I'd like to share with you a most amazing experience on my journey at the Chaplaincy Institute. My creativity blossomed in a profound and mystical way!
It happened like this. I have been writing in my journal almost daily for many years. One day I decided to write with my colored felt tip pens. I found those colors so inviting I couldn’t help myself and began to doodle in the margins. The doodles seemed to naturally turn into drawings.
Then one night I had a relentless bought of insomnia. In the midst of my sleeplessness, I "drew" it. What happened after that is still unclear. I do know it was magical, though, because images began to come to me during my time of meditation and when noticing my heart’s stirrings.
I sat with the first image for several days before it manifested into a collage on a page in my journal. Then another emerged ... and another. By the time I created the fourth collage on my journal pages, I realized these collages had a life of their own. They needed a space bigger than my journal.
Sometimes I may be wrestling with a subject matter. Another muse is my angst and suffering. I've had times when I awake in the middle of the night with a thought or image and quickly jot a note or make a doodle knowing a collage is taking birth. The stirrings within me take form in a deep upwelling, as I finish each piece. The new form has depth, harmony, expression, peace, hope and beauty in it no matter the subject or its motivation.
Each collage is a prayer or meditation, an answer to a prayer, a consciousness and/or an expression of my soul's voice. Each is a way my inner life is put back together as I put together the individual pieces of the collage to create a whole. I feel called or gently directed to each piece of paper, each image, each color, shape and texture. As the collage comes clear, my soul comes clear from the scatter of daily living.
Now I'd like to share some of my art with you as a visual meditation—and as an invitation for you, perhaps, to notice what stirs in your heart, or attunes your soul to God.
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"Dream" - Sometimes I create a collage and find its meaning changes with time or I’m surprised at what I see in it. This is the case when I created "Dream". I was moved by a chance encounter that allowed a momentary, intimate glimpse into another’s life. This encounter filled me with sparks of energy. As I look at "Dream" now, it is an affirmation that dreams come true.
Some of you may recognize "Hero – Queen" as you were present at its inception. I began this piece during one of Megan Wagner’s Spiritual Psychology classes. After a role-play of these parts of ourselves, we each had the opportunity to create a collage. Mine didn't feel quit finished, so I delicately rolled it up to take on the plane trip home. "She" is a reflection of my inner balance and strength.
"Growing My True Self" - This collage was created after a ChI module. It is an affirmation of my life-giving "tree" or self. Solid in the ground, it is thick and sturdy and brings forth luscious fruit.
"Divine Feminine" - This reflections on my four favorite feminine archetypes. They are Mother Mary, Quan Yin, Kali and Lilith. Deep ... intense ... in each of us!
"Gratitude" - I grew up in a family in which gratitude seldom passed the lips of others to resonate on my tender young ears. As I reflected on this, I realized there are many ways to say thank you. It comes in many forms and colors.
Gratitude is a journey. It is in nature. It is innocent, mystical and magical. It comes from the heart. Gratitude is transformative, magical and Divine. "Thank you" is a path to God.
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Doing art has become my time to align and attune my soul with the Divine. The Beloved comes to me in a unique form with each "meditation". There is no one way these creations manifest. It is truly faith that moves me. Each collage experience is as unique as a snowflake or this moment in time, and a reminder that there will be no other moment like the present one.
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This piece is adapted from Rev. Beth Johnson's Ordination Sermon at the Chaplaincy Institute's Ordination Service at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley in Kensington, California, on October 24, 2009. Her sermon included a visual presentation of her many collages, including the images referenced in this article.