...and a season for every purpose...

Today I have no excuse/reason/distraction to keep me from getting back to my work in earnest. The company has gone, and the house is a mess, but so be it. The first order of work I need to get back to, is to line the Winter season series tapestry. It will be due at an exhibit soon, but after finishing it (sewing slits, blocking, etc.) I wrapped it securely in clean fabric and put it up to 'rest' while I dealt with other demands. But, since those have all passed, it has moved to the top of my ToDo list.

The Winter tapestry is the third I've completed in the series of four. The series is based on the Ecclesiastes 3 passage about there being a time for every purpose under heaven. All of the works are intended to lift the viewer's vision to the "better halves" of things listed in that passage, ie. to peace, not war; to healing, not weeping... The title of this tapestry is "A Peace of Quiet."

Anyway.... in my morning meditation time, I am reading Matthew Fox's book, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet. In my reading this week, I ran across this, which I think is wonderful and encouraging to me, but also quite challenging:

All artists have to let go of the modern world's silly and reductionist notions that art is for art's sake or art is for fame's sake or art is for venting's sake and start serving the heart of God once again. Artist's need an inner life just like everyone else. They also need an outer life, that is to say, an awareness of how we got here and what "here" constitutes in it's holy vastness and it's unimaginable diversity and creativity. A return to our origins is long overdue for all professionals but especially for artists, because their task is to lead the rest of us in moving through perilous times of cynicism, boredom, and despair.