Jealousy

While I was taking photos in the hills of North Carolina last week, I noticed my shadow. “Wow! These are the legs I’ve always wanted,” I thought. As a 5′ 3″ dancer, I spent years in ballet studios envying the young women with the long,...

A Little Refuge

Once a year the members of my husband’s clergy support group are guests at a beautiful inn in the North Carolina mountains. At 5000 feet the view of the sky, meadows, and surrounding Appalachian range is spectacular. After years of nagging, we spouses garnered...

Prayers for Bones and Backs

My friends Lois and Susan are both struggling with physical issues. One friend has a serious broken ankle. The other has recurring back problems. This prayer started with a simple, wiggly diagonal line. On the top of the line I drew a cloud-like shape for Lois; on the...

Powerless Prayer

Step One of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon is “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol–that our lives had become unmanageable.” Because my life is often unmanageable and chaotic, I say the first step a lot, substituting other...

Circular Prayer

Here is a prayer I drew starting with the name “Healing God.” I drew tiny lines, dots, and shapes in a circular pattern so I could keep my focus on the name. I added peoples names and prayed for them. Sometimes my prayers had words. Sometimes I just...