Category: Art Journey

January has long been a big month for me.

On this day, in January of 1988, I was laying flat on my back on the couch, deep in the midst of my first major back attack. I was frustrated, trying to keep up with my first seminary class in preaching, which I was unable to attend. Reading was difficult. I couldn’t hold any of my sizable texts above my head.

A wise neighbor came to my rescue with a kid’s paperback set of The Chronicles of Narnia. I had never read them before. (Time out for gasping!)

Puddleglum became my favorite. He’s had a tendency to appear, in pivotal moments of my life, with one particular speech to make. And, yes, he appeared today, as I listened to Joe Biden become the 46th President of the United States of America, and make his inaugural address.

Biden’s speech was exactly right for this moment in time and I have no doubt that there will be reruns on CNN for days. C.S. Lewis, perhaps not so much. I feel led to help!

In the volume entitled The Silver Chair, Puddleglum, who, for the uninitiated, is a Marsh Wiggle, the Prince, and the two children are being held by the Witch, who is busy explaining why their journey to Narnia is juvenile and futile. Puddleglum isn’t having it. Let’s listen in…

“One word, Ma’am,” he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. “One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things — trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.”

C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, book 4 in the Chronicles of Narnia

In this moment, as I share with you a story of moving forward, on the road to Narnia, even in the moments when we’re not sure how to get there, I feel, for the first time I can recall, that my vote mattered.

Here’s what I’m learning.

First, we’ll never know when our votes will make this much difference and so we need to vote. Every time. With eyes on the future.

And, Georgia friends, YES, WE DID!

Now the real work starts for President Biden and Vice President Harris and for all of us. But first, in my world, time to hang out with dear friends at the opening of a Musea art show tonight.

I’m bustin’ out the feather boa! My #MysticLegend painting is included.

That’s big fun, of course, but it’s something much bigger as well. We, all of us who have become part of the Intentional Creativity® movement, are helping to create a bigger, more conscious, more inclusive world with the images which come to life through us.

And that, like voting, is Good Trouble!

ps… The photo today is lunch. Homemade pork broth and left over greens from New Year’s, saved just for today, because a little luck is a good thing, too!

pps… The Inaugural Poet, Amanda Gorman, totally, utterly rocked! Find a copy…

The art piece in the photo is not of my creation. It is of my collection… one of the treasures of my heart, hanging at the front door of our home.

It’s here, today, because I am struggling to find language of my own.

I am hypnotized by CNN. The words and the images. And, frankly, I am afraid.

You may recall my story of an idea I encountered as a seminary student, about to graduate, and take up – officially – the task of preaching. Just between us, it took me about 10 years to come around to the notion that language creates reality.

Then, I had to do some more learning to realize that images create reality, too. And, yes, I know that we’ve chatted about this recently, but, just now, it’s the best I’ve got.

Along, predictably, with a question.

What reality are you choosing to create? Or, to put it another way…

What does your soul most long to express in this moment? In this life?

I want to express hope. And peace. And justice. And so, along with my folk – some would say outsider – art flag, which is creating both linguistic and visual reality of these things I hold dear, I have a question to share with you.

Could you take the next four months to focus – not all day, every day, but with determination – on what YOUR soul longs to express?

What would that look like?

What would you need to learn, to do, to adjust, or to empower?

And what would the world be missing if you didn’t?

Plenty, I suspect!

I, myself, am amazed by the words that come next, and yet they are, in a very real way, proof of what they claim…

I can help you find your way!

Here’s what that would look like… We’d work together, with images and language, over four months, for the breakthrough you long for, guided by my 4 Step Soul Expression Breakthrough® process. (Translation… in four months, you get access to the most profound tools I’ve spent 40 years learning, all edited and organized just for you and your real life plan!)

If you’re still reading, I’m pretty sure you have questions and I’d love to spend some time answering them with you.

>>>Click Here<<< for access to my private schedule and find a time that will work for us to get together by phone or Zoom. Or, you can email me at suesvoice@gmail.com

You’ve already figured out what comes next:

This is how we build the future!

At just this moment, in 1989, I was in what was, at the time, the old Eastern Block nation of Hungary. I traveled there with a group of my classmates at Columbia Thelogical Seminary and one of our professors.

The stated purpose of our trip was to experience a context different from our own. That, we did!

With lots of translating from English, often to German, and then to Hungarian and back again, we asked many questions. One of my overwhelming realizations was that our new friends came from generations of good people who woke up every morning, wondering who would be in charge.

Sadly, I have a much better perspective on what that must have felt like in this moment than I did a week ago. Which is rather like the old notion that we don’t know what we don’t know, until we do. And CNN plays on.

It feels, for me, like 9/11 felt. And that tells me something important. We, those of us who are aghast at least, are experiencing something much like national post traumatic stress from the attack on our Democracy, and the Covid deaths are picking up speed again.

I’m grateful for the pastoral counselor with 30-some years of experience who lives within me, quite a bit more spattered with paint in these days. What she knows is that many of the things we thought we could count on feel shaky, at best, in this moment and we probably won’t be very successful at shaming or blaming ourselves out of it.

One thing that helps is to let the feelings out. Bake a loaf of bread and knead the daylights out of it if that works for you. Walk, if you safely can, swinging your arms, alternately with your legs. The cross-lateral brain movement helps! If walking isn’t a good fit, knitting is the same kind of helpful movement.

Brush a big, hairy dog if there’s one handy. Make prayer dots.

Make some soup. Or donate to a soup kitchen. Sing. Dance. Wail the daylights out of an old piano. Reach out to the ones you love. Safely.

My own hands are paint stained again after a Zoom workshop with my dear Red Thread sister, Natalie Moyes, in which we claimed some of the good in 2020.

Just between us, I’m pretty worn out after all the election drama in Georgia. And grateful that we did, indeed, cause some Good Trouble.

And I’m planning on causing some more! Here’s the thing…

The world needs you and your gifts! First, though, those gifts need claiming.

I’d like to help. (It’s how I cause trouble!) That’s why I’m opening a few slots in my private coaching practice. Over a period of about 4 months, we’ll use a bunch of my best strategies to clarify your vision and add what you need to be ready and to make the next steps.

Watch for details tomorrow. For tonight, consider taking a break from CNN. Turn on your favorite music. Dance “like no one is watching”. And, if you’re really feeling motivated, put paper and a pencil on your bedside table, tonight, and let yourself wonder, as you wander off to sleep, what gift might be calling you forward.

And, if you’re anything like me, you might also ponder who’s watching.

On the Acknowledgements page of my dissertation, I wrote these words:

Ferrol Sams’ character, Porter Osborne, Jr., was “raised right” — a condition which he frequently invoked when he was about to do something contrary to his Southern Baptist upbringing while at the same time wishing to absolve his forbears of guilt by association. I, too, have been “raised right,” though by other families and traditions. If those who have gone before me wish to be absolved of the thoughts claimed here, so be it. They did their best.

Boardman, Will You “Do” Our Wedding?

Just between us, there are some days when I wish I were not a writer, deep in my soul. This day is, in some notably horrific ways, one of them. But then I remember that I get to say something which might be helpful.

It’s a lot like preaching.

But first a story…

I spent Tuesday pondering a shift in options for making my art available for adoption online. There were the obvious tech questions involved. And financial questions. And friendship questions. And even a few political questions. Kind of like life.

All that while watching the returns from Georgia’s Senate run-off elections.

Frankly, it was feeling like a sleepless night looking for a place to happen.

Then I had an idea. (Note: This is where some of the folks who raised me right may get a little anxious.)

A couple of minutes worth of hunting in the studio produced my set of Mother Mary Oracle Cards, by Alana Fairchild.

I learned of these cards from the amazing artist and author, Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, aka SARK. And then, from the cards, I learned of the work of Shiloh Sophia McCloud, another amazing artist and author, who illustrated the work.

I could spend ages debating the theological traditions that crash into each other, at least in common perception, in this story but, instead, I’ll just tell you what happened last night.

I shuffled the cards, as I was taught, and then I passed them from hand to hand until I selected one. Magic? Energy? Inspiration?

I don’t know.

Last night, it was card number 24. Our Lady of Great Power

Here’s a bit of what I read:

It takes a truly great leader to be a great warrior for love on this planet. This leader does not give us false hope, or imaginings that all the problems that need solving will just magically ‘go away’ if we close our eyes and hope hard enough. Instead this leader inspires us with genuine encouragement and empowerment. This leader is honest about our healing light really being needed on this planet… Yet we also need that leader to inspire us with genuine hope and self-esteem, which helps us feel empowered to be able to make a difference. This will prevent us from collapsing into despair, believing that nothing can change – whether in our own life, or in the world around us.

Yes, I have taken these words out of context. And yet, wisdom comes where it will and the best we can do is to be willing to listen.

Or, to return a bit closer to my roots… from the Gospel according to Matthew:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

… or, where Neuro-linguistic Programming meets Qigong. (And just about everything else!)

If you’ve been hanging around a while, you may know that, once upon a time, a long time ago, I was a surgical nurse. I’ll always remember the first major brain surgery I scrubbed in on.

The surgeon, who was new in those parts, handed me a gizmo that looked like a metal tongue depressor wrapped in clear plastic. Then he said, “hold that right there and don’t touch the yellow thing or he’ll be blind in one eye!”

(Nothing like a little pressure while learning!)

I suppose that was the beginning of my fascination with how our brains work, especially when they don’t look they could do much of anything! It’s been quite a journey. For today, though, I’ll simply tell you that our patient did well and recovered fully.

And now we’ll go on to some pondering that’s more about perception and thought than it is directly about anatomy.

Here’s the best way I’ve learned to explain it:

Where the attention goes, the energy flows.

This is, I believe, the problem with with New Year’s Resolutions, at least as many of us frame them. Quit this. Lose that. Don’t do something else. All negative.

Now, I know that some of you will have learned this trick before and you can just let this be a celebration of how well you’re doing. But, just in case you haven’t, here’s how it works.

Let’s say that someone you know resolves to quit watching TV. (There is no judgement in this example!)

Because our brains don’t do negatives, the attention of quitting TV becomes energy flowing toward – you guessed it! – TV. And the outcome is pretty predictable.

If, instead, that same someone resolved to paint every day, or play the piano, or make more soup, the energy would go toward those desired things and they’d be a lot more likely to happen.

Here’s another way to look at this. With our example of quitting TV, the minute we watch TV, we’ve failed. If, instead, our attention was on painting or playing the piano or making soup, every time we followed through and did one of those things, we’d succeed!

Now I’ve admitted, before, to being a bit of a language junky. Framing things positively makes them a whole lot more likely to happen. And who do you know that doesn’t enjoy success?

So, I am hereby authorizing you to edit any resolutions you may have made into positive aspirations. And, just in case part of you already knew that resolutions weren’t your best thing so you didn’t make any, I’ll encourage you, gently, to let yourself claim your path for 2021 and set out on the journey.

ps… for the last time in this space… at least for the next little while, I’ll ask you, if you live in Georgia, to please, please vote. That’s how we move toward the positive!