This week I’ve been having flashbacks to my graduation from nursing school, in 1982. Mostly the bright, shiny pin and the extremely impractical, awkward, uncomfortable hat!

If you asked me what I missed most about being a nurse, I’d tell you two things. Summer Camp! And, advocating for my patients which – in a several instances – led to lives being saved. And, yes. I’m utterly aware of the magnitude of that statement, especially since those particular instances sometimes included being told I didn’t get paid to think!

It would be totally reasonable to wonder what brought up nursing school in the midst of the chaos of this moment. The answer is simple. I graduated, again, and there were no extremely uncomfortable hats involved!

At some point, an official certificate will arrive in the mail. For this moment, the moose in the painting is handing out flowers and congratulations, for I am now, officially, an Intentional Creativity® Cura, which means care, concern, or attention. Or, healing. Specifically, it means that there is another huge notion of medicine painting in my basket!

I think that’s probably why the moose appeared, magically, along the way. Not by intentional placement, but by noticing, which is one of my favorite medicines.

Curious? Let’s look up moose spirit animal…

Here’s what I found… strength, resilience, and adaptability. It is often associated with wisdom, nobility, and the ability to navigate through life’s challenges with grace.

I’ll totally grant you that those words feel extremely optimistic at this moment in time. Also, really helpful!!! In fact, I might go as far as saying that the moose may have begun to appear, all those months ago, to help us be ready for these days! And, just between us, I’m pretty psyched!

You see… there’s more school on my list! (The sound you hear is the Legendary Husband laughing himself silly in utter lack of surprise!)

This adventure, though, has a bit of a way-back machine thing going for it. You see, just after 9/11, I spent a year at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Well, literally, I spent much of it getting back & forth from here to there and trying to learn to live in a dorm again. I also encountered Carl Jung!

Just between us, I don’t think I had adequate filters for that particular Red Book in those days. And I’ve learned a whole lot, since then, about another Red Book. Much to my amazement – they have some connections!

I’m beginning to have a sense, though, of why Red Books have been “following me around” as my filters open to new truths. And relatives!

For this moment, though, I’m counting, with all my heart, on the symbol in the top right of the Moose’s world… It means:

As above, so below…

That, however, is a story for another day. For this moment, homemade soup and some rest for my hand. There’s more painting to do!

ps… just in case you’re hoping to raise the next generation of Good Trouble folks, this book is a great way to start! Let’s help all our Littles know they belong!!! And, if you’re in the mood to shop unique arts, there’s lots more cool stuff waiting for you, along with the books, at FierceArtWithHeart! (Also, some warm stuff!)

Yep… dreaming! The kind that feels a lot like scrap quilting!

First, a word… Comfort.

Then, a few more words… Comfort. Comfort my people.

Then, a bit of kinesthetic input. Pee! Thus, a quick trip down the hall, and a climb back into bed, for my dream wanted to be sure I’d remember.

I felt a bit like Nancy Drew, with a mystery. One of my favorite tricks for capturing dream messages is finger-spelling.

When I was in fourth grade, we lived near Chicago and a neighbor, whose dad taught hearing impaired students, taught me the alphabet in American Sign Language. Through the years, I learned some words as well… most of them of either the pre-school or 4-letter sort. For dreaming, though, it’s finger-spelling. Like Comfort.

A bit later – about half way through my first cup of tea – I went hunting the Hebrew. As I guessed, there are several variations. The one that was looking for me is pronounced nakham. And it means comfort that comes out of sorrow!

And that led me to Joan Baez, singing Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

I know. This all sounds a bit strange. It’s just the way things work for me, especially when Grandmother Moon is in charge of the dreaming.

By the time I finished my second cup of tea, my #Legend work-in-progress painting joined the party, insisting that we add a blue moon to the canvas. More research was in order!

Turns out that blue moons are rare – as in once in a blue moon – and can symbolize transformation and growth. Also a time for renewed opportunities and second chances!!!

And, yes… this is still more stuff we didn’t cover in nursing school or seminary! I like learning new things!

Apparently, my #Legend painting does, too! At the very least, we’re claiming new questions, like:

What meaning might we make from such a dream at such a time???

Here’s my best understanding, after wandering with some wise women and doing more thinking with paint…

Almost all of us could use some comfort in this moment. Even those of us who haven’t realized it yet!

In order for it to be real, more of that comfort is going to need to bloom out of the place where sorrow and determination join to create newness, than out of hiding or bingeing on shortbread cookies.

One power-full way to start is by acknowledging and releasing what we’re really feeling. Paint… Poetry…. Screaming in the shower… Crying on the beach…

Then, hang words on one step forward. Nap. Hug. Contribution. Conversation about options.

Then, when you’re ready… questions. Could you? Would you? When?

By this point, we’re already wiser and, quite probably, less stuck! And, quite possibly, ready for a nap! (Yep! Projection!!!)

One more big thing… according to hebrewwordlessons.com, the words comfort and rest come from the same root! And, as one student of the sacred stories – St. Hildegard of Bingen – explained it:

God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God.

Which isn’t a bad place to start if we’re dreaming of comfort, no matter our languages or traditions!

Courage seems like a decent next step, so… here she is! My nowhere near finished teacher named #Legend…

ps… here’s another next step, especially if you care about helping our Littles feel like they belong! A glimpse of my new book: A Creation Poem… “Creator looked on their world with all its living things, and Creator said, ‘We’re lonely, still.’ Then Creator sat down on the side of a hill where they could think. By a deep, wide river they sat down with their head in their hands. Creator thought and thought, ’til they thought, ‘We’ll make us a human!'” Just click here to get yours in time for the holidays!

In the midst of all the lunacy gone wild, and the wall-to-wall paintings headed for Scan Camp, and the very opinionated #Legend on my easel, I got a text message from one of my very favorite people, looking forward to baking together. Soon! And I was inspired to share the fun!

Somewhere in the great beyond, I’m convinced that my mom and granny, who grew up in Minnesota, have realized by now that pumpkin pie happened at Thanksgiving because pumpkins happened then, and that’s what there was… not because it’s one of those non-canonical commandments on the way we’ve always done it!

As it happens, there’s another option that we love even better and I wanted to share! My bit, if you will, of light shining in the darkness! Here goes…

Authentic Key Lime Pie (with a Gluten-Free Variation***) MAKES: One 9 inch pie, about 8 servings

This is the real deal – yellow colored – Key Lime Pie. Better yet, with the Oatmeal Pie Crust shell variation, it’s gluten-free! And everybody loves it! This is the recipe right off the Nellie & Joe’s bottle of Key Lime juice. You can order it from Amazon or try Whole Foods or Publix depending on where you are. Did you know that the pie has sweetened condensed milk in it because the recipe was developed before Key West had dependable milk delivery or refrigeration? Really!

Equipment Note: You can use a food processor, hand or stand mixer to do this, but a wire whisk will do. A mixing advantage is handy if you opt for homemade whipped cream. I often use an Eco-foil disposable pie tin with the domed plastic top when I make this. 

Arrange oven racks so pie will bake in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 F. 

In a suitable mixing bowl, combine and mix well:

            One 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

            3 good egg yolks. (Reserve whites for another use.)

Add and blend until smooth:

                        ½ c. Nellie & Joe’s Key West Lime Juice

Pour filling into:

                        One 9 inch prepared Graham Cracker pie shell***

Bake for 15 min. Remove from oven and place on rack. Allow to sit 10 min. before refrigerating.

Chill several hours or overnight.

Optional: Add to mixing bowl, preferably metal:

                      1 pint organic, heavy whipping cream

                        1 Tbsp. 10x powdered sugar, if desired. 

Whip cream rapidly by hand or with mixer, until soft peaks form.

If not using immediately, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. 

Just before serving, top pie with whipped cream. 

***Fabulous Gluten-free Oatmeal Pie Crust with Vegan Variation

Equipment Note: A food processor or Vitamix-type blender is used for this crust recipe.

I found this magical crust option on an old, yellowed index card, in my mom’s handwriting, when I went through her recipes. I don’t remember her ever making it. What a gift for Bill & Taylor who avoid gluten! See how many ways you can find to use this like you would use a graham cracker crust, but better!

Into the bowl of your food processor or carafe of your blender, place:

            1 c. gluten-free rolled oats

            ½ c. brown sugar

            ½ c. flaked or shredded coconut

Pulse until ingredients resemble a fairly fine meal. Add:

            1/3 c. melted butter 

Continue to pulse until all ingredients are evenly mixed.

Press into bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie plate.  Cover with plastic wrap or lid to pan. Chill.

Vegan Variation – Replace butter with 1/3 c. melted coconut oil

From all of us – including my #Legend painting – to all of you… Fiercely Compassionate [Rebel] Blessings…

ps… prepping for upcoming holidays??? There’s big fun stuff for all your Littles, and for you, too! Check out FierceArtWithHeart! https://fierceartwithheart.com/

Big truth time… I’m not ready for new words, today. I need safe, familiar, comforting words. And that means reaching for Puddleglum. First, though, the calendar… for I have a bit of editing to do!

With my Red Thread around my wrist and my collection of brave saints’ medals around my neck, I am declaring that All Saints Day, which many of us just observed on November 1, is no longer just one day. Instead, it is every day we need it to be!!!

As you’ve probably heard me say, Walter Brueggemann explains it this way:

The Saints are all those who believe for us on days when we can’t quite believe for ourselves.

I’m guessing you hear me!

Which brings us to one of my personal Saints… a guy named Puddleglum, who graciously agreed to an encore visit in this moment!

For the for the uninitiated, Puddleglum is a Marsh Wiggle, who, with the Prince and some children, is being held by the Witch, who is busy explaining why their journey to Narnia is juvenile and futile. Puddleglum isn’t having it. Let’s listen in…

“One word, Ma’am,” he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. “One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things — trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.”

C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, The Chronicles of Narnia

Now, I’ve loved this story for ages, and – today – I’m clinging, again, to the time when I realized that part of the power of Puddleglum is MOTION, even though anybody with half an ounce of sense knows it’s scary!

Specifically, that MOTION from past self to present self to longed-for future self. Even on days when it feels like Overland is a long way off and we don’t all agree on what Overland is actually like!

I’m starting at my easel, where my current #Legend painting is beginning to appear… hand (and power!) raised. #MedicineBasket open to new learning!

ps… may we all believe for each other – and our Littles – even just a wee bit, on the days when believing is hardest.

pps… turns out we may need this even more, now! My very best plan for including people! A Creation Poem… complete with mugs and posters! I suspect Puddleglum may have had an early edition! The books are buy 2 get 1 free, until Saturday, 11/9 at 11:59pm ET!!! (No discount code required… just put 3 in your cart!)

Due to a variety of orthopedic issues and past trauma challenges I won’t bore you with, there have been many things in this run-up to election day that I have chosen not to do. Big gatherings. Knocking on doors. Making phone calls…

Instead, I have done what I CAN do! Signs in the yard. Intentional wardrobe choices, meant to start conversations. Pockets full of GOOD TROUBLE buttons to give away. Social media. And conversations with real, actual humans struggling with the way we’ve always done it and I’m not sure I can.

On Saturday morning, I had a dream… the kind that comes complete with images! Present-day chucks & pearls candidate, VP Kamala Harris, and 6-year old Ruby Bridges walking, hand-in-hand, into the White House.

And the flood of memories began! Ruby Bridges is four years older than I am. And I have my own school integration story from Florida, in 1968, complete with parents throwing rocks at the school buses their children were riding in!

Now, gravestones on the news. Young women dying without abortion healthcare they desperately needed. Victims of rape and incest being forced to carry the children of their abusers. And more memories…

I have assisted in abortion health care. I have helped to deliver infants by cesarean section for young teen moms… one of them a 13 year old with developmental challenges, forced to carry the child of her mother’s partner, “because they were good Christians.” When I told that child that her baby was a girl, she sobbed, “How will I keep her safe?”

There were tanks in my dream, too. Huge Russian tanks in Hungary, in 1989, before the wall came down. And a young man who told me that, when he was growing up, he woke up every morning and checked the news to find out where he lived and who was now in charge.

And a wild card glimpse of the PBS show, Finding Your Roots. Angela Davis, former member of the Black Panthers, was one of the guests. Angela Davis! Turns out she and I share a family of Mayflower ancestors! Also turns out that The Presbyterian Disaster Fund, busy these days in hurricane relief work, was founded by activists, in what we used to refer to as the Northern Presbyterian Church, working to get Angela released from prison.

Then, a scene from The West Wing. Season 7, episode 6. Presidential candidate, Matt Santos, just before the Al Smith Dinner, explaining his position, as a Roman Catholic, on the issue of abortion:

Abortion should be safe. It should be legal. It should be a whole lot rarer than it is.

Then, he went on to advocate for access to social resources like education, housing, food, daycare, health care, and contraception, as ways to make other choices possible, too.

All of that dreaming went on with the help of the paintings whispering from the walls. Mostly, Grandmother Moon, whose job it is to carry the visual codex of my deepest convictions. And to call me back to me, as often as I need her to!

There were other voices as well… Dr. Walter Brueggemann, thundering Just tell the story! in a room of fledgling preachers.

And, Cousin Angela Davis! I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.

None of us can do it all, but the world will be better when we do what we can! I’m on team “How can I help?”

ps… turns out that “my” story to tell is getting bigger! Like speaking all these things we don’t talk about! And A Creation Poem… telling the oldest story of all in a way that more and more of us – and our Littles – might hear room for themselves within it, as we were meant to hear! Just click here to get a copy… or several! (Also mugs and posters and puzzles!)

pps… the painting inviting you in, at the beginning of this dream wandering adventure, is from an Intentional Creativity® journey known as Temple. And the one below is my reminder that I said yes to being one of those 5 people for as many folks as I can. They insisted on joining team “How can I help?” too!!!

And, no… I don’t mean the drug store! I mean the learning and growing and claiming in all the under-layers behind the enormous painting entitled Choice, Voice, and Sovereignty, much of which insisted on joining us again, today.

Frankly, I was a bit surprised when she showed up during dream-time this morning, along with the voices of Lewis Carroll and Kathleen McGowan!

The next right things were obvious… ginger tea and an index card!

My dreams declared a holiday… it’s HOPE day in my world.

Words, images, choices… even food!

Because I can!!!

Seriously!!!

Then, the Walrus chimed in…

The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things… of shoes and ships and sealing wax. Of cabbages and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings!

A bit of button pushing added to the conversation. This particular poem has been interpreted through the years, not simply as a children’s story, but as a critique of entitlement. Of the abuse of power and greed. Which feels oddly timely!

And, then… another Lewis Carroll voice. The White Queen, in Alice Through the Looking Glass!

Sometimes I’ve believed more than six impossible things before breakfast!

Things were starting to make sense! You see, the White Queen was speaking to me in the voice of author, Kathleen McGowan!

We don’t have time for the whole story just now, but trust me… this multi-sensory dream adventure was entirely about choice and voice and sovereignty! Also about voting!!!

The walrus should be a fairly obvious reference, especially if you know that the walrus totally intended to eat the oysters traveling the beach with him!!!

And I suspect that Lewis Carroll did not imagine that The White Queen would show up, nearly 150 years later, as an American woman of color running for president! But it’s my dream! And, if it takes believing things once thought to be impossible to make it so, I’m all in!

It’s time to choose HOPE! The kind where everybody matters. Where asking, How can I help? beats vested self-interest and authoritarianism and being perfectly content to eat those who helped along the way.

Yes, we’ll have new things to learn and not all of it will be fun. It never has been. But we’ll be on the road to liberty and justice for all…

And that, dear hearts, is what this part of the painting – the Choice part – is all about. Love.

Now it’s time for voices!

I have two grand-teens trying very hard to grow up in this world!

ps… looking for ways to help spread the news about love and mattering? I’ve got you covered! Just click here to learn about my new book, A Creation Poem… and mugs and posters and puzzles to go with it! Lots of other cool stuff, too!

Saturday was quite the day! I woke with my whole consciousness dreaming a new world.

Words, of course, for that’s the way dreams work in me. Feelings, too… tears and chills – the important kind. And even a bit of visual awareness. A loaf of bread. Really!

I suspect it had a bit to do with my having watched a replay of Stephen Colbert and Kamala Harris just before bed. You might even say I wandered through the secret door in the back of my own magic wardrobe!

(In case you missed it… here’s a bit of the backstory for later. Please stick with me for now, though!)

The first dream words I recall were these:

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offense... Robert Frost

And then, some more words from back in the day, which went a lot like this…

There is no fence around this table… The Rev. Nibs Stroupe (1987)

Frankly, that one was a bit of a surprise to me – a very new seminary student – the first time I was in the congregation at Oakhurst Presbyterian Church on a Sunday when Communion was being celebrated.

There were no ifs or qualifications in the invitation to that table. Just a preacher speaking on behalf of Yeshua… Come unto me, all you who are tired and heavily laden… and I will give you peace.

You’ve probably guessed that all that scribbling at the top of this page is what happened after the dreaming, while I was sipping my cacao and collagen.

Then, I spent some more time writing, for there are now two books in the hatching phase and I seem to have more stories to tell.

Then, a few more words which may be new to you, even though they’re old for me, and really helpful. Words from Dr. Wade Huie, one of my professors at Columbia Theological Seminary…

If it takes more than 12 minutes, it’s two sermons!

And that means Dr. Seuss, who also made a guest appearance in my dream, will need to wait for more space on another day!

What came next in my day, though, was paint flinging. The kind that involves moving and mark making and not being sure where you’re heading, except that new knowing will be involved.

Then, Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris, preachin’ sense and belonging and hope and mattering… which is a profound change from the guy babbling fascism and hatred and all the people he’s promising to fence out.

Now, I’m not much for math, but the odds are good that, if you’ve been reading along for a while, you’re on team #HarrisWalz.

Just in case, though, that you might be thinking that your voice doesn’t matter, or that somebody will disapprove if you follow your heart, or that “we” don’t vote for ____________’s PLEASE hear me say that your voice DOES matter and it will matter for years and years to come, to all those who come after us.

And our choice really all boils down to this… are we going to vote for the guy who thinks he and his problems are the only things that matter or are we going to vote for a whole tribe of people who think we all matter and that fencing the table of rights, justice, and human value is not what America should be about???

ps… one of the ways we can help our Littles to know that they matter – that they are part of the story – is to read them stories that make room for them. That’s why I wrote A Creation Poem… and you can get copies for your beloved Littles, in stock, now… complete with real, original art, inclusive language, and paper that feels great! (Also, mugs, posters and JIGSAW PUZZLES!!!) Just click the link to be magically transported!