Dear
Friends,
I will be on
sabbatical until mid-August – a time of renewal and refreshment. For the first two months, I am returning to
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. San
Miguel is in the high desert mountains in the middle of Mexico, south of Guanajuato
and north of Mexico City. No, it is not
on the beach. San Miguel is a seventeenth
century town with a large artist community and a number of expats from North
America, Great Britain, and Australia, approximately ten percent of the
population. I will pray, paint, and play
in San Miguel, a place I have continued to return since my last sabbatical in
2008. I will renew my study of Spanish
and reconnect with friends.
Since speaking
at the Camp Mikell Folk Art Weekend, I have been playing with the idea of Art
and the Luminous Darkness, an idea of authentic art able to contain both
intense joy and deep sadness. I have some
ideas what that looks like – like a great piece of art, or poetry or music that
can take you to great heights and make you weep with joy and sorrow with
neither cancelling the other. As an
artist, I know that shadows are need to bring depth to a painting; and I know
that there is beauty in imperfection.
How all this will play out in my thinking this sabbatical, I do not
know. I ask for your prayers. It feels like a soul-journey, understanding
that God is with us in both the darkness and the light; embracing it is part of
the work of our souls and falling every more deeply into God.
I hope to
come back renewed and ready for the next part of the journey. I will be holding you in my prayers. I am intensely grateful for you and your
deliberateness to be a faithful community of the Beloved.
Much love
and peace,
Mac
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