We Pray

and move our feet....

It’s a new year. I always appreciate the chance to energetically open to new intentions and hopes and dreams.

Also, I sit with the fear and heartbreak of this moment, watching fires rage, and genocides continue, and those lacking moral grounding rise to power. There is so much pain and so much out of my control.

I put this quote up in my studio and I really resonate with the combination of faith and hope and a deeper understanding that we CAN do some things, and they DO matter. I’m holding onto this as we go into 2025.

I did not grow up in a religious household, but when I was 8 (about two years after my dad’s brain injury) my mom introduced the idea that we could pray at night if we wanted to. There was very little instruction, so most nights I would lie alone on my top bunk squeezing my hands so tightly together that the muscles in my arms and hands shook, wishing my dad’s accident had never happened and that I could turn back time and redo everything in the previous two years.

It didn’t work.

Time did not reverse. My dad still lives with a traumatic brain injury 36 years later.

I became disillusioned with prayer.

In my late 20’s, separated by a great distance from someone I loved, I came back to it. “Please, despite all the odds, please let him move to America, I would whisper as I lit candles on my dresser, adding at the end “…if that is what is meant to be.” ‘If that is what’s meant to be’ helped me let go of my grasping and lean into faith. It’s a phrase I’ve continued to hold on to.

As the decades continue stack up, it has become clear to me, that making art is and always has been a type of prayer for me, a prayer for the world I wish to live in.

The piece above is called We Pray. Those of you with one of my 2025 calendars may recognize it as I intentionally chose it for the month of January imagining that we might need some strong prayer energy going into this year.

I borrowed the design from an earlier version I created of a group holding hands in a circle and replaced the people with 7 social justice faith leaders of varying backgrounds- some whose work I know well, and others I have been newly introduced to, but all who are inspiring me to move my feet as I pray. They are as follows:

Valarie Kaur- is a Sikh American activist, filmmaker, lawyer, educator, mother and faith leader. Valarie founded of the Revolutionary Love Project and wrote a book that forever changed my life called See No Stranger. I’ve been reading her beautiful new book Sage Warrior which is deeply rooted in Sikh wisdom I’ve found it profoundly insightful as well.

Linda Sarsour is a Palestinian Muslim American activist advocating against police brutality, inhumane immigration policies, and mass incarceration. She was one of the leaders of the Women’s March, and has been an advocate for human rights in the U.S. and abroad. I appreciated this interview with adrianne marie brown about her experience as a Palestinian American.

Rev Naomi King- is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. As a queer and genderqueer, fat, disabled person, they work to build intersectional anti-oppressive community.

Lama Rod Owens is a Buddhist Minister, Author, Activist, Yoga Instructor, Authorized Lama, and a self described Queen. He’s written on systemic racism, rage, liberation and what it means to be a spiritual warrior in today’s world. I’ve heard several interviews with him, and am excited to check out some of his books in 2025.

Swami Agnivesh was a Hindu social justice leader who campaigned against child labor and indentured servitude along with other social rights issues.

Rev. Jacqui Lewis is a Protestant author, activist, preacher, and public theologian working to create an antiracist, just, gun violence-free, fully welcoming, gender affirming society in which everyone has enough. Jacqui is the first African American woman to serve as a senior minister in the Collegiate Church in New York City.

Rabbi Brent Rosen is a Jewish activist for justice and human rights, particularly in Israel/Palestine. He became a prominent advocate in the Palestine solidarity movement and co-founded the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council.

Who would you add to this list? (I can already think of a few, I wish I’d had space to include ;-) What does prayer look like in your life? How are you holding the uncertainty of these days?

(me and my dad “praying together” the other day through our doodles with Wendy Mac’s DrawTogether prompts)

Sending love out to you all,

Jen

p.s. We Pray will be offered as a very limited edition screenprint. If you are interested please place your order by January 16th to ensure availability.

p.p.s. I’m offering 30-min creative coaching sessions for the next month for all PAID subscribers. If you’re a paid subscriber you’ll receive an email from me tomorrow with a link to sign up. If you’re someone who is looking to incorporate more creativity in your life and needs some support, or maybe you have a project that’s been brewing in your mind but you need help developing it, or maybe you just feel completely stuck, burnt out, or feel a creative void- this might be for you! My year is already filling up, and I’m not sure if I’ll offer this again so jump on it, if you feel called.