A photo received

There is a picture of a heart I took two weeks ago and posted that has continued to be in my mind.  It's not odd for me to take pictures of heart-shaped items.  If you read my blogposts, you know I've been doing it for a while, that I learned about the book "See A Heart, Share A Heart", and that I hashtag most every heart with #seeaheartshareaheart.

But this heart is different.

I was walking along the Riverwalk off Amnicola Highway where I often stop for a quick walk so I can go down to the river to pray.  I call it the "bug" section because it has several cool bug playground areas for kids.  [I learned that others call it the "Bug Park" too. That's fun!  So, it's now official.  The "Bug Park" at Riverpoint.  Check out this link for more information.]

I went down to the river.  I prayed.  It was on my way back, that out of the corner of my eye, this heart, at the bottom of this tree trunk caught my attention.  I got off the concrete path and walked over to it to look more closely and took a picture.  The picture I took that day made it look like the heart was deep and layered.

April 24, 2018 at Riverwalk

That day was a difficult day for me.  It was the day I learned that my hip surgery was being postponed because my A1C (blood sugar level) was .2 elevated above what the surgeon would allow.  All the planning and preparation that had taken place for months was erased and put on hold.  The pain had increasingly been rising, as had the A1C over the past 6 months.

My heart was heavy and I needed to clear my heart, mind, and soul.  Thus the walk.

That heart was a photo received that day. It was a gift of unexpected grace to me that brought peace and healing.

In Christine Valters Painter's Eyes of the Heart, she writes about received photos: ""Receiving photos" with the heart is an experience of grace and revelation, an encounter with the sacred." (19)

That is exactly what I experienced that day.

My heart knew what I needed and found it.  Christine writes earlier on the same page: "When we engage photography as a contemplative practice, we are creating art from a heart-centered place." (19)

This Sunday, I went back down to the river to pray, after having already walked and prayed the labyrinth in Fort Oglethorpe.  I needed some exercise plus I wanted to go see the heart on the tree again.

This time I was intentionally looking for it from the path.  I wondered if I would remember which clearing and which tree.  I did.  It was tiny from the path.  How did that catch my eye previously when I was going the opposite direction?  I walked over, took another picture, observed its beauty.  Then I stepped back and took a picture in context.

May 6, 2018

For me, that heart is a sacred heart.  Akin to the heart I found on the day of my Ordination interview back in the fall.  I found a heart that day in the root of a tree between lunch and my interview.

Sometimes the hearts I find simply cause me to smile or encourage me.  At other times they seem to have a more meaningful or deeper purpose.  Regardless, I am grateful for hearts.  I am grateful for walks.  I am grateful for photography and for the opportunity to learn to see with eyes of the heart.

A few more thoughts from Christine: "God's presence is always before us.  The invitation is to shift our vision from seeing the obvious and expected with our physical eyes to beholding the sacred within any given moment with the eyes of our hearts." (16)

"When you cultivate the art of beholding, you nurture your capacity to see the world with the eyes of your heart." (16)

One Scripture reference to behold that fits here-- Psalm 119:18-- "Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law."

Seeing with the eyes of the heart.  May that continue to grow as I continue my journey of living, loving, and leading like Jesus.

Blessings on your journey,

Debra