This Monday (11/14/22) was my first time leading the opening and ending of the Art and Spirituality Program with other facilities and volunteers at Suffolk County House of Correction. This program provides people in prison with accessible art materials, valuable time just sitting together and making art, and space to express missing and thanking their loved ones. As usual, we started by reading the poem, “Reflections after Compline” by Sue Stock [1] and sharing a word that reflects the day. Then we made cards or origami art together. After creation, we came back as a group and shared our creativity.
It has actually been a month since I joined this group. During the time I spent with the group members’ creativity, I found the power of being present consistently. Every Monday, I brought myself with openness to the group. We were simply sitting together and making art, doing things together. During the art-making process, we could get together and share time in the unconscious place (so-called flow). The routine of making art also let my body get used to being aware and reflect on every life, not as a list but with a grateful mindset. Some of the participants in the group began to know my name and share their art with me. We talked about how their loved ones liked the frog image so much and what it meant to them when they were making the origami and card.
Even though we only share our name and a one-word thought, we share the whole world with love and gratitude by creating art/cards/origami in that one-and-a-half-hour Monday evening.
–Wanyi Huang
“Reflections after Compline” [1]
What we want is power,
What we get is frailty;
What we want is certainty,
What we get is ambiguity;
What we want is answers,
What we get is questions;
What we want is self-sufficiency,
What we get is interdependence;
What we want is permanence,
What we get is transience;
What we want is clarity,
What we get is mystery;
What we want is fantasy;
What we get is God.
Amen.
Compline Prayer. [2]
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.
1. Sue Stock, Prisms of the Soul. Greenville MS, 1996.
2. The Episcopal Church. The Book of Common Prayer : According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. New-York :T. Whittaker, 1875 p. 134.