Five Days

"Spirit Country," 5 x 7 acrylic card

 Deserts. And stars. Solstice.

Three of the world's prominent religions grew out of the aridity of deserts, where you intimately learn the stars to lead you to water. When you are people of the desert, you know how small you are in a gargantuan universe, where you seek and find Spirits to help lead you.

With human-ordained Christmas in five days, on this the longest night of the year, think of the three wise men who followed a star..."from the east" which means they traveled across deserts. It seems no accident that all the religious art of that story shows them riding camels. 

Growing up in New Mexico, camping in mountains surrounded by arid "deserts," or camping  and hiking on remote trails, you learn the power of the night skies, value the wide open spaces and long horizons.  

One of my favorite places on earth is at Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico, where you can camp and hike, see the Milky Way, watch the stars wheel above you, see time move. I heard a ranger say you could feel the earth move beneath you.  Camping in that desert place puts you in contact with  Spirits.

"Time Zones," watercolor sermon

"Time Zones," 10 1/2 by 13 watercolor, 300 lb. d'Arches cold press paper

Obsessed with time? Watching the seconds of life tick away? Hurrying toward eternity when the present, eternity is all we have, and thus miss it.
Think we're important and significant in the brief moments we inhabit the present, divided into "time zones" instead of "life zones"?
Not when you grow up like I did where geology shows you how small and brief humans are amid all of creation, and we dare to think we're in charge, and dominant, and control creation? Arrogance and ignorance of little people, and if you're a believer, blasphemy--that is literally "taking gods' names in vain," not profanity. 
I think that every time I view the magnificent geology, the strata, the raw landscapes of the Southwest and West, open books into "time."
Thus today's watercolor, "Time Zones."
Consider:
"You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes."-- James 4:14
 "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars...what is man that you are mindful of him...."--Psalms 8: 3-4

December Horizons

"December Horizons," 5 by 7 watercolor card

Mountains,  the high places on earth, always beckon, always grab attention, always call, but even more in December when they're capped with snow, or far away on the horizon. 
December is a high point in each year, beckoning with promise and memories, and also a horizon between years.
Mountains bring color, and warmth even in cold to our lives, breaking the monotony of everyday life and landscapes. 
No wonder that mountains figure so importantly in all the religions of the world, magnets for prophets and saints  and saviors to find themselves, and sacred symbols and sanctuaries forever after.

(Day 14 of 31 December watercolors)

New York City religions

With all the controversy about Muslims in NY City, I thought we needed some perspective.

Did you know that 9/ll also attacked up to 1.4 American Muslims, and killed some?


The facts below come from Did You Know.http://didyouknow.org/number-of-churches-and-mosques-in-new-york-city/

New York City is the most linguistically and religiously diverse city in the world. The 8.4 million inhabitants speak 800 different languages in the five boroughs – the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. New York is also a religious city: 83% of New Yorkers are affiliated to some organized religion. This is a rate of adherents larger than that of the state, New York State (75%), and one of the highest in the entire United States.

Christians comprise about 70% of the population; 40%  Catholic and 30% Protestant. They attend about 2000 churches and 4000 informal places of worship such as community halls and homes, totaling about 6000 churches. The city is home to  the world’s largest cathedral, the Episcopal Church of St John the Divine.

12% of New Yorker claim Jewish decent. There are more Jews in New York City than t in the Jerusalem city limits. They have more than 1000 synagogues – 70% permanent and 30% temporary places.

There are almost a million Muslims in New York City. (Some sources claim 1.4 million; the New York City Community Affairs Bureau states the figure as 800 000.) There are more than 100 mosques in the city, plus an unknown number of small mosques that worshipers set up in their apartments or places that are not visible from the street.