The Maker's Space

 60 of the clients of Haymarket Center, attended The Maker's Space Workshop, where for the sixth year in a row, art was used as a way to tell stories of recovery.  Haymarket's mission is to aid people with substance use disorders in their recovery, and the evening of art proved once again to be a powerful tool to help the clients express themselves.

Check out Allen Arnold's website for a free sample of his new book the Eden Option. In it, Allen describes the world of Story #2 that we are born into by default, but we can choose to live in Story #1, the real story we were intended to live, a life of constant communion with God, if we make the intentional choice.  Do you feel that the world we are living in is getting more and more less real?  The farther we go into Story #2, the less real the world becomes and the farther and farther we get from God and the life that we were intended to live.  Check out the free sample, then buy the full edition, either hardcover or Kindle!  

  These ideas are taken from the book,  Making Crosses—A creative Connection to God, by Ellen Morris Prewitt .   Active Prayer   —Praying with your body Praying With the Body-Bringing the Psalms to Life by Roy DeLeon   Roy is an Oblate of St. Benedict and a spiritual director.   He teaches classes in “Blessed Movements”, praying with body, heart and soul, and conducts workshops at monasteries and retreat centers.   He lives in Washington state.      Warm up Active prayer with the Psalms Opening Alleluia praise prayer to begin anything.   This is also a way to get Scripture out of our heads and into the air and into our bodies. When we begin, we are reminded why we are praying, our intention is union with God, wherever we are, it is Holy ground and we need to be attentive and watchful for the inner movement of the triune God with us. The prayers are written in sections, with a Lectio Divine format, a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God,

  We had a wonderful workshop with Allison leading us in painting our emotions.  We started with putting a color on paper of what a description of anger, joy, peace and love would look like to each of us in color. The next paintings were guided layers of emotions, perhaps a lie we believed, and the truth that we know, all represented in colors and layers.  Some of the pictures from the evening are below.