HUNDREDS OF WAYS TO KNEEL AND KISS THE GROUND

 Nature photography by Mary Jo Hoffman. See website here

After a week spent absorbing 
the natural beauty of the Wild Coast
I mentioned to a friend 
that the whole holiday
felt like a prayer of gratitude 

Wild Coast by Robyn Gordon 

..... which got me thinking about a quotation by Meister Eckhart
"If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough."

.... which lead to a favourite quote by Rumi
"Let the beauty we love be what we do. 
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."

Photography by Klaus Oppenheimer. See website here

There are indeed hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground

Photo from Lisa Haneberg's website here

Leslie Avon Miller observes nature through her camera lens.  See blog here

Observing the miracles of nature is at the top of my list

Nature Photography by Kevin Jones. See blog post about Photography as Meditation here.

Practicing mindful photography

Photo by Kevin Jones

Photo by Kevin Jones.

" If I really wanted to pray I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep deep woods and I'd look up into the sky -- up -- up-- up -- into the lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd feel a prayer." -- L M Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

I love this photograph by Sarah Gillespie. See website here

As an artist I am aware of something greater than myself
every time I create art.
When I look at the work of many, many artists 
I can feel the sacred in their work. 
I'm certain their art is their meditation.

Sarah Gillespie at work. See Sarah's Blog here

Winter Birds (oil on canvas) by Sarah Gillespie. See website here

I remember the way we were taught to pray at school 
Prayers always seemed so elaborate 
A far cry from Mary Oliver's ideas of prayer

PRAYING by Mary Oliver

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate,
this isn't a contest but a doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

By Fiona Watson. See Flickr photo stream here

CREATIVITY AS SPIRITUAL PROCESS

After participating in Katherine Treffinger's, 'Art and Meaning' project an internet friend asked me to elaborate on the spiritual aspect of creating art. It's something I've pondered upon often over the last few years and I've wondered if it is a spiritual connection that I feel when carving ...or whether it's just a feeling of gratitude or elation that I'm able to escape into the art process and express myself this way.

An extract I read in The Well of Creativity by Michael Toms resonated with me. Michael was visiting an ancient Balinese village, famous for double-ikat weaving. He wondered why anyone would spend so long making something for so little return. It might take six months to make a small intricate piece of cloth, three feet long and about one foot wide. The ikat cloths and tapestries are sold to tourists and though they're expensive by Balinese standards the labor works out to about ten cents an hour. So it obviously wasn't being done for the money.

"So I found myself in this village where they did this work. I was talking to a Balinese man who had some command of English, and I realized as he was talking and explaining this piece of cloth, that to them the whole process of doing this was very much a part of their spiritual practice. It was like prayer."

"It was the prayer of doing it. It was like this realization of the idea of being one with your work and what that really is about."

The Well of Creativity is a series of interviews with well known creatives including Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg and Isabel Allende. It's one of those books that I'm getting more out of in the second reading.

"No traditional concept of God is necessary to succeed, only a sense that our personal creativity reflects that of the universe, and as we express our artistic impulses we come in touch with a spiritual world of infinite size and power." -- Michael Toms 

Found inscribed over a doorway at Westminster Abbey   "Of the craftsmen it may be said that in the handiwork of their craft is their prayer".