I remember a morning sitting near Delicate Arch in Utah, attempting to capture it on paper with watercolor. A young teen girl walked by me and asked in wonder, “Are you a real artist?!” “Yes,” I said, “just like you.” – She smiled. I am under the opinion that all of us are real artists….
Category: body
Prayer Projects to Deepen Our Connection with God: 3: Praying With Our Body
The guys would crowd around the upstairs window and look down in the courtyard to watch him while he prayed. His prayer time looked more like a work-out. This ‘athlete of Christ’ prayed with his whole body. He would throw his arms straight up and become an arrow shooting to God. Then he would sprawl…
Take a 2 1/2 Minute Forest Bath: Soul Sculpting Project
I recently took my first walk in a pine forest. I have walked through lots of pine forests, but never intentionally in one. I have considered an evergreen forest to be just something that blocks my view. I took my intentional pine forest walk because I’ve been learning a few things lately about evergreen forests…
A little Intentional Quiet: Soul Sculpting Project
Sometimes I walk on winter days when the snow absorbs so much sound that the silence is palatable. When I stand still all I can hear is a bird pushing its wings against the air above me. In the late fall I walk in the aspens. All summer long the birds and leaves spend their…
A Tiny Launch Out of Lazy: Soul Sculpting Project Lent Week 7
Sloth is a complicated sin. In the 7 Deadly Sin List it originally came under the word acedia.That’s a word we don’t even use any more Acedia is related to tedium, melancholy, joylessness, discontent, and apathy. Particularly apathy towards the spiritual life. Theologian Thomas Aquinas called acedia a “sluggishness of the mind which neglects to…
How I Learned to Eat at Glacial Speed: Soul Sculpting Lent Week 5
I don’t know why I grew up to be such a fast eater but by the time I reached college I could walk into the cafeteria, inhale my dinner and be out of there in record time. I think I felt proud of my speed-eating skill. The last year of college, however, I ran into…