sometimes knowing God tastes like saskatoon berries
sometimes when i open up my senses, flower to sun, i can touch heaven
i practice, at breakfast, touching texture of peanut-butter toast... it sticks to mouth-roof as if i'm gluing shingles... and i think of george washington carver and the rows of peanut plants green with money and the people dancing in their scarves and their baskets
i smell my coffee before drinking it, and i remember mum and her mocha time and i say a prayer for her
i watch my son crawl towards me across the yellow shaft of morning and i say nothing, just let the love happen, and it fills me so full i think it will overflow and i'm worried he might drown in it, but i let it happen anyway, because i know deep down it's buoyant
and i paint until the picture corrects itself, these giraffes once being a tree that never really grew right, but i just slathered red and started over and turned off perfection, turned on my heart, and there, they appeared, silhouetted against sunset sky
sometimes knowing God is nothing about me, and all about the other
and it happens, only when i stop trying
he must become greater; i must become less. (John 3:30)
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*prints of Giraffes available here*
Days like today, you speak with my words and I'm glad that someone has found them.
ReplyDeleteWe try so hard, don't we? I know that trying, deep beyond bones and marrow, ingrained, some days, into the very center of me. But I also know the freedom, how it comes soaring when you can let go and feel your way to truth and goodness and beauty.
Blessings, friend.
Thank you for sharing your heart with us and for preserving a spirit of humility as you do it. Your story today is a great moment that illustrates that part of your spirit so well!
ReplyDeletehugs
it happens when i stop trying...what a wonderful piece...love all the smells, tastes and visuals...b/c God is in all of that and more...
ReplyDeleteBeautiful painting is it yours?
ReplyDeleteLove the way you start your day ...
"knowing God tastes like saskatoon berries"
Yes God is in all things and all things are in God. Our daily life is brilliant as a star and as fragile as a flower. Lost in our cacophony of thoughts we lose sight, and we don't realize how sacred and precious our lives truly are.
Cheers,
Joanny
The fingerprints of God are everywhere when we see ...
ReplyDeletesuch a stunning painting
I love the paragraph about loving your son so much he might drawn in it. What love!
ReplyDeleteAnd the bit about not trying...I constantly need that reminder.
seems as if life unfolds between giraffes and prayers ..peanut butter and letting go
ReplyDeleteI love finding God with the use of sensory... His gift to us ~ and we feel Him, see Him, touch Him, smell Him, hear Him... sometimes without even knowing!
ReplyDelete"sometimes knowing God tastes like saskatoon berries"
ReplyDeleteI just love this. And I just love your "tree" giraffes." They make me happy.
and I just love you.
thanks for letting us link. I posted this a couple of days ago and I think it's making people uncomfortable to read.
ReplyDeleteevery single post you write speaks to me. i adore your giraffes and i'm right there creating with you...trying to be perfect and what you said nailed it...thank you so much emily.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love this art piece, the sweetness of it! Very beautiful, as your words are :).
ReplyDeleteMuch love.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete"and i paint until the picture corrects itself, these giraffes once being a tree that never really grew right, but i just slathered red and started over and turned off perfection, turned on my heart, and there, they appeared, silhouetted against sunset sky"
ReplyDeletegorgeous writing Emily...and practicing the art of letting go...letting be...letting life unfold...
and that is the art of creating ART...LIFE is ART...LOVE is ART...FAITH is the paint and TRUST the brush...YOU dear one are the CANVAS, exploding with vibrant color.
I love the way your trees evolved into giraffes and that you released any need to create a fixed image, an simply allowed the colors to tell you where they needed to be.
As a creativity coach, girl, I can tell you...YOU are flowing and growing, blossoming all over the place!!!
gentle steps
Thank God for our senses and how He uses them to give us glimpses of heaven. I love how you speak of practicing, it's so true that like any other skill we must practice opening our senses to see/hear/touch/taste/smell God!
ReplyDeleteLOVE the artwork!! Giraffes are my favorite animal. In Kenya our safari guide said that giraffes have no natural predators, their kick can kill a lion. As long as they protect their weak ones and stick together nothing can harm them and since then giraffes have been my picture of faith. In Christ we are more than conquerors, just like giraffes, we must simply protect the weak and stick together to stay strong :-)
love to you!
I can really relate to your post. Just today, I was trying so hard to figure something out, until he reminded me to stop and pray...
ReplyDeleteI then stopped trying to do what was driving me crazy because he told me that whatever it is HE wants me to do, he will put before me and that I should save my energy for that task at that time...not waste in on my task, now...
And for me, my friends, that is the difference between feeling insane and feeling at peace.
this line:
ReplyDeletebecause i know deep down it's buoyant
(a soft, broad smile of truth)
and this:
and it happens, only when i stop trying
(no words - just rest)
and your painting - a culmination
may His blessings continue to overflow
into you
and
through you.
I linked something in.
ReplyDeleteThanks a ton.
Will visit during the weekend,
You..
ReplyDeletethis...
such beauty here.
(George Washington Carver. That makes me smile.)
Jesus is all over the place right here...
I long to get it right Em - He the greater and less of me. Thank you for this lovely picture of the wisdom of letting go.
ReplyDeleteLove your words. I thought that painting was perfect, and your words about letting it right itself made me think how perfection really comes out of imperfection - out of allowing something we think less than perfect to find its own way to becoming the perfect thing it already is. Thank you...
ReplyDeleteLove the truth here, and your painting. I've experienced this so many times as well, Emily. Start out painting one thing and it becomes another when I surrender. Thank you, friend.
ReplyDeleteAs always, you see it.
ReplyDeleteI love this less of me stuff. It's freedom. It's art. It's beautiful. Thank you for spreading it all around.
I can feel that peanut butter on the roof of my mouth right now...
ReplyDeleteLove the feel of this prose, it is earthy, grounded, and full of grace.
Love the painting, Emily. The red is a perfect backdrop. Lucky son to be drowned in love :)
ReplyDeleteyou teach the best way to feel God around you. True it is, he is in everything you see, everything you do. Its his grace we are linked here to learn from each other's thoughts.
ReplyDeletePerfect read in the morning for me. you inspired me !
Turning off perfection. Yes. What I need to do today, tomorrow. Thanks, Emily.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Emily, for a moment to share today... it is a gift, your opening your heart here to hold us.
ReplyDeletelove your writing and painting, emily. i'm enjoying a day off school, so i got to really read you. a treat.
ReplyDeleteI really like your giraffes. I need to practice the letting go in my teaching of kids...I'm holding on too tight and it's squeezing the breath out of me.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Emily.
i love love love your space here so much, emily. these words are a balm today when i needed just that reminder: he is more, i am less. and i love the buoyancy of love both in our mama hearts and in his abba love. i think i might mull on that today.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love your imagery here:
ReplyDelete"i watch my son crawl towards me across the yellow shaft of morning and i say nothing, just let the love happen, and it fills me so full i think it will overflow and i'm worried he might drown in it, but i let it happen anyway, because i know deep down it's buoyant"
I'll keep those thoughts with me today. Thanks for sharing.
Emily you always grab my heart and take my breath away with the prose of your life...and it lingers in my thougts through out the rest of the week...thank you for welcoming me into your beautiful life. :-)
ReplyDeleteoh thank you for reminding me that I need to "Cease striving" and know that He is GOD (Psalm 46:10) It's really all about Him
ReplyDeleteYesterday God whispered deep, cease striving, be still and just trust that I am able!
ReplyDeleteYour images and lyrical beauty is a gift. Thank you for sharing and living in His LIGHT! You are beautiful!
SO glad to link up again! Look how many artist souls!
Hello.
ReplyDeleteI have three friends, spread wide across the US, who have all, in the last few months, pointed me to you.
I can ignore suggestions for just so long.
It looks like our little people are about the same size. I wrote a bit on my daughter's "imperfect prose" today, and then stumbled over here and added it to your Thursday collection- because it seems like it might fit your theme in content and style.
be well. -Cole.
when we turn off ourselves but not our hearts...a great thought...so much happens. He does become more and we can live and love all the more deeply. Thanks for sharing this...
ReplyDeleteamen to the buoyancy, to the turning on of hearts, to the knowing being all about Him.
ReplyDeleteyou speak truth so beautifully.
"and it happens, only when i stop trying."
ReplyDeleteOh, yes.
I love giraffes. I love that painting.
Our Father has greatly gifted you.
That the Lord has given us so many natural abilities, taste, smell, touch.. to enable us to savour His creation is a gift indeed!
ReplyDeleteYou took me to that place of exploration with your words.
i came back here to add a PS to my comment, and it's not here! i was probably going too fast and didn't do the verification...anyway, my PS was that i meant to say how much i love your painting, and my original thoughts were that i love coming to visit and read the words you write that my heart can't find...god speaks through you em!
ReplyDeletelove you!
xo
"I just let the love happen, and it fills me so full i think it will overflow and i'm worried he might drown in it, but i let it happen anyway, because i know deep down it's buoyant"
ReplyDeleteLove this! Oh that our love will buoy our children through the rough seas of life!
oh em, I love the line, "sometimes knowing God tastes like Saskatoon berries." I can picture that.
ReplyDeleteI've given you an award on my blog, today.
Love,
Mel
it always feels like i'm drowning in your words..flooded with a love for god that becomes so visible - i can taste him, smell him, feel him. you are truly special emily
ReplyDeletefor the moment i don't manage to link up with imperfect prose - because when i link up i want to comment on other posts and i don't manage just one day after OSW..but always have a look and always thankful for what you are doing in such an encouraging way - bless you
Emily, I have not posted in so long, I miss imperfect prose. I received your letter it was such a joyful surprise. These giraffes are wonderful. Elsa-joy's most recent love is giraffes, it reminds me of her with all its bright colours.
ReplyDeleteOh. I like the glimpse of God I see here.
ReplyDeleteOh, isn't that the way?! We paint on and it corrects itself. Paint on sista, paint on.
ReplyDeleteAnd buoyant. I'm gonna be thinking on that one today. Thanks, Em. xo