Right outside the window

Seraphim   –   18″ x 35″   –   maple seeds, mother-of-pearl, pigment, window   –   Easter, 2013

From the Celtic spiritual tradition comes the idea of Áit Caol, a “thin place,” where heaven and earth are close together, and the veil between the two becomes translucent, giving us an impression of what it’s like on the other side.  Perhaps you’ve experienced this; a sudden feeling of intensity and connectedness, things feeling a little more real than usual.  A thin place might be a physical location; many people experience this in nature, in the mountains, at a spring or near the ocean, in a sacred building.  Or it might be a moment in time; holding a newborn baby, being present at someone’s death, or some far more ordinary moment, maybe just because the sun is coming through the trees in a particular way.

Easter, the Feast of the Resurrection, is the high point of our year in Christian tradition.  And it is one of those ‘thin places,’ where we can see momentarily into the heavenly realm.  That heavenly realm, or spiritual world, is never far away from us, we just usually don’t perceive it.  But now and again, out of the corner of our eye, we might catch a glimpse of the angels that are right outside our window.