Wk. 35, Book 35: Star Book

the activity of Spirit, they unfathomable intelligence called by many names that permeates and moves within everything in this universe, constantly amazes me. i was walking down the street the other day when a bthesite.com tabloid caught my eye from within one of those paper-holding boxes we often see on street corners. i started to pass it by, but something (?) said GET IT, so I do, and with a quick glance at the front page i realized this final issue might help engage more young leaders in the upcoming Baltimore Beloved Community Awakening Walk. 

a few days later, while scanning the featured article on Baltimore's 20-something "Game Changers," my fingers started feeling possibilities for transforming this 11" x 11" square tabloid into another shape. so far this year, i've explored squares, rectangles, circles in 45 books, box books, photo books, and other ideas. but this thing in my hand begged to be different. i can't remember how i got to the final fold--it was as if my fingers were remembering something i'd seen or created from childhood. how 2 diagonal folds make 4 triangles with creases that look like wings. and how you make the paper open and close like a flower or star when you hold it in your palm, nose down, with a finger nestled in the crease of each triangle. remember how we did that as kids?

the final touches emerged from an impulse to connect the outer skin with the inner story and that story to last week's book, which is the anchor for the Baltimore Beloved Community Awakening Walk discussion groups. the text written on each triangle states: How do we transform a city? We all talk to each other. We recognize we are in the dynamic process of a city being reborn anew and that there's nothing wrong with where we are. It's necessary for change and change is often not pretty. We stand for those things that serve the greater good. We do/be what we are called to do/be. It's all hands on deck: show up, be fully present, really care, and do what is appropriate! and then you open the star to the front page of the tabloid and the message there continues to answer that central question, how do we transform a city?

which brings me back to my initial point regarding the activity of Spirit. i didn't intend this book, not one single step of it's development. i just made myself available as a conduit of creative energy. and so it is.