#Magic!ContemplationsGrandmothersMedicine BasketWisdom Cards

A New Relationship with my Medicine Basket!

Posted on by sue boardman

If you’ve been hanging around for more than about 10 minutes, you’ve noticed that I’m fond of the Intentional Creativity® notion of Medicine Baskets. It’s not just that I used to be a nurse. It’s that there are a whole lot of things in this world that need healing, or fixing, or soothing.

Frankly, there are more and more of those things in ME, these days!

Physical things. Emotional things. Relational things. They all count! Some of them seem more urgent than others. Kind of like CPR class in the old days. Heart beating. Breathing. Not bleeding. It’s a hugely important start and I’m grateful that those things are – well – behaving these days.

Some of the others are harder. Choice and voice to name two biggies.

There’s been a whole lot of “public” voice going on in the US just recently. I’m grateful for much of it. Then there’s the hard part. The part that tempts us to hold ourselves back. (Okay… maybe it’s just me!)

I’ve spent a great deal of time with a cuppa cacao, pondering power. Not just their power, but mine!

As it happens, I have a favorite early painting who knows a lot about this subject… the one you encountered as we began. Way back in 2018, when I was just setting out on my #ColorOfWoman journey so that I’d be able to teach in the land of Intentional Creativity®, she and I had lots of big conversations. She, by the way, was in charge of answers. The questions were all mine!

Her official name is #Artisan. Her chosen name is #Taliswoman. It’s related to the ancient Greek word, telesma which means several things having to do with completion. Frankly, I didn’t imagine what would come of working with her until a couple years after I thought we were done!

You see, the time came when she asked for an edit. Well, more like insisted on an edit!

If you look closely, above her eye, you’ll find a pink strip of her scrap quilt veil. When I first painted that piece it read:

In the image of the Divine, I create!

(That was a really big claim for me to make back then!)

Now, that same block says:

In partnership with the Divine, I create!

Making that change felt huge when it happened. It feels even more huge, now! And, that feeling comes with questions for you!

What’s a belief that’s shifted, or grown for you recently?

Could you claim it? Would you? When???

I’d really love to hear! You can leave a comment, below, or email me. suesvoice@gmail.com

Our Littles need us to show up, whole and hopeful! That’s why I love making medicine for our baskets!

ps… ready for some help showing up? Check out the full deck of cards! (I have a few decks in stock and eager to join your medicine basket!)

#Magic!ContemplationsGrandmothersWisdom Cards

When the Owl & the Bears join forces!

Posted on by sue boardman

Well, it’s been quite the week. Especially in the corner of the world known as Atlanta! And, yes, that’s an election reference! Fix yourself a cuppa, please, and nest in your comfy place. I’ve brought friends!

The owl came first. Right there on her very own wisdom card. Well, wisdom with a twist! You see, her particular card is an adventure in the land of symbols and language. Especially with the word, Heresy!

If you’re like me, you learned it as a bad word. Something not at all safe.

Turns out, it’s actually a matter of perspective! As in, according to whom and relative to what? The Greek word translated Heresy/Heretic has several meanings, depending on its grammatical form. My favorite is… Able to choose!!!

This, by the way, is something I don’t remember from Greek School!!!

In this moment, I’m absolutely convinced that owl appeared to remind us that we have the wisdom to choose, and even to change our choices as we learn more!

That’s probably why Daphne and her young friends showed up, too. You see, her name is associated with the laurel tree. Bay leaves, if you will! And they are long associated with courage!

If you’re like me, you probably have some more celebrating on your calendar. A couple more days of relief, perhaps. Even a better night or two of sleep.

Then, dear hearts, it’s time for the courage! The kind of courage that we could think of as not messing with mama bear! And, it’s going to take a whole lot of us!!! Here’s the thing that helps me the most… we ARE able to choose!!! Wonder what the world would look like if we all got busy choosing what will make the world safe and empowering for all our Littles…

As the poet, James Baldwin, once said…

…You can’t tell the children there’s no hope!

ps…Daphne & the Owl want you to know that there are whole decks of wisdom cards just waiting for you at WingedEyeWisdom!

#Magic!ContemplationsGrandmothersNext Right Thing

Of giraffes and saints and help when we need it…

Posted on by sue boardman

Yep! ’tis the season! The season for voting. The season for old, old stories. The season for hope!

If you’ve been hanging around for a bit, this photo may feel familiar to you, because it’s one of my very favorites. And, because it belongs in this season! (Well, at least in my heart!!!)

A stained glass window in the “old” chapel at Columbia Theological Seminary. If you tip your head just a bit to your right, you may notice a Red Giraffe off to that side! I spent a whole lot of time hypnotized by that window, as I listened to stories which changed my world. One of my favorites actually happened on All Saints Day!

Dr. Walter Brueggemann was preaching. I’m sure he said lots of cool things. The one that lives in my heart, still, is this…

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

I related then and I think I’m relating even more just now!

From swarms of costumed littles, hoping for candy last night, to MS NOW and pre-election chaos, to hope for the book that’s coming to life in me… I could use a bit of help with the believing!

Here’s the new ah-hah! that appeared early this morning…

We don’t have to know all the answers, or have it all figured out. We do need to show up! Hoping and making choices and acting on our dreams!

NOW feels like a really good time for all that. For modeling all that, even! And, yes… VOTING is a really good way to model hope!!! (If you’ve already voted, huge thanks!!! And, there’s still time!!!)

Getting the clocks re-set could be helpful, too!!!

ps… the Red Giraffe will, indeed, join us in the new book, You’ve Had The Magic All Along! (Glinda and I can’t wait to meet you there!)

pps… If you haven’t joined the mailing list – or haven’t seen these posts in your email recently – NOW would be a great time to sign up and be on the cool kid list for all the special offers and early notices ahead! Just click the pop-up thingy… and we’ll happy-dance with you!!!

#Magic!ContemplationsGrandmothersMedicine Basket

I Am Still Learning…

Posted on by sue boardman

In her fabulous Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott reads from the gospel of Toni Morrison:

“The function of freedom is to free someone else,” and if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else. Not everyone will be glad that you did. Members of your family and other critics may wish you had kept your secrets. Oh, well, what are you going to do? Get it all down…

This is my “fractured fairy tale” made new…

Once upon a time, kind of a medium number of years ago, I found myself “wracked and in bondage” not to a person so much—though that had to be dealt with—but to beliefs I had and stories about how life was supposed to be and how powerless I was to change that.

Then, one day, I found myself four months pregnant and filing for divorce. The details really don’t matter anymore. Go ahead and fill the story in with whatever makes sense to you. I simply could not put a child in the place where I was.

There was no fairy godmother in sight!

Slowly, I found my way to freedom, ironically led by that little child. I learned along the way that the stories we tell, the realities we create with our very words, make all the difference. I learned that our stories can be edited! Re-formed into tales of freedom rather than bondage.

To risk freeing someone else is to tell those new stories. With clients only daring to hope that change might actually be possible for them. With folks praying that the 7:00 news isn’t the only story there is.  And with grandchildren who have the amazing chance to learn better, stronger stories the first time through!

To fashion new stories – stories that are empowering and more true – is to free ourselves over and over again and to risk freeing someone else.

Often Kleenex is involved!

And, we can start right where you are!!! 

Dr. Sue Boardman is a Graduate
of the Intentional Creativity®
Color of Woman Teacher Training, member of the Guild, and a Curate.
She teaches locally in Atlanta and works with individual coaching clients.

#Magic!ContemplationsGrandmothersMedicine Basket

Many ways to claim some truth!

Posted on by sue boardman

I’m betting you’ve heard some of these next words, before. You were probably raised on at least one version of them! When I went fishing around in my Medicine Basket, these are the ones I found, all tangled up in Red Thread!

Practice what you preach!

Walk the talk!

Follow your own advice!

You’ve gotta do the things that you pray!

In my experience, they’re all kind of context-motivated. You know, some hit home faster than others, depending on what’s going on around us.

Well, in my world, it’s time for all four, and I’m beginning here and now.

As you probably know, I’ve been deep in author-land for months and months, now. Waaaayyyy deep!!! And, it’s about to get deeper, still. Like, actually telling people what I’ve been doing! And I need some space.

So, Wednesday blogs are taking a bit of a vacation. Sundays will pick up the pieces and tell the stories as they unfold. Stories which I’ll have more space to live and manifest!

I’ll still be here for comments and questions and all the rest. There’s lots of stuff from the past, if you want to wander around the site.

And, when the book – plus the brand new tween & teen cards – are actually ready to launch, we’ll ramp it up, again.

Apparently, the thing about having the magic all along is that we have to make space to let it fly!!!

ps… those little dot-beings in the painting surprised me when they appeared, there in the shelter of her huge love. And, in case you didn’t hear this part of the story back in the day, she told me, deep in dreamland about 3 years after I “finished” the painting, that she is Mary Magdalene. What I know now is that there really is fierce compassion for all of us, right there!

pps… our protective cat friend wants to remind us that voting helps!

#Magic!ContemplationsMedicine BasketNext Right Thing

Balance!

Posted on by sue boardman

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about being and doing. I have a whole lot of experience with doing. (You might, too!) And the world certainly encourages doing.

What I’ve realized, though, is that doing gets a whole lot more powerful if we choose the doing out of our claimed sense of being!

I also think that my new awareness of this often-challenging dance has become more conscious as I’ve been writing about claiming the magic we’ve had all along!

Here’s the big news… the book manuscript has been dispatched to my old friend SARK and her fabulous team for – you know – publishing!!!

Full disclosure… I still have a couple things like the bibliography left to do and send. You know – the end things you can’t do until you’ve done the rest.

And, yes… there’s been a whole lot of being going on. Intentional being! Not just “the way I’ve always been,” but the chosen, comfortable stuff that feels at least a little safe because, after-all, you’re still here!

This is the big time! And I’ve already realized that it’s going to take a lot of sorting and choosing. My metaphorical image, Glinda, whom you met as we began, and I are ready. And one of the things we want you to hear us say is that “ready” doesn’t necessarily mean calm and cool, with everything already figured out.

Sometimes – well, probably often – it means one foot in front of the other, even with butterflies in our bellies!

On Friday, the Legendary Husband and I voted, intentionally. Not just to get it off the list, early – which is cool – but to create more space for ALL of us to be!

One of the ways I do that is to help folks like you claim your voice and your power! I’ve been learning and practicing more than 20 years! And, starting November 1, I’m making space for two new 1:1 brave souls ready to blow the dust off their magic wands and leap!

Of course, you probably have questions. (I love questions!) So… just ask the elves to hook us up with 45 min. On me. You’ll want a cuppa, and something to write on & with. Red Thread, if it’s handy. We’ll name a next right thing and see what it might look like to work together….

ps… Glinda will be thrilled to join us!

#Magic!ContemplationsGrandmothersMedicine BasketWisdom Cards

A visitor in my dreams…

Posted on by sue boardman

Nope…

This time it wasn’t a chatty painting on the wall. (They’re probably feeling the need for a bit of time off, given the book draft and all.) And, thankfully, nobody from the news, either!

Instead, a fox appeared.

That made me curious! We have them in the neighborhood. Grey and red. It’s starting to cool off which means we’ll probably see some real ones soon. For now, though, I went hunting in Colette Baron-Reid’s deck of The Spirit Animal Oracle.

Fox Spirit is number 27 and the short version of the message is “Think on your feet.” Given all the news and such, I figured reading on was in order!

The punchline, at least for me, was…

Let this clever spirit draw out your creativity as you adjust to rapidly changing circumstances with resilience, grace, and astuteness.

Just between us, that feels pretty optimistic in this moment and I’ll receive it gladly!

With huge help from the Legendary Husband, the first 30 or so pages of the book manuscript have made their way to publisher-land! (Rest to follow after the next few days, hopefully!)

The thing that amazes me is how much this project feels like who I am becoming, rather than who I’d gotten used to being!!!

And, along with my customary Good Trouble button, I’m planning to slip the fox in my pocket when we go vote! (Early voting in Georgia has begun!!!) Something tells me the fox will join the Blue Wave!

If you hang out on Facebook, you’ve probably seen the post with a grandmotherly woman in a voting booth. A small child – like early elementary school age – asks who she’s voting for. The reply is all my hopes and dreams in two words flat…

For YOU!

ps… I’d be so grateful for a little expectation flexibility for the next couple weeks. You know, a bit more space for finishing the book. And, then… LOTS more things to share! Hugs for you and yours…

pps… huge thanks to Colette Baron-Reid for her inspiring help!

pps… there’s a new deck of wisdom cards coming with the book!!!