Crafting Calm

Put down the Prozac and Pick Up a Project!

As we become increasingly dependent on technology to make our lives easier, we lose the ease and find ourselves angst, overwhelmed and unaware.

There is a quiet revolution going on wherein people are choosing to live "handmade" lives. Artisans and everyday crafters are finding a renewed satisfaction in making something with their own hands. The physical and mental benefits in handwork bring about contemplation, serenity and mindfulness.

Using a potpourri approach, Maggie Oman Shannon demonstrates that you can "craft the craziness" away for calm, clarity, comfort, contemplation, connection wtih others and/or spirit to reflect and commune within and with the God of your understanding.

Creativity is a spiritual journey. By immersing ourselves in a creative activity, we can quiet those voices around and in us and enter into the stillness that characterizes prayer and the "house of love". Whether cooking, sewing, knitting, gardening or scrapbooking, your intention to create space to do so is all that's needed and the beneftis are as active as sitting in a church monastery.

Whether you call yourself an artist or craftperson, or neither, we are all creative and through art- and craft-making, we can commune with the soul and the Divine. From the ingredients of everyday life we can find the tools to create a spiritual practice