Month: June 2024

It’s me… Matilda, and I’m back from Scan Camp. Which – just between us – is probably a very good thing! Mom’s been hatching again and, from the looks of her journal, she could use some help!

First, let me catch you up a bit. Apparently there was a whole lot of excitement about the thing called air conditioning. The short version is that we need a new one. Nobody seems remotely thrilled about this, except for the fact that the new one will be better for the environment, which I’m in favor of, too!

Jermaine is one of the AC guys. I can’t wait to meet him. He likes our art! In fact, here’s a new glimpse of me…

Lean in close, please. I’m allowed to tell you the secret!

Mom didn’t decide to put this part here. She kind of found it! And then, she got real excited and enhanced it a bit so that it could help people just like you learn about the thing called Filters!

The lighter colored marks were called sparks as she was painting. Like light. Or illumination! She noticed that the one to your right looked like the profile of a face. And then she saw the light coming toward it from the edge.

With just a bit of help, it became the arrow called Input in the Filters story.

Now, I haven’t quite got this all figured out, yet, but it has a lot to do with there being way more information coming at us from the world than we can consciously manage at any one moment.

And that purple flower-y thing, a little farther to your right, is the part of this whole notion that decides what gets in and what gets blocked out. (I’m still working on this part!)

It seems to have something to do with the thing called chaos which may feel pretty familiar, lately!

Dad’s been running up and down the stairs to the mysterious place known as basement. He comes back with books for Mom who seems to have lots of things coming at her from the world these days.

I’m still sorting all this out. Here’s what I do know…

One of the ways to change chaos is to make. To create. To take a chance on new things helping.

I think part of what I’m here to help with is to make a map for changing chaos. For getting to that place my honorary uncle, Frederick Buechner, talks about. You know…

The place where our great joy and the world’s deep longing meet.

There’s more work to do, but Mom’s ready to talk with you, if you’d like some help on that journey! Just ask the people called calendar elves to make you some space. 30 minutes. Our gift. Mom says to bring a cuppa, paper & markers – or crayons – and a bit of Red Thread if it’s handy. (Red Thread is a big thing around here!) Let’s make some order out of chaos!

ps… I brought a thing called a proof home from Scan Camp. It means that you could adopt a picture of me. (Or lots of my painting friends!) In fact, Dad took two more paintings to Scan Camp when he brought me home. You can see some of my friends at the place Mom calls FierceArtWithHeart. All the original paintings are specially discounted right now, including my sister whose title is What The World Needs Now. She’s almost all made of prayer dots and that’s her picture just below! Did you know art can be leggings and posters and mugs and even blankets??? (I don’t think we need a blanket just now but it’s bound to get chilly again one day and they’re really soft!)

Dear hearts…

I grew up in a family where holidays were all about the way we’d always done it “We,” in this case, being mostly my mom’s family. The rules had a lot to do with food! And, frankly, today doesn’t feel much like a holiday.

The Legendary Husband is making his way home from a massive gathering of tech-y friends.

I have no recipes in my head for “what we eat” on this day. And, I’m profoundly aware that I am fortunate to have choices about food. Choices, indeed, about many things.

And, I have a bit of news… but, first, a story. From a tree!

I am Elu, which means beautiful in the language of the Cherokee people. I am a Bald Cypress tree, at home near the Chattahoochee River which runs south from this land and into the place called Florida. I am ancient, and powerful. I help filter water and am home to many species of birds and animals. My trunks and limbs and unusual knees are strong and beautiful wood. An air plant named Spanish Moss forms my hair.

I am a keeper of stories. Many of those stories are not happy. People have long been forced from their homes in my land, and there are those in power who would do this still. The orange clay ground is said to be colored with the blood of many battles.

There is an odd place nearby… a mountain which rises alone from what used to be farmland… the largest exposed mass of granite in the world. Long ago, it was called Lone Mountain. For the last two hundred years or so it has been known as Stone Mountain.

Once a home to Indigenous peoples, it became a gathering place for the white supremacy movement known as the Ku Klux Klan. The mountain, itself, was defaced with carvings memorializing the Confederacy over Civil Rights. The carvings remain, to the duress of many. WE DO NOT GO THERE!

Instead, we pray for a time when all people will be seen as beloved of the Great Mother. We make marks… marks of intention… many of them dots, like the countless dots which form my hair.

And we offer a haven to the Great Blue Heron and her future young. This is the heron’s message:

Look inside and nurture all aspects of yourself. Embrace your flaws, uniqueness, and feelings of shame with self-love. Once you love your whole self and find your inner peace, you’ll be able to bring peace to others, spreading healing throughout the world. 

Now, the news! Yesterday was run-off election day in Georgia. You know, primary stuff. Local and state stuff. And one of “my” candidates won.

Lorraine Cochran-Johnson will be the new CEO of DeKalb County. The second woman… and the first black woman, ever, to hold that position. She’s also a grandmother!

And, yes, you guessed it! Stone Mountain is in DeKalb County! Elu and I think things are looking up! We also think that there’s lots of work to do… and lots of it has to do with having choices! Let’s celebrate by listening, again, to the voice of the Great Blue Heron…

Once you love your whole self and find your inner peace, you’ll be able to bring peace to others, spreading healing throughout the world.

So be it. And so be we!

ps… Heron, here! My friend Matilda is still at Scan Camp. She says Barry is closed for Juneteenth, today. The campers are all busy making art and singing Kumbaya. Our favorite verse is the one that goes Someone’s praying, Lord. At our house, we pray for peace… and justice! (If you missed Matilda’s story, just click here!)

pps… Heron, again… I need a name, too! Any suggestions??? You can leave a comment, below, or email us! suesvoice@gmail.com

Dear heart behind the hand that holds the paint brush…

You know that story about the time you got accidentally taken to the wrong summer camp and it was very scary trying to find your people?

Well, you’ll be glad to know that I am here, safely, exactly the way you planned it!

Barry and the rest of the counselors here at Scan Camp seem nice and fun. And there are LOTS of other campers here. Big painting kids. A few even bigger than I am! Small painting kids. Machines humming and spitting out very cool art.

There’s air-conditioning here, which seems like a really good thing just now. I’m not sure sweating is good for paintings!

Also, Barry said to assure you that there’s no poison ivy here! Or alligators!!!

One of the counselors was asking all of us what we wanted to be when we grow up. Lots of the paintings didn’t know. I was glad I know that I’m going to be a book cover! Everybody thought that was cool. And I was really glad that I can be a book cover and hang on our wall!

Here’s another cool thing about this camp… we’re all welcome! It’s not about fitting in or matching or even being recognizable. Everybody gets to be who they are.

One of the counselors asked me about the purple flower-y symbol you added, over my head. She wondered what it meant and I knew the answer!

I told her it came from your story about filters and explained that it’s my Map of Reality – the part of me that “decides” what gets in through the filters and what what gets blocked out.

She asked if she could have one, too, and I told her she already does, even if she hasn’t seen it yet. I sure hope I can help more people learn about that!

For now, though, it’s time for something called Campfire. Barry says it’s an old thing we do in a special way here. No actual fire. Just a painting of one! And music!

That’s when I really started missing you. We have Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary here, too. Just like home! And, I already know all the words to all the songs!

One of my favorites is We Shall Overcome!

Is that why you sing when you paint? Like a reminder of things that matter? Things like Peace? And taking action? That makes sense to me!

After Campfire time, it was time for bed. Some of us were whispering after lights out and one of the paintings asked me if I was scared in that new place.

I showed her the line you call unavoidable tragedy and explained that we all have scary things and we can learn how to go on and learn new things. And then I whispered that I was pretty sure that’s what we were singing about in We Shall Overcome.

For tonight, I’m going to sleep. But, in case there’s anybody reading along who needs a reminder…

Thanks, Paint Mama! I love you!!!

Matilda

ps… I know I’m just a painting, but I wanted you to know I’m all in on the peace and justice thing. Choice and sanity, too!!!

pps… maybe this is why you added that alabaster jar to our painting… to ask our ancestors who get this whole mess to help. I’m glad you did!

As you may recall, I never went to Kindergarten.

In those way-back days, before the characters my kid referred to as Bernie & Ert, I didn’t begin to read until first grade.

Sally, Dick & Jane were my best friends, and I’ve loved words ever since.

This morning, over my first cup of tea, I realized I needed a new word. And, yes… the paintings have been whispering again. I’m so excited!!!

The painting, above, is a big hint. I’ve known for a few weeks now that it was going to be a book cover. The book even has a title! And, now – thanks to the whispering – it has the subtitle that’s been missing! And, yes… I’ll tell you in just a minute! First, though, a bit of context.

I have two books hatching inside me… all at once! It feels a bit like it must feel to be pregnant with twins. Growing together with much in common. And precious differences, too.

These books already have their own personalities. Their own needs. Their own intentions. And they feel quite different than my previous books have felt, in their gestational phases!

I think it’s because I’m different!

And, when you get right down to it, isn’t that kind of the point???

Which brings us to my new word!

Metamodernist

First, I should probably admit that I never quite figured out Postmodernist! What I do know is that it wasn’t a nearly big enough Medicine Basket for what’s hatching inside me!

And, it’s taken me a while to get here. I set out, with huge Intention, when my teacher, friend, and cherished author, Kathleen McGowan, was looking for a book for a child who was asking…

Why are people so mad about Jesus?

In that moment, this book began growing inside me. In this context. Now. And that brings us back to this morning, when the walls were whispering book titles. Here goes:

Soul Dancing with Grandmother Moon…
Sacred Tales for MetaModern Littles & the Adults Who Love Them!®

Then, the other voices in my head chimed in. Mostly the ones concerned about whose stories I can tell. And Grandmother Moon explained it in the emphatic way she has when she’s serious:

It’s not about appropriating other traditions, or discounting them… it’s about learning from other souls!!!

And, I suspect she was still meddlin’ when I found this on Facebook about half a cup of tea later!

A Creation story from the Hopi Nation, Arizona

Creator said:
I want to hide something from the humans until they are ready for it.
It is the realization that they create their own reality.
The eagle said:
Give it to me. I will take it to the moon.
Creator said:
No. One day they will go there and find it.
The salmon said:
I will bury it on the bottom of the ocean.
Creator said:
No. They will go there, too.
The buffalo said:
I will bury it on the Great Plains.
Creator said:
They will cut into the skin of the earth and find it even there.
Grandmother who lives at the breast of Mother Earth and who has no physical eyes but sees with spiritual eyes, said:
Put it inside of them.
And Creator said:
It is done.

May it be so inside of me. And inside of you, too, if you are ready for the call!

ps… my second Legend painting has offered to walk beside us on the road and help claim the reality we’re creating!

pps… could you use a witness for your journey??? Let’s talk! 30 min. My gift. Bring a cuppa and a bit of Red Thread, if it’s handy. I’ll bring my Medicine Basket!

True confession…

I have LOTS of practice at the good student thing. (Okay, let’s skip over the whole Hebrew grammar adventure!)

I was really good at reading and writing. Numbers, not so much. Biology went a whole lot better than physics!

Now that I know about things like brain development and perceptual patterns, I feel better about some of those things that didn’t go so well. I wasn’t bad at math, so much as my brain needed more time to grow into all that. You hear me…

And, yes… the Fiercely Compassionate Grandmother who lives in me gets clear to livid at the people in the world trying to decide what we should all think and what we can or cannot choose.

Fortunately, before I chased that rabbit too far, there was painting to do!

My new elephant friend has chosen a name. Matilda! And, she was kind enough to offer a few suggestions for “finishing” touches. Here’s a current peek…

And, the photo at the top is yet another new adventure beginning! First, though, a brief trip in the way-back machine…

Do you remember Bob Ross? The guy who gave painting lessons on weekend TV?? And wanted everything to be happy???

I loved what he demonstrated but it got drowned out, in my mind and heart, with the loop in my brain which reminded me, over and over, that I was not the artistic kid.

These days, I know more.

• Mom was trying really hard to be helpful!
• Sometimes new things are possible if we allow ourselves to try!

Fortunately, there is lots of painting to do! Painting about noticing & wondering. About allowing. About being open to surprises… to what is real and true for me!

And, it was just what my brain and I were longing for.

It works like this… think a thought in words. Like the Intention for a painting, or vessel, perhaps, or love light.

Then, move your hand to paint. Brush. Fingers. Sprigs of rosemary. Whatever…

And, then, see what appears on the canvas.

Suddenly, the major processing patterns of your brain are all working together to create newness!!!

Not just the image on the canvas, though that’s a huge wonder! But, also, new neuro-pathways! It’s a bit like creating new connections between different parts of your brain. Or, if you prefer, upgrading your software!

I think of it like creating new little neuro-fountains of curiosity, right there in my awareness! And that, dear heart, feels hugely important in this world.

Matilda agrees! And she’s really busy writing the table of contents for that new book in my head!

For today, though, Matilda and I have a question for you. A real question!

What’s in YOUR bowl of stardust soup???

You can leave us a comment, below. Or email me! suesvoice@gmail.com

And, stay tuned… new opportunities come from new neuro-pathways!!!

ps… Saturday would have been Mom’s 89th Earth birthday. Last night I dreamed she and Matilda were making friends!

Do you know how this feels?

Peeking behind a curtain, curious, and a wee bit anxious? Not sure what you’ll find… and compelled to find out?

Yep! #apothecary! Part NEXT…

And, wow… did I get surprised!!! The kind of surprised that sometimes comes when we allow ourselves to hear what other eyes see.

First, though, a bit of a dot review. More following than controlling. A riff on an old Quaker teaching, word by word. Hope, in the midst of unavoidable tragedy.

I — am — willing — to — be — changed.

Over and over. And over and over.

And, then.. the parentheses marks around the dots. Another, even older, old story. The punchline goes like this…

The chains which bound me are broken, and I am free, already.

Then, I got really brave and shared my progress with other travelers on the road.

One of those other travelers – who clearly knew more old stories – commented that she saw Ganesha. Research was in order!

Ganesha – or Ganesh – is the elephant-headed god in Hindu Religion and symbolizes protection and the removal of obstacles from one’s path. (Thank you, Google… we didn’t cover this in nursing school or seminary!)

That’s a message I’ll gladly receive!!!

All of which felt even more aligned when I reminded myself that the #apothecary painting is part of a larger journey known as #animystica.

Sleep was definitely in order! And, dreams. The whisper-y Grandmother Moon kind of dreams.

And then, more paint. The Big Scary Glaze kind that changes many things!

So… drum roll, please! I have a book title! And I’m close to having cover art. (The #wip has graciously volunteered!) And the content already lives within me. It’s just been looking for a container deep and wide enough.

The next right thing is even more Big Scary Glaze. And an alabaster jar.

Oh! The line for joy and pleasure appeared from above and became a vessel, too! It just needs filling with stardust soup!

This has been quite the Squeegie Hunt. And – remarkably – I’m not afraid!!!

Perhaps that’s why I’m humming something pretty close to Go Tell it on the Mountain!

ps… also bought a domain name. My new book title! The Art of Overcoming Obstacles®. Stay tuned!!!

pps… if you’ve been hanging around a bit, you may detect a hint of Filters! You’re absolutely right. And there’s more to come!!!

ppps… just in case you missed part one of this adventure, just click here to be magically transported!

And, yes… we’re talking Medicine Painting! Specifically, the journey known as Apothecary. The photo from my journal, above, should give you an idea of what this adventure feels like in the beginning.

It’s like all the parts of my brain dancing together at once. Early on, there was quite a bit of singing going on inside me. I thought John Denver was a bit odd in this mix until I heard:

Comin’ home… to a place we’ve never been before!

It had a lot to do with the metaphoric river under the river… the Rio Abajo Rio.

Now, before we go any further, I should let you know that I’d be a bit behind, if we believed in that. (And, no… you’re not surprised!)

Imagine, though, a very busy spider, of the Weaver Dreamer sort, with a whole lot of new web to weave. That’s what this journey feels like for me. You know how the spider puts her web back together after a big bug tears it or a storm blows it loose from the the corner of a window?

Now, imagine doing that for yourself, with paint. (And you don’t even have to hang upside down!) That’s what this is like for me.

One of the things I’m weaving back in is some of those old summer camp stories. Like my first-ever Red Thread circle. And the amazing notion that we all work together to make the world work.

Then there was the random impulse to anoint the back of my canvas with a bit of the cacao from my mug. Kind of a comfort thing in the midst of some deep noticing and wondering.

There’s a painted line for joy and pleasure coming up. First, though… Context!!! By which, of course, I mean news. Not just the national kind – which is huge enough – but also the inner kind. The really personal stuff.

But, first… the words of Shiloh Sophia McCloud.

Medicine painting is an artifact of change!!!

And it works!!!

Somewhere along the line, while we were taking a studio break on Saturday afternoon, I was able to claim a thing that has changed for me. A thing which I didn’t consciously know was holding me back. A thing called grief. And I realized that the composting has happened and I am ready to go forward.

And I spoke my claimed perception shift. And made space for newness to begin.

The loss is still there, but there is now room for newness. And I’m off to make marks for that on my canvas!

It’s not much to look at so far. Here’s a peek…

Tears. Right there with the paint.

Tears of release and hope! Tears of strength for living into what I was born to do. If you squint, you might see the eye!

And, then, the line before the one for joy and pleasure, which is still to come.

This one is the line for unavoidable tragedy. Mine insisted upon appearing in one of my personal codes which has been with me since The Muse appeared in 2018. And it feels like a really good sign, now!

There’s a lot more painting to do. More learning. More claiming. More singing. More showing up.

Here’s a hint… I was born to do this!

For now… huge hugs. And the hope that you’re beginning to imagine what such a journey might look like in your world! This world needs all of us, now!

ps… I just saw another eye! Wonder what’s next…