The Unfinished as Holy a 1st Quarter Moon Devotional
As the 1st Quarter Moon rises, we walk the Via Creativa embracing the joy of making, of playing, and birthing the unseen into form.
Invocation
Holy One,
You who dwell in beginnings not yet ripened,
You who bless the fragment, the sketch, the seed,
Teach us to rest in what is half-formed.
In this first quarter light,
where shadow and radiance hold each other,
remind us that Your presence is not bound
to perfect endings or polished forms.
Bless the drafts, the pauses, the broken threads.
Bless the work that sparked joy but never came to completion.
Bless the seeds that sleep in us still,
waiting for their season to grow.
May we honor the unfinished as holy,
trusting that wholeness is not in finishing,
but in living, creating, and becoming
with You, now and always.
Amen.
The Sacred Moment
Today, the first quarter moon cuts a bold curve through the night, a bright edge of becoming against the sky. May we feel the call to create, to explore, to dance with the holy spark that stirs within us. In the generative tension of the First Quarter Moon, we walk the path of the Via Creativa: the way of inspiration, of sacred imagination, of shaping what has never been before. Our souls reach not for certainty, but for expression: for the joy of making, of playing, of sketching the unseen into form.
This is a moon to imagine, to risk, to begin.
Theme: The Unfinished as Holy
We live in a productivity-poisoned age, where the idea of getting something done or finished is the end-all and be-all of any creative output, because creative output, creativity, is viewed as another form of work. When we think about creativity like that, we rob ourselves of the sheer joy of creation.
The crochet project isn’t rewarding because you finish. A painting isn’t rewarding because you finish. The story, the poem, whatever it is, isn’t rewarding because you finish. If we believe our lives need to have perfect beginnings, middles, and ends, so that they can live up to this false and damaging ideal. That’s not how life works. That’s not how creativity works.
The joy of creativity is in the Via Creativa itself. As we walk the path of creativity, the journey is about trusting our images enough to give birth to them, that means give birth to them in us. Sometimes we start writing a project because we need to hear the words, and they’re not ready to share yet. They need to grow up and to mature. They need to develop in us so that when they are ready, we can share them with others. That is just as valid as writing the whole thing in one sitting.
We have to normalize and become comfortable with this idea: creativity is something we are. It is something that we do. It is something that we are growing into. As we become more creative, as we allow ourselves to truly and thoroughly experience this process, we live the divine image within us. It is not something that we have to do, and it is not something that we have to finish. There is something beautiful and holy in the unfinished.
Many years ago, I started writing a book called Paradise Not For Me, which was inspired by a Madonna song of the same name. In fact, it was inspired by her performance of it on her Drowned World Tour. The imagery on stage inspired me and made me want to write this story. I started working on it. I got a couple chapters in, and it didn’t feel right, and I thought to myself, “Ooh, what if I started a little bit sooner.” So, I wrote the Liquid Sky books, all four of them. That inspired me to write all the Fate’s Harrow stories. It inspired more fiction and more fiction to where I created an entire universe of science fiction I love. I love spending my time in so much I just go and play in, constantly writing things in it.
That original story, that original image that was in my head, is just sitting unfinished. I pick it up from time to time, and wonder is it time to write this. I read through my outline, my notes, the chapters that I’ve written, and I get inspired to write something new. It was the seed I needed to create that universe. The seed that needed to be born in me was in there. It was just bringing it to me. It was the wrapping, the package that brought all this joy and wonder into my life. Without that original seed, I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am now, with over a million words written in this setting. I don’t know if I’ll ever write that original story. I’m okay with that, because what I needed from it was the impetus to get started. What I required was the imaginative break that it spawned in me, that allowed me to go on and make these wonderful things that I’ve done since. That is a holy process.
The unfinished wasn’t wasted. It was holy.
The great wisdom that we gain from spirituality, that we glean from all of the practices and the work that we do, is that our quest for the Divine, our quest for the Holy, will never be finished in our lifetime. The great work we do will never be finished in our lifetime, because perfection is something that cannot be achieved in a single human lifetime, and possibly not in all of the human lifetimes combined, and yet, we still strive for it. We still put the work in, because it is meaningful to us.
It is something we need, deep down inside us, to keep us going. It is the inspiration, the goal, and the path. When we have a project, or find creativity coming to its natural end, which may not be a finished state, it is no different from a meditation that sparks an insight so powerful within us, that we have to stop, and capture it. We have to write it down, journal it, and make sure that we remember what it is.
Because in this work that we are doing, and it is work, it is practice, we are entering the great cloud of unknowing. Anyone who has the arrogance to think that they know all the answers, is not doing the work properly, and they need to adjust their practice. The point of the work is not to find answers; it’s to find a way to keep going on. To find that better world, that will take us into the world to come, that will enlighten and enliven all people, and not just a few. As long as we continue to be about that work, then everything that we are doing is worthwhile.
The first quarter moon embodies this truth. It is neither new nor full, but half in shadow and half in light. It leans forward into becoming, showing us that holiness does not wait for a polished end. What is partial can still be sacred. What is half-shaped can still shine.
This is the Via Creativa: the holy mess of making, the courage to keep shaping even when the lines don’t all connect. Creativity is not a straight road but a pilgrimage of fragments. Some works remain incomplete because their gift is not the final form but the spark, they ignite in us.
Paradise nor for me gave me that spark. It never needed to be finished to matter. Its holiness was in the journey, the joy, the questions it opened.
So under this first quarter moon, may we bless the half-finished, the rough sketch, the broken draft, the song that trails off mid-verse. May we honor them as sacred teachers. For the unfinished reminds us that our lives, too, are always in process, never perfected, always holy in their becoming.
Practice: Blessing the Unfinished
Gather your fragments.
Bring to mind, or gather in front of you, something unfinished. It might be a half-written story, a crochet project stuffed in a drawer, a painting never carried past the sketch, or even an idea you never dared to begin. Let the piece sit before you as it is: incomplete, unresolved, and wholly itself.
Name the gift.
Speak aloud or write in a journal what this unfinished work has given you. Maybe it sparked a new direction, opened joy for a season, or taught you something about patience. Even if it looks small, honor the gift it carried.
Bless the seed.
Place your hand over the work (or over your heart, if it’s just in memory). Pray or say words like:
“The unfinished is not wasted. The unfinished is holy. May the seeds planted in me by this work continue to grow in their own time.”
Sit in the half-light.
If you can, do this practice by candlelight or under the first quarter moon. Let the half-lit, half-shadowed world remind you that wholeness does not require completion. Breathe into that truth until it feels like a blessing, not a burden.
Release and return.
When you are ready, return the work to its drawer, shelf, or notebook: not with shame, but with gratitude. You don’t need to finish it today or ever. Its holiness has already found you.
Closing Blessing
Spirit of Becoming,
You who meet us in what is half-shaped and half-seen,
we thank You for the holiness of the unfinished.
As this quarter moon leans forward into light,
teach us to lean forward as well;
not chasing perfection,
but trusting the seeds already planted within us.
Bless the drafts and fragments we carry,
the stories that may never find an ending,
the works that live only as sparks and beginnings.
Let us release the pressure to complete,
and embrace the sacred joy of creation itself.
Go with us now into our days and nights,
guiding our hands, our words, and our imaginations,
that we may honor every stage of becoming
as holy in Your sight.
Amen.