Author: sue boardman

I heard a quote this week that I’m feeling grateful for. Kind of surprisingly, it came from a politician!

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL,10) is the first Gen Z member of Congress. He’s had quite the busy week. Here are his words…

Sometimes Hope is a feeling. Hope is also a choice. Choose Hope!

Now, this guy is a bit more than half my son’s age. Adopted as an infant, Frost has Puerto Rican, Lebanese and Haitian roots. A drummer, he performed with his high school band at President Obama’s second inaugural parade. And, now, he’s making all kinds of sense in the midst of what I can only call intentional chaos.

I find it encouraging! Especially in these days when it’s harder than usual for me to feel hope!

As you might have already guessed, prayer dots have been involved!

Choose. Hope. Choose. Hope. Choose. Hope… you get the drift! Fortunately, I have plenty of room for dots!

And, it really helps! First, it slows my pulse, which tends to run fast when I’m anxious.

It also helps surprises to appear in my work. Things I can discover! Things which help me perceive things that might not have gotten in, before. (Yes… it’s a Filters thing!)

Choosing to choose hope is not a happy-sappy-Hallmark-y kind of thing. It’s a “What can I do?” kind of thing. Me. Here. Now.

It’s hard. And we have untold millions of Littles trying very hard to grow up on this planet. Now………………

Tomorrow is a big paint day. About 6 hours worth, all about healing. And, for me at least, about hope. I’ll add a photo for you along the way. For this moment, though… one from the way back machine!

Meet… What the World Needs Now!

Except for her hair and her eyes, she’s virtually all prayer dots. The fingerprint kind, which are my favorite. And every one of them for Love. Which, I suspect you’ve already realized, is a pretty hopeful choice!

And, her message seems to be growing in the context of this moment, when love for all the people seems like a much bigger reach that it did just a few years ago.

I’m not giving up, though. Not now. Not ever. And this is my symbol for… The chains which bound us are broken and we are free already!

ps… all those clean paintbrushes we began with are a pretty great symbol of Hope, too!

pps… know someone who could use some hope??? What the Word Needs Now! is available for adoption! 24×36″ gallery wrapped canvas with great painted edges. Hurry, though! She’s specially priced at $555 dollars… an angel number which signifies significant change, transformation, and personal growth coming your way, she represents transition, freedom, and the need to step outside the comfortable spaces. Just click here, and the shop elves will hook you up! (And be sure to wander a bit while you’re there! We have “able to choose” tank tops, too!)

It was a long night of scrambled dreams. Not the fun kind. If I had to pick one word, it would be UNCERTAIN!

I’m imagining you can relate.

Tea close by, I flipped on the news. Let’s just say my blood pressure suggested another choice! That was really good advice!!!

A YouTube video from 2014 … 50 Years with Peter, Paul and Mary. A memorial to Mary Travers.

I wept as I sang along. (I do, indeed, still know all the words to all the songs!) Then, these words from Mary…

It’s still peace, justice, and equality… and all of us working for those things, together.

Back in my tween/teen years, when I was learning all the songs my mom referred to as hippie-junk, I discovered a place that felt like home. It feels like home, still.

The home our world desperately needs us to re-claim! Out loud!!!

We do a lot of that in the land of Intentional Creativity® encouraged by the spirit of our creativity ancestor, Caron. She taught me that:

I matter. You matter. We matter. Mattering matters.

And, NOW seems like a really good time to be reminded of that!

The question is, How???

How might I work for peace, justice, and equality… and how might you and I do that together?

According to what I’m learning from a painting just begun, it’s going to have something to do with the inspiration of a lioness!!!

Here’s the one who appeared in my latest #Apothecary #workinprogress! And, wow… was she a surprise!!!

If you hunt around online, you’ll find something along these lines for a Lioness Spirit Animal… She symbolizes strength, power, grace, and the ability to overcome obstacles.

Please hear me say that I’m not likely to begin napping in trees or prowling the grasslands for wildebeests.

I am likely to walk the world with a bit more courage. (Or at least pretend to!) I’ll assuredly keep helping folks like you to do the same, in your own way. And there are new books ahead for helping our littles grow into themselves.

ps… the lioness in my painting has chosen a name. Mary!

pps… just in case you’ve got your own version of scrambled dreams and uncertainty going on, let’s talk! 45 minutes. My gift. A next right step for you! (Really!!!) Just click here to get the calendar elves to save you a space! And bring a cuppa, some paper and markers, a red thread, or whatever’s handy.

If you’re anything like me, at least in the US, you’ve probably been busy fishing through your Medicine Basket trying to figure out what strategies might help you stay on your road in this moment of political insanity overwhelm.

Add to all that the project of rearranging and repurposing most of our home and a hypermobility pain flare, and I needed to dig deep.

The thing that helps me most is remembering why the things that matter DO matter! I’ve had some help from my friends! Here’s a bit of a message shared by the amazing artist, animal conservation activist, photographer, and coach, Julie Steelman…

It’s times like these that call for the MATRIARCHS OF PEACE.  Female elephants taught me this.  The lead female will never hurt herself and she will always protect her herd.  She is bold and will confront any challenges head on.

In times of war… political challenges & craziness… uncertainty and a planet on fire, we need to invoke this energy within ourselves.

I think something inside me suspected that this time was coming when, a year or so ago, I painted the painting nicknamed Matilda…

Officially, she’s an Intentional Creativity® #Apothecary painting. And, yes, you may remember meeting her before, because she’s huge medicine in my basket!

There are two kinds of images in the layers of her story. The ones I put there intentionally, and the ones that appeared as the process unfolded. Matilda, herself is one of those which appeared. The line of white dots with parentheses around them opened the psychic door. Known as the line of unimaginable tragedy, I saw an elephant’s trunk where others saw an octopus tentacle.

Isn’t perception cool???

With a whole lot more gazing and musing, along with more layers of paint, the official title of this work insisted on being The Art of Overcoming Obstacles®. And, she’s laid claim to an important piece of the wall in my study where she can convince me to turn off the news and do something – you know – nurturing!

Like, for example, reminding me what Julie said about elephant matriarchs of peace!

So, today, I joined up! I am a Matriarch of Peace! And I probably have lots to learn on the road but I’m good at that. Here’s the part that hooked me…

The lead female will never hurt herself and she will always protect her herd.

And here’s my growing edge… 

She is bold and will confront any challenges head on.

This, frankly, is not what I grew up learning. But, as the old saying goes… I am still learning! And I want, with all my heart, for my grand-teens to have a chance to learn about this as we wonder and wander together.

The amethyst elephant you met as we began is easier to carry with me than Matilda is! And, at least now, she’s chilly to the touch, with is kind of soothing to my right hand.

The blue kyanite crystal beside her is supportive in many ways. It is known to instill compassion, and does not hold negativity. Best of all, from my perspective, it encourages speaking one’s truth, cutting through fears and blockages.

And, yes, these are yet more things I didn’t learn in all those degrees! But maybe, just maybe, these are times for learning the things much of the world hoped we’d forget!

ps… that line of white dots with parentheses is my personal symbol for an old, old story that includes the amazing claim: The chains which bound us are broken and we are free at last!

pps… curious about what speaking your truth, and cutting through fears and blockages might look like in your world??? My Medicine Basket and I can help! Just click here and ask the calendar elves to hook you up with 45 minutes. My gift. We’ll claim some truth and figure out the next step on your journey!

At least that’s what my inner word wizard came up with when somebody asked me how things are going! If you’re curious, it’s a phrase traced back to Virginia in 1899 and means a “situation in disarray or turned upside down.”

I’m guessing you can relate!

And here’s a bit more context… I flipped on The West Wing this afternoon. (Duh!) The Special Episode from Season 3, episode 19 popped up. All about press engaging with government, it’s usually not one of my faves but today it caught my attention in a new way. A minute or two in, the late President Jimmy Carter is speaking. Let’s eavesdrop…

Do you want those who will be sycophants… who will defer to you under any circumstances to gain favor or do you want people who will tell you the brutal truth even though it might not be the popular thing to say?

Then, rather ironically, it goes on to conversation about women’s rights!

And, yes… I’m missing Jimmy!

I’m also musing on what I can do to right my own applecart, just now, because I’m not giving up! Musing which has led, with help, no doubt, from My Muse, to the massive adventure in re-arranging and re-purposing which is in full swing at our house.

We’re making progress! And it’s all about claiming self in context.

Claiming Intention is a great first step!

There are paintings hatching and books in the gestational phase. Projects that are urging – pushing – me to show up for me and the things I care about. And one of those things is empowering more Grammy-esque women to get on their roads!

You’ve heard me say this before… in the words of author and theologian, Frederick Buechner:

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

I’m pretty sure Fred would agree that we’re talking about the world where all people have rights and values and gifts of their own to bring. I’m utterly certain that’s the world I’m talking about!

And, even though our nest is ass over applecart in this moment, I have a special offer for you! 45 min. My gift. Zoom. (You can have your own comfy chair!) You claim the currently conscious part of that place where you are called and, together, we’ll claim the next right step on your path! Hurry, though. This offer won’t be free for much longer! I want to work with determined people ready to invest in their journeys! (A cuppa, something to write on and with, and some Red Thread, if it’s handy, will be helpful!) Just click here and the calendar elves will hook you up.

ps… if you already know you’re in, get six 90 min. personal coaching sessions for the usual price of four!!! (This offer doesn’t come around very often!)

pps… want more bio stuff??? Cool! Click here!

It only takes a spark!

And, yes, dear heart, I’ve been remembering Dr. King, and the calendar isn’t the only reason!

As you may have heard me say, I remember being a 10 year old kid, out shopping with my dad and hearing, on the radio, that he had been killed. We lived in a Chicago suburb. And, at least in my little white girl eyes, the world exploded.

In this moment, though, I’m choosing to focus on what I – and many, many of us – learned from him. There’s a bit of information, though, that will help you follow along…

One of my contributions to the amazing group of women on the road known as Red Madonna is to share a writing prompt each Monday. So much my thing!!! In the context of our world, this past Monday’s prompt was an invitation to write about talking with kids about change.

And, yes… that sort of question is likely to prompt us to get more conscious of how we, ourselves, deal with change! I’ve been working on it all week!

Here’s the challenge… it helps a whole lot if we start helping them get used to the notion of change long before the magical powers of abstract thought kick in. For girls, that begins to happen around 12 or 13 years. For boys, closer to 16 or so. And it takes quite a while to get the hang of it.

In science-talk, the pre-frontal cortex, which is responsible for reasoning, planning, decision-making, and impulse control, isn’t fully developed until around age 25. Change, however, happens a whole lot sooner for most of us!

So… a week of intensely pondering – and dreaming about – talking with kids about change from the perspective of a Fiercely Compassionate Rebel Grandmother!

Kind of ironically, last night’s dream began with weather as an example. Wind. Rain. Ice. Snow. Seasons. Then, Grandmother Moon moved on to food! From tree to bud to apple to pie! And then, on to growing. The fun part and the awkward part! You get the drift…

There was another surprise in this adventure! Just before I fell asleep, I was reading a book called The Poet Prince, by Kathleen McGowan. There’s a quote of hers that I love:

History is not what happened. It’s what got written down.

There’s also a story, near the end of The Poet Prince, about the historical event I learned as the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther. A big door. And some notions of how the church might change and why lots of people thought that was a bad idea. Turns out this version of the story was written down by some people who knew a few more things than I learned along the way! Let’s just say things were a lot more complicated than good guys and bad guys and who got to tell the “real” stories about the Bible. And, yes, there was more than a bit of money and power going on behind the scenes… but that’s a story for another day.

For this day I’m sticking with change happens. We get to choose what to do with it… what it’s going to mean about who we are and what we cherish.

The photo at the top is a glimpse into my choosing. That room, generally known as “the breakfast room,” stuffed with most of the things in my studio, on their way to other rooms where they can work better together and help get more things that matter done.

The moving won’t solve all the challenges of our world. It will make it easier to be who we are becoming… The Legendary Husband and me. And that beats giving in!

Here’s one last thought for this moment…

Let no man pull you so low as to hate him! (The Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. 1956)

Thank you for being you!!!

ps… we Fiercely Compassionate Rebel Grandmothers are in charge of Hope!