I know… that may not be the way you learned it. It’s not the way I learned it, back in my early years. Somehow, it wasn’t considered to be a polite thing. Or a useful skill for the Medicine Basket nobody told me was a possibility!

Fortunately, life is for learning! And, yes… I did a bit of that yesterday.

Physical Therapy session. Stretchy clothes. Hard treatment table. Random twitchy things going on. And a really helpful healer!

There I lay, on my right side, while mashing went on in the vicinity of my left hip. If, by chance, you learned sacroiliac joint along the way, you’re in the ballpark! One of those adventures that, while really useful, is not exactly fun.

Then, I knew! And, I used my voice to get what I needed!

Honestly, I’m not really sure what I said. Something along the line of, “lift my knee and ankle and lean gently, toward the window.” And, it worked! My SI joint adjusted itself!!! And the place that had been hurting a lot relaxed.

(I think my PT buddy was as relieved as I was!)

Now, for the disclaimer! I’m not suggesting, in any way, that you try this literally in your world. (That’s so not my department!) Metaphorically, though, is a whole other thing!

Imagine allowing yourself to consciously claim what isn’t working. What’s creating pain, of whatever sort. And speaking that truth, especially to yourself!

Then, imagine at least experimenting with the notion that it could get better! And, yes… the basket comes next!

What’s in there that could help? Old. Dusty. Out of context. All good… if we blow the dust off and try! And, yes, one of the things in my medicine basket is 12th grade anatomy & physiology class! (Not to mention having had my gloved hands in a whole lot of hips, which is gold for a kinesthetic processor!)

Now, though… same song, next verse! You see, after my PT adventure, yesterday, another new thing happened! Another book project added itself to my list!!!

Yep… more work. But the kind of work that makes what I care about so much more accessible to more people in this moment!!! Let’s just say that Grandmothers Are In Charge Of Hope is about to get a whole new edition for this world, now! And, the other two books-in-progress, along with the wisdom cards, called a meeting and made new choices about how they’ll all work together!

As I cause these words to appear in my laptop, Peter, Paul & Mary are singing Blowin’ in the Wind. I needed this line: How many years can some people exist, before they’re allowed to be free?

And my inner world just shifted again!

After a brief break to squeeze in a bit of hearth-tending and an infuriating detour in the land of Facebook, I know something new, and I am using my voice, here and now, to choose a different way!

My much anticipated week of #Legend painting begins Thursday. An exploratory, prayerful adventure with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes and a bunch of dangerous women begins today. And I just decided to skip as much news as humanly possible this week!!!

Maybe a tiny smidge of Stephen Colbert if I really want it. Otherwise, I’m deputizing the Legendary Husband to keep an eye on things and filter (!!!) them for me.

You, dear heart, are my witness, if you care to be. May this choice, too, be healing! (And, yes… you’re welcome to join me!)

ps… over in FierceArtWithHeart, Daphne is excited! You see, with all the making things going on, we’re having a sale! Put 2 copies of A Creation Poem… in your basket and save $5 on each. No special codes. The elves are waiting to make it easy! Plus, Mothers’ Day is on the way! There are mugs with bears on them. And great art. And tank tops that read able to choose. I’m just sayin’…

pps… these bears wanted it to be easier for you to see them! (Also the hint of #filters!!!) That adventure starts in June… a first-class ticket to a whole new view of the world! Just click to read all about it!

You know those kind of days that feel like somebody stuck a bunch of really good stuff in your soup pot, along with a big handful of more challenging items??? Yep! Today!

Let’s just skip the news, shall we?

Then there were meetings. More meetings than there were me’s to attend. And all of them good stuff, though my left knee cap, which is wandering in an uncomfortable way, thought it was more good stuff than I could handle. (Knee caps often win arguments of this sort!)

I needed a plan and so I decided to show up in the places I could make the most difference. Hearth tending for #workinprogress Wednesday. Fifteen minutes of stuff on my list. In this case, staring at a painting that had lots of requests.

A phone call with a friend sorting some really scary medical news.

Zoom-land with women I’ve been on a Red Madonna adventure with for a year. Stories. Art. Grins. Tears. Ah-hah’s. Big questions. And lots and lots of HOPE. For ourselves. And each other. And the group gathering around Mother Nature for next year.

Then, feet up and 30 minutes of TENS unit time. That same 30 minutes was enough time to make some progress on claiming what I most want to do. (Turns out that doing it all really isn’t an option!) And some more time painting my insights into obliging under-layers. The external claiming really helps keep me on the road!

Lots of channeling my inner Camp Counselor, too. You see, turns out she’s the one who’s making the list of want-to-do’s!

Then, there’s the photo we began with. Sunflowers are symbols of HOPE in my world. And all those fingerprints are, indeed, prayer dots.

My knee still hurts. And it’s not the only thing that does. But I’ve re-claimed my path to the place where I feel called. And you’re invited! You see, it’s about to be #Filters time in the land of the Intentional Creativity Foundation! And I’m so hoping you’ll fix yourself a cuppa and wander a bit with me. Just click here for all the info. We start late in June so you’ve got plenty of time to gather some supplies. And I promise you’ve got this, even if you’ve never painted anything but walls with rollers. (Honest! That’s where I started in 2017!)

ps… there will even time to finish #Legend before #Filters starts! And there’s a big discount if you sign up soon! It’s all there in the link, above! (If this feels like a foreign language and you’re curious, just leave a comment below and I’ll gladly help translate!)

pps… have questions about the place where you are called? Or all this #Filters stuff? Let’s talk! 45 min. My gift. Next right things are my best thing! Just click here and the calendar elves will be delighted to hook us up! You’ll want something to write on & with, and a cuppa. Red Thread is handy if you have some. Mostly, though, just choose you! And…

Yes… the neurological kind, more frequently these days.

Also, though, the other kinds. Intellectual/Emotional. Work/Rest. Head/Hands. Showing up/Hiding. I’m guessing you hear me! And, in the midst of all the searching, a whole lot of noticing and wondering.

You know… Storms. News. Uncertainty. Holidays. Faith – a bit dusty and hidden, perhaps. And, since we’re being real… probably fear, too.

Then, there are the things that need doing. Not just the routine things. The big things we really long to do!

I have been coping, as I often do, with paint. In the land of #Filters, painting supplies go in the Medicine Basket, aka – Strategies.

Tears, too. Paul Coelho explained it this way:

Words are tears that have been written down. Tears are words that need to be shed…

There’s a whole lot of tears and paint going on in the canvas you glimpsed, above. It’s from my #Quickening journey and it’s changed a lot this weekend. It’s also taught me a lot… about listening. You see, even though there won’t be visible words for a bit longer, I’ve needed to listen DEEP to hear them!

And it’s MY voice that needs hearing. Well, the voice that was a gift from many of my ancestors, filtered through this world, now. Their stories, yes. And their courage to speak in times and places when that was a dangerous thing.

There’s another layer of deep work I’ve discovered in this particular paint/word journey. I needed to set a whole lot of my familiar stuff aside in order to hear the messages waiting for me along the way.

I needed to set aside what I wanted to hear in order to hear what was really there for me.

I needed to set aside what I thought I ought to be hearing in order to hear new messages in this world.

And, now, I need to externalize the new hearing and knowing. The new claiming.

Yep! Images. Words. Tears. And, another bit of newness, as well. New HOPE!

This is, after all, a day of HOPE for many of us. And a day of CHESED… or Loving Kindness. Which, when you get down to it, are great additions to our Medicine Baskets! Every day!!!

Today, I am painting HOPE.

Soon, I will be teaching the most hopeful tool I know. #Filters! The perspective which helps brave seekers like us to move, step by step, to the place that is calling us. Frederick Buechner put it like this:

The place where we are called is the place where our deep joy and the world’s deep longing meet.

And NOW is the time for that journey, in so many, many ways!

Curious??? Even if a tiny bit anxious??? Click here for all the details! (And for a big, time-sensitive discount!)

Isn’t it time to answer YOUR call???

ps… true confession! My #Filters needed a bit of adjusting in this moment, too. Fortunately, under all the MSNBC in my Medicine Basket, I unearthed the Princess Diaries, 1 & 2. Here’s to YOUR time to shine! (Seriously!!!)

And, just between us, I felt like I was starring in it yesterday! This, despite the fact that I haven’t read the book and am not real sure why its existence was stored deep in my awareness!

First, please hear me say that I’m fine-ish. Let’s just say that lots of things decided to hurt and twitch, which isn’t really much fun, and it’s not helpful when it comes to the long, long list. So, gratitude for the physical therapy tribe. For coping strategies. For smoked salmon. And for a very welcome nap!

Then, things got interesting! You see, the next item on my list was catching up on the things that could be labeled behind if we believed in that sort of thing. Today, though, I’m even more convinced than I was that sometimes we’re just not yet ready for those things!

I began with a paint brush. Some fine-tuning on the canvas which will become the surface for working with the wisdom cards I’m creating for an Intentional Creativity® adventure called #Quickening. And, yes… this is new ground for me!

Then, on to a #Quickening paint adventure I had missed live, about 3 weeks ago.

If we pause for a moment to contemplate the big world, lots of things have happened in those 3 weeks. Things that I now realize I’ve had some time to process before tackling the video. And that, my friend, feels like a blessing in the sense that there’s only so much NEW I can handle in any given moment.

I also know it may work differently for you and that makes total sense. I just love it when we own our journeys, consciously!

Here’s what I learned while I was watching the video, which was – on the surface – about dots and swirls…

My job… my choice… is to make space for the learning and claiming to happen! And the movements involved in dots & swirls are one great way to make space!

Now, for the big news!!! Dots and swirls are not the only tools in my Medicine Basket! There are #Filters in there, too… and they’re about to bust out in a big way!!! I’m going to be teaching #Filters for the Intentional Creativity Foundation, starting in June!

Just between us, we’ve been working on this for a while and there were a couple of moments when the waiting part got just the tiniest bit frustrating. Here we are, though, in this world, now, and I’m going out on a limb and saying – out loud – that we need #Filters, now more than ever!

Oh!!! YOU’RE INVITED!!! And we are going to paint, along the way, but please hear me say that no previous painting experience – or confidence, for that matter – is needed. In fact… go here to see what some former newbies have to say. All the details are there, too!

ps… Terrible Tuesday was written by Hazel Townson & Tony Ross.

pps… huge thanks for a gizmo called a TENS Unit which is now, blessedly, at work helping with the stuff that hurts! Genius physical therapist, too!!!

ppps… curious about Filters??? The Tigon mascot says: “Take a deep breath and check it out, now, while there’s a serious discount going on! Go here!!!”

Medicine Baskets were high on the list of things we didn’t cover in nursing school or seminary!

In all fairness, we were busy with washing our hands and starting IV’s and things like Hebrew grammar and the Book of Order. Anyone who knows me will swear that I’m still top of the class in hand washing and I didn’t actually flunk Hebrew, though there was a time when that seemed quite likely.

These days, I have an actual Medicine Basket – of the legendary wise woman sort – and several more which insist on prime real estate in my paintings. There’s also a new one with wheels in the waiting-to-be-transformed line, but that’s a story for a different day.

In this moment, the Medicine Basket between my ears seems to be in charge! Debates. Quotes. And what feels like about a zillion questions! The owl seems to have nested in the basket which is somehow comforting… and I’ll take all of that I can get these days!

You see, there’s a whole lot of stuff hatching in me! And the owl has apparently decided to take over the wisdom card project that goes along with the two new books.

For the last couple days, my job has been peacekeeper! You see, the owl isn’t the only opinionated winged being involved. My recent phoenix has insisted on helping, too! You may remember her…

For a bit, it felt like a battle between wisdom and perseverance. Finally, though, after something that could very nearly be labeled a couple’s coaching session, we are at peace, they and I. There is, indeed, a whole lot of chaos in our world and rising beats wallowing, every time!

There’s also a whole lot of need for collected wisdom, set free in this world. Set free to become new wise things… now!

Blessedly, the grand-teens were here for a bit and they ask really good questions… the kind that help me be more clear! And leave me wondering what a mythic owl-phoenix offspring would look like! (That one’s likely to take some dreaming! In fact, that one’s likely to find its way into at least one of the books!)

For now, though, one of the most precious medicines in my basket. (And, perhaps, the first conscious one!)

I learned it this way, from my old teacher-friend, Steve Glenn…

If a teenaged child has 5 adults who will listen to them, take them seriously, and not shame or blame them for their questions, that child is practically immune from ever attempting suicide.

And a bit of a re-frame for this moment, from the me who has experienced the world changing over the 40 years since I met Steve…

With fiercely compassionate, conscious intention, may WE be one of those 5 adults for as many of our Littles as possible… listening to them, taking them seriously, and not shaming or blaming them for their questions… starting this moment. Now.

ps… in observance of these holy days, a quote from another of the wise voices in my Medicine Basket:

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

– Anne Lamott

So, as you might have heard, I have pretty much all of The West Wing and Madam Secretary memorized. (It’s that whole auditory/digital processing thing!) Every now and then, though, even I need a bit of a break.

Now is one of those times. Thus, New Amsterdam.

Time out for a bit of context. (Yep! A Filters thing!!!)

The third season of New Amsterdam picks up, just about 4 years ago, with an episode called The New Normal (3.1). Plane crashes. Covid. Unemployment. Blood shortages. And, no… they didn’t overplay it.

The punchline, if you will, was toward the end, when hospital administrators across New York had the radical notion that working together could help with life-threatening shortages. Swapping in-stock meds for desperately needed blood. Vent tubing for gloves. And it all began with a question… How can I help?

And, yes… the nurse who still lurks inside me had chills and tears, pretty much the whole time I watched.

The big ah-hah for me, though, was realizing how much different my reaction was in this moment. I’d seen it before. Probably 3 or 4 times. This time, though, what made it through my filters was different. Bigger. More urgent.

And, yes… it has a whole lot to do with the news!

Let’s fast-forward, now, to Why Not Yesterday? (3.6). A whole bunch of people dealing with systemic racism and sexism. With pay equity. And opportunities.

And, in the background, music.

I had to look it up. Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil’s song, sung by – among others – Mama Cass Elliot, in 1970.

A new world comin’

And you, dear heart, have probably guessed why the tune is still swimming in my head.

The world did get better for some of us since those days. Bits of better, here and there. And, not nearly enough!

Then came the glue, from another channel, that holds all this together. Another re-run!

Stephen Colbert and Sen. Cory Booker, from Monday night.

Sense. Hope. Determination. (And no blood pressure spikes!)

Now, I have no idea whether Stephen and Cory know the song, A New World Coming. (I’m really kind of hoping they do!)

I do know, though, that those old songs I learned around the campfire matter, still, in my heart. And it seems to me that we need as many of us singing this one as we can get in this moment. It’s probably going to work a whole lot better for Mama Cass to lead the sing-a-long than it would for me to try it, so here you go…

And, yes… the best thing to do in a plague of whatever kind is to help! Often that starts with helping ourselves!!! So… what’s one thing – one easy, accessible, meaningful thing – you could do for you in the next 24 hours??? Seriously!

Here’s mine… a bowl of soup for dinner! Home concocted, if not exactly homemade from the beginning. (I had help with the broth!) Added herbs and extra veg. My favorite bowl. Healthy, comforting, and delicious. And, tomorrow, another of those easy, accessible, meaningful things. Because I can. And it helps me help.

It’s going to take a whole bunch of us!!! For now…

ps… stay tuned! Angel painting and Filters details coming soon! Your medicine basket will be excited!!!