Images of Blessing in Times of Turmoil

"Pronouncing a blessing puts you as close to God as you can get. … [O]pen your arms to what is instead of waiting until it is what it should be….”

~ Barbara Brown Taylor

"Images of Blessing in Times of Turmoil," is an online experience that will delve into the heart of blessing through interfaith creative guidance. What is blessing? Here we use the term blessing not as we see in the popular hashtag but as a spiritual invocation, a calling the God of our understanding into our lives or into a particular situation, relationship, passage or fear. What blessing are we most in need of now? What blessing can we offer others in this time? How does learning to see differently change our potential for receiving and giving blessing?

Each Friday I'll send a short reading and video link (approximately 5-7 minutes) related to the topic of blessing in difficult times. I'll also include a creative project geared toward that week's spiritual theme as well as reflective prompts for your art making. Additionally, I'll set up an optional private Facebook group with supplementary resources and the opportunity to share our visual projects in a respectful and reflective space.

The course can be applied to any visual art, and prompts will be relevant to all creative forms. I will offer supplementary tips specific to photography. (No photography experience is necessary, and phone cameras are great for this course.)

The course is set up as an interfaith experience appropriate for anyone on a spiritual path, including those who identify as spiritual but not religious. Readings will be from authors of diverse traditions but will be general enough that people of all faiths may find wisdom and insight in their work.