Whenever I see a piece of mosaic art I think of the process of creation--of how each piece has a place in the whole. I also think about our roles in life, of how many facets it takes to form a whole individual. And what do you do if one of those facets (or roles) is missing from your life at the present time? I don't have answers. Maybe it is an individual thing. I've noticed that we don't all have the same strengths. Do we compensate for what we think is missing by switching gears? Is that possible? Or to keep the metaphor, maybe we fill in a missing place with our own unique talents and keep on the look out for new ways to live and serve. Maybe I am thinking of this today because of uncertainty in this economy. Maybe this is a good time to reevaluate and make a course correction, to look for ways to make life more secure and meaningful. I know that sometimes the painful process of chipping out what doesn't work has to take place, whether it is a piece of glass or a distorted belief, whatever does not fit the picture for me right now. Mostly I am thinking about how prayer has helped so much when I have exhausted all the other places I usually turn to for counsel and advice. Prayer is a way to tap not only into the will of a loving God but to tap into the wisdom that I have inside. In my experience, the combination of those two things is unbeatable. This mosaic in the Metropolitan Museum was beautiful but even more lovely to me is watching myself and others continue on in the process of making a life out of the materials we have been given. And remembering to give thanks for that which we do have, for even the tiny pieces of joy that come our way.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Story of a Life in Mosaic
Whenever I see a piece of mosaic art I think of the process of creation--of how each piece has a place in the whole. I also think about our roles in life, of how many facets it takes to form a whole individual. And what do you do if one of those facets (or roles) is missing from your life at the present time? I don't have answers. Maybe it is an individual thing. I've noticed that we don't all have the same strengths. Do we compensate for what we think is missing by switching gears? Is that possible? Or to keep the metaphor, maybe we fill in a missing place with our own unique talents and keep on the look out for new ways to live and serve. Maybe I am thinking of this today because of uncertainty in this economy. Maybe this is a good time to reevaluate and make a course correction, to look for ways to make life more secure and meaningful. I know that sometimes the painful process of chipping out what doesn't work has to take place, whether it is a piece of glass or a distorted belief, whatever does not fit the picture for me right now. Mostly I am thinking about how prayer has helped so much when I have exhausted all the other places I usually turn to for counsel and advice. Prayer is a way to tap not only into the will of a loving God but to tap into the wisdom that I have inside. In my experience, the combination of those two things is unbeatable. This mosaic in the Metropolitan Museum was beautiful but even more lovely to me is watching myself and others continue on in the process of making a life out of the materials we have been given. And remembering to give thanks for that which we do have, for even the tiny pieces of joy that come our way.
1 comment:
What a beautiful and thought provoking post. I agree with you, Mosaics are amazing and have such wonderful metaphors for us to learn from. It's so cool to me that the seeming peach skin is actually a bunch of different colors in a mosaic. Thanks for all the ways you've made me feel like I fit in to things! :-)
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