Thank you to Brooke Summers-Perry who spoke to us about her artwork as a spiritual practice in Bill's absence! Her talk was entitled Mystery in Words and Images. During the hour Brooke spoke to us about the process of reading, contemplation, and creation she goes through with each painting. Lately she uses texts from Teilhard de Chardin, Ilia Delio, John O'Donohue, and others. Brooke's work truly embodies an exploration of non-dual mind! We are so grateful to her for sharing with us.
A few poems to highlight that she read from:
“In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”
“You will find me
gently moving
deep in the wilderness
most quietly assimilating
refracting and bubbling
moving along with
the never ending cycle.
I am in process
returning back
to big expanses of water
collections of particles
unknowingly waiting
to transform and ascend
gather and descend
in showers of
solids or liquids
joining and nourishing
every living thing on the planet.
I am the current, the drop
the wave and the sea
I am the vapor, the sprinkle,
the rain and the storm
I am the smallest brook in the most remote wood
combining and changing
churning and returning”
There is so much more richness in her work. Please visit www.summers-perry.com to see and read more about Practice Houston. To link directly to her poem on Parenting, I sit, click here. And enjoy the visuals as you hum "deep greens and blues are the colors i choose" to yourself! Be well and hope to see you next week!
To listen to the full content of the talk, click below.