Saw the international space station cross over last night. I like the idea of the nations dealing with themselves in outerspace, from a higher vision. Art is sort of the same idea to me.
Also, just cool that we wanted to build a station for the nations to float above the planet together gathering information, exploring things together, even while we can’t get along down here. It’s passing over again tonight in this region, i look forward to seeing it again, and praying for global collaboration and Peace as a symbol of that possibility crosses through the sky again tonight.
Outer space and the seas, my two favorite shared spaces, are still the greatest places of mystery to explore together. They are shared space.
The in between are where Love’s negotiations really happen. When everyone is humbled and made vulnerable by the mystery of being here together, conversation can move forward. Doesn’t prayer occur in the in between worlds space?!

My dad wrote the five love languages, but i love language itself!

Especially learning peoples through their languages. I taught english in Israel and other places. Learning some czech today from my friend in Prague. Language holds culture and symbol in it’s tones. How we communicate reveals so much about what we really value.

Such an amazing phenomenon language is! We like to symbolize ourselves and communicate (and how we do so, tells so much about who we are), and we do so in so many ways! I love language still.

If the languages were diversified at babel, they were celebrated at Pentecost, as one teacher told me!

Used to teach english and my mom was an English major. I used to collect etymology and word stories books! Still do.

I often practice my spanish, as we have so many friends who only speak it here.
It’s like each language has it’s own lessons of perception! Language is a wonder!

We make up abstract symbols to tell one another things to express ourselves….fascinating about us! Some words have a toast to being human in them! And each word has it’s own world really.

Yet, the heart is deeper than language, and the heart translates! I love asking people their favorite words in their native language and why? We take english for granted, but it has some rich words also! French has so many aesthetic nuanced words. I love trying to describe a sunset in french. But the spanish aren’t bad at sunset either.

Reading a book of spanish poetry now, and there is an inner musicality to that tongue! Fun thinking about language itself today, and what it reveals about our cultural values! Great learning from my friend today also!

Yet expresses itself through it! So we can sense so much about the inside from the outside, so much about the identity from the cultural expression or outer clothing.

For instance today, i was asking my friend if they have a word for cute in their language. Some languages don’t. There it’s kin to amiable—kind and pleasant. In Spanish it’s more like que linda, but could also be preciosa. Precious. The british would say, dear! You are a dear.

The czechs have another word which means something like cheers to your being! A toast to the being of another is a good idea! I learn so much through language.

My dad studied anthropology, he loves other cultures. Me too! I think i learn the most by seeing how we talk, what words we value and use often. Zatim in czech—see you again, in the meantime blessings, sort of thing. Sort of similar to hasta la vista, o hasta pronto! See ya soon. I often say, i look forward to seeing you in the future; but that’s very formal. Yet true to me. Language reveals the heart.

There is another czech word which is like a toast to someone’s being! Nice. Shalom is similar i think. May you be whole in every area, is a good translation!

Sometimes i wish we could choose the best way of saying something from whichever language does it best! If we think of universal languages of being human, we still have these great distinctions. What are your favorite words in your native language? I would love to collect them as celebrations of diversity of all our articulations of being human!

“Since i am such an extrovert, i have to spend lots of time in the inner garden or upper room or intentional place of meeting and being with His Presence, and i have to do so very often during the day.” Henri Nouwen’s confession, as it is mine. When we are extroverted givers by nature, we have to get to the garden often! I relate. After all, i want to offer more than just my own presence!

Been thinking lots about the value of praying before speaking….
Especially in counseling others, it’s important to pray lots before speaking into someone else’s heart! Otherwise, you are just speaking your own best ideas, and that is rarely enough!

“Prayer comes before speech.” Anne Wenger

Anne Wenger was a local saintly woman where i grew up. I knew her for many years, she taught me, but at the end of her life, i used to visit at her house for prayer. She often used to tell me she would practice thinking with her heart in prayer before she spoke. Don’t just talk off the top of your head, speak from the heart, she would say to me. By heart, she didn’t just mean emotions, but more like your deeper inner self—the center of a person.
It was a prayer practice for her. She knew i was also a “fast talker” or babbling brook, so needed to learn to pause before speaking, so i could speak from the heart, the place in His Heart. Silence is a necessary practice for babbling brooks! Think before you speak, they used to say, but her word was deeper, pray before you talk.
We would pray for hours each visit. I remember her particular concerns for her family and others, because we prayed together often. You tend to learn what’s really on another’s heart when you pray together. That’s one of the fruits of prayer—true intimacy.
Then we would talk books and life. She loved books, and left me many when she died. But we always started our times and ended them in prayer.
At the end of her life, she prayed two pages worth of words over my own life. They’ve been a guide ever since. But i also remember her simple, pray before you babble talk she gave me! Prayer also teaches patience on many levels!
I’m still learning what that saint was trying to teach me way back then! Prayer precedes speech. Good practice still.
The saints never stop teaching us! And it appears we are never done learning and growing up! And, I’m still a fast talker, but i think i pause more often now before i speak. I hope so. Selah!

They were right, my elders, a simple fall flower arrangement, or a good talk with an older couple who have been married for 53 years this weekend, cooking and communion, and considering well what’s yours to tend and learn from each day, appreciating daily beauty, are still the things which matter and sustain.

Those different forms of Beauty last. Great watching the local game with this older couple! I learn so much from just being with those who have gone a long time in the right direction! There is an aesthetic to living well. Appreciating longevity and the cumulative wisdom of things, people places.

Made me think about these Napa wines they sent to me this week. Knowing the fires going on there, having seen the smoke last week, makes me want to savor, with friends, each time earned bottle.

I joined a california wine club years back, and they send me the most unique ones from the region, small family start ups usually, and they always have the dust of the cellars on them. Often, they talk about the time and seasons in their notes. How weather effected varietals. How seeds grow over time.

How much time it takes to make a fine wine, or a good marriage. This couple both loved and liked each other, it was fun watching them enjoy one another and the game. Like a sip of the fine wine of life!

Plus, this lamb i grilled last night felt just right with this cabernet and the cooler climes this week. Grilled apples, oregano, things which have been here a long while make me happy. And of course, my wife over many seasons, also is a major source of joy and inspiration for me.

I hope we have 53 years or more together like this old couple, and still like each other! I think we will! I like aged things! I’m attracted to wisdom. And, I’ve always been obsessed with time, and wear many watches set on different global times! Keeps me aware of all that is happening at once.

The local cooks:

Talking to these guys from local restaurants today—one french fellow, the other from here, another from New Orleans, they love cooking, but also feel the pressure of the industry globally. How to have it all prepped and cook well, have a sense of place, and then go play a gig at night with your band-have a life, in short.

How to balance life in short, in an emerging global city, and keep it real, seemed to be what was most on their hearts. All great cooks, a passion for composition and fresh relational ingredients, but also working 70 hour weeks, so it’s hard to maintain relationships and quality of life balance. Good to learn from the young, and taste their passions!

One is the main chef at this french influenced local restaurant. Looks good. Plus, they all have catholic backgrounds and are curious how their faith interfaces with their passions. Good place to start a conversation! Finding calling still matters regardless of your medium.

Do you still like to cook? I asked. What do you cook for yourselves at home? How do you work with garlic? What spices do you keep fresh at home?

Yes, i do like to cook at home my new friend said, but now i have an unlimited palette, so it’s hard at home to find all that i see which needs to come together. I feel like food is spiritual.

Interesting thinking about how one’s spirituality intersects with cooking well! Great topic! Enjoyed talking to these guys today. Look forward to visiting their restaurant: Politique. I learn much from those younger as well as those older! We are all just people at different stages of life in the end.

What I learned from living in Jerusalem. To listen well to the city, rooftops and moonlight help. The city breaths at night, after everyone is sleeping. Then it’s just falafels and soldiers. Once you make friends with them, you can take in all the flavors and scents of the day in Peace, and consider things.

I also learned lots of living history, and where all the conflicts are at now, how long the arguments have gone on! And, as I was teaching english to children-both jewish and arab, to watch the kids to see where change is possible.

I learned lots more from living in that special city, but at least that much. Everything important can be read through children and how a city holds moonlight! The cupped white stone roof tops of this city, hold and reflect her whole story!

Van Gogh and me, a lifestory! Van Gogh and I, and a guy named Noah:

I first encountered Van Gogh in a closet. Someone had put an old print in a corner of my parent’s closet. At the same time i discovered it, i was friends with an older artist named Noah, who did mostly abstract expressionist pieces. One, i remember, was called “The Face of God”-it was a black and white cosmic piece. I liked Noah, and I immediately liked Van Gogh’s work as well.

One was more representational than the other, but both spoke to my developing heart about a larger reality, a higher ground. I’d always seen angels and mystical things, so I knew the tree was more than just a dogwood, that it also symbolized Trinity itself, in the case of the dogwood tree, had always seemed obvious to me.

Noah killed himself soon after i discovered Van Gogh in the closet, and it was very sad for me. It made me wonder about the artistic pursuit of seeking truth and God. And it made me want to make a haven for artist, even at a young age before I could even shelter myself.

Later, i started a ministry called “Noah’s Other Boat”. It was for the Noah’s or life seeking artists who were pursuing a truer center through art. But the metaphor also included all the discarded things God wanted to preserve, as the animals were in the bible story of Noah.

All those vulnerable creatures, God wants to preserve from the floods of destruction, dissipation, and dis-integration on every level. To provide a place of safety and integration, a floating studio of healing or making things whole again.

Of course, Van Gogh also killed himself. I think if I would have known him, we could’ve talked it through, but one never knows. Still his art has more life than most people ever live.

When I went to Arles, and visited many of the other places he painted, I could see what he saw there, and how he wanted to share it. A kind generous soul really.

But there was no Noah’s Other Boat for him, outside of his relationship with his brother Theo (their letters are gathered in “Letters to Theo”). Their correspondence is so tender. I still read it for inspiration.

Anyways that boat went with me all the places I’ve lived: Winston Salem, Richmond, Boston, Albuquerque, San Francisco, Austin, Prague, Antwerp, Paris…the heart of that boat for artist and the discarded has never stopped floating in me. Probably never will.

Artist are like spiritual astronauts, and it’s not easy being green, as Kermit said, especially if you are flying between realms, i would add. Artist are also like knife sharpeners under water! They deal with keen perception of where mystery dwells. They like the prophets live between worlds, and bridge heaven and earth.

I used to draw this little man walking a wire between earth and heaven with music as the sky between. It was one of my first dottles in a sketch book. Over the years, this little stick figure has returned and the map has gotten more clarified. I’ve added saints and angels for instance, and rays of musical notes. I’ve added cities and even smoke.

But at the end of the day, we all have human heart problems which need to be solved so we can live well, and continue with meaningingful lives.

Recently when the great fashion performer and designer Alaxander Mcqueen died, and then more recently Robin Williams, I had that same feeling in my gut as I had when my friend Noah died. How sad there was no boat to carry them home. If only i would’ve known, i could’ve at least given them directions to the ark! King David was an artist and he knew the direction. And how to live near the ark. I hope I’ve learned better how to live near it.

Artist, not unlike ministers, tend to struggle most with finding a meaningful context. Entertainment isn’t satisfying enough, neither is celebrity. Both offer forms of validation, but not of the heart, as you can see by the number of suicides, or burn out. There must be a higher context for the arts, and for ministry on that note- something more spiritually grounded, I’ve always felt. The Ultimate ground of being, must be somehow livable, and able to connect to in a practical fruitful way.

We also often need a better philosophy of the arts, or better yet, a theology of the imagination. I’m still working on mine, but we need a context, for our creative quest-ions. “Artists wrestle with Reality itself.” That’s a tough match, so guidebooks along the way are welcome, as are havens from the floods of dissipation as St Peter called it, around us. Beauty is medicine for ugly times, as someone wiser than me must have said by now. So it the endless quest, highlighted by artists, for what is Real, essential, absolute, what really matters. Saints monks and artist overlap in this pursuit. Some make it to the gate, other’s turn back, some walk all the way in, and find Love and true self acceptance.

Anyways, Noah’s Other Boat is still afloat! And, it appears, needed now more than ever.

“The way to know God is to love many things deeply.” Van Gogh, the pastor turned artist!
In college i helped edit a book called “Van Gogh and God”—great little book on his personal spirituality and how it came to express itself primarily through art. Just came across a copy today, by one of my professors and friends Cliff Edwards.
He also wrote a nice book on the Japanese poet Issa, who is one of my favorite nature lovers. Even loved flies that haiku poet. That was a man who could see through things. (https://worldstudies.vcu.edu/people/religious-studies-faculty/edwards.html) Here’s a link to my teacher. Good man, well studied but it led him towards humility. He’s also a great book artist! Makes huge sculptures with old books! Or used to when i was there.
Also Dr Edwards was always available as a teacher and as a person, and has a contagious curiosity about where religion and art intersect which got planted in me! Thankful for real teachers in life. They are helpful. And still studying artist’s spiritualities and where art and faith conjoin and intersect. The inherent relationship between true identity and creative expression is one of my life topics! On a personal and city wide level. How culture is meant to flow from core identity, interest me! And how to restore this vital connection or true image, is part of my own healing journey. Thankful for guides along the way today!
Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo (“Letters to Theo”) about painting from the “absolute self”, to paint the essential nature of things. Interesting quest! I like what artist think about! They become great teachers of how to interpret more deeply.
I’ve had a long journey with Van Gogh, having gone to Arles and many of the places he painted over the years, and seen most of his works. Such a vibrant heart, who made great art.