Daily Nourishment for July 12, 2024: Surrender, Intimacy, and Mystery with Guidance from Image Journal Issue 121
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 55 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“I want my psyche to land at the limit of knowledge, at mystery.” - Katie Ford
Pause.
Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at some of the art by Devon DeJardin.
And take a couple of minutes to sit with this quote from an interview with DeJardin published in the latest issue of Image:
“In the past, so much of my life was about controlling every aspect or situation. In the studio, there is so much of the process that you do control: mixing the paints, building your maquettes, doing your lighting. But the moment you start painting, you have to accept that it’s never going to be as you intend. And then you have that moment of surrender, this understanding that a painting can be more life-driven than you could ever imagine. I have to surrender more and more every single day.”
Prompt.
Here’s an excerpt from “My Inmost Book,” an essay published in the most recent issue of Image.
“Intimacy with a book (from the Latin intimus, “inmost”) arrives at the meeting of inmosts. Mine, the book’s. And what are my books? I see now, in writing this essay, that the problem before me—the possibility—is not just in widening my idea of reading but my idea of the book. I’ve talked about these things with my partner, Jess, and once on a spring walk when everything was beginning to bloom here in South Pasadena, I told him I thought my gift in this life was noticing nature. Some months later, when I had become particularly frustrated, dejected, really, by my lack of reading, he said he would rather be with someone who noticed the natural world than someone who had read every word of Shakespeare. I felt the Chinese elm hanging over my duplex relax in me. Galileo’s “book of nature” concerns the workings of the natural world, but intimacy with that book, even if verbalized, is so detailed, so intricate and multitudinous that no human could tally such noticings. And after that process of seeking—in conversation with others, or myself, or the natural world, which I believe has individuated animus—I want my psyche to land at the limit of knowledge, at mystery. The more we admit we do not know, the theologian Gordon Kaufman taught me, the more faithful we are.”
Practice.
Set a timer for 10 minutes and take notes or journal in response to the words above and/or the questions below:
Over the past few weeks, have you had to surrender in your creative work and other areas of life?
How do you experience intimacy with a book you’re reading? What is worth honoring in the space and time in which you engage with a book?
How do you experience intimacy with nature?
What similarities and differences do you notice between intimacy with a book and intimacy with nature?
What are your thoughts on the intersection of mystery and faith?
Want More?
Read Image Issue 121
If you’d like to subscribe to Image, here’s a discount link for $30 for a full year’s subscription.
I look forward to sharing more from the latest issue of Image in the coming days. During the month of July, Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment will feature Image journal’s Glen Workshop facilitators and other Glen-ish people, places, and things. Enjoy!
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Upcoming Workshops & Gatherings
—The July Co-Writing Schedule is live.
—July 21-27: Charlotte Donlon will provide a few spiritual direction offerings at the Glen Workshop in Seattle
—July 27: Online Revision Stations Designed by Lauren F. Winner
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
*Please help us protect our intellectual property, our creative process, and the integrity of our work. Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment is covered under the Spiritual Direction for Writers® trademark. You are welcome to share this link with others, but any other use (written or spoken) is prohibited without written permission from Charlotte Donlon.