Creating "Giddy" Layers of Spring Peace

Peaceful Monthly Reflections + Poem...1st Sundays are a free gift of peace

Hello, hello, my dear reader!

It is spring where I am in England and wow, isn’t it gorgeous!

Abnormally dry, I’ve been enjoying extra time outside, listening to the birds and watching the snowdrops and crocus turn into daffodils and hyacinths. Days are getting longer, daylight savings time has meant we’ve sprung ahead and so the mornings are bright and the evenings are, too.

Many in my neighbourhood have just finished observing Ramadan, many neighbours are preparing for Passover at the end of this week, and many others are gearing up for Easter by preparing for it during Lent.

I hope and pray that whatever you’re celebrating or present to in your soul, that you’re enjoying the peace of this season wherever you are in the world.

It’s been my practice now for a few years to process life through reflecting on a specific set of questions.
1. Who is in your life?
2. What are you listening to?
3. What are you reading?
4. What are you eating?
5. What are you creating?

Here is my dear husband Max…and me. With coffee, of course! This year I’m praying for even more goodness in our lives. That we could have even more peace in ourselves and in our lives together in this new season of life. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be human with him…that we can be married, remembering that hot spring day in 2011 when our friends got sunburned celebrating us…Here’s to our lives committed to: Love + Celebrate + Grow + Heal Together for 14 Years—celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary this month.

I thought I’d share this with you as I’m processing my own life at the moment. Maybe you’ll be inspired to pause and reflect on your life, what God might be speaking to you about, and notice what your prayers have been…or what you’ve been hesitant to pay attention to.

So, here it is.

Who is in your life?
My friend, Jenn, who is kind of like a sister, but mostly like a friend who, with her husband and children have been a sort of “chosen family” for Max and me for years. We actually officially became friends during the 2012 Olympic opening ceremonies when we decorated and ate several pizzas and cheesecake to look like the rings. While we lived in Minnesota, Jenn and I kept in touch with phone calls and texts regularly processing life together. And, now I’m grateful that Max and I live a short walk from their home, so we can drop in on each other…for cups of tea, to vent, to share the random things of life, or to borrow a ladder or weed the garden or watch the bats at dusk. I think we’ve perfected the “being imperfect” in each others’ presence and that’s such a gift.

What are you listening to?
Trumpet music. Especially brass bands. Oh, it’s so good! Living in Yorkshire has myriad benefits and one of them I’ve been particularly enjoying is the hundreds of years old tradition of the brass band. A few weeks ago we had the utter delight of listening to the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band (learn more about them and listen by clicking here). It’s been inspiring to be part of live music happening and it’s brought up a lot of emotions from the years of play A LOT of music when I was 10 years old till about 21 years old.

What are you reading?
Into the Silent Land: a Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation by Martin Laird. I’m taking my time through this one. I’m training to become a spiritual director and part of the work I’m doing is to read and process my experience with this book.
Laird writes, that the contemplative practice is “a surrendering of deeply imbedded resistances that allows the sacred within gradually to reveal itself.”
I continue to uncover so! many! resistances! in myself. I wonder why I keep fighting the goodness. I wonder why I keep trying to heal myself. I wonder what it will feel like to fully surrender—and not keep trying to take it back…I’m learning. And part of it that’s crucial is to be able to receive the goodness that God has for me. I want God, I want the sacred, as Laird says, to be shown in and through me. It’s a process—one which I’m committed to going through.

How easily do you feel like you can surrender your resistances to God?

What are you eating?
Meringue nests, fresh fruit (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, apples, bananas, blood oranges, clementines, red currants, blackberries, etc.), and yogurt. Sometimes with some cinnamon sprinkled and sometimes with some muesli.

Over the last few months I’ve been eating more intentionally (not “perfectly”). I find that when I eat more healthily and more on-purpose, the more creative I can be, the more clearly I can think. And physically I feel a lot better, too. Since September I’ve lost nearly 20lbs. I’m really grateful because it makes everything so much easier.

Part of what I’m trying to be peaceful about is the process of making food, enjoying eating, planning meals and shopping, washing the dishes, and then doing it again…when I eat a wide assortment of interesting foods, it makes it fun and is a creative output that fills me up in more ways than one.

What are you creating?
I’m in the final formatting stages of my green book, aka, Poems For My People: Community, Volume 4 of the poetry collection rainbow: click here to watch some more details about that collection. (These projects always take longer than I hope for, but eventually they come to light.)

I’m also in the middle of applying for some grants for 2026 typewriter poetry projects in the community. I know the poems I write for people are good and I trust that the poems I write are changing the world for the better, one poem at a time.

And, generally, I’m creating is a less-avalanchey, more peaceful, place here online. So, I’m grateful for you to have read / listened this far. This is an invitation to Peace. I want it all to feel peaceful for you—whenever and however you interact with me or something I’ve created.

This is for you, lovely women of faith, to be invited each week into moments of peace through poetry, paintings, and reflective practices. Because daily, I read, laugh, smile, eat, drink tea & coffee, paint, daydream, train for marathons, practice yoga, or go for circular walks…and because I’m committed to keeping my eyes above the waves of anxiety in my own soul’s sea and that of the world…you’re invited: to practice being peaceful with me.

Please stay tuned for information about how to join me in June 2025 for a month of journaling (and light coaching) to get closer to God. It’s not all ready to show you yet, but know it’s coming soon!

Another thing I’m creating is artwork. A beautiful mess through feeling afraid and doing it anyway only to grow in curiosity and creative confidence. For me these days, that’s practicing collage, creating layers, building artwork into…something?

In Stage 1 of this set of 5 paintings, about 10 x 11 inches, I began by drawing free-flowing lines and marks on the un-treated pine boards with fuschia and forest green oil pastels. Then I set off to PVA glueing torn and crumpled bits of a destroyed old Bible I rescued from the bin. I recognise this could be controversial, using scripture this way. I also recognize how the process of making this work is drawing me closer to God as I’m praying to honour Him through creating beauty. And the most recent thing I felt like God said about it to me is to affirm that I’m using His Word as the foundation to the Art I make.

In Stage 2 of this project, I grabbed my stash of what acrylic paints I’d unpacked from moving across the ocean: white, several greens/blue-greens and a couple purples. Some iridescent, sparkly, and metallic—which is exciting! I’m using a large brush, holding it toward the end of it so make free-flowing, non-judgemental strokes as an experiment to work with what’s be lain down at Stage 1 and then building on to it. I really don’t know what’s coming next (and, it shocks me a bit), but I’m finding the unknown thrilling in this process. Who knows what might emerge?

Well, I hope that this sharing was helpful for you. Vulnerability is a practice. While I’ve often got sweaty armpits from sharing myself with you, even though I know you’re a lovely human woman of God, I still feel…vulnerable showing you my heart and creative outpourings.

But, it’s good. So, thanks for being part of helping me grow.

Bonus questions I occasionally reflect on:
What questions are unanswered?
What is mine to hold?
Who do I need to be more honest with?
Where am I trying too hard?
What am I afraid of?

Most mornings I start the day with a walk—not every morning…being strict doesn’t help me. But, I know how much better I feel when I get fresh air while intentionally and contemplatively moving my body. I have a special carrier mug Max and I got on a trip around Lake Superior at a favourite coffee shop we’ll always go to when we travel there. Walking helps me unwind the anxiety that balls up like a dusty tornado yarn cloud in my soul. Walking helps me experience peace. And, when I experience more peace, then I can share more peace. *sigh* We’re all better off with it.

…Do you have a walking practice?

Okay, so, you delightful lady of faith, I want to again say to you, “You’re invited! Into peace.” I look forward to being with you. See you along the journey.

Molly

P.S. One more thing…I’ll leave you with a poem from my time busking in public. This poem isn’t published officially yet, but I had so much fun writing this past weekend, that I wanted to share it with you.

If you want more information about my red book, Poems For My People: Community, Volume 1 or the other poetry collections, please check it out on my website, mollyovenden.com.

May this poem amuse you and bring a smile to your face.

“Terrified & Giddy Sleet”
By: Molly Ovenden

Burbling salt spray—
Royal upon Herculean
Waves—swells as glass blown,
Electric orange glows flow
Awaiting giddy night sights
Bursting triumphant
Beneath these icy storm clouds…
Demon of the sea?
No, misunderstood…
With a slap of a tail—
Shockwaves released
Fears shiver in sleet
It’s a killer whale:
Such a clever beast!

Next time…
I’ll be sharing a special moment of peace for Paid Subscribers: a peaceful prompt to grow: turning hopes into dreams + practice gratitude.

Thank you for joining me. Thank you for your peaceful presence.
Until next time, I shall leave you with an open invitation to peace.