Stirring in my Heart Part Two

Literature, painting, music—the most basic lesson that all art teaches us is to stop, look, and listen to life on this planet, including our own lives, as a vastly richer, deeper, more mysterious business than most of the time it ever occurs to us to suspect as we bumble along from day to day on automatic pilot. In a world that for the most part steers clear of the whole idea of holiness, art is one of the few places left where we can speak to each other of holy things. Frederick Buechner 

Buechner invites us to see art not merely as something aesthetic, but as a prayer.  So, what helps stir your soul?  Is it words written on a page in the form of story/poetry?  Is it a painting that invites you to pause, see one moment forever frozen around a frame?  Is it music where one note leads to another creating a melody?

Is there a reason why that speaks and sings to you?

I love words.  I find encountering and engaging ideas awakens new insights within me.  I find music to communicate emotions that words cannot always convey.  If find art captures me with the truth that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Today, I invite you to accept Buechner's invitation.  Read...listen to music...go to a museum.

Stop - let your whole attention be in that moment.

Look - not only with your eyes, but all your senses.  What do you taste when you are reading a good book?  What do you smell when looking at a painting?

Listen - what stirs within your heart?

May there be more than a trace of God's grace in this for you today.