Month: December 2023

First, Context!

After weaving some stories together in my dreams, I woke to the news that the iconic Norman Lear has passed at the age of 101. MSNBC suggested that Lear was “50 years ahead of his time with All in the Family.“

And, he was… “bringing America to real Americans in their own homes.”

If your family was anything like mine, this was not a universally agreed upon blessing! And we are there – in the same arguments, now.

Which is an ironic lead into our conversation for this day…

It started yesterday when I stopped by my doctor’s office for a couple bottles of nutty-crunchy stuff to make my upcoming pre-holiday travel Covid booster easier to manage.

A staff person I hadn’t met before reached to shake my hand and introduce himself. Then, with a big grin on his face, he said, “I love your button!”

This button…

Well, I knew I had a new friend! A new friend who asked where I got the button. (Probably Etsy.) I unpinned it from my jacket and told him that I had more and, if he’d actually wear it, I’d gladly give it to him.

More grinning. And a story… “My wife,” said my new friend, “teaches 5th grade. She has lots of banned books! She’d totally love and wear this!”

This is major bonding in the land of John Lewis! And my brain was off on an adventure, ironically having to do with an old story about the thing commonly known as behaving.

I’ll bet this is a word you recognize, too! It’s also kind of an iconic word in one of my favorite family stories. To follow along you need to know that my beloved son had some language challenges back in the day.

He talked “late” according to the chart in the pediatrician’s office. And he reversed a lot of words and had a big challenge with verbs. One of those words was, indeed, behave!

Don’t look at me! It was a daycare/pre-school thing!!! And it had to do with a place known as the side bench, where those who needed a time out went for a bit.

One day, on our way home in winter traffic – Think slow-moving tourists, not snow! – Dave was telling me about his friend who had to sit on the side bench. Then my boy hurried to assure me, in Dave-speak, that he was not on the side bench.

I be’d-have!

Why, you may be asking, this story in this moment?

Well, if you boil all the news down, it has a whole lot to do with whose notion of being-have will win!!! And the impact of the battle is a whole lot bigger than time-out in daycare!

Which, as you might suspect, brings us back to the late US House Rep, John Lewis (D-GA, 05) and the notion of Good Trouble.

And, oddly, to Our Lady of Guadalupe!

I had to do a bit of homework on Our Lady before I could paint her at the request of my dear friend, Laura, who has been a huge character in the saga of my Intentional Creativity® journey.

(We didn’t cover saints in nursing school or seminary!)

My first question had to do with the part of the painting you see above…

What was the story behind the little being with wings at the bottom???

Thus, research!

Full disclosure… I’m sending the academic/journalist who lurks inside me still, on a tea break, while I admit that I can’t, in this moment, find the exact citation for what I learned in my research. Here’s what my heart learned…

That little winged figure at the bottom of the painting represents “an intermediary” being between Heaven and Earth and brings knowledge and inspiration in times of trouble.

At that moment in my journey… around the time Lewis passed on and in the early days of the Taliban’s accelerated war on women, that being insisted on wearing John Lewis’ face!

Here’s the big picture…

All of which, intrepid reader, brings us to the seeming conflict between being-have and Good Trouble.

So, here’s the question… what if – maybe just maybe – being-have MEANS Good Trouble???

And the even more important question…

What might that look like for you???

ps… curious??? The Black Madonna in Latin America and Europe… Tradition and Transformation, by Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba.

pps… ready??? Let’s talk! 45 min. My gift. Your chance to get in on my Big Work! (This!!!) Fair warning…. the calendar thing is going to be a bit of a challenge in this moment. Hurry!

Here’s some of my list…

Hot ginger tea. Earl Grey, too. Organic.

My favorite zip front sweatshirts. Spattered with paint.

Red Thread.

The paintings on the wall, keeping me company while new things hatch.

A bowl of homemade soup.

Weighted blankets. Big enough for two!

Courage anointing oil from Emerald Temple. (Also Compassion oil. And Truth.)

Pictures of my girls with big grins… especially the ones that pop up unexpectedly in my phone.

And, at this moment in the history of the world, shortbread cookies. Seriously!

They’re not my Granny’s spritz butter cookies but they’re very, very close. Simple. Clean. Homey.

Stories opening, layer by layer. Music I love.

And dots. Prayer dots. The constellation ones. The spattery ones. The fingerprint ones. And the ones which carry my personal symbols.

Your list is probably different in the details. I’d love to know what’s on it!

Even without knowing, though, I’ll bet our lists have things in common.

Warm.

Multi-sensory.

Familiar.

Vagus nerve soothing.

Light.

For many of us, of different traditions, it is the season for Light. Light in the darkness. And, as long as we’re being real, it feels like the light may be harder to find and more important to claim than ever before.

(Well, maybe not ever-ever… but ever in my conscious memory.)

Perhaps, the question of this moment becomes:

What, then, shall we do???

And, yes… you’ve already guessed what part of my answer is!

I spent about three hours hunting for my beloved, hand-made, Hungarian friends last night.

You see, we’ve been playing Furniture Yahtzee again and I put them someplace safe – for just this moment. So safe I couldn’t find them!!!

Legendary Husband to the rescue!

So, the story begins again.

With a handful of quirky clay figures made in a time before the Eastern Block fell, when Religious Education was illegal in Hungary. They are folk art, for sure.

And, what if they are also Intention???

Intention to remember. And to BE light… now. As best we can. For any who are seeking a way out of darkness.

Check back here as the journey goes on. And do, please, leave a comment or email me about YOUR list. Together, we shine brighter! suesvoice@gmail.com

ps… the painting, which insisted on being included, is #flownouveau, from my Origins Guardian journey. The Hebrew word in the beam of Moonlight is a new-to-me version of Hope.

pps… you’ve got to check this out! A dress for the season of light!!! Lots of sizes, washes great and won’t fade!(Also a very cool scarf!) Hunt around a bit and you’ll find leggings to match both the dress and the scarf!