when we say, "I feel uncomfortable with the silence..."
re-imaging our idea of what prayer can be
Often in prayer we can “feel uncomfortable with the silence.”
The reason we are so afraid of silence and solitude is because in these spaces we confront our interior poverty.
In prayer we often participate with God through words, sentences, paragraphs composed with the desire to connect to the Creator of all things. Yet in a life of constant giving, our composed prayers seem parched from a deep dryness of self-emptying.
To be silent, to be alone, is the very act of being drawn INTO instead of being drawn from.
The move from activity to inactivity, that is to say from doing to being, is to allow the Well Spring of Life to fill all that must be deep for a life of giving.
You can only give from what you have been given.
Be still and let yourself be given.
…
I’ve actually been saying a line from this beloved poem over and over again….
“idle and blessed”
This is a series of images and meditations I put together to “re-image” our idea of what prayer can be. I think we often feel like we fail at prayer because we can’t accomplish the internal image of what we think prayer is (hands clasped on a mountain at sunset for example). I put this altogether in a series of posters called Teach Us To Pray.
IN PERSON
This week I’ll be participating in two events I’m so excited about.
Today! Portland, Oregon
My good friend Brit Barron has a great book dropping this week and I’ll be cohosting the conversation about it at Third Eye Books on Division Street at 7pm tonight!
Friday! Los Angeles!
Going to get to do a stand up comedy set at the beginning of this brilliant improv show. It’s such a fun night and you won’t want to miss it. Tickets are almost gone so if you’re in the LA area come on out!
I loved the way this reminded me of those times when I still thought prayer was ‘x’ but didn’t know what ‘x’ was. It reminded me that now I simply see pray as Love given and received - Sometimes me to God reaching to surrender all I am to His Beauty and Vastness- and other times He embracing me in my nothingness- refilling me with His Spirit. - but most often together serving and mutually blessing.
How would you draw that dear soul?