These Sticks, This Tree

I’m super excited. I have joined a faith-based arts community on-line, because I really like mixed-media art and want to learn how to do it. I also have this crazy urge to just create, so this gives me the opportunity to learn and grow. The above picture is the first I’ve done since elementary school I think. It is the first piece I’ve done of a five-week course offered within this online community. Once I was finished, I was inspired to write the poem.

Ok, I know it’s no Picasso, but there is really something exhilarating about creating something yourself and seeing the end product.

Do you like to create? What are your creative outlets?

Eternal Ecstasy & Unimaginable Treasures

Eternal ecstasy naked eyes can’t see
Unimaginable treasures waiting for me
Though it’s a struggle requiring tenacity
Hope doesn’t disappoint.

To a fallen world I don’t belong
A nomad here, Earth’s not my home
Possessions and riches, they come and they’re gone
Looking forward to a better place.

The above is the beginning of a piece I started writing while I was in Canada. Like most of my writing, it was birthed during one of my quiet times. I wrote it thinking about the peace and stillness that my creator breathes into me, despite the loud noise of a crazy world.

Life is hard, but as long as there is hope, there’s continuation. My hope is not in something tangible though.  It’s not in material possessions, vocational success, affluence, nor status.  I can’t take these things with me when my time here is up. My hope is in my God who has always been, is and will always be ever-present and all-loving.

I thought I was writing a poem when I wrote this. After reading it though, seems to me that it feels more like a song. What do you think?

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Do you find happiness in the tangible things this world has to offer? Do these tangibles bring true joy and soul-filled satisfaction? Are acquiring possessions, status, personal peace and affluence the answer to having a successful and fulfilling life?

A Wordless Song

When I sing into the night
A wordless song from deep within
My unbelieving heart
Is filled with doubt and sour fear

Don’t know what I believe
Seems all faith is gone
Lord, would you help me please
See with clear lenses, sing a new song

Do you ever feel like giving up? Like what you’re doing isn’t making a difference? Or that what you are trying to achieve will never come about? Like it’s just some sort of pipe dream? I do.

The above is part of a song I just started to write. I wrote it in tears. It’s more of a prayer, than a song. Kind of like a Psalm, like the many one can read in the Bible. The Psalms is a wonderful and poetic book because it’s a collection of poems and songs written from the heart. Written by real people, with real problems, and filled with emotion. Some are out of sheer joy, but many are out of deep desperation.

I want to be like the Psalmists. I want to be real with God about how I’m feeling and what I’m thinking. I believe he would have it no other way. I would be lying if I said my life was easy and always rosy. As if I never had any problems and my faith was constantly firm. I don’t want to be putting on a mask or be someone I’m not. I want to be real.

My husband is a filmmaker, and a risky one at that. He is a Christian and produces films that speak into the real issues of societies and realities. Films that give a voice to those that don’t have a voice, so to speak. The most recent film, “Internal Mazes” was made to combat the issue of human sex trafficking and the worth of all individuals, including prostitutes. Every person involved received their pay, except him. We have received investments from others in order to produce it, even our house is in the hands of investors until we are able to pay them back. That was a giant leap of faith.

I loved the quote by Dale Carnegie that I read over at “Soul Gatherings” today.

• “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

How about you? Have you ever strived for something you really believed in and lost hope? Have you had dark days where it seemed like a hopeless cause? How do you deal with it?

Embracing pain

 

The taste of my pain is sour

yet bittersweet

Embrace it I will

with courage and determination

For I know that only through

the struggles undergone

of trials and sufferings

of body and soul

The trickle of salty tears

Anguish of heart and facing fears

will there once again shine a ray of hope

and the muscle of faith will be strengthened

Do you find yourself trying to flee the afflictions of life? Pain and suffering? Sadness and hurt?  I used to detest these times.  Of course, nobody really wants to experience pain.  And the pain I’m talking of here isn’t in the physical sense, but the emotional sense.  The pain of the soul.  Of the heart.

After 40 years of life, I’ve learned that pain is inevitable.  I’m trying to accept it as something that is strengthening though.  Just as a body builder lifts weight to make his muscles grow, if he stops training, his muscles will atrophy. Pain and suffering builds muscle, and in the absence of it, we remain weak and shallow.

As a Christian I can also use this analogy for my faith.  If I don’t undergo the trials and sufferings that this earthly life has in store for me, my faith will not grow, in fact it will just weaken.

So I will embrace the pain.  I will let it grow me.  I will allow it to shape me into a person of perseverance, character and tenacity.

How do you feel about pain? Emotional pain? Pain of the heart and of the soul? Do you allow yourself to be defeated by it? Or do you allow it to cause growth and maturity?

Photo credit:  Robert Hafley

http://stacilys.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/tenacity/

Tenacity

A hurricane of thoughts bombarding my mind
Feelings of doubt stealing my peace
An emotional roller coaster taking me for a ride
Whipping around
Up and down
Bouncing from side to side
“Hold on!”, he says

“Tenacity”

That’s the secret
That’s the key
Past the first hurdle
Phew! I can breathe
But wait! Here comes another
And again He says,

“Tenacity”

Heart is heavy
Doubts galore
A blow from one side, then the other
Spirit falls to the floor
“Get up!”, I say to myself because I know
There’s only one way to overcome

“Tenacity”

What does tenacity mean to you?  

Do you have any examples of tenacity in your life?  It could be someone you know or admire. Or maybe a time where you, yourself have been tenacious.

Photo credit: Silas Nelson