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cherrywinklemoore.md

Cherry Winkle Moore is a visual artist and a retired hospice chaplain. Cherry has a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting, drawing and printmaking from the University of Alabama. Later she completed a Master of Divinity degree with an emphasis in pastoral care. Cherry sometimes says that in her case the MFA stands for Minister of Fine Arts and the MDiv stands for Making Divine Images Visible.

Art

Ann's Fountain: Poem written at Laity Lodge, 2011

Artist’s Retreat, 2011. Ian Cron asked us to go experience water and come back in about twenty minutes. This happened. It’s taken me six years to share it. ANN’S FOUNTAIN...
Art

"Rooted and Grounded" - A Painting

I attended a spiritual retreat sometime in the 90s. At the first meeting the retreat leader passed out index cards. Each one had a different scripture reference. “Throughout this retreat...
Art

"Redemption" - The Story of a Painting

The Beginning of this Painting Every year in the week before Easter some churches in Houston sponsor an open art exhibit with a theme from the life of Christ. In...
Art

"Where I'm From" - a Poem

I am from the King James Bible and the Singer Sewing Machine and the ‘52 Chevy. I am from the hand-built house with a smokey fireplace, an outhouse, a grand...
Art

A "Lost" Painting is Found

This painting was “lost” to me for 41 years. I painted it in 1974 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where I was a graduate student in the Fine Arts Department. When we...
Poems

FIRE: a poem by Judy Sorum Brown and a book page of mine

A couple of years ago I took a page in a book called Creativity by Matthew Fox and made a “found word” poem. Story is fire, heat, warm, food. Creativity...
Art

Matthew 15:10-28; What defiles a person

St. Thomas Episcopal Church, College Station, Texas - August 17, 2014 Artist -In-Residence Program, Cherry Moore, artist MEDITATION ON THE TEXT I read the text through twice with silence in...
Hospice Stories

Some Thoughts on Hope and Mary

We hope. We don’t have to give up hope but sometimes our hopes have to change. Mary probably hoped to marry Joseph, have some children and have a quiet life...
Art

Matthew 14:22-33; Jesus Walks on Water and Calms the Storm

 St. Thomas Episcopal Church, College Station, Texas - August 10, 2014 Artist-In-Residence Program. Cherry Moore, artist MEDITATION ON THE TEXT I read Matthew 14:22-33; Jesus Walks on the Water and...
Art

Matthew 14:13-21 The Feeding of the 5000

St. Thomas Episcopal Church, College Station, Texas - August 3, 2014 Artist-In-Residence Program. Cherry Moore, Artist. MEDIATION ON THE TEXT I read the text -  Matthew 14:13-21 Silence I said:...
Art

Deliverance - A painting

A cancer patient shared a dream with me. He said he was in bed asleep next to his wife when he became aware that the bed had turned into quicksand...
Spiritual Life

Lessons from a blade of grass

Today I was told to take a walk, notice something and listen to what it might say to me. I knew I would find something and draw it but I...
Missions

Retirement or Missions? Some thoughts and learnings

Voices inside and out tell me to make plans about retiring. I do feel that a season of my life is ending but I also find that I am looking...
Learning From Judson

What I Know

There is a sense in which everything important that I know, I know because of Lew and Judson: Because of my sons I know pain and joy I know the...
New

Panama 2012: Prayer "cures" motion sickness

Something I learned years before while walking a labyrinth saved me from motion sickness in Panama in the summer of 2012. On our first full day in Panama Sue Smith...
Dreams

A Glimpse into Heaven

I’m not sure even how to talk about it. I wasn’t dreaming. I was wide awake. It wasn’t exactly a daydream. I guess it was a vision. When I try...
Art

Poem: Laity Lodge Artist Retreat 2011

MUSIC, ART and ARCHITECTURE… the Frio River I close my eyes and listen: From my right nearby lapping on a metal canoe From my left a different rhythm on a...
Learning From Lew

GRIEF BURSTS............February 4, 2011

Shortly after I went to work at the hospice where I am a chaplain, I learned about “grief bursts” from the Bereavement Coordinator. I hadn’t heard the definition but I...
Spiritual Life

Recent Spiritual Practice

In my last post I wrote about my struggle to find a personal spiritual practice and confessed that I have often felt that I have ADHD of the Spiritual Life. ...
Spiritual Life

Seeking a Spiritual Practice

Not having grown up in a tradition with a liturgy or lectionary or a set schedule for morning and evening prayers, I’ve been on the look-out for my own spiritual...
Poems

The Worst Loss

THE WORST LOSS – the death of a child They tell me I have experienced The Worst Loss. Why do I recoil? No one wants to be The Worst: The...
Art

Experiencing the Feminine Characteristics of God

I would like to tell you about a 36” round painting that I call “Experiencing the Feminine Characteristics of God.”  Once she was carried into a seminary chapel by liturgical...
Art

Pastel Portraits 2010

Every Wednesday afternoon a group of portrait artists meets at The Frame Gallery in Downtown Bryan, Texas. Artist and gallery owner Greta Watkins arranges for a model and we paint...
New

Personal Praise History

Spring 2010 Wooing and forming God, I thank you for my EARLY CHRISTIAN FORMATION AND EDUCATION. For Christian parents, pastors and Sunday School teachers. For Aunts and cousins: Dot, Jean,...
Art

Visual Biography

In 2010 I was invited to present a program at “Sweet Spring Splendor,” a dessert fellowship planned by the Women’s Ministry Committee of First Baptist Church of College Station, Texas....
New

The Twenty-Third Psalm: Personal Version - Artist

The Lord is my Master Artist I shall not lack beauty or instruction. He makes me see the uniqueness in every face and object and situation. He leads me to...
Poems

The Twenty-Third Psalm: A personal version - Chaplain

The Lord is my chaplain. I shall not lack comfort. He makes me rest in the palm of his hand. He leads me to quiet bedsides and to noisy nursing...
Learning From Judson

Learning From One Another: Lew and Judson

I’ll never forget the first day I knew Judson was going to be alright. Lew was sitting in his first child-sized wheelchair in the family room of our Campbellsville, Kentucky...
Guest Writer

Guest Writer: Lonnie Green

HAVE YOU REACHED A VERDICT? Habakkuk 3:17-19 Community Thanksgiving Service, November 24, 2009 I don’t know how much you know about Habakkuk.  He’s not exactly on the Mount Rushmore of...
Dreams

God pursuing me, finding me

THE DREAM I am in a big house with a lot of women when most of them get up and leave. I have the sense that we have been invited...
Art

Drawing a Hopeful Future

I found this drawing in a 1994 sketchbook: a family portrait with an imagined future. Reading from left to right: My mother, in an Ohio nursing home, seriously declining from...
Art

The Angel of Transition

Angel: Hello, Lew. Lew Hi!  Do I know you? You look familiar… A: I’ve been around.  You’ve probably seen me before but we’ve never met officially. L: But you know my...
Learning From Judson

The Given Companion

The Given Companion “How do you expect to get to the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man’s city?” Thomas Merton said. I imagine...
Learning From Lew

Art and Healing: A Personal Reflection

After Lew died in 1998, I did a series of pen and ink drawings as my self-prescribed art therapy. In 1999 I met Chris Hammond, editor of the Wayne E....
New

Affirmation For a Time of Crisis

God never left me in the past nor will God leave me now.  God is present and faithful; doing all that God can do. The people I need to help...
Learning From Lew

The Day Lew Died

The Day Lew Died: February 4, 1998, 5:30 p.m. “Your son, Lew, is very seriously ill.  We need for you to come to the hospital.”  It is a female doctor...
Learning From Lew

Whole

I said he was not whole But I wonder what I meant. He cannot walk or talk or perform any life skill unassisted, But he can giggle and cry and...
Learning From Lew

How we made a difficult decision; how it worked out

During the years Lew lived at home with us, a g-tube was suggested several times but there was no medical reason so we declined. Lew could eat orally. It took...
Learning From Lew

Homage to Sheila

Sheila was an aide at the Home of the Innocents. She was working that first day when we took Lew from the respite care home to HOTI.  That day was...
Learning From Lew

An Open Letter to my friends from your friend whose child has disabilities

Dear Friends: My heart is full of things I want to say to you, my friends, but I have had a difficult time talking to you about them. I have...
Learning From Lew

His Gifts

I have a first-born son Who is severely disabled But he brings great gifts to me. He brings to my life Sweetness. He looks at me. He fully accepts me...
Learning From Lew

I Want: A Poem Prompt

I WANT I WANT I WANT I SEEM TO BE BUT REALLY I AM OH, HOW I WANT………….!! This week, in July of 2009, I found this poem prompt among...
Learning From Lew

Where was God when Lew was declining and dying?

In the Fall of 1997 I found this quote in the book Encountering Evil: live options in theodicy edited by Stephen T. Davis. This is a book I never would...
Learning From Lew

The Poem I Said I Would Never Write

Every mother of a child who is disabled has at least one poem in her about her child, about the smile, the radiance, the beauty, the joy, the gifts, the...
Learning From Lew

First day at The Home of The Innocents

It was the day we took Lew to the Home of the Innocents to stay.  It was the worst day of my life – but not for the reasons I...
New

Thoughts After September 11, 2001

Date:    9/16/01 11:06:27 PM Central Daylight Time From:    Cherry Moore To:    Joanna Taylor Dear Joanna, I sat down at my computer several times this week and couldn’t begin.  I couldn’t...
Learning From Lew

Enough

I have a son who has severe physical and mental disabilities and whose life is worth living. It is worth enriching and cherishing. Someone asked me: “When do you know...
Learning From Lew

Dreams

The dreams parents have For their children Who have disabilities Are different as those parents And those children. One said to me: “I want more for my child Than the...
Learning From Lew

The Best (and worst) Social Worker

“THAT’S EASY FOR YOU TO SAY! IT ISN’T YOUR CHILD HAVING UNCONTROLLABLE SEIZURES ON YOUR LIVINGROOM FLOOR!!” My usually quiet voice blasted Lew’s pediatric neurologist.  A stunned silence followed on...
Learning From Lew

An Emmaus Walk Vision

On this day in 1987 I don’t know very much about the Emmaus Walk movement but I know and trust my sponsors, Chet and Martha Cramer. They are retired United...
Learning From Lew

Moving to Hattiesburg

Lew is five years old and it is the first time that I shake my fists in anger at God. On a Thursday in the early spring of 1987 Jeannette...
Learning From Lew

A Second Light in the Darkness story

Several weeks ago I posted the story about a Chinese Christian pastor who said the way he survived extreme persecution was by remembering in the darkness what God had taught...
Learning From Judson

Prayer chases fear away

“I’m going to pray those fears away.” – Mabel Mastin When I was pregnant with my second son, I knew I wanted Mabel to be praying about his development and...
Learning From Lew

A two-part story about gratitude

It is a beautiful early spring day in 1992. Lew is six months old and we have had his diagnosis for about a month. I am driving down a residential...
Hospice Stories

The Welcoming Committee

How do they know in heaven to gather at the gate? How does the word get spread: “Prepare yourself! She’s coming!” Watchers on this side wonder, “Why is she waiting?...
Learning From Lew

I remembered in the darkness...

Shortly after we had received Lew’s diagnosis, I heard a story that has continued to be one of the most helpful things in my attempts to come to grips with...
Learning From Lew

Not a zebra story

Lew was born in Lexington, Kentucky and we lived there for much of his childhood. From 1988 until Lew’s death in 1998, my husband, Bob, was on the faculty of...
Learning From Lew

An introduction to Lew Jessen Moore

Lew Jessen Moore (September 11, 1981 – February 4, 1998) In his lifetime Lew didn’t have speech or mobility but he touched his world. He changed people. He changed hearts....
Poems

Life Plan: A Poem

LIFE PLAN:1972 “Mary Cassett had one Great Romance in her life – her art.” This would not have been said about a male artist Or if it had one could...
Art

Good Friday 2009

Artists in Bryan/College Station, Texas were invited to share art at the 7:00 p.m. Good Friday service of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Historic Downtown Bryan, Texas. Rev. Sean Cox...