Lint and Folds
Searching for a fabric that would echo the night sky as I create a way to wrap the good of God with us in that night around us. This deep blue velvet sings “night” so beautifully.
My beloved soul shelter sisters and brothers,
When I took this picture, I didn’t even see the lint - but my goodness, there it is. I thought about reshooting it, but decided not to. It’s an honest picture. Besides, we are all a little linty, are we not? Fuzzes of stories and experiences stuck to us from other places, other times of life. If this was a spotless studio shot, it would be rather unreal. Good for a catalog, but not for a life. There’s freedom in allowing the lint.
If emotional abuse has touched/is touching your life, life’s not a spotless studio shot, no matter how it might appear to the average bystander. In your heart, you know. I know. Maybe there’s someone in your life who pressures you to be lint-free. Or you pressure yourself to be so, thinking you’ll be able to dodge the abuse that way (This will just tie you up in knots and does not work. Just saying.). I say that the lint is beautiful. Keep it. It makes you real. It makes you uniquely you. It says you are human, alive, engaged and doing the stuff of life.
And the folds…I love the folds. This is not a shot of an evenly laid out, flat , shadowless piece of fabric. There are ups and downs, and so much depth in each fold, in each turn of the velvet. Darkness, yes. And I imagine there is safety there as well. My prayer for you today is that you’d find yourself held safe, hidden in the rich folds of the night you find yourself in. God of the dark night - God in the dark night is with you and loves you so. Lint and all. Always.
Stay safe in the deep folds,
Wendy
Just in case: 24/7 U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline, voice: 800-799-7233, text: “START” to 88788