I recently took part in a creative poetry exercise that helped me to better appreciate and approach both the writing and reading of poetry. In this creative process, I took two full pages of notes about observations, feelings, and comparisons and distilled the two pages into one tiny poem.

There was something freeing about this process of going from more to less. Instead of explaining everything, I was forced to distill the essence of it and let it stand alone without explanation. Dictionary.com defines distillation as follows:

“The purification or concentration of a substance, the obtaining of the essence or volatile properties contained in it, or the separation of one substance from another, by such a process.”

Occasionally I’ll have a thought or phrase come to mind that seems to be a distillation of the things that I feel God is wanting to teach me. Things I’ve been pondering or seeing in the world around me. A short sentence that creates a small package that could be unopened and unpacked with potential treasures within. Often in my writing on this blog, I’m trying to do the opening and unpacking of thoughts and realizations, and I plan to continue to do this. But I’m also thinking that sometimes it’d be nice to just share a short thought or phrase without trying to explain it all with my own thoughts or with Bible verses. Perhaps I’ll come back to it later and explain a bit what it means to me, but first will share it in it’s raw and unexplained form.  I’ll call these posts “distillations”, and I hope that they can be gifts for unpacking. If it means anything to you, if you have unpacked any treasures from it, or if it relates to things you’ve read or learned, please do share in the comments!