The 60-Second Sabbath

Christmas in July

Our six-year-old neighbor girl
    professes not to believe in Santa Claus.

"I do," I said.

"See," said her mother,
    "there are adults who believe in Santa."

As a child
    I don't actually recall believing in Santa.
I perceived it to be a game we played,
    and I cheerfully played along--
it was what one was supposed to do,
    and it was fun--
visiting a red-clad Santa at the department store,
    hanging our stockings from the mantle,
leaving popcorn and cookies on the coffee table,
    going to bed because, if we weren't asleep,
        he wouldn't stop to deliver our gifts.

Now, as an adult,
    I realize how wrong I was.
Santa is real,
    and I believe.

Text and image © 2021 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
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When Sleep Eludes You

The next time you lay unsleeping,
    staring at the dark ceiling,
thank God for your wakefulness.

Ask--
    aloud or to yourself--
"What gift do you have for me?"

Fall back into silence
    and await the answer.

In darkness, in silence, in solitude,
    divine mystery spreads over and around you,
blankets you with quiet holiness.

Breathe into it--
    your breath, God's breath-
Rûaħ , spirit, breath.

Sleeplessness is an opportunity,
    an invitation--
treasure, discovery, hope.

Stars above,
    the Shepherd lifts you,
drapes you over his shoulders,
    walks with you through dark, still meadows.

This rich emptiness--
    late-night heaven--
yours.

Text and image © 2021 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

Have you ordered your copy of Contemplative Vision: Photography as a Spiritual Practice? 
Follow this link: https://www.churchpublishing.org/contemplativevision

 

T-Shirt Wisdom, Post-Pandemic Edition

As always, these are actual T-shirts:

---

For the cat lover:

    She believed she could,
    but the cat was
    asleep on her lap,
    so she didn't.

---

For the dog lover:

    All dogs are
    therapy dogs.
    Most are just freelancing.

---

    I don't think
    my inner child
    is ever moving out.

---    

    Carry a book
    and you'll always
    have company...
    and a weapon.

---

    Keep talking.
    I'm diagnosing you.

---

This one is so sadly true:

    My mind
    still thinks I'm 29.
    My sense of humor
    thinks I'm 12.

---

For our friend Ron:

    Just because
    I'm awake
    doesn't mean
    I'm ready
    to do things.

---

    Ever notice how many
    towns are named after
    their water towers?

---

    SCHADENFREUDE:
    That feeling you get when you
    ask some to spell schadenfreude.

---

    90 percent of
    being married
    is yelling
    'What?'
    from other rooms.

---

    "Ehh, that's
    good enough."
        --Mediocretes

---

    The three hardest
    things to say:
    1. I was wrong.
    2. I need help.
    3. Worcestershire Sauce

---

    A real smart TV
    would increase
    the volume
    when you start
    eating chips.

---

And my absolute favorite:

    The past tense of
    William Shakespeare
    would be
    Wouldiwas Shookspeared.

That's genius.

---

Enjoy you day!

Text and image © 2021 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

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Butterfly

I am like a butterfly
    floating on the surface of my spirit,
unwilling to land and settle,
    unable (for fear? for lack of desire?)
to remain still enough,
    long enough,
to sink into the depths.

Too easy a silence
    keeps me from encountering
my essential self,
    my God.

Deep, challenging, committed stillness
    leads me inward and downward,
and eventually, then,
    upward and outward
in unity with all things--
    God included.

Silence opens me to Light,
    Light to Beauty,
Beauty to Reality.

I shall not be afraid;
    I was created for this.

Text and image © 2021 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

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Follow this link: https://www.churchpublishing.org/contemplativevision

Taking Scripture Seriously

There is a HUGE difference
    between taking scripture literally
        and taking it seriously.

To take much of the Bible literally
    is, in fact, to misunderstand it
        and therefore to misuse and abuse it.

If passages of the Bible
    were never meant to be taken literally,
        then when we do so
            we're not respecting or honoring the Bible,
               nor are we respecting or honoring God;
we're missing the point,
    and when we miss the point,
        we risk wreaking havoc,
            damaging hearts and lives.

Taking the Bible seriously means:

(1) understanding the various types of literature
    we are reading;

(2) discerning what these writings meant
    in their original context--
        understanding the significant differences
            between the cultures in which they were written
                and our own,
        and therefore, the varying ways
            these cultures experienced, processed,
                and reported on their world--
                    ways we do not;

(3) approaching the reading of scripture with great humility,
    acknowledging that even in the Bible itself
       the writers changed the message
           depending on circumstance and audience--
    and this was acceptable and okay,
       something we in Western culture--sadly--
            have trouble seeing or accepting.

In short,
    don't abuse scripture
        by trying to force it to be what it is not.
Certainly don't force it into our culturally preferred
    (and often narrow)
        ways of reading and interpreting.

Instead, take it seriously:
    do your homework,
        listen to the Spirit,
free it from cultural confines,
    and discover and allow its glorious ambiguity,
        mystery,
            and transformative power.

Then reading scripture becomes
    a grand adventure
        and you and I voyagers
            on an ocean of joyful possibility.

Text and image © 2021 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

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Follow this link: https://www.churchpublishing.org/contemplativevision

Your Image of God

Fr. Richard Rohr suggests:

    Your image of God
        creates you.

Let this sink in:

    Your image of God
        creates you.

I find this simultaneously
    encouraging
        and
    unsettling.

Unsettling
    because I'm very aware
        that through much of my life
I imagined God to be
    a threatening Father,
        judgmental and harsh,
willing to disown me
    if I didn't tow the line
        (and so often I didn't tow the line).

What me
    does this image of God create?

Fearful, insecure,
    ungrounded, guarded,
        conflicted, dying,
            striving futilely for acceptance.

    My image of God
        creates me.

But now I know better.
    I embrace this core biblical concept:

    God is love.

What me does this image of God create?

Assured, accepted,
    whole, welcoming,
        at ease, alive,
            growing ever toward joy.

That old image isn't entirely gone--
    likely never will be--
but the more I experience
    this truer, loving, liberating God,
        the less often I'm tripped up by
            the phantom God of judgment and death.

    Your image of God
        creates you.

What you is being created today?

Text and image © 2021 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

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The Fear of Silence

Do you fear silence?

Does the idea of sitting quietly,
    by yourself,
all electronics off and stowed,
    no conversation, no music, no TV, etc.,
leave you cringing?

You're not alone.

Our culture feeds on noise and distraction.

Even our houses of worship
    (unless, perhaps, you're a Quaker)
pile on the activities--
    Listen to this!
Attend this!
    Sing this!
Gather here!
    Gather there!
Zoom!
    Stream!
Click!
    Comment!

We are all,
    it seems,
uncomfortable with silence.

What if you
    reframe silence?
Let silence be
    a deep, creative awareness
of what's most real and true for you.

Doesn't that sound
    (no pun intended)
delightful?
    restorative?
grounding?
    ultimately freeing?

Sister Wendy Beckett suggests
    that such silent, measured awareness
distinguishes us as human.

Nothing outside of you
    can compete with the wonder within.

For just a while today
    be silent,
aware,
    and fully human.

Text and image © 2021 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

Have you ordered your copy of Contemplative Vision: Photography as a Spiritual Practice? 
Follow this link: https://www.churchpublishing.org/contemplativevision

The Sign of Jonah

Like Jonah
    we need to be lost
in the murky belly of the monster,
    in disorienting darkness,
suffocating, claustrophobic,
    before we emerge,
battered and acid-scarred,
    ready to say 'Yes'
to what we've [so!] tried to avoid,
    our calling, our point,
our [surprise!] joy.

Are you ready
    to be thrown up
onto holy ground?

Text and image © 2021 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

Have you ordered your copy of Contemplative Vision: Photography as a Spiritual Practice? 
Follow this link: https://www.churchpublishing.org/contemplativevision