This postcard is based on a favorite Psalm. I started to read the Psalms about a year and a half ago (2021) and it was slow going at first. Some were buoyant and beautiful, but some were filled with bitterness, anguish, and grief. I wondered how they could have anything to do with my own experience and faith journey. I had a lot to learn.

I pray the Book of Hours, also called the Divine Office, which is the practice of praying at intervals throughout the day. The Psalms are interwoven throughout, and form a kind of background music to the prayers at morning, noon, and night; and I have come to know them like friends. The people who wrote them lived in a time and place I can barely fathom; in a different epoch, a distinct culture, seemingly a universe away. Yet their joys and fears, their sense of wonder and confusion, their struggles with trust and doubt, could be my very own. In our Father’s house, transcending space and time, we are truly a family; we are far more alike than we know, which is a source of tremendous comfort and even cheer.

I love the brevity and simplicity of Psalm 18:28: Lord, you will light my lamp, you will illuminate my darkness. This is a good prayer.

This postcard is made with mixed papers, ink, paint, and vintage ephemera.