Coming to Life (6)

We tell each other stories,

baffling little anecdotes

from firsthand experience,

and then we look at them

in a spiritual light.

We try to see what ideas

are running our lives.

Then we look for truer,

spiritual ideas and consider

how to let them

take charge of us.

—Polly Berrien Berends, Coming to Life

Before:

After:

The Suspicion That We Aren't Seeing Straight
3.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic, ink, and collage on cardstock
abstract
2020

Coming to Life (5)

Every now and then, feeling along the wall,

one of us comes to a corner and discovers

another wall, feels along that wall,

comes to a door, opens it, and is confronted

by a much larger, brighter space

where he finds that he can see. The rest of us

see the light on him. When he steps outside,

we wonder where he has gone. 

Now by the light shining through 

the empty doorway we find our way as well.

Others have gone through the door for us.

Each of us goes through the door for others.

     —Polly Berrien Berends, Coming to Life

Before:

After:

The Whole World Wakes Up a Little
3.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic, ink, and collage on cardstock
abstract
2020

Coming to Life (4)

If something is going badly,

there are two possibilities:

Either we are going about the right idea

in the wrong way, or else

it is simply a wrong idea in the first place—

in which case

there is no right way to go about it.

—Polly Berrien Berends, Coming to Life

Before:

After:

To Discover What Is and What Isn't
3.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic, ink, and oil pastel on card stock
abstract
2020

Coming to Life (3)

So for now

travel with me

on this journey

by train of thought.

Look out the window of your soul

and see for yourself

how the light strikes the ground—

from your particular vantage point,

at this now and that here.

I wish you a pleasant journey,

 a bon voyage,

a good seeing.

Polly Berends, Coming to Life

Before:

After:

Begin to Notice What Is Uppermost in Your Mind
3.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic, ink, and collage on cardstock
abstract
2020

Coming to Life (2)

The idea is 
to lose our life
to find it 
by losing our mind
to find it. 
For just this one moment,
live by and rely on the sufficiency
of the immediately available truth
as if you knew it was reliable.
That's when,
not before,
we feel this force beneath us.
We cannot feel its force
until we are relying on it utterly.

Polly Berrien Berends, Coming to Life


Before:

After:

God Is as Reliable as I Am Reliant
3.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic, ink, and collage on cardstock
abstract
2020

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Really had fun painting with collage here. The intuitive unfettered free-play exercised when creating the original sketch gave way to the satisfyingly focused detail-oriented color-matching and finishing I did just now, two years later. 

Coming to Life (1)

This is indeed the day

that the Lord hath made;

let us be glad 

and rejoice in it!

We have to start sometime.

Now!

We have to start somehow.

See!

We have to start somewhere.

Here!

Polly Berrien Berends, Coming to Life

Before:

After:

Holy Humdrum and Holy Hardship
3.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic, ink, and collage on cardstock
abstract
2020

Coming to Life: Prologue

Back in mid-August, I had an itch to generate another series of postcards. Truth to tell, it wasn't even fully an itch; it was more like a barely perceptible sensation that perhaps a stray hair had glanced across my skin and then blown away.

Nonetheless, I brought a hand to the sensation and gave it a quick light scratch.

You know how that goes!

Next thing I knew I was at my paper cutter with a painting exercise I'd done two summers ago.

Here's what had sat in a drawer for two years untouched:

August 2018 painting sketch
11 x 14"; acrylic and ink on card stock (calendar poster)

Here's what I have at hand now:

Scratch scratch scratch …