Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1540272
94 maconmagazine.com | October/November 2025 C U P S A N D W A T E R T O P A I N T T H E S P A C E B E T W E E N U S In a city with houses of faith on nearly every corner, Rev. Dr. Erin Robinson Hall's column explores the interconnectedness of Macon's faith communities and the diverse ways Maconites nourish their spiritual health and the wellbeing of those around them, inspired by "On Being" podcast host Krista Tippet's idea that "religion is as cup; spirituality is as water." STORY BY ERIN ROBINSON HALL S ometimes we just have to turn the TV off. When the news is a nightmare and the headlines are beyond what we can explain to our children, I reach for the button to switch it off. When I am too slow, the headlines run across the screen before I can stop them. Recently, when this happened, my daughter just looked at me and asked, "What do we do?" I had no words, only hugs. And lots of colored markers—sparkly, metallic, pastel. She sketched and created; I fought back tears. I wondered: What practices sustain us for these moments? We pray, we read Scripture, we share food with our neighbors, we participate in worship. In tumultuous times, we need to nurture our capacity for vision. In 1965, at the end of the Second Vatican Council, seven speeches were offered. Pope Paul VI gave one speech directly to artists, saying, "This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair." To the "guardians of beauty," the message was clear: We need you to be instruments of hope. Those hope-bringers knew the gi of being able to si through chaos and truly see. Visio divina is a spiritual practice that means holy seeing. Catholic priest Father Anthony Ciorra describes visio divina as "a way to pray with our eyes." Creating and responding to art can reach spaces where words fall short in our spiritual lives. We know those kinds of gaps, the wide spaces that seem to separate us by affiliations, politics, and faith. Theologian