Drawing on Spirit

A Path from Methodist Teachings to the Art of the Metaphysical

Growing up as a Methodist preacher’s kid in a small town in Iowa, I never expected my life to turn out the way it has. Back then, I had no idea the New Thought movement existed. The teachings of the Methodist Church were all I knew about Christianity.

Through the years, however, I learned more and more about God. Around 1999, at a Southern Baptist church in Kansas City, Missouri, that was teaching metaphysical concepts, I first heard “You are God.”

That just blew my mind!

How can you say that I am God? I wondered. Isn’t God sitting on a throne somewhere up there watching every move I make so he can punish me? And what do you mean that my thoughts can create my life?

It took me a while to wrap my brain around those concepts.

From Methodist to New Thought Ministry

In 2003, my husband Steve and I moved to the Washington, D.C., area, where I worked for a small pipe organ company. A colleague there happened to run the Maryland School of Spiritual Science, and I became intrigued.

I enrolled in its four-year program to become a Spiritual Science minister and was eventually ordained in 2011. Learning about the founders of New Thought was uplifting and inspiring. The spiritual truths my studies introduced me to seemed to be just the opposite of what I had learned in the mainline churches.

Back then, I’d been told that one needs a mediator to talk to God, but thanks to New Thought, now I know I am part of God and God is part of me. There’s no need for an intercessor.

At Home with Silent Unity

Steve and I moved back to Kansas City in 2008. I had heard of Unity Village and Unity Temple on the Plaza from our previous time in the area, but I didn’t really know what Unity was all about. When I discovered Unity was a New Thought cousin to Spiritual Science, I decided to check it out.

I found that the organization had a prayer call center called Silent Unity®, so I thought I would put my ministerial training to good use. In October 2012, I started working at Silent Unity as a prayer associate.

I’ve … discovered that for me, creating meditative art can open a doorway to the Divine.

My experience deepened a few years ago, when I took a Zentangle class for fun at the Unity Village Bookstore. (Zentangle is a specific method of creating beautiful images by drawing structured patterns.)

I had never taken a formal art class, but I started drawing as a way to occupy my mind during the evening. I discovered that drawing actually helps keep me focused at a higher consciousness, so I started using it as a meditation practice while praying with people. I was particularly attracted to mandalas because their symmetry keeps things balanced.

Finding Art as Meditation

When I draw, I’m not working from the chatty monkey in the back of my head. I’m working from the front of my head, the creative part of the brain, and nothing else exists except the present moment. My drawings become meditation pieces infused with meaning.

For example, in the middle of each mandala I create is a medallion that represents the third eye or what is intended or envisioned. I might also include a center braid in the design to represent the head/heart, heaven/earth connection.

Being here at Silent Unity has changed my life for the better. Learning about the brain and our thoughts and how we create our lives has brought me peace. I’ve learned how everything is created twice: once in our minds and then in the physical.

And I’ve also discovered that for me, creating meditative art can open a doorway to the Divine.