Stations Journal Journey #24

Sept 26, 2025 

This has been one of the most challenging weeks of this year of production. And also one filled with blessing. Back to both / and I guess…

I think I’m getting tired. This marathon of art is wearing on me and my artistic soul is not getting much of the space it needs to breathe. The days of pause between Stations and between workdays and rest days have blurred long ago. I didn’t even protect my one day of Sabbath last weekend. My garden’s abundance has been such a gift - and one more physical demand at harvest time. Emotional family needs have been draining. Sleep has been more challenging. And this all adds up to exhaustion.

We have just passed the four month mark to the premiere of this series opening (January 22nd!) and have four more Stations to complete. That is a very demanding timeline. I have cleared my schedule of most other work. But there is a lot on my plate related to this project, even aside from the creation of art.

The exhibition in Vancouver is going to be called “Sacred Journeys”. Every Stations of the Cross series is a mini-pilgrimage, meant to take one out of one’s usual life, on a sacred path, intentionally visiting challenging places along the way, and then depositing the self on the new shores of self-awareness by the end. Although we are journeying with Jesus on this particular pilgrimage, in fact, the reverse is the reality. Jesus is journeying with us. There is so much of ourselves, our life, our choices and the unplanned things visited upon us. We see ourselves in Christ and in this dark pilgrimage. Jesus is our companion, our strength, our guide to the harsher places. Yes, even our guide, because there is indeed so much to learn here if we willingly go deep into the belly of this whale.

I know this because it is essentially the Truth that I have learned over this lifetime project; what God has taught me throughout the 15+ years of this full Stations pilgrimage. The crucifixion and Lent are parts of our faith that sometimes we’d rather skip over. I believe the paschal mystery - the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, teaches us a necessary pattern of life: that we must go down to go up; that we must look squarely at death before realizing it brings us closer to life; that what feels like death is not actually death, rather transformation; if it’s death we feel at the end, then it’s not the end.

And here I am. At the cross. I intentionally chose this path of mirroring Jesus on his way to the cross, and now I am at this most uncomfortable of places. Huh.

This is what I trust for today.