My breakfast with Cori

Spiritual resource to share:  our art --- of books and healing

Sitting down in to an early morning send-off, my friend and I had breakfast at my favorite place.  Last month, she had just completed a month long artist's residency at the Anderson Center in Red Wing and wanted to share her latest project.

Cori is a book artist, and her work has stretched and opened my ideas as to what a book is and can be.

She has distilled the meaning of a book to three of its native elements:  it is a narrative ( each sentence, phrase or word has its own story), it is interactive (the reader is integral to the book  --  can you have a book if you have no reader?*) and it is on a time continuum (whether you read a book cover-to-cover, read a sentence, or one word, you have a starting point and ending point).   Her latest book project would involve the highlighting of our life journeys: the importance of seeing the entire landscape, while at the same time idenitifying the singular weed  by the road -- all in a way that crystalizes those moments and puts it on a pedestal to make each moment sacred.

Throughout her explanation, over tea and mango eggs, I had to ask her to stop until I was able to wrap my head around some of the ideas she was sharing.  I had to give up how I normally perceived a road weed, a life journey, not to mention what I thought a book was!  Once I abandoned my own assumptions, I was open to see things in a new way.

"I need this kind of mind-stretching," I said.  "It keeps my thought fresh and open to new ways of seeing things."

"Kim," she said, "that is exactly how I feel when you explain Christian Science to me."

I immediately got the connection.  In Christian Science, we see beyond the limited and the stereotyped to the most primal spiritual essence of things.  We strive to see things the way God sees them - as spiritual.  In doing so, we change the basis of thought - from the material to the spiritual; the limited to the unlimited; the dull to the brilliant; the academic to the inspirational.  Only when this is done, can we make real (realize) our original perfection.  And in the case of our art, only when we slough off the limited, etc., can we make original, transformative art!  Mary Baker Eddy summarizes it like this:

When understanding changes the standpoints of life and intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over sense, and we shall perceive Christianity, or Truth, in its divine Principle. This must be the climax before harmonious and immortal man is obtained and his capabilities revealed.

*As each reader brings his or her experience to the book, so no one can experience the book in the same way.  And the reader, who is always a dynamic, growing force him or herself, can never read the same book in the same way.  This explains why we always seem to get new ideas from books we love and re-read over and over again!

there are no beige prayers

Spiritual resource to share: deep and profound desire

Omnipresent by Sonja Maneri

Have you ever approached your meditation time or spiritual study time feeling that this was getting old? Or read sacred writings and felt that you weren't getting anything out of it?

I was talking over these questions with a friend of mine who, in my estimation, is a brilliant designer. We had just finished talking about home design (her speciality) and I was amazed at how quickly she could draw conclusions as to harmonizing color, balancing mass, determining a focal point and incorporating green systems all synergistically coming together in a development called home. The overall effect was not about window size or trim color (although those were components), but it was about creating a home in which people feel, well, at home.

What was it about this creative process that was so energizing, surprising and satisfying? How can we apply these principles to our prayer?

Prayer and art are synonymous to me. Good art always expands and stimulates thought and moves you forward, transforms you to a degree. Likewise with prayer.

So, back to the questions. Stay with me while I work out an answer.

Let's take the word develop. "It's a good word," said my friend and she cited Webster's dictionary definition. Its etymology says it is from the Old French desveloper, desvoluper which means to unwrap, expose.

Other meanings:

• to make visible or manifest
• to work out the possibilities of
• to create or produce especially by deliberate effort over time
• to make active or promote the growth of
• to move (as a chess piece) from the original position to one providing more opportunity for effective use
• to cause to unfold gradually

and on and on.... really - there is a lot to be said for this word and how it relates to prayer. Read through this list again and think of applying it to prayer.

So to sum up, prayer is about unwrapping ourselves and growing into visible possibilities. OK. That's fresh! It is dropping whatever isn't working ( isn't Godlike) and seeing Life's possibilities unfold. Now I'm in.

There are times when I have set my schedule up so that I read one specific thing at this time, and give myself room to read other inspirational literature at another time. But I need to remember that this study in and of itself is NOT what makes good things happen. God's law (aka good things) is always happening. My prayer and study time are only effective if I see that it brings me in line with what already is.

God is in control. It is our yielding to God's Love, it is our shutting out whatever is distracting that brings us into prayer.

I remember seeing my friend at work. She had a direct approach to her work. She goes into a room and is quiet. During this time, her thought is actively engaged in seeing what already is there. Using her love of geometry and color, she is able to see what needs changing to bring the room in line with the more desirable qualities needed in a home. Suggestions follow, maybe to change the lighting, rearrange the furniture, add a color. It is never about the material objects themselves, but about the spiritual ideas that are behind them. For instance, it isn't about the angle of a light bulb, but it is about creating elegance and warmth.

Likewise in prayer. In that quiet sanctuary of thought, we are actively engaged in listening. Loving the purity of God's love and the omnipotence of God's laws, we see what needs to be changed to bring thought in line with the perfect principle of God and man. In dropping whatever is unGodlike, we reveal (unwrap or expose) who we are as a child of God - that unique combination of spiritual qualities that we reflect from God.

Prayer brings healing. Healing is a revealing of what already is. So it is not about walking or not walking - it is about movement. It is not about the light bulb - it is about light. It is not about the material thing - but the spiritual substance. The spiritual substance is what determines the outward and actual.

Prayer is transformational. It moves us from one position "to one providing more opportunity for effective use."

We would no more accept our prayer time to be dull than we would accept living in a beige room with mass produced cubes for furniture. This would be like accepting prayer to simply be "stereotyped borrowed speeches."

Prayer isn't beige. Prayer is desire. And prayer in Christian Science is aflame with divine Love.
Just as an artist goes from a blank canvas to one full of color, a blacksmith goes from a steel rod to a sculpture, a designer takes a mediocre home to a home of color and grace, so can we give our consent to prayer and we can expect our prayers to transform us.





To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.

technology, entertainment and design

Spiritual resource to share: awesome websites

Another thing I love about Christian Science: its ideas always seem to be at the cutting edge of so many different fields - from organizational leadership to healthcare to many different fields of science and more. Mary Baker Eddy has an article on Christian Science in her book Miscellaneous Writings. She makes this point:

This age is reaching out towards the perfect Principle of things; is pushing towards perfection in art, invention, and manufacture. Why, then, should religion be stereotyped, and we not obtain a more perfect and practical Christianity?

It will never do to be behind the times in things most essential, which proceed from the standard of right that regulates human destiny. Human skill but foreshadows what is next to appear as its divine origin.

Proportionately as we part with material systems and theories, personal doctrines and dogmas, meekly to ascend the hill of Science, shall we reach the maximum of perfection in all things.

I picked up this website today which seems to illustrate this "reaching out towards the perfect Principle of things." The site is called TED.com which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, and is a collection of inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers.

Click onto it and enjoy! And let me know what talks you find edgy and innovative.






To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.

the artist's hymn

Spiritual resource to share: our art

This hymn has been showing up all day yesterday and today. It makes me think of artists. One of its musical settings is set to a waltz.

Dance away!

Eternal Mind the Potter is,
And thought th' eternal clay:
The hand that fashions is divine,
His works pass not away.

Man is the noblest work of God,
His beauty, power and grace,
Immortal; perfect as his Mind
Reflected face to face.

God could not make imperfect man
His model infinite;
Unhallowed thought He could not plan,
Love's work and Love must fit.

Life, Truth and Love the pattern make,
Christ is the perfect heir;
The clouds of sense roll back, and show
The form divinely fair.

God's will is done; His kingdom come;
The Potter's work is plain.
The longing to be good and true
Has brought the light again.

And man does stand as God's own child,
The image of His love.
Let gladness ring from every tongue,
And heaven and earth approve.

photos from http://www.pbase.com/pliborio/olaria

To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.

Our life as art

Spiritual resource to share: our calling

Cori (CB) and Regula and friend making books

We just had our second Science and Health discussion group meeting tonight. A question popped up about the necessity of problems - how they provide a necessary incentive to understand God more. One thought is that without problems, we would not want to take the time to explore what it means to be spiritual.

Although I wholeheartedly agree that problems have often catapulted me into understanding more about God, there was something about dignifying problems in this way that didn't sit right with me.

I think that there is something spiritually innate in us all, and that we are called to bring that forth in our lives. Ultimately, our purpose is not to overcome problems, but to glorify God. When problems show up, we get rid of them. The problem itself doesn't come because: we are not spiritual enough, we are being punished for bad thinking, or we need a boost to get us moving in the direction of God. A problem is a distraction from our calling and the whole purpose of the problem is to be corrected. It doesn't define us or confine us!

It is as if we have been given the full spectrum of colors on a palette and a blank canvas. We are free to create. If a bee comes by (aka the problem), we need to get rid of it, so that we can do what we were made to do.

I talked to my husband (an artist blacksmith) and a friend (a bookmaker) and saw how clear it was to them that they were called to do their work. They deal with whatever distractions may arise, but they have a clear focus on their calling and what their work is all about. They play with spiritual ideas and give them a tangible form. And there is great joy in this!

My husband shared: "Sometime in my late thirties, I did a little blacksmithing and the whole world opened up. It felt like I was coming home to something that just made sense. It is hard not to follow a path when it calls to you so strongly ---- and it is fun."

My friend Cori has been an artist of various mediums forever. She always stretches my ideas of things, like what it means to read a book. In her bookmaking work, she finds poems and prose and works with other artists to bring out the meaning of the words in a visual way and then makes the book become an interactive experience. Who would have thought that a book can be the vehicle - the context - for a poem?


It's easy to see that we are all called to be artists of sorts: of healing, of parenting, of planning, as well as of metal, of books and of color. I can see more clearly what Mary Baker Eddy says when she writes:
"Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to multiply, — to manifest His power. Man is not made to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not subjection."

In answer to the question "What am I?" comes a response that could be true of all who are folowing their calling: "I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing."*

*First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, p. 165
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.