Fall Run

Another fall evening run with geese flying in into the pond for the night, preparing for the trip south. My runs around the pond and through a stretch of woods has become my new wooded wonder for thoughts to flow. But, the real woods will always that place of my childhood.

It is in the woods, just a block from my house that I grew up. It is in the woods, I took many walks with my mom, where we hid behind trees playing hide and go seek with my dog Poppy, where I found my arrowhead, where friends and I explored, played, sledded, and pretended many adventures. It maybe shouldn’t be a surprise that when asked to imagine being in a favorite place from childhood that I would find myself standing silently in the midst of a visual wind in my woods.

This was a wind that I could see. It moved slowly almost like the ripples of water moving between rocks in a gentle moving stream. This spirit wind was a warm, messaging, comforting wind. I recognized this wind as sweet spirit breath, living, giving life, proclaiming presence, inviting the imagination to be free.

It was in this wooded spirit blown place that I was asked to visualize the meeting of Jesus. It was here I was asked to visualize the receiving of a gift. What came to mind was a large, maybe two feet long, paint brush. I understood right away, that this brush is designed to help me paint, not on canvas, as Randi did so often, but in the hearts and lives of people. My life, my vocation, my ministry may best be described as an art. I have been given the opportunity to paint, coloring lives, inviting people to see and recognize God in the midst of the everyday. Maybe as an artist my job is that is helping people to step out of the traffic, to see God, even in the midst of all the busy stuff at work, in relationships, in the world, in the church, all the stuff that does become political, manipulative and way to noisy. Again this verse, Psalm 46 vs. 10 out of "The Message,” pulls and tugs at my imagination. These words are becoming one of my best understanding of Spiritual Direction.

"Step out of the traffic!
Take a long, loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything."