We’re off to see the Wizard!

Do you remember, back in the dark ages, before streaming tv and dvr’s – even before vhs tapes – when the Wizard of Oz was an annual event?

I looked forward to it every year.

Well, most of it! I will confess to being terrified by the flying monkeys!

And, yes, as lectionary passages go for this time of year, this one may seem odd! There’s a story, though. A story from yesterday. The first Tuesday in March. Also, locally known as Mattering Matters day!

First, a bit of an intro…

Mattering Matters is new offering for Intentional Creativity® Guild members. (Think the folks who have been around long enough to collect a few badges for their Scout sashes!)

My dear friend and sister-in-creating, Natalie Moyes, and I are the leaders, and we are – to put it mildly – still learning!

Yesterday was our third gathering… in the land of Zoom.

We had a plan!

We posted invitations and reminders in all the usual places. We practiced the second camera bit. The Legendary Husband checked the previously cranky mike.

We got lots of wish I could comments from sisters with Spring Break issues.

We showed up.

The mike did not, in fact, do the thing. After time out for laptop fetching and lots of hand signals from Atlanta to the US West Coast to Canada, we were finally able to see and hear each other.

All four of us.

It went great. I mean, we painted. We wondered. We laughed. And we all cried… which is a really good sign in this kind of work!

And we all claimed the magic we had been doing, in a new light! (Thank you Frederick Buechner!)

In short, we mattered! Which, when you get right down to it, is a pretty good day’s work!

A bit more mattering happened in a meeting with a new friend, struggling with a big message.

Then, at least at my house, more regular stuff happened. Dinner. Jeopardy. Sorting. Hatching. Planning.

More news than might have been optimal for sanity’s sake. Then, blessedly, Stephen Colbert… playing – in my opinion – the part of the Prophet crying in the wilderness!

Finally, bed. And my new weighted blanket which is, indeed, helping with the whole comfort and sleep thing.

(We’re still working on temperature management!)

A reading from Kathleen McGowan’s The Expected One, which is my other lectionary text for this season. The first Holy Week.

And, eventually, dreams.

Grandmother Moon, it seems, is also friends with the good witch, Glinda!

You know the scene.

Dorothy. Sparkly, red magic slippers. Trying so hard to get home.

And this:

You had the power all along, my dear!

You do, too!!!

Not necessarily the power to be magically transported to Kansas, but the power to find your home. Your center. Your place to matter.

It’s a journey the world needs lots and lots of us to make!

So, blessings, whatever your tradition. And an offer… 45 min. My gift. We start plotting the path to your vision of mattering. Click here, and the calendar elves will hook you up!

ps… the small original mixed media work in the photo above is available for adoption, and there’s only one! Fabulous, empower-ing gift for yourself or someone who matters! Click here for the close up, with the whole quote! (There’s a sale going on!)

a, b, c, d, e, f, g…

Just between us, I’m dog paddling pretty fast in a sea of alphabet soup right now.

A deeper sea than usual!

And, yes, I’m painting, too.

And the paintings have a whole lot to say!

In the land of Intentional Creativity® we have an interesting custom known as handing the pen to the painting!

Laugh, if you must… it works!

At the risk of spoiling the mystery, it works by accessing different parts of our consciousness by doing something which feels a lot like playing and is actually magic!

And, today, we have a volunteer! (Well, actually, she insisted!!!)

I am not who I was supposed to be. At least not according to the path laid out for me.

My journey began with the Red Madonna in The Forest of Grandmothers. I had a whole 48″ square canvas! There was lots of drumming. I was excited!

Back then, I looked like the photo way up at the top of the this page. Dots and handprints! Two of my favorite things! (All that pink was a bit of a surprise!)

About then, things got different. Sue had one of those things she calls a hypermobility flare which seems to mean that she hurts a lot and everything gets harder.

After I sat in the studio corner for a while, we decided I could be just as much me on a 24″ square canvas and it would be easier to have fun. It was!

We wrote a whole lot more than we painted in those days. Crone Moon posts, which had a lot to do with being Grandmothers in this world. And we wrote a Manifesta, which means saying what we really think, out loud.

Now I feel more deeply rooted in our lineage than ever before. In those who came before us and those who are coming after.

Which, since I get to tell the truth (!) is feeling more complicated by the day. Around here, we have 2 granddaughters growing up in this world, but all those other Littles are somebody’s too, and they need to matter, too — even to people who think they’re more important than everybody else because they get to make the laws!

I think that’s why there’s a lot of circle calling going on around here. I get to help with my drum!

And we’ve started a new Red Madonna painting called Sanctuary. It’s one of those Medicine Painting things!!! I’m sure there will be lots more to learn. For now, though, I really want to remind you about the Manifesta. It seems like a really good moment to claim these things again! Sue agrees!!!

Here’s your link for the Manifesta!

Whatever else is going on in your world… whether you’re a grandmother or not… it’s a pretty good place to begin!

ps… intrigued by Sanctuary??? You can still sign up — even if you’ve never painted before! And, really, how will you know if you don’t check it out? So, deep breath! And click to learn more. It just might be exactly what you’re longing for in this world, now.

pps… you can get a really snazzy copy of the Manifesta, perfect for framing, if it’s calling to you… just click here! It would be a great gift! Or even an Intention!!! Oh! wander a bit while you’re there! There are leggings like I used to look!!!