My love for nature is probably a gift from my parents as well as a result of being raised in a small rural community. We had a large garden at home, and as a young girl, I spent many hours with my mom cleaning and canning fresh vegetables and fruits. Although I did not live on a farm, many of my friends did, and I learned to collect eggs, milk cows and shuck corn with them. Mom had a creative bent, and I have wonderful childhood memories of pouring plaster of paris in molds and waiting impatiently for them to dry so my brothers and I could paint them. The cardinal bird mold was my favorite. I admit some turned out looking like pretty strange birds.

Sr. Lynn Schafer encouraged my interest in woodcarving. She invited me to go along with her to the Western Suburban Woodcarving Club. These generous, enthusiastic woodcarvers – mostly older gentlemen – gifted me with my first knife, safety glove and a piece of wood. Though not feeling very personally talented, with their encouragement, I became “hooked” on woodcarving. Their talent and carvings were incredible. They told me I had to carve a nametag for future meetings – or put a quarter in a jar every time I came and I forgot. That was my first totally unremarkable woodcarving effort. Now Lynn and I carve regularly. Both of us go away for a week of carving each year. It is a thrilling experience to tap into God’s creative energy while carving. And it is impossible to describe the personal satisfaction I feel when a carving comes out well and is completed. Each becomes a transformation of intuition and energy into a solid form. I understand better how Michelangelo must have felt when the pieta emerged from a block of marble. (I haven’t had any carving pietas – but you get my drift.) Some carvings are whimsical, like the dancing bear I completed; some capture beauty in nature, like the covered bridge and farm house reliefs I recently carved; and some are geometric, like the chip carved boxes I have done. All represent a process and form of attentiveness that is basically contemplative. Carving requires focus, care and attention to detail, skill and an element of risk. It also requires total attention, or you can seriously cut yourself.

Woodcarving is a spiritual journey for me. As I have grown older and gotten more deeply in touch with my inner life, I have recognized the need to develop the more shadowed sensate side of my personality. My image of God is one of energy – embedded in all of creation. As I carve, I am aware that I am tapping into the creative energy of God. It is a freeing experience that makes me know all of creation is truly one. God’s beauty is everywhere. I have always loved art that emerges from natural products like wood, stone, pottery and glass. Maybe this is the outcome from having a dad who ran a stone quarry. Often after dynamite blasting, rocks would break open and reveal the most exquisite crystalline formations. My Uncle Benny made some beautiful grottoes and pieces out of these stones. It was my dad who could sit on hour on the front porch steps coaxing a squirrel to eat out of his hand. And it was my mom who had the biggest strawberry patch in town.

However you look at it, being involved in creative energy is to be involved in God. There are as many forms of creativity as there are people. I have had the joy of being creative all my life: first in nursing, then in administration, and now in my ministry as an Animator with our Sisters at the Motherhouse. All of this is “holy ground." I have been abundantly blessed by our generous and creative God.

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