Christine Valters Paintner's Blog, page 91

The World Begins to Flower ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

Beltane (which means bright fire) is another of the cross-quarter days, representing the mid-point between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice and it is often experienced at the height of spring. In Ireland it is considered to be the beginning of summer and the beginning of the light half of the year. We can feel the significant shift in light at this latitude and the days are becoming significantly longer. Temperatures are warmer. Flowering has come to its fullness. Birds are singing in full chorus.

In Ireland the cuckoo birds start arriving from their winter in Africa, and there are music and walking festivals named after its return.

The power of nature’s life force returning is celebrated. Two fires were lit and the sheep and cattle were brought to the summer pastures. It is a fire festival of fertility and garlands of flowers are made up in honor of the creative abundance beginning to stream forth from the land.

This time of year celebrates the rising sap, the fruitfulness of the earth and human beings, and all in the process of ripening toward fullness. We honor the life force at work in the world around us and within us.

Beltane is connected to the later Christian feast of Pentecost, that great celebration of the church coming alive and to full fruits. Fire and wind signal the Spirit breathing through the people and the land to inspire them in new ways.

(Excerpted from our Sacred Seasons yearlong journey through the Celtic wheel of the year. You can find out more and join at this link).

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

P.S. For our Southern Hemisphere monks here is a link to a seasonal reflection for you >>

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner

Call for Submissions: Monk in the World Guest Posts

We welcome you to submit your reflection for possible publication in our Monk in the World guest post series. It is a gift to read how ordinary people are living lives of depth and meaning in the midst of the challenges of real life.

There are so many talented writers and artists in this Abbey community, so this is a chance to share your perspective. The link to the reflection will be included in our weekly newsletter which goes out to thousands of subscribers.

Please follow these instructions carefully:

Please click this link to read a selection of the posts and get a feel for the tone and quality.
Submit your own post of 700-900 words on the general theme of "How do I live as a monk in the world?How do I bring contemplative presence to my work and/or family?" It works best if you focus your reflection on one aspect of your life or a practice you have, or you might reflect on how someone from the monastic tradition has inspired you. We invite reflections on the  practice  of living contemplatively.
Please include a head shot and brief bio written in the third person (50 words max). You are welcome to include 1-2 additional images if they help to illustrate your reflection in meaningful ways.  All images should be your own. Please make sure the file size of each the images is smaller than 1MB. You can resize your image for free here.
We will be accepting submissions between now and June 24th for publication sometime in the summer and fall 2018 and beyond (depending on the number of submissions).  We reserve the right to make edits to the content as needed (or to request you to make edits) and submitting your reflection does not guarantee publication on the Abbey blog, but we will do our best to include as many of you as possible.
Email your submission  to Melinda by June 24th and include the reflection pasted into the body of your email and attach your photo(s).

We will be back in touch with you at the latest by the middle of August to let you know if your post is accepted, if edits are needed, and/or when we have scheduled your post to appear.

Monk in the World Guest Post: Michele Chung

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to our Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Michele Chung's reflection, "Always We Begin Again."

I first learned about this phrase “begin again” right here on Abbey of the Arts. It is the best piece of wisdom for a recovering perfectionist like me. The idea to “begin again” gave me permission to stop the incessant self-criticism and this obsession to dwell on my latest “failed” attempts. It reminded me to focus on moving forward in my journey.

Growth is often a dance that takes three steps forward and two steps back.  Last year, I started a new job, lost the job, and moved out of the house we’ve stayed at for 8 years. Changes abound. After the dust settled, I had more time, and started to draw and paint again. It’s challenging to return to a craft after being away for so long. I’ve forgotten even the most basic skills. While re-learning all of the elementary lessons, doubts crept in. Can I ever recover my muse? Perhaps I was a “one-hit wonder” and my best works were long behind me. I felt defeated. Now then, how do I move forward? Always, we begin again.

Beginning again wiped clean my own expectations and gave me the permission to just be a “beginner.”  As such, I had nothing to lose, and nothing to prove. Eventually, I regained my creative confidence, and entered my artworks into a local art show. Although my works have been accepted by the show in the past, this time, they were rejected. Once more,doubts and disappointments snuffed out all of my creativity. I was depressed, and lost my desire to paint. Every stroke felt like a step towards failure.

What I didn’t realize was that the rejection was a perfect way to work through my tendency to look for outside approval. After the death of rejection, always, we begin again. This time, I had a better understanding of my innate desire to create beauty. I create because it is my pursuit and expression of beauty. People's feedback still affects me, but they no longer hold much importance.

As we begin again, we shed off the burdens of the previous day’s success, failures, compliments and criticisms.  We begin again in freedom to enjoy the journey itself. The journey is made up of many small steps. As I continued to draw and paint, I realized that each of my artwork is a culmination of the many hours I’ve spent in observation and practice. The process involved both successful and unsuccessful moments. However, every step I take, I’m building on top of all of these experiences.  I’ve benefited from my “bad” days as well as the “good” days. Each step contributed to my growth. As I consistently learn to “begin again” I’ve seen breakthroughs and growth in my works – often when I least expect them.

Being faithful is a key element of growth. With any growing process, we can only develop lasting change if we persist and participate in that process. Learning to begin again has helped me deal with disappointments, rejections and burn out. When I feel discouraged, and want to throw in the towel – always we begin again. I can return to that place of being an absolute novice, and enjoy the childlike wonder in discovery and play. After all, it is that curiosity and joy that first drew me into the creative world, and that is a great place to be.

Michele loves creating, reading and learning about all things contemplative. She lives in Silicon Valley with her husband and a house full of books. Currently, she’s focusing on developing her artistic and writing skills. You can find her writings at mzchele.wordpress.com, and her artworks  on Instragram: @imagochele.

Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

Like many of you, global events lately feel quite overwhelming at times and I ponder and pray about my response. One thing I keep coming back to is a sense of deep certainty that the way of the monk and path of the artist make a difference in the world. What distinguishes these two ways of being is that each are called to live deliberately on the edges of things, in active resistance to a world that places all its value on speed and productivity, that reduces people to producers and consumers, and reduces the earth to a commodity for our use.

The longer I follow this path in my life, the more I consider hospitality to be one of the most essential of all the monk’s wisdom. To practice actively welcoming in what is most strange or other in my world as the very place of divine encounter – what St Benedict tells us in the Rule – is a holy challenge! But in a world where otherness sparks so much fear and policies which further divide us, learning to embrace the gift of the stranger, both within our own hearts, as well as in the world is a true balm.

This is what Jesus taught as well through his actions everyday – welcoming the outcast, the stranger, the foreigner. Always breaking boundaries to witness to immense love over fear.

Perhaps the other great essential for me is the practice of silence and solitude. Making time for a deep listening, rather than reacting to what we hear. What are the sacred invitations being whispered in quiet moments? And can we resist a culture of noise where we are bombarded with endless cycles of news.

In her book Mystical Hope, Cynthia Bourgeault writes that "(Mystical hope) has something to do with presence — not a future good outcome, but the immediate experience of being met, held in communion, by something intimately at hand." Allowing time to feel met by the divine and held in communion is a reminder for us as we return to the demands of our lives and seek to make wise and compassionate choices. It helps to nourish hope deep within us.

In my book The Artist’s Rule, I include a favorite scripture passage:

Now I am revealing new things to you, things hidden and unknown to you, created just now, this very moment. Of these things you have heard nothing until now. So that you cannot say, Oh yes, I knew this. (Isaiah 48:6-7 – Jerusalem Bible translation)

It is a reminder that more than ever we need people willing to pause and listen, to open their hearts to what is uncomfortable, and to hold space and attention until the new thing emerges.

I don’t have the answers, but I do have ancient practices which help to sustain me when I would rather run away. Perhaps if we keep practicing together, we will hear whispers of a new beginning.

(We are starting an online journey in community through my book The Artist’s Ruleon May 28th, you can join us at this link).

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner

Monk in the World Guest Post: Amanda K. Berg

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Amanda K. Berg's reflection Surrender and Gratitude.

"Surrender and Gratitude"

 – St. Therese Lisieux

As the wheels of the plane touched ground in Los Angeles, that place in the deepest part of my gut awakened.  You know that place too. It is the place that comes alive when you experience a sense of loss, like losing a loved one or ending a relationship. It comes alive when you realize that you are lost, like a child in the grocery store that went over a few aisles too many, and panic sets in because they are not sure of which way to go.  It comes alive with new beginnings, like starting a new job, a new school, or a new season in life. It is that space deep down within you that is sending a signal that something is shifting in your universe- something that will require your whole self to take note, and is not going to be easy.

After living five, life-giving, green years in Ireland, my family and I returned to Southern California. Repatriation had begun, and I wasn’t ready. The year we left, 2011, marked the year California began to experience one of its worst droughts on record. Upon our return in 2016, we found ourselves in the midst of it.  All was brown. There was an eerie lifelessness in the air. The trees in our town looked as if they were barely holding on, pine straw and bark had replaced the once green lawns of our parks, and residential lawns were brown except for the few bright green patches of fake grass which looked a bit forced, awkward, and out of place. Our lawn was no exception. Patches of dirt had emerged where green grass had once been, and a thirty-year-old beautiful Birch tree in our back yard was dead. Our hearts sank.

The first few months I found myself limping along. I distracted myself by reconnecting with old friends, working on our house, and reacquainting myself with life in America. But much like the parched landscape, I felt dried up.

Before I left Ireland, I was finishing up my course in Spiritual Direction, and in my readings, came across this from the 19th Century Carmelite nun, St. Therese of Lisieux, “Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude.” Surrender and gratitude; I keep coming back to these words again and again.

For me, the practice of “surrender and gratitude” sets a framework for my spiritual journey that yields gentle peace and soft joy. I believe they are good companions for all of us. The paths we walk are a mixture of the barren and the abundant, the delightful and the dangerous, the smooth and the rough, the peaceful and the chaotic.  With surrender and gratitude alongside us, these paths become sacred paths of discovery about God, others, and ourselves. God calls us toward a deeper love, to walk these sacred paths together with God and others. When we intentionally practice surrender and gratitude in our lives, we can more earnestly say with Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well.”

Many days, I still feel like I am limping along, but I know that one day my limping will turn into dancing, and then, one day, I will be limping again, and so it goes. But what I am discovering, ever so slowly, is that with surrender and gratitude as my companions, my rough edges are a bit smoother, my heart is a bit lighter, and whatever bits I can offer others is offered from that deep place inside. When my gut says change is upon me, I can welcome it and find gratitude peeking around the corner, and invite it to come over and fill this space of unknowing.

The most helpful image for me this past year has been the succulent plant. Soon after moving back to California, I noticed them everywhere. They have become the trendy “it” plant and I am grateful because it means that wherever I go, I see them. At the grocery store, on restaurant tables, at coffee shops, I see them.  What I love about the succulent is that it has learned to adapt to the dryness gracefully. It is filled with sustenance to keep it going through the dry spells. It comes in lots of varieties and colors, radiates a simple beauty, and is smooth to the touch. It resists pests, and gives new life to the soil where it’s planted. It propagates new plants by simply letting a dry, unattached leaf that has fallen into the soil, take root and regenerate. It creates new beginnings wherever it finds itself, and sometimes, it even flowers and blooms.

And so, I planted a succulent garden and have placed two stones there that read, “Surrender and Gratitude.” Yes Lord, let it be so.

Amanda K. Berg is a spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and speaker living in Southern California with her husband Eric, three daughters, and their little dog Gracie.  After 22 years of raising her daughters, she stands on the threshold of seeing what’s behind the next door.

 

Updates on 2019 Retreats & Pilgrimages – Join Us!

We are currently registering for four retreats and pilgrimages in Ireland next spring 2019.

Please note: From June 2019-June 2020 the Abbey will be taking some sabbatical time and no live programs will be offered then. After the dates above, the next live programs will be scheduled in fall 2020.

Due to fewer programs being on offer the ones currently available are starting to fill even more quickly than usual. Please get in touch with us if you are interested in joining us! Happy to answer any questions.

March 26-April 3, 2019

Soul’s Slow Ripening – Monastic Wisdom for Discernment (Ireland)

Limited to 12 participants

For details and registration click here>>

April 14-19, 2019

Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea, and Stone:

An Embodied Writing and Voice Retreat on the island of Inismor (Ireland)

Limited to 16 participants

For details and registration click here>>

April 27-May 3, 2019

Writing on the Wild Edges on the Island of Inismor (Ireland)

Limited to 16 participants

For details and registration click here>> (Only five spaces left!)

May 28-June 5, 2019

Monk in the World Pilgrimage in Ireland (Ireland)

Limited to 12 participants

For details and registration click here>> (Only three spaces left!)

What is Blossoming Within You? (continued) ~ A Love Note from your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

This excerpt “Abundance and Hope” is from our reflective art journal What is Blossoming Within You? Years ago, when the Abbey was based in Seattle, we used to produce several of these volumes full of color photos, quotes, and reflections. Since moving, the physical copies are no longer produced, however you can download a digital copy for free at this link>>

The fertility of spring speaks of an abundantly creative God who is at the source of the potent life force beating at the heart of the world.  Created in God’s image, we are called to participate in this generous creativity ourselves.  Our own blossoming leads us to share our gifts with the world.

There is a playfulness and spontaneity to the season of spring, that invites us to join this joyful abandon.  We are called to both listen deeply to the blossoming within ourselves as well as to forget ourselves — setting aside all of our seriousness about what we are called to do and simply enter the space of being.  In this field of possibility we discover new gifts.

In the Hebrew Scriptures the promise of God’s abundance is often conceived of as blossoming in the desert. In that harsh landscape, a blossom bursting forth from the dry land is a symbol of divine generosity and fruitfulness.

Hope is never a denial of our pain and suffering. In hope we honor the whole spectrum of our human experience, the tension of blessing and curse. Hope is a stance of radical openness to the God of newness and possibility. When we hope, we name a God who has an imagination far more expansive than we do. It is in this wide landscape of possibility that hope is born.

Spring is the season when we are invited to celebrate the abundance of life. In this season of budding and blooming we are also called to notice our own places of abundance and scarcity as well as the places of fearfulness and hopefulness.

What are the elements of your life that feel most alive and vital?  How are you called to nurture these more deeply?

What are the elements of your life that feel most life-draining, scarce, and fearful?  How are you being called to hold these places lightly, offering them back to a God of abundance?

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner

Monk in the World Guest Post: Johanneke Strydom

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Johanneke Strydom's reflection "Wasting Time. . ."

I have this fear of wasting time…  Not to do something worthwhile.  Not to be able to show something for my time spent.  Not to produce…I measure the success of my day in the things done to make the world a better place.  Things produced…  Beauty created. And the hours in between as wasted.  Wasted with things like cooking and washing and reading and relaxing.  The mundane.  Nothing to show.  What a waste!

We are brought up this way.  To use our time well. This precious time we are given on this earth.  To make every minute count, for the good. To act responsible.  To use our talents. Not a moment to lose…  All very good and noble.

​But I get a sense in this, of a restless, hurried heart.  Even frenetic. A kind of arrogance, seeing the self as so important, to get all these important things done. Driven.

And I wonder how much we miss along the way.  Miss of the journey, the scenery, as we rush past?  Past the moment, the now. Rushing past our fellow man…Past God?

But I don't get this sense of urgency when I read my Bible.  When I read about Abraham waiting for the promise, he had to wait more than 20 years…  And that man Noah, he worked and waited 100 years for that first rain to fall… I can go on.  The Israelites in Egypt must have thought, after 400 years, forgotten and forlorn… And then Jesus.  It seems as if He wasted a lot of time…  When his good friend Lazarus was ill, He waited some more days, before going to him.

​He was never too busy to tend to the needy, the sick, the children… Nothing too unimportant for His time.

I get a picture of Him as relaxed, unhurried…

Then I read His words in Mat 6:26: "Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God.  And you count far more than birds… "

Jesus says further in Mat 11: "Are you tired?  Come to Me.  I'll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

And I yearn for this: freedom and lightness… In my daily life.

And I come to see that it is not in the doing, but in the being, that we learn to live in His grace every moment.  That time is His.  That I cannot "waste" time that wasn't mine in the first place to take, to possess.  I come to see that all of life to be sacred.  Because I share it with Him.  Every act becomes a small sacrament of love.  Not wasted, but consecrated.  To hang the washing against a blue sky, to cut the beans…  Nothing wasted…  Everything part of the whole.  I can only pray: "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

And I ask the Spirit to teach me how to move at the pace of grace, rather than my own hurried, self-driven pace.  To live an unhurried life.  Connected deeply to the One who is rooted in Eternity…

Johanneke Strydom is a fulltime artist who finds her inspiration in the natural world around her: rocks, trees, skies, hands and faces.  She conducts creative retreats in her area and opened a creative centre for disadvantaged children and uses art to heal their emotional scars.  She lives on a remote farm in South Africa with her farmer husband and 4 homeschooled children.

You can find her on her website: johanneke.weebly.com

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Dearest Monks, Artists, and Pilgrims,

This email was sent to our newsletter list, but in case yours got caught in the spam filter here are the details to stay on our mailing list.

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Please opt in again as soon as possible as all emails will be sent out from the new list starting immediately. We will send a couple more reminders in coming weeks. If we do not hear anything back from you by May 24th we will be required to remove you from the list.

I know it is tedious to have one more thing to do arriving to your inbox, and we are deeply grateful for all of your support whether you are a new subscriber or have been following us for years. This is something required of us and we look forward to many more years of sharing inspiration, resources, and reflections with you.

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With much love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE, OblSB

Abbey of the Arts

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What is Blossoming Within You? ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Dearest monks and artists,

This excerpt “Slowing Down” is from our reflective art journal What is Blossoming Within You? Years ago, when the Abbey was based in Seattle, we used to produce several of these volumes full of color photos, quotes, and reflections. Since moving, the physical copies are no longer produced, however you can download a digital copy for free at this link>>

It takes time to see.  Around us the world is exploding in a celebration of new life and we may miss much of it in our seriousness to get the important things of life done.

Lynn Ungar has a wonderful poem  titled “Camas Lilies” in which she writes: “And you—what of your rushed and / useful life? Imagine setting it all down— / papers, plans, appointments, everything, / leaving only a note: “Gone to the fields / to be lovely. Be back when I’m through / with blooming.”

You might begin this journey of reflection on blossoming by writing yourself a note of permission to set aside all of your useful and important tasks for a while and go out to the fields — at least in your imagination — to allow some time for your own blooming.

What is the busyness in your life that gets in the way of being able to really see the blossoming spring forth around you, both within and without?  Can you name the hurriedness and distraction? How often do moments of beauty go by unnoticed in your life?

Alice Walker offers us an invitation to notice the colors of the world as a way to give honor to God, the creator of such beauty.  You might consider making it a practice to notice one particular color in the day ahead and every time you see it, inhale its beauty and exhale to release your gratitude for the vibrant world that sustains us moment by moment.

With great and growing love,

Christine

Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE

Photo © Christine Valters Paintner