Soli Deo Gloria

This little light of mine…

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DSC_0001 DSC_0011 DSC_0014So be it, at approximately 4:30 pm yesterday, I embarked on my first illumination installation. A little paper lantern and inside a battery operated tea light turned on, some additional tea lights noted with, “be the light,” and “shine on,” my poem, “The Properties of Light,” and a candy cane, suspended from the trees and porches of my neighbours.

I came home aired out and rosy cheeked and with a giddy feeling of having done something, while only a few hours earlier I was questioning the validity and integrity of my initiative (feeling rather dark in the beginnings of this winter season, feeling rather inadequate). Then I was reminded of a tiny verse that is fixed to the front of my fridge with a magnet, “Go in the strength you have.” Joshua 6:11. So, deep breath, small prayer, winter coat, cozy scarf, flipping stomach, I went out. I hung lanterns. I took photos. I saw the lights twinkle in the dark. And that was enough.

City Light Kelowna, and something inside me flames.

SDG, Lesley-Anne

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I want to know.

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DSC_0032As much as I spend time alone, create alone, work and think and pour out alone, there’s part of me that wants to know… others, their thoughts, their responses to my words. I create to express, work to sharpen myself as an artist, but also to share. And when I share there’s absolutely nothing more catch-my-breath-in-my-throat, than to really really know I am become a small part in someones life, a link in a chain strung from here to eternity.

Pop-up-poetry may just be a small miracle. I remember reading Stephen Kings book “On Writing” years ago, and resonating with Kings thoughts (I must look at it again!) that writing somehow transcends time and space. He says, “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” To be a writer, to commit words to paper/internet, and then moments, days, years from now, someone reads those words, in a connection across time and space… is miraculous! And so I press on and pop up.

Thursday of last week I pinned poems on Cawston Ave. in Kelowna. I imagined how the words might impact… how God might take what I wrote and begin something or heal something or continue a thought process… with someone I didn’t yet know.

That my poem pinned to a gateway would be welcome home. That my poem pinned to a bench would be rest. That my poem pinned to a community garden would be food.

And I went home believing.

I received a comment here at the bottom of my “About” page that quickened my heart upon reading it.  The joy… in knowing… just a glimpse.

Here are some photos of my pop-up-poems, scattered to the wind, looking to land.

All SDG,

Lesley-Anne

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So, maybe this is less about me popping up…

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…and more about possibility, opportunity, about keeping eyes and ears and heart open for the potential in each day to offer a word, speak a grace, write with the indelible ink of kindness on another’s soul? More about giving room for God, and inviting him into the conversation. Because I can certainly walk around and randomly read poetry in my daily life when I carve out time to do so. But it’s more likely that I’ll have time along the way or while I’m about other business to speak, to share, to read, to respond. And if I let God lead, then every interaction carries potential. Reminds me of what I just mentioned the other day about ‘purpose’ or ‘intent’…

This morning’s ‘verse of the day’ arrived in my inbox and I smiled… even in King James Version it makes sense to me. And, ironically, a short time later I did the exact opposite, spoke a word out of season, created a commotion where a good word would have been so much better… yes I have much to learn. This often happens to me, just when I give credence to some concept, some way of living, my life is tested in this very thing. It’s suddenly very real then.

VERSE OF THE DAY – King James Version

Proverbs 15:23

“A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season,
how good is it!”

Yesterday I was invited to Bo.ttega to participate in “ESCAPE”. an experiment in paying attention, opening up, creating an opportunity in my life and my schedule for God to do what only he can do.

It started with wonder, awe, reminders of who God is, his power, his glory, his love… continued with worship in music and dance and video and communion, with humble admittance of how much I’m in need of God’s love and forgiveness and acceptance of me and all my lumps and bumps and blunders… and then the creative opportunity… to allow the love and grace of God to flow through me into my mind, my heart, my pen, my paintbrush, my tongue. If this all sounds a little uncomfortable and outside of the box of Christendom… well, it was. And it was raw and real and powerful and tears flowed and hearts melted and wrong things were made right and after 3 hours I was drained and invigorated and so very grateful for having been there. I was not alone in that. We will gather again next month to escape again, to let God lead.

Here are some pictures of our humble experiment in Spirit led creative expression…

Thank you to all the organizers. Thank you to God for his work in us.

Soli Deo Gloria (for the glory of God alone)

Lesley-Anne

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