Celtic Cross

Long before I was Catholic I was enthralled with Celtic knotwork, including crosses. I didn’t collect crosses but I admired them. Looking intently at the weaving, the criss crossing where two lines meet. Knotwork is a most appropriate description. I look at the twists and the turns and the loops and all I can picture is a knotted rope. Thick, muslin colored, braided rope, fringed and frayed at the ends but the beauty in the center never ending. Never ending, like a circle, but more elaborate, each one different from the other.

Look at any Celtic cross and tell me how it’s not the perfect blending of artistry and spirituality.

It’s a good note to end this week on.

Triple Triquetra

Rosaries

Gishwhes is – – –

When I named this week artistry and spirituality, one of the first things that came to mind for that theme was my time with gishwhes. At first glance, gishwhes is ridiculously crazy, non stop thinking and doing and creating, but somehow in the middle of that is this low-key baseline of calm. There really is something very spiritual about being on a team and contributing to others, both in tangible ways and in encouragement. The underlying mission of gishwhes is to create art and do good.

Gishwhes is just as much random acts of crazy as it is random acts of kindness. It is all things, but it is different things to each participant, and that is one of the things that makes it so spiritual. Each year, I discover more about myself than the year before, and I grow in the good ways. I get to leave my self imposed box; my comfort zone goes on holiday while I step up and step out.

Started in 2012 by actor Misha Collins, gishwhes is a week long international scavenger hunt/competition. Teams are made up of fifteen people from all over the world. often coming together as strangers and leaving as friends, gishwhes is a way to test yourself, find yourself, and be yourself.

First Day of School

I titled this week’s theme, Artistry and Spirituality. I’m a little behind on my posting (and writing) because of yesterday’s Rosh Hashanah holiday. I have a few posts planned for this week that include aspects of either or both. The combination of artistry and spirituality really appealed to me. I was lucky enough to be able to attend two drawing retreats. The mix of prayer and coloring and unusual perspective drew me out and stayed with me. I’ve always photographed odd angles, through windows, under tables, tops, bottoms, half of this or that.

When I was putting my kids first day of school pictures up on Facebook, I found these that I also took that morning while we waited for the bus, and I liked them better finding them than taking them.