Month: December 2024

Okay… word junkie that I am, I looked it up! Latin. French.

To form a mental image of. To represent to oneself. There are also, according to the elves in my phone, connections, in Hebrew… to form and fashion… to squeeze into shape as a potter does with clay!

And, yes! I’ll bet you can guess where this is going!!!

Straight to the place where the season of Advent begins, slightly belatedly this year, in my heart and our home!

There I sat, a stranger in a strange (cold!) land called Hungary, on the floor of a local artisans shop, digging ever so gently through baskets of kings and shepherds and angels… choosing my hand made, clay, nativity figures.

It was January of 1989, months before the Eastern Block fell. And my tears flowed as I tried to grasp the courage of those artists, making nativity figures in a time and place when Religious Education was against the law! (Though making money off the stories was, apparently, permitted by the autocracy.)

And, yes… I’ve told this story time after time, since then.

And, yes… this year it feels different. And I am listening, deep.

The literal path my three kings have set out on is in a different location this year. Somehow, I need them to be where I can see them from the magic chair, for it feels as though I’m going to be there a good bit.

In Feng Shui land, their new place would be associated with abundance which feels both ironic and hopeful, just now, in this time where it seems like an abundance of courage is just what we need!

The Wise Ones came from people who had been watching the stars for generations. Astronomers. Hoping. Waiting.

And, it seems to me that we, too, have a road of hoping and waiting ahead of us.

The question seems to be…

What will we follow, along the way?

Frankly, I don’t know squat about astronomy or astrology, though I have noticed that I’m curious!

I’m not much good with compass directions, either.

I am good at noticing and wondering!!! And, more and more, I’m getting good at learning from my dreams.

I even have a name for where I’m headed, however rocky and twisted the path may seem.

Fred’s place! The place where I am called!!!

And, here’s my symbolic map. Really!

For now, though, I can hear the paintbrushes calling my name. What is calling you???

ps… I’d really love to know what’s calling you! 45 minutes. My gift. You & your big dreams. Me & my medicine basket. A cuppa. Paper and markers… or eyebrow pencils if that’s what you have! Some red thread if it’s handy… to get one step clearer!!!  Just click here and ask the calendar elves to hook you up!

pps… today, I mailed copies of A Creation Poem… to 3 different states! Huge fun!!! And, I’d love to mail some to you, or the Littles you love! I have art I’d love to mail you, too! So… the elves have automatic discounts set up just for you. Buy 2 copies of my new children’s book and get a third one free! And/or choose anything from Original Paintings, Archival Prints, or the Special Collection by my dear friend, August Venuh, and get 25 % off your choices. You just click here to fill up your basket and the elves will do the math! They’re really excited to help you, so fix yourself a cuppa and wander in the wonder! It’s time to deck the walls!!!

We are going on one of those Squeegie Hunts! I’m not afraid!

You don’t need to be, either. Really! At the moment, we’re just talking dreams. Early Saturday morning…

… I heard Ben Kline’s voice. Ben was one of my heroes at Columbia Theological Seminary. Theology professor. Occasional President and perpetual do-er of things that needed doing. King of the Listening Ears! And former Dean from Agnes Scott College, just down the road.

One day Ben was telling us of the night he had Robert Frost as a guest at Agnes Scott. Frost was, by request, reciting his poem, The Road Not Taken… which I’ve taken the liberty of re-arranging just a bit for space:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and, sorry I could not travel both, and be one traveler, long I stood… And looked down one as far as I could, to where it bent in the undergrowth; then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear… Though as for that the passing there, had worn them really about the same, and both that morning equally lay, In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh, Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference!

I had chills all those years ago, as I listened to Ben’s recollections… long before I had come to understand that they were signs of something that mattered deep inside me. You see, I – single mom seminary student – was very much on the road not taken – at least in my experience and time!

When I heard it again, in this moment of dreaming, 30-some years later, it was even more clear, and there were, indeed, more chills.

There was another voice, as well. One you’ve heard me quote many times… Theologian & fabulous author, Frederick Buechner:

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

I’m betting you can guess why that might sound different in the context of now, than it ever has before! In many ways, there isn’t a road for now. Not an existing one, at least. But there is, if we will see it, a map!

For me, it’s a choice, in the place where the road diverges, between the way we’ve always done it and the way my heart and soul are called, which feels like both the road less traveled by and the place where my deep longing and the world’s deep need meet.

My inner librarian, though, was not finished! We needed tools for the road!!!

#Filters, for sure! My Map of Reality. Some red ink, for editing, which often sounds scary but is, actually the best part!

And my Medicine Basket, ready for experimenting with new strategies! As you may have guessed, it was quite the Red Thread circle! And there was space, too, for Emmi, the grand-puppy, who laid next to me, where I could feel her ribs moving as she breathed in and out. Literal – and mystical – INSPIRATION!

Mostly, in this moment, I have questions! And that’s totally okay with me because they’re my consciously chosen questions, which experience suggests work way better for this kind of journey than the external kind which generally come with tons of vested interest and someone else’s desired outcomes!

One of those questions is, obviously, Why? That one’s easy… Because my Littles and all our Littles need a world where they know they matter, each in their own way, and we Bigs have a whole lot of work to do on that!

Another question is, How long will it take?

That one’s more complicated! As long as I have breath is one answer, but it may not be enough, so I’m going with helping folks just like you set out on your version of the same journey… the road less taken… to the place where your deep longing and the world’s deep need meet.

We’ll probably need to set down some of the things from our pre-conscious medicine baskets, and make space for new tools and perceptions for the roads we’re choosing, which is totally okay! Old, ineffective medicine makes great compost, which helps the new world grow!

ps… there’s still time! It’s Giving Thanks Weekend! And, there are great deals for you at FierceArtWithHeart.com Use code Giving Thanks Weekend to save 25% on items in the Original Paintings & Hat Heaven collections – even those already discounted! And/or… purchase 2 copies of my new children’s book, A Creation Poem… and get a 3rd copy FREE! Just put 3 in your basket and the elves will make the magic! Hurry, though… the discounts expire on Dec 2 at 11:59pm ET.

pps… there’s still more time! 45 minutes. My gift. You & your big dreams. Me & my medicine basket. A cuppa. Paper and markers… or eyebrow pencils if that’s what you have! Some red thread if it’s handy. Just click here and ask the calendar elves to hook you up!