Hey Friends,
Welcome to June! It’s a whole new soul work theme over here, along with a new illustration-offering just for you (see below)!
While we’re excited to dive deep into exploring “peace” as an important element in the soul work of joy, in the spirit of honesty, here’s the thing …
It has been anything but peaceful.
For our community, there have been early ignited wildfires billowing the skies, reminding us that we’re entering the nerve-wracking heat of summer’s fire season.
For the world, there are the ever-present realities of inflation, war, climate change, and the never-ending ugliness of political white lies and untruths.
For our JoyOver team, there have been hard job conversations and uncertainty, an unfortunate basement flood, an unrelenting physical ailment, and the sudden and sad passing of a dear friend.
So, about that peace … what does it even look like in the face of all this?
*Deep breath*
Hebrew culture speaks of peace as a sense of well-being, harmony, and completeness, paralleling the concept alongside such words as tranquility, friendship, and wholeness.
While these words might seem a little complicated to unpack, perhaps even evoking a sense of mysterious uncertainty for our human comprehension, within such words, we also hear beautiful reverberations of trust, goodness, and healing.
Doesn’t the word wholeness sound so inviting?
So, as Einstein once said, “I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious” — it is with a spirit of curiosity we invite you to journey with us this month as we eagerly embark on the soul work of peace.
It is our hearts desire that such exploring would lead us all toward a deeper sense of shalom (שָׁלוֹם).
—With Joy
A Pause to Practice
Visio Divina is an ancient way of Christian prayer in which space is created to listen and pay attention to the Holy at work by entering into a sacred image. This form of praxis is an invitation into the S.A.C.R.E.D. art of seeing, and the art below is this month’s featured offering for your time of reflection.
Step 1 – Stillness: Find a comfortable place of quiet. Take a few deep breaths. Invite God’s presence.
Step 2 – Acknowledge: Gaze gently over the entire image, allowing yourself to notice as many details as you can – shapes, colors, lighting, foreground, background, and symbols.
Step 3 – Center: Notice what captures your attention, what your eyes are drawn to, or where your thoughts linger. Notice what inspires you, and perhaps what you might also be avoiding.
Step 4 – Reflect: Meditate on any part of the image that has captured you. How might God be speaking to you through this? What might the message and meaning be? Is there an invitation in this for you?
Step 5 – Express: Find words or a prayer of your heart to articulate the thoughts, emotions, memories, or desires that have awakened. Give voice to the insights you’ve gained.
Step 6 – Dwell: Savor this sacred time. Rest in simple silence. Linger in the holiness of this space and place of practice.
Click here for a high-res / full-print version of this art.
A perspective to Ponder
Sometimes peace is an incomprehensible strength in the midst of desperate circumstances. Sometimes peace is a hindsight perspective helping us look back with recollection and insight. Sometimes peace is the ongoing work of wrestling through complexity in order to redefine and reform something new. And sometimes peace is the resolve to wait, felt and heard through the anguish of deep groans and sighs of what it means to be human.
A Prayer to Pray
“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
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- Click here for previous month’s art offerings
