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Rest for the Weary Soul
My dear friends, today I scribble this reflection from the Gospel (Matthew 11:25–30) as Jesus speaks directly to the tired parts of our hearts. He looks at the heavy burdens we carry, our anxieties, our endless to do lists, and the quiet struggles no one else sees and He offers us a beautiful, gentle invitation if we dare listen closely enough: "Come to me." And if you listen, you’ll notice that Jesus does not demand that we fix our lives before we approach Him. He does not
Lisa Raie
Jul 62 min read
The Chooks Are Out
This painting feels like a quiet memory made visible. And it speaks very loudly in quiet whispers, where my art is wandering these days. Life is often made up of ordinary mornings, familiar routines, and small moments that rarely make it into history books, yet become the places where love quietly grows. And so through this piece “The Chooks Are Out” another branch of my family tree can be seen. Again the people and their place of residence are not marked by grand events or f
Lisa Raie
Jun 302 min read
Not Alone In The Making: ~ A Prayerful Reflection
Lord, Today I find myself thinking about hands. Hands that stitched before mine. Hands that carried responsibilities I can only begin to imagine. Hands that repaired, comforted, provided, and persevered. As I continue stitching my legacy quilt, I am reminded that every thread I pull today follows a path laid down by someone before me. My thoughts return to Mary Martha. To the quilts she made. To the hours she spent creating warmth and comfort from her own hands. Though separa
Lisa Raie
Jun 172 min read
The Art of Change at Studio Kre’at: Slowly Becoming…
Change is a quiet companion. It arrives softly, sometimes unnoticed, like the gentle shift of light through a window. I have come to understand that embracing change is not about rushing forward but about slowly becoming . This kind of change can feel overwhelming. It can shake the very foundation of who we think we are. But what if we allowed ourselves to move with it, rather than against it? To listen to its rhythm, soft and steady, like a heartbeat beneath the surface. I
Lisa Raie
Jun 113 min read
What The Hands Remember
This week, on the podcast my thoughts have been resting on something beautifully ordinary. Hands. Not simply what they do, but what they remember. As I continue stitching pieces together for my legacy quilt, I find myself slowing down enough to notice the countless hands that came before mine. Hands that mended clothing rather than replacing it. Hands that stitched blankets to keep families warm. Hands that prepared meals, tended children, worked long hours, and quietly carri
Lisa Raie
Jun 102 min read
Repose Art: A Journey of Contemplation and Artful Mindfulness Techniques
After the public holiday , I am sitting within the quiet moments for how much the world feels heavy, where pain and hardship seems to be weighing so many down in spirit ~ finding a gentle refuge in art seems key. And I am not just talking about any art, but repose art ~ this way is a tender, slow unfolding of shapes, colours, and textures that invite us to pause, breathe, and reflect. This is a journey of contemplation, a soft embrace for the soul. It is here and in this sp
Lisa Raie
Jun 93 min read
A Name, Stitched Back Into Breath
This week’s episode comes through a name that has quietly stitched itself back into my daily breath. That name is Mary Martha. As I continue working on my legacy quilt and piecing fabric together in the studio, I find myself thinking often about the structure of Mary’s life not simply the events of it, but the strength it required to live it. Mary was an “on strength” wife and mother living within the demands and restrictions of military life. Her days would have been shaped
Lisa Raie
Jun 32 min read
The Threads of Resilience, Sacrifice, Perseverance and Quiet Courage…
There has been something quietly stirring within me as I work on my legacy quilt and other creative projects lately and that is a deeper connection to the life of my 3 x great grandmother Mary, and to what it meant for her to live “on strength.” The phrase itself feels like more than history to me now. It feels like inheritance. As I stitch fabric together, I find myself thinking about the structure of Mary’s life and the daily duty, the utter responsibility and constant dem
Lisa Raie
May 292 min read
The Boy Who Signed Another Name (An Anzac Day Letter)
There is a kind of silence that lives between the lines of a family story. Not absence ~ never that, but a quiet that holds what could not be said at the time. As I prepare for Anzac Day, I find myself sitting with one of those silences. His name was Thomas Francis Cass. Just nineteen years old. A boy, really. A son of Johanna and John, my 2 x great grandparents who was raised in Footscray, in a home that knew both hardship and deep, enduring faith. A home where children were
Lisa Raie
Apr 254 min read
The Lamp Within the Body Letter Eight: Community Without Explanation
To whom this letter finds, There is a quiet exhaustion that comes not from the body alone, but from the need to explain the body. To put words around what is difficult to measure. To justify why energy has changed. To describe something that shifts from day to day. For those living with complex health, this can become its own kind of fatigue. Because not everything visible on the outside reflects what is happening within. And so we try. We explain when we cancel plans. We exp
Lisa Raie
Apr 73 min read
The Lamp Within the Body Letter Six: The Difference Between Giving Up and Slowing Down
Hi friends If you’ve wandered with me in these letters, you may have noticed something very interesting happening in the arc of the series now: Listening Rest Regulation Faith Structure And so this letter is an important threshold where I attempt to gently meet fear and untangle it. —————————— There is a quiet fear that often rises when we begin to honour the body. If I slow down ~ am I giving up? It is not always spoken aloud. But it lingers. Especially for those of us who h
Lisa Raie
Mar 233 min read
Studio Kre’at Is A Creative Hermitage…
“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.” That quote speaks into what this studio is becoming a most wonderful hermitage where silence and stillness shines with the simplest of rules: 1. Begin the day in stillness Before the world enters the mind, pause. light a candle sit quietly pray, contemplate and reflect breathe in the new day Even ten quiet minutes roots the day differently. 2. Tend the living world watering plants tending a garden sitting beneath a tree
Lisa Raie
Mar 182 min read
Finding Solace in Life’s Journey
There are moments when the world feels unbearably heavy. When pain wraps itself around your heart like a thick fog, and the path forward seems blurred, uncertain. In those times, solace is not just a comfort - it is a lifeline. It is the gentle whisper that reminds you: you are not alone. Solace is not a destination but a journey. It is the quiet space where your soul can breathe, where your wounds can begin to mend. And sometimes, it comes from the most unexpected places ~
Lisa Raie
Mar 182 min read
The Lamp Within the Body Letter Four: Faith in the Middle of Fatigue
Dear friends, I open this weeks letter to you on how a particular kind of tiredness reshapes our faith. Not the end of the day kind that sleep easily restores. But the deeper fatigue that settles into the body when health becomes complex and energy unpredictable. In seasons like this, faith changes its posture. It becomes quieter. Less about certainty. More about presence. For many years my prayer life looked structured and strong. Morning prayers, evening prayers, long stret
Lisa Raie
Mar 92 min read
The Power of Art for Contemplation in Being Where You Are Now and at any given moment.
There is a quiet magic in art. It whispers to us when words fail. It holds space for the feelings we cannot name. When life feels heavy, when pain wraps around your heart like a thick fog, art can be a gentle companion. It invites you to pause, to breathe, to look inward. In those moments, art becomes more than just colour and shape. It becomes a mirror, a sanctuary, a soft place to land. I have found that art for contemplation is not about creating masterpieces or understand
Lisa Raie
Feb 33 min read
Portraiture as a Living Record
Truly I tell you, that letting myself discern and learn more about the creative processes regarding self portraits ~ I am working how to see myself, and so it is that portraiture is teaching me how to see the world. And so it is that I am diving deeper into the lives and histories of others. That prayer I shared led me deep into the soul of portraiture. If self portraits are a way of learning how to see myself truthfully, then portraiture is how I learn to see others with th
Lisa Raie
Feb 12 min read
Under The Fig Tree
This morning, as part of my January rhythm, I began with a simple question: Where do I sense God’s nearness? There was no immediate answer. No clarity rushing in. Only a quiet invitation to move my body toward stillness. So I went outside and sat beneath my fig tree. Its wide leaves held the light gently, not too bright, not too dark ~ just enough. Earth beneath me. Green pressing close. Breath slowing into something truer. And there, under the fig tree, a line of Scripture
Lisa Raie
Jan 62 min read
2026 - With The Lamp
There are words that arrive as invitations rather than plans. They do not come with strategies or timelines. They simply ask to be lived. As I step into 2026, the word given to me is “lamp”. Not a spotlight. Not a flare. Not a floodlight meant to impress or overwhelm. A lamp small enough to be tended daily. It requires attention in trimming, oil, care. It does not rush the dark away, but it does make the next step visible. Much of what will be shared here in the coming weeks
Lisa Raie
Jan 1, 20261 min read
This Year & The Work That Was Formed in the Hidden
“January will be here tomorrow, so for now, the table is set….”
Lisa Raie
Dec 31, 20252 min read
In The Quiet Places
“I sit here as the fourth week of Advent begins…”
Lisa Raie
Dec 21, 20252 min read
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