The 60-Second Sabbath

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Into the Void

Take my hand;
    we stand, side-by-side,
looking into the Void.
    Can you move with me
into this Unknown?
    God waits there,
but we cannot fly forward
    if weighed down
with concepts,
    formulas,
thoughts,
    meanings,
attachments.

Abandon these.

Beyond them are solitude,
    aloneness,
Silence...
    everything you've desired, needed.

But you must let go--
    even of my hand.

Text and image © 2025 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

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A Poem from My Father

On a recent trip to visit family in Michigan,
    my sister and I found this folder of "verses"
written by our father.

This is the first I have transcribed:

Wildflowers

Rainbow colors fragmented
Along dry and dusty roadsides

Amethystine loosestrife
Brown-faced Susans with
            petalled tufts of bright orange
Sweet clover heads nodding to
Chicory rosettes striped in
The distillate of summer skies
And skewered on wiry stems

Pistilled, sepalled, stamened testimonials,
Untended, unheeded, unsavored

Lord, forgive my preoccupation
            in my four-wheel prison

-- Peter J. DeVries (Senior)

Text and image © 2025 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

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The Hands of Jesus

For the immigrants--
    our neighbors, our friends, our family, ourselves--
        beloved of God--
the cupped hands of Jesus
    collect our tears.

For those whose rights are being stripped away--
    our neighbors, our friends, our family, ourselves--
        beloved of God--
the cupped hands of Jesus
    collect our fears.

For those whose tender hearts break and grieve today--
    our neighbors, our friends, our family, ourselves--
        beloved of God--
the fragile hands of Jesus
    draw us near.

Text and image © 2025 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

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Best Life

I want to live
    in the kingdom of innocence
where mystics and children dwell.

Text and image © 2025 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

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Becoming Childlike

Jesus tells us,
    "Become like a child."
The child--
    in innocence--
does not attempt to be
    anything other
than what they are.
    They naturally pursue,
not self-glorification
    or self-expansion,
but self-fulfillment.

And we adults?
    "Become like children"
and allow the growth
    meant for us by God,
not the one designed
    by our ambitious egos.

Text and image © 2025 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

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What I Am Not

Let me tell you
    what I am not.

I am not my thoughts.
    Thoughts come and go.
What I think now
    is not what I thought
5, 10 years ago,
    and what I think today
won't be my thoughts
    5, 10 years from now.
My thoughts at some point
    may become jumbled and unfocused.
I am not my thoughts.

I am not my body.
    Fascinating, isn't it,
how every seven years,
    all the living cells in our bodies
will be replaced.
    This won't be the body I have
seven years from now.
    And when my body betrays me,
as it inevitably will,
    I will still be.
I am not my body.

Nor am I my accomplishments.
    These are equally transient,
and someday--sooner than I think--
    they will be forgotten.
I am not my accomplishments.

I am not my beliefs.
    Beliefs, too, are fleeting,
changing (hopefully)
    as I mature and gain wisdom.
No, I am also not my beliefs.

I am not the labels I cling to:
    Democrat or Republican,
Liberal or Conservative,
    Christian, Jew or Muslim.
Labels are merely words,
    and I am not mere words.
I am not my labels.

Which begs the question,
    Who am I? Who is this I to which I refer?
Who--or what--is my essential self?

I wonder...

Text and image © 2025 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

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A Prayer for Myself, the President, and All Who Read This

Today,
    grant me
        a shattering, transformative encounter with you, my Christ,
            ego-stripping,
                humbling,
                    overwhelming,
                        overturning.

Awaken me to accept
    that the things I own,
        how much money I have,
            how much power I wield,
                the work I do,
                    how spiritual I am--
    none of it is a measure of my worth.

You are all that matter,
    and therefore, Love is all that matters:
        if my words do not reflect love,
           if my actions do not embody love,
              if I disparage and insult,
    I live in illusion.

But face-to-face with you, my Christ,
    may all illusion crumble.
Leave me stripped,
    naked,
        fragile,
            vulnerable--
    only then will I know Reality,
        only then will I come alive.

Help me to see, my Christ,
    that I am worthy,
        solely and only,
            because I am your beloved.

I am your Beloved.

Only this.

By your grace,
    I release all but You.

Text and image © 2025 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

Have you ordered your copy of Contemplative Vision: Photography as a Spiritual Practice? 
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