Broken Wide Whole
Broken Wide Whole: Prayers for Daily Living is a collection of 50 prayers and 34 watercolor works by artist and minister Suzanne L. Vinson. These prayers invite you to create a sacred pause in the art of daily living, to receive healing and care, and share that healing with the world through seeds of loving kindness.
Broken Wide Whole is available autographed and inscribed through Suzanne’s soul care business Silver Tree Art. Find it in the shop, here.
Broken Wide Whole felt like it was whispered from the deepest part of my being. Suzanne creates a conduit between the reader and the holy, connecting the two through the beauty of language and art. Her gentle, compassionate and intimate language seem to translate messages from my own soul. Her words are embedded in the garden of her artwork, like they are each a prayer blooming from the soil. Broken Wide Whole is a book that can be revisited again and again, the prayers and conversations taking on newer and deeper meanings with each read. This book instructs the reader how to have her own intimate conversation with God.
- Valley Haggard, author of The Halfway House for Writers and Surrender Your Weapons: Writing to Heal and curator of lifein10minutes.com
Ever since I first encountered Suzanne L. Vinson, I have recognized the stirrings of my own heart in her brushstrokes of watercolor paint. I have turned to her art in times of profound joy and aching sorrow; indeed, my sole tattoo was scripted by her hand. Now Suzanne pairs her art with prayers of such beauty, wisdom, and purity of spirit it seems I am praying again for the first time. This is a book for the weary ones, the old soul, the tender child within. This is a book to crack open at dawn, to consult at dusk, to reach for in the dark when sleep is elusive. Broken Wide Whole is a gift.
- Rev. Katherine Willis Pershey, Associate Minister of First Congregational Church of Western Springs
A deep yes to suzanne l. vinson's Broken Wide Whole. Her profound words and whimsical art are a wake-up call for the spirit and a balm for the heart. In the exhale of each prayer is the vibration of compassion-- for self, for other, for the human condition. suzanne shows us how to hold the pain and the joy of living as she embraces the mystery of each moment, each unfolding of truth. She invites us to let go, let in, take action, and take rest... and she reminds us of the divinity that lives within, around, and beyond us. This book is a pure offering of hope, gratitude, and wonder... a treasure for the human journey.
- Nicki Peasley, author of Ellipsis
PORTALS:
Prayers from Waking Until Rest
Portals: Prayers from Waking Until Rest provides artwork, mantra, and 4 Prayers: Upon Waking, Midday, Evening, and Before Rest for each day of the week. You are invited to use these prayers in your days as a way to express loving kindness to yourself and the world. Written by Artist, Minister, and Guide Rev. Suzanne L. Vinson.
Portals has been a project of love. A product of living these questions: What if we decided how we wanted to move ourselves from now to next? What if we can choose the energy we carry and share? These are the questions held these prayers were written. Suzanne shares, "I pray these prayers on the trails. I pray them between the happenings in my day. I hold the words and the words hold me - reminding me how I want to be in the world moving from now to next. Reminders are always a must for me, and praying in color and word grants me that attention to care. I invite you to use these in your daily life and your natural rhythms, whatever that looks like for you. You can use this book daily as it has been written, praying four times over the course of a day. You can choose at random and pray what speaks to you in the moment. You can pray all the prayers at once in a day. There's no one way to pray. I have written these as four places in our day to pause and send our hope and care as prayer into the world."
Boost Loving Kindness & Compassion
By praying, we open ourselves up to the Divine, to hope, and perhaps hope in the Divine. We open ourselves up to change from the inside out. We invite ourselves into the shape of things as they are and as they will be. We participate in living life in the moments of the now and the next. We usher in belonging, trusting our presence in this time and place and looking to invite goodness into the lives of all. Portals can be an entrance or addition to a daily prayer or meditation practice. Perhaps these prayers can be the entrance to portals of our making, too.
A visual is shared for each day so that you can pray beyond words and so that you can invite the words into the imagery. You create an experience as you engage with image and text through your heart and action. Consider painting or creating your own visuals, too. You become a portal as you engage your heart throughout your days. You create space for healing within and to engage with the world around you. You shift your energy and light and thus impact a wider world - as you are, and as you are becoming. Portals: Prayers from Waking Until Rest book and Illumination decks an be a balm, a tool for equilibrium, and a guide.