” by N. Graham Standish that I’m thinking about this morning.

How do we preach Christ’s presence? We do so by constantly and consistently saying to people, “Look, there’s Christ in your midst, and there, and there, and there!” We do it by showing people that even if they are in darkness, they can find Christ’s light shining through the love of a family member, the kindness of a friend, a phrase in a book, or the inspiration form a song. We can also preach Christ’s presence by reminding people that Christ is in Scripture, in the sacraments, and in all of worship. We preach Christ’s presence by pointing to the incarnation of Christ in everything: our sufferings, our joys, our relationships, and our hearts.

Posted on

Water unfinished

I’ve been puzzling about connectedness of things, the thin veil between our world and God’s world. This is an unfinished piece waiting for a bit more inspiration.

Posted on

Wisdom: before the earth came to be

I’m sewing a fabric installation that we created in our January interim “Worship and the Arts” Sunday School class. What great energy and creativity I experienced as we dialogued about wisdom and faith! This small piece was the inspiration for a piece of our larger installation …. a color play I did over Christmas break in lovely warm Christmas colors that we translated into slightly brighter colors to evoke the variety of seasons of our life here on this earth.

A copy of this piece also formed the backdrop for “Welcome wisdom”.