Voyage into the Waters

Art is an expression of what it is to be human, fuelled by imagination, inventiveness, despair and hope. Sometimes it is a mirror held up to show us who we are or might become, at other times it shows us beauty in our wastelands.

Interacting with art moves your emotions, widens your perspective and shows you parts of your heart that will delight you, horrify you and shock you out of apathy. It makes internal connections within you and external connections with the billions of people that live on this planet.

It tells and shows us stories in words, pictures and songs. It is the ocean to our narrow beach upon which we walk that pulls us towards something bigger than us, something spiritual, wild and dangerous, full of chaos and possibilities.

Art is not about theological indoctrination. It is not a didactic process where inventiveness and imaginative formation are pulled up as if they were weeds choking a spiritual life. Instead of a tribal adherence to behavioral conformities and ideologies, it reveals the heartbeat of others that transcends the thin veneer of our senses and rational constructs. Much of organized Christianity today has become fixated with codified belief, control and building shelters for people on the beaches when all the while the sea rages next to them - God waiting for the day they will burn down their huts and voyage into the waters.

Photo: Rachel Baran

Resist the Hate

One of the things that so upset me in my old church was its attitude to LGBT issues.

Brave & Beautiful

“There is a wonderful mix of beauty and hope and pain in this collection of parables. I especially love the integration of strong feminine aspects of spirituality.”

Extract from a lovely review on Goodreads today.

Unexpected Revelations and Living in The Past

I think about unexpected revelations…

How there are no colours in the world.

No audible sound.

That we live in the past: our consciousness lagging behind actual events.

Humans do not know how conscious awareness arises.

A large amount of our brain circuitry comes from social interaction and language is an imperfect construct formed from those interactions.

If I time travel into the future I will die in the vacuum of space.

If ice was denser than water the world’s lakes and perhaps even its oceans would freeze solid.

Time will flow faster for you ontop of Everest than at sea level.

And I think about how I feel when I am told by many churches that they have beliefs which they refer to as “closed handed” and others that are “open handed” beliefs. They explain that closed handed beliefs are ones that they will not budge on. There is no room for negotiation.

And I wonder at it all.

There is no room for negotiation?

Strange for a creature that isn’t sure how it is conscious, that is always living in in the past and is hurtling through space with its brain floating in darkness and silence can be sure of anything? A creature trapped within a closed system that we call the Universe with no way of looking in from the outside.

We can make a guess at things. Test those as far as we can.

We can have faith, we can choose to believe.

But there is always room for negotiation.

There is no closed hand.

And if you really believe there is a closed hand for you, then you really are living in the past. Faith is dynamic and changing, you should always be open for the unexpected revelation.