Author: sue boardman

Art JourneyContemplationsFiltersGrandmothersGuardians

I had a plan…

Posted on by sue boardman

I’d even begun. Saturday night. And then, Breaking News.

Cue flashback to preacher days. All prepared for Sunday. Five index cards waiting on the table by the bed, just in case a new thought happened along. Then, news… the big kind.

And this day, which was planned around soup and Solstice Celebrations, turned into nobody knows what’s next news.

For this moment, I’m going with the best thing I’ve got. A thing that actually happened on Friday night. I’d been doing a lot of planning for all the big things coming up. Especially the celebration.

Frankly, I had lots on my mind and I was feeing a bit anxious. My calendar is overflowing from now until the first week in August. Overflowing with awesome, welcome things which somehow tend to bring busy and unknown along! Hence, my anxiety. Frankly, not knowing is hard for me!

Then, I had a thought! A thought which led to action! I went out to the studio and came back with both hands full of my wisdom cards-in-progress. There are production challenges but, I reasoned, the wisdom and the #Filters are there and they work.

So, I pulled myself a card, passing them all through my hands, eyes closed, until one chose me.

Mine don’t have numbers like some of the more famous ones do. And yes, the photo above is of the one I chose.

If you had it in your hand and flipped it over, you’d see this:

I laughed when I read it. You see, some of those same folks who raised me right would not be overjoyed with the cards. (Or the notion of a Solstice Celebration!)

And then, I cried. Cried because it worked. Especially, this part…

…To encourage making conscious choices… about beliefs, on the road to the place where YOU are called! The world needs you!

And yes, I’d be delighted for you to claim this message, too!

So I re-claimed some of my Intentions. One of those is to keep being open to learning new things. Another is my commitment to the notion that I get to choose!!!

This last, by the way, is where the whole metamodern thing comes in, but that’s going to need to wait for another day.

And there will be soup.

For now, though, I’d love for you to witness one of my commitments about next right things:

I am present to choosing these journeys as safe places to continue to unfold… to become more ME, even in the context of this time!

If that sounds good to you… if you feel your inner wisdom whispering… then click here for all the info! There’s still time to join in the adventure known as #Filters! This might be just the right time!

ps… the art for the Creators card was part of an Intentional Creativity® journey called #Animystica. It found a home, and a very important job in my children’s book, A Creation Poem… Daphne & I would Love for you to check it out!

Art JourneyContemplationsFiltersGrandmothersMedicine Basket

Notes from the Many-Me’s!

Posted on by sue boardman

I’m guessing you’ve had days like this, too. Days when it feels like you need a whole committee of you’s to get all the things done. Especially the processing things!

If they passed out crowns for Queens of Many-Me’s, I’m pretty sure I’d get one today. As it is, though, I’m probably going to need to be content with crossing things off the list! In fact, I’m starting early!

By the time you read this, I will have had quite the day with medical folks and big, loud machines. Information is in order. I like having information. Getting it isn’t always so much fun! Fortunately, some of the things I learned in my nurse days are still helpful. Mainly, the absolute permission I gave myself to ask ALL my questions!

And, yes… that same permission applies in other parts of my world, as well!

The legend, if you will, for the #Filters map I’m making is virtually complete. Actually complete, in a hold in your hand sense, will take some help and a bit more time but, for this moment, I’ve done my part!

Just between us, this is really exciting!!!

So is the upcoming painting and writing adventure with Mother Nature that begins June 21. You know me and questions…

Is Mother Nature Calling You Home?

Just click to find out!!! Especially if community and ceremony and creating sound good!

Here’s the thing… the world feels pretty much bat crap crazy these days. Odds are extremely high that some healing is – and is going to be – needed. And I mean to be on that team. I’m guessing you do, too!

That brings us to a sneak peek moment!

This is artwork for one of my #Filters cards. One of the ones that will appear along the road to the places where we are called. The Hebrew words mean both hand and power of Creator. (At least they’re supposed to. I nearly flunked Hebrew!) And, yes… there’s still time to join an amazing group of us live! For all the info, Just click here… (This 6 week adventure will also be recorded if you need to watch on your own time!)

And, just in case you missed it… here’s me, again, inviting YOU to stretch your Medicine Basket and set out on this adventure of Good Trouble! The world needs you!!!

ps… the painting at the top is deep under-layers from an earlier Red Madonna journey… my heart crying out in hope!

Art JourneyContemplationsFiltersGrandmothersMedicine Basket

If I could only have two things…

Posted on by sue boardman

On Friday I was gathered in a virtual circle with some awesome, amazing women. It was a dip your toe in the pool kind of event. An experiential invitation to join a yearlong circle of wonder and becoming. I knew just what I was going to share.

And then the light came on! When it was my turn, there, in that moment, I reached for my Medicine Basket. (That’s a glimpse of the actual basket in the physical world, above. There’s also a whole lot of metaphor involved!)

And I looked straight into the camera (gulp!) and said one of the most true things I know:

If I could only have two tools in my basket, I’d choose Prayer Dots and #Filters!

Meet dots! Each one a sign of praying with a whole lot of our being!

I learned dots in 2017, on my first Intentional Creativity® adventure, known as the Black Madonna Pilgrimage. (You may have been there, too!) And, wow, did I need them! A dear friend in a Florida hospital with a brain aneurysm. Hurricanes and tornadoes. Those dots became a way I could be there, for and with her, until I could be there physically, and help a bit on her road to healing. She’s doing great. And I’m hooked on dots!

Then, #Filters. In some ways, they’re kind of everything else! Ways to sort and understand and relate to all the stuff the world flings in our direction… 2 to 3 BILLION bits of stuff in any one moment!!!

And NONE of us can handle that much, neurologically.

Here’s a personal example, with a bit of help from Dr. Seuss:

I do not like green peas… not even with ham. I do not like them, Sue I am. I do not like them here or there. I do not like them anywhere!

And, so – you guessed it! – I filter them out of my awareness. Of my consideration. Just not getting in. Not even to be polite… not since I was about five! (Sorry, Mom.)

Of course, the world is more complicated than green peas… thus the notion of #Filters, along with dots, in my Medicine Basket!

This matters. It matters enough for me to put my camera avoidance issues in the back of the closet and show up, believing that more and more of us adding this tool to our Medicine Baskets will be Good Trouble for the world… and for our Littles!

Yes! You’re invited, to either or both, even if you do like green peas!

Click here for all the info on the 6-week #Filters adventure!

Click here if you’re hearing Mother Nature whispering… we begin our year-long journey next week!

ps… Mother Nature is a huge fan of dots, too!!! Maybe, just maybe, she invented prayer dots!

pps… wish I’d known #Filters when my Dad still walked this world. I’m pretty sure he’d have been intrigued. For this moment, though… I’m still on it, Harry!

Contemplations

What if “Learning” is really Co-Creation???

Posted on by sue boardman

Grab yourself a cuppa and tuck yourself in for an adventure, please. Not a Squeegie Hunt, as the old camp song goes, so much as a Me-gie Hunt! A You-gie Hunt! Seriously!

First, comes the bridge. In this case, the bridge from what we already understood, to whole new possibilities! And, trust me, I’m traveling this one real time, right along with you!

A few minutes ago, I fixed myself a cuppa and went #Hearthtending in the land of #wipwednesday. Hand & wrist support glove in place. Small weighted blanket doing its soothing job. And, yes… Joan Baez doing her thing. Kind of my version of Buckle up, Buttercup!

Then it found me… a friend’s post from someone else which basically said we can’t walk this road in these times all by ourselves. This, followed by a pointed suggestion that we readers grab our divination tools and go looking for some hints.

And, yes… I needed a bit of a deep breath then, too… divination tools being language I learned, back in the day, that WE don’t use! (Or believe in!)

Then I realized that this is, indeed, a #Filters thing! And I know more now than I did back then. Like the fact that I can edit filters. I can make choices. And, I chose how to follow that hint from my friend’s post!

That meant reaching for Alana Fairchild’s Sacred Rebels Oracle Cards which live within reach of the magic chair. Didn’t need to do the whole picking thing. I’d already done it, and not had time to hang with the card that found me. And, yes… it was still just what I needed!

28. COLLABORATIVE DREAMING. The first couple of sentences will get us where we’re headed…

Your heart is big enough to dream not only for yourself, but for a new humanity. Imagine a world that is healed with respect, understanding and with community that fosters life. Even your dreams that relate to you alone will contribute positively to the greater good because that is the nature of your heart…

Here comes the big news… I AM DOING JUST THAT! And, it’s a whole lot like boiling bones!!! Here’s the recipe:

Take a whole lot of things you’ve learned. Add a bunch of bits you’ve survived. A handful of hope. Some bay leaves for courage. Cover it all with gallons of new perspective. Bring to a boil. Simmer gently, as long as it takes. Then scoop out the stuff that’s given its all, and nurture your healing self with the wonder that remains!

And, better yet… do all that in supportive community!!! Yep! #Filters!!!

Just click here for all the info. And click NOW, while you’re feeling it… The adventure begins SOON!

Remember, we’re traveling this world together and I’ve been simmering this wisdom a LONG time!

ps… drum roll, please! Last night I emailed the doc with all the words for my upcoming deck of Wisdom Cards to my tech wizard!!! And, yes… they are well seasoned with #Filters! It’ll be a while… Just think how far ahead you’ll be if you join on the journey!

pps… not ready, this moment, for a 6-week commitment? How about 6 hours??? You’re invited to our ReWilding the Hungry Heart retreat in the land of Red Madonna. You never know what doors it will open!!! New around here? Can’t think of a better way to dip your toe in the ocean of wonder that is Intentional Creativity® !!! Just click here for all the info!

Art JourneyContemplationsFiltersGrandmothersMedicine Basket

The streets of Heaven are crowded with angels…

Posted on by sue boardman

It’s been a complex sort of week in my world. You know… the kind that takes all the consciousness you can muster, along with a fair amount of beyond-consciousness, too.

Because many of you share big chunks of history with me, you may be aware that Dr. Walter Brueggemann walked on this week. He was my teacher. My friend. In many ways, one of the most empowering voices in my head. And, there’s a Walter-ism which very much wants sharing…

Back in the mid-1990’s, I was on campus at Columbia Theological Seminary for a Doctor of Ministry course in pre-marital and couples counseling. It happened to be November 1… All Saints Day on a portion of the liturgical calendar that often seemed overlooked in our tradition back in those days.

Walter was preaching in Chapel. For the first couple of minutes I was a bit perplexed.

I mean… Walter was a renowned Hebrew Bible scholar. Saints seemed a bit off the beaten path. Then, the punch line…

Saints, Walter said, were all the people who believed for us on days when we couldn’t quite believe for ourselves.

That I understood! There have been quite the tribe of those in my life. I imagine there have been some along your path, too.

Ever since that day, I’ve stopped, each year, to make my list. And, more recently, to add an intention. To be one of those people – those believers – for others.

Much like another of my teachers, Dr. H. Steven Glenn, who helped me claim this huge bit of hope:

If a teenaged child has 5 adults who will listen to them, take them seriously, and not shame them or blame them for their questions, that child is practically immune from ever attempting suicide.

As far as I know, Walter and Steve didn’t know each other, in this life. I suspect, though, that there’s a possibility of a whole lot of hope if the two of them get acquainted as they walk on.

Just between us, I’ll gladly take some Saints helping me believe in these days! And, I’m totally convinced that being one of those 5 people for others also means being one of them for myself!

I’m also pretty sure that Walter is getting a good chuckle out of the Wisdom Cards I’m writing for my #Quickening journey, as his voice in my head – and heart – is doing a fair amount of meddlin’! Then, there are both (!) of my new #Legend paintings which also hold much of what I learned from him.

And, no… I can’t explain the timing of all of this. I can only say that I’m grateful.

Then, there’s the other thing I can do. I can invite YOU to see – to experience – some new things along your road! Soon!!!

A one day retreat with Mother Nature…ReWilding the Hungry Heart! An Intentional Creativity® gift to you!

Click here for all the info & to enroll!

Or – even AND – 6 weeks of a whole new way to interact with the world… REALLY!!!

Click here for all the info & to enroll!

Somewhere, deep in my memory, my mom is shaking her head and warning me about not pestering people.

Then again, I’m counting on a bunch of those people called Saints cheering me on for – you know – putting it all out there!

Maybe it’s time for you, and me, to be one of those 5 people for ourselves!!!

ps… happy heavenly 90th birthday, Mom!

pps… may the Spirit – the Advocate – walk among us and guide us, this Pentecost day, and forever!

Contemplations

My inner scrap quilter/dreamer has been busy!

Posted on by sue boardman

Recently, someone asked me why I paint! And, yes… there are at least a zillion answers, depending on which day you catch me. Here’s the easy one:

I paint because it’s how I learn!

It’s also tons of fun. And, yes, I’ve learned other ways, too. Here’s a quick example…

In January of 1989, just before the Eastern Block fell, I went to Hungary with a group of seminary students. If you’ve been reading along a while, you know it was cold and scary and mind-opening. (Except for the pig jello! That was just cold and scary!!!)

When we came home, I told our professor that I felt like all the separate boxes in my brain had fallen apart and everything had run together. Charlie put a hand on my shoulder, looked me straight in the eyes, and said, “Yes! That’s what Alternative Context is supposed to do!!!”

Turns out that paint is a different – and generally warmer – way to access Alternative Context!

So, why this story, now? Well, there are a whole lot of boxes falling apart in my head and, if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphors, quilting themselves back together into very welcome newness!

My recent #Legend2025 painting seems to have gotten the ball rolling. I painted. I learned. I cried. I learned. And, yes, I dreamed.

She had a new idea, which I’ve mentioned, but am understanding more and more, so hang with me, please. First, though, a reminder… It was two words – Fierce Compassion – that opened the door to my entire Intentional Creativity® journey, and I encountered them on an oracle card!

Let’s pause, please, for a bit of context…

The Legendary Husband and I just celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. And, yes… he actually exists! A couple of days ago, we hung my first ever Legendary Couples® painting where it/they, too, can whisper from the walls while we sleep.

Last night – 35 years and 24 days later – it did whisper, in a voice I know well. Walter Brueggemann. Words he preached at our wedding! Here you go: Concrete Passion and Very Large Hope!

It was rather surprising, back then. And, all these years later, I’m hearing with new ears! It is, indeed, the message of that new painting. It is exactly what I needed to hear in the context of this time. And, it is the place where I am called, again. Now. These words: Map. Reason. Challenge. Comfort. In-Spir-ation!

And, perhaps not so oddly, the key to the Wisdom Card homework I’m doing, which now makes total sense!

There will be more, of course. For today, though, yes… this story is totally a #Filters thing!!! And, you’re invited! New? Great! Never painted? No worries! Wondering about your place in the world? Even better!

Click here for all the info!!!

Whatever your version of Concrete Passion and Very Large Hope might be, I have the tools in my Medicine Basket to help you name it, claim it, and bring it to life!

ps… yep! Somewhere, deep inside me, there is still a voice muttering that I could be – you know – bragging. And, it might sound kinda like that. Mostly, though, it’s the real me, with 2 grandteens growing up in this world, which – when you get right down to it – is a pretty damn useful filter!!!

REALLY!

pps… in case you wondered, the Legendary Husband also makes dots!!!

Contemplations

So, I seem to have a new job description!

Posted on by sue boardman

Actually, it feels like I have quite a few job descriptions at the moment and we’ll talk about some of them, shortly. For now, though, the paintings have quit preachin’ and gone to meddlin’ again!

The Intentional Creativity® adventure known as #Quickening is coming to a close. And, yes… that means – you know – homework!

That’s the #painting, above. And the piece of furniture known as the #alteringaltar. (Well, a glimpse of it!) And, no… these are not things I learned in nursing school or seminary! If you’ve been around for more than about 10 minutes, though, you’ve already realized that I am still learning!

In this place, writing often goes with painting. I find that hugely comforting, Kinesthetic and Auditory/Digital processor that I am. (Yep! Pictures come last!) And all of that is happening in the context of – you know – the world!

So, my job description summary of this adventure just appeared:

I am the place between then and not yet. Between ancient ancestors and generations yet to come. I carry the prayers of all those beloveds.

It kind of weirds me out to realize how true that feels! And, yet, I am, indeed, one of the women in the photo. Generation after generation of them… then, now, and one day.

What I dreamed last night, though, was a voice reminding me that carrying prayers means many things. One of those things feels a lot like opening doors. And I have a bunch of them opening in my world. Some for me, and a couple that might be for you, too!

And, yes… I’m so convinced that, as Mama Caron McCloud helped us learn, I matter. You matter. We matter. And, mattering matters, that I’m going to invite you to consider those doors… again! (Okay, maybe urge you to consider those doors!)

First comes #Filters! which I’m leading through the Intentional Creativity® Foundation. Think of it like a really affordable 6-week cruise, coming home to a place you’ve never been before 😉 And your souvenir will, literally, be a whole new map of reality and some really cool art! An adventure that might just get you out in the world doing whatever it is that means this much to you… which, frankly, is the point! (The link to all the info is below.)

Then, there’s the 2025 #Red Madonna journey known as Mother Nature: ReMothering & ReWilding! I’m honored to be on the “Dangerous” leadership team again. A year-long painting adventure, complete with stories and poems, celebration and community.

Here’s a peek at one of my early #RedMadonna adventures, Our Lady of Blossoming Earth. Trust me when I tell you, she was a huge help in healing a major loss in my world! (And, yes… this link is below, too!)

Oddly enough, they all kind of come together, message-wise, in yet another painting… Our Lady of Good Trouble!

Her prayer is that you’ll read deep, and sign up for an adventure in newness. (And, yes… doing both is totally possible!!!)

Why??? Because this world needs YOUR Good Trouble! And sometimes we all need some others on the road with us!

This is the link for #Filters!

And, this is the link for #RedMadonna!

Be brave!!! And, give yourself the gift of more possibilities!!! You, too, are in the place between then and not yet…

ps… if you guessed there might be a #Filters reference up near the top of the #Quickening painting, you’re right. And, ready!!!

pps… nope! You don’t need to be a painter, already! We’ve totally got you!

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