Category: Contemplations

Art JourneyContemplationsGrandmothersSuperPower Path

We’re off to see the Wizard!

Posted on by sue boardman

Do you remember, back in the dark ages, before streaming tv and dvr’s – even before vhs tapes – when the Wizard of Oz was an annual event?

I looked forward to it every year.

Well, most of it! I will confess to being terrified by the flying monkeys!

And, yes, as lectionary passages go for this time of year, this one may seem odd! There’s a story, though. A story from yesterday. The first Tuesday in March. Also, locally known as Mattering Matters day!

First, a bit of an intro…

Mattering Matters is new offering for Intentional Creativity® Guild members. (Think the folks who have been around long enough to collect a few badges for their Scout sashes!)

My dear friend and sister-in-creating, Natalie Moyes, and I are the leaders, and we are – to put it mildly – still learning!

Yesterday was our third gathering… in the land of Zoom.

We had a plan!

We posted invitations and reminders in all the usual places. We practiced the second camera bit. The Legendary Husband checked the previously cranky mike.

We got lots of wish I could comments from sisters with Spring Break issues.

We showed up.

The mike did not, in fact, do the thing. After time out for laptop fetching and lots of hand signals from Atlanta to the US West Coast to Canada, we were finally able to see and hear each other.

All four of us.

It went great. I mean, we painted. We wondered. We laughed. And we all cried… which is a really good sign in this kind of work!

And we all claimed the magic we had been doing, in a new light! (Thank you Frederick Buechner!)

In short, we mattered! Which, when you get right down to it, is a pretty good day’s work!

A bit more mattering happened in a meeting with a new friend, struggling with a big message.

Then, at least at my house, more regular stuff happened. Dinner. Jeopardy. Sorting. Hatching. Planning.

More news than might have been optimal for sanity’s sake. Then, blessedly, Stephen Colbert… playing – in my opinion – the part of the Prophet crying in the wilderness!

Finally, bed. And my new weighted blanket which is, indeed, helping with the whole comfort and sleep thing.

(We’re still working on temperature management!)

A reading from Kathleen McGowan’s The Expected One, which is my other lectionary text for this season. The first Holy Week.

And, eventually, dreams.

Grandmother Moon, it seems, is also friends with the good witch, Glinda!

You know the scene.

Dorothy. Sparkly, red magic slippers. Trying so hard to get home.

And this:

You had the power all along, my dear!

You do, too!!!

Not necessarily the power to be magically transported to Kansas, but the power to find your home. Your center. Your place to matter.

It’s a journey the world needs lots and lots of us to make!

So, blessings, whatever your tradition. And an offer… 45 min. My gift. We start plotting the path to your vision of mattering. Click here, and the calendar elves will hook you up!

ps… the small original mixed media work in the photo above is available for adoption, and there’s only one! Fabulous, empower-ing gift for yourself or someone who matters! Click here for the close up, with the whole quote! (There’s a sale going on!)

Art JourneyContemplationsGrandmothersMedicine Basket

a, b, c, d, e, f, g…

Posted on by sue boardman

Just between us, I’m dog paddling pretty fast in a sea of alphabet soup right now.

A deeper sea than usual!

And, yes, I’m painting, too.

And the paintings have a whole lot to say!

In the land of Intentional Creativity® we have an interesting custom known as handing the pen to the painting!

Laugh, if you must… it works!

At the risk of spoiling the mystery, it works by accessing different parts of our consciousness by doing something which feels a lot like playing and is actually magic!

And, today, we have a volunteer! (Well, actually, she insisted!!!)

I am not who I was supposed to be. At least not according to the path laid out for me.

My journey began with the Red Madonna in The Forest of Grandmothers. I had a whole 48″ square canvas! There was lots of drumming. I was excited!

Back then, I looked like the photo way up at the top of the this page. Dots and handprints! Two of my favorite things! (All that pink was a bit of a surprise!)

About then, things got different. Sue had one of those things she calls a hypermobility flare which seems to mean that she hurts a lot and everything gets harder.

After I sat in the studio corner for a while, we decided I could be just as much me on a 24″ square canvas and it would be easier to have fun. It was!

We wrote a whole lot more than we painted in those days. Crone Moon posts, which had a lot to do with being Grandmothers in this world. And we wrote a Manifesta, which means saying what we really think, out loud.

Now I feel more deeply rooted in our lineage than ever before. In those who came before us and those who are coming after.

Which, since I get to tell the truth (!) is feeling more complicated by the day. Around here, we have 2 granddaughters growing up in this world, but all those other Littles are somebody’s too, and they need to matter, too — even to people who think they’re more important than everybody else because they get to make the laws!

I think that’s why there’s a lot of circle calling going on around here. I get to help with my drum!

And we’ve started a new Red Madonna painting called Sanctuary. It’s one of those Medicine Painting things!!! I’m sure there will be lots more to learn. For now, though, I really want to remind you about the Manifesta. It seems like a really good moment to claim these things again! Sue agrees!!!

Here’s your link for the Manifesta!

Whatever else is going on in your world… whether you’re a grandmother or not… it’s a pretty good place to begin!

ps… intrigued by Sanctuary??? You can still sign up — even if you’ve never painted before! And, really, how will you know if you don’t check it out? So, deep breath! And click to learn more. It just might be exactly what you’re longing for in this world, now.

pps… you can get a really snazzy copy of the Manifesta, perfect for framing, if it’s calling to you… just click here! It would be a great gift! Or even an Intention!!! Oh! wander a bit while you’re there! There are leggings like I used to look!!!

Art JourneyContemplationsGrandmothersMedicine Basket

What do you see?

Posted on by sue boardman

Really! I’m curious…

Some of you will see colors. Probably red and blue, with hints of pink and yellow and purple. Even a spot or two of orange.

Perhaps the feng shui book you read years ago is making suggestions! Things like exciting, uplifting, wisdom, spirituality…

Perhaps you see prayer dots. (Me, too!)

Possibly stars.

Many of you will see Intentional Creativity®. And, some of you will suspect you see the beginning of my Red Madonna Sanctuary painting.

All of those things are true.

And, as is so often the case… other things are true, as well!

On Sunday I began this Sanctuary medicine painting. The beginning marks on the first canvas of a year-long journey to places utterly unknown as I begin.

It looked like this:

On Monday, seven people lost their lives in a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.

Since then, I have been alternating between staring in disbelief at the news and avoiding it all together.

I cried. I swore. I prayed. I signed petitions online. I cried. I swore. I prayed. I texted my granddaughters, not so much older than the three 9-year olds who did not get home from school two days ago.

I also edited a couple of book chapters, went to some meetings, watched Stephen Colbert, and took care of me.

And, while all those things were going on, I listened.

And then it came.

Stars. The big dipper. And the North Star.

The one that helps us know where we are and how to get where we’re going.

And with the North Star came the big question.

What is my North Star? What do I use to navigate my journey?

I have an answer. Actually, I have several! And they all come together in a place you’ve probably guessed if you’ve been reading along for a while.

I have 2 granddaughters growing up in this world!

That is the reality which holds all the other answers together for me.

The reality which gets me out of bed on the hard days.

The reality which compels me to vote. And write. And plant my garden with signs which lean heavily toward inclusion and human rights.

I also have faith. In my version of the Divine… of the Creator who dwells, still, in and among us. Between us, even, in the spaces where our versions of the Divine may be different.

And I have faith that, while lots of days will still suck, walking the path where my faith leads beats the hell out of not walking it.

What is your North Star?

And what helps you follow it?

If you’d like some ideas, some company on your path, I can help! Just ask the calendar elves to find you some time!

For now, I have more dots to make. Dots for humanity. And sanity!

And Sanctuary.

Art JourneyContemplationsGrandmothers

It’s ALL now! (or, Stick With Me – And You!)

Posted on by sue boardman

When our Dave was in middle school, he started reading Stephen Hawking, about time.

Truth… I didn’t read much of it. (I was planting a church!)

At the time, all that research seemed to have a lot to do with convincing me that his homework couldn’t possibly be late because time didn’t exist!

(If you’ve ever been a nurse, this may seem as hard to wrap your head around as it did to me…)

Oddly, I feel kind of like that in this moment. (Whatever moment means!)

You see, there’s a whole lot of stuff from different decades of me, playing bumper cars in my head, becoming something new.

As we go on, it would help if you’d use your imagination, please…

You are sitting in a chair, looking at a cooperative red leather sofa with quilt fabric strung all over the back of it, trying to figure out how it will all fit together into – you know – a quilt. (The liberated kind!)

I spent a lot of time, back in the day, doing just that. Stare a while. Move a piece and stare some more. Repeat until all of me went ahhhhhhhh…. And, only then, start cutting and sewing!

These days, that tends to happen more with paint.

Yesterday, The Legendary Husband and I took the new piece who christened herself Revelation! off to hang with my friend Barry at the place known as Scan Camp. (Read that, magic I don’t understand which results in extremely high quality images and takes long enough for me to get homesick for the new creation.)

It turns out, though, that she’s only elsewhere geographically!

You see, I’m writing a chapter for a book project which will be known as turningpoint2 and all the things I learned painting Revelation! clamored to be invited into print.

Hence the bumper car bit going on in my head. Or, perhaps more accurately, in my being!

For better or worse, the external stuff keeps going on, too. And I am coping by rationing my news time!

And by hatching ways to share what I learned at my easel with my corner of the world.

Which does, indeed, feel awe-some, in the way that spring time and mountains and new babies do!

Meanwhile, my various layers of consciousness seem to be quilting. Here are a few of the scraps, summoned from beyond…

First, an old Facebook post. Words from one of my favorite teachers, Walter Brueggemann:

There is no final reading of the text. We will always read it again, and it will always take us somewhere else.

Turns out, Uncle Walter was way more right than I realized!

And, kind of obviously – for this moment – a thought from my time at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Brace yourself…

We get to choose our beliefs!

All of which calls for big doses of integration, with thanks to a Facebook person I don’t know:

Along with all the growth and healing, remember to give yourself time for integration, which is a fancy word for “ALLOWING SHIT to SETTLE.” It looks like doing nothing. This nothing is NECESSARY! – Emily McDowell

I can’t wait to hear what comes up for you as you ponder your “quilt” pieces! suesvoice@gmail.com

For this moment, the last words go to Dave’s hero, Stephen Hawking:

Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet!

ps… the painting at the top is known as She Takes Her Place Among the Matriarchs. I’m pretty sure this is what reading again & choosing & integration look like!

pps… need a reminder? Put your cuppa to work! You matter!

Contemplations

NOW she’s done! I think ;)

Posted on by sue boardman

So, back in the day, when I was hanging out in nursing school and hospitals, if I had said what I’m about to say, here, out loud, a whole team of my colleagues would have mouthed psych consult at each other and reached for the phone!

Deep breath, please. I’m fine. In fact, I’m a great deal more fine in this moment that I have, perhaps, ever been before!

And, I’m going to tell you a story…

If you’ve been reading along, you’ve heard me musing about a painting called Apothecary which I’ve been in the midst of for a bit, now.

It started out feeling comforting and familiar. Intention. Lots of fun drips, hither and yon, as I turned the canvas. (I like drips!)

A line. In my case a dark, jagged one, kind of like a lightning bolt. The line of unimaginable tragedy.

Eventually, we got to the part about vessels.

Think Apothecary as in remedies for ailments. Kind of like a pharmacy. (An open-minded one!)

The books appeared, first. Books are vessels, too!

Paint, of course. Teal blue for voice and truth!

And a medicine basket! Red thread, obviously. Roses and rosemary and thyme.

Then, after a busy night dreaming, the stock pot, over to the right. This isn’t new for me. They show up predictably in Legend paintings, for I am a boiler of bones.

And, since I have a huge thing for dots, the night sky. There are favorite constellations, and spatters – which are huge fun – and about a zillion dots for courage. A fabulous moon. And yes, my version of a Phoenix rising right out of the stock pot, complete with a bay laurel leaf!

I felt safely en-courage-d that far. Then, things began to get interesting.

An alabaster jar, which is a sign that my collection of sacred stories and symbols is growing.

The face and the arrow on the stockpot, which some of you will recognize as having to do with something nicknamed Filters. Familiar, for sure, but – ironically – completely new in this context!

Frankly, I was starting to get a bit anxious. And, there was still something missing.

Yep! The circle, on the stockpot, with six thumbprints.

A six-petal rose. Right there, where my map of reality belongs! Utterly by choice!

Tears. Relief. Hope. A whole new world, in many ways.

And, I thought I was finished. But the painting was not done speaking to me.

Yesterday, she announced her name.

Revelation!

Truth tears. And I thought I was finished. Until I went to the first Red Madonna circle of 2023.

It was fabulous. Which was predictable!

And then, in a conversation between the leaders of this particular band, Shiloh Sophia McCloud and Havi Brysk Mandell, I learned a new word!

The one most of you didn’t notice or couldn’t read in the photo at the top.

It’s a Hebrew word which I didn’t know before. (I wasn’t a very good Hebrew student!)

Pronounced hee-NAY-nee, it can be translated in different ways. In our circle, today – and in my heart – it means Here I am!

And, of course, it insisted upon appearing in the palm print of my hand, which meant a bit of editing.

Hand, by the way, also means power in Hebrew or Aramaic, depending on who your teachers were.

I think the painting is done now…

I, clearly, am not! And, just between us, that feels pretty damn good!

ps… there is still time to join Red Madonna Sanctuary! We’re going to do some deep painting, too! All the info is here… and there’s a place for YOU along the Red Thread! (Standing and dancing will be involved… figuratively, at least!) Take a deep breath and check it out HERE!

pps… Revelation! is already plotting new things. If you’re feeling the vibes, let’s talk! The calendar elves will hook you up with 45 minutes as my gift.

Contemplations

Sometimes we just need a prize!

Posted on by sue boardman

Today is one of those days in my world!

It’s been a really big week.

Forty-seven choruses of OId Days… Good Times I Remember.

And a whole bunch of new learning!!!

A luncheon with some friends from my Columbia Theological Seminary days. And a flock of new friends.

Stories. Who? And What? And, best of all… Why?

Stories that somehow fed my painting-in-progress!

A phone chat with a dear friend about 1800 miles from here, pondering old thought-habits and new adventures. A chat which left us both ready to – you know – act!

And then, a dinner with even more new friends. A huge lesson in context! People walking, literally, the same sidewalks I walked in the late 1980’s on their way through – and to! – a very different world. And, yes… I did act!

Then, an adventure in Zoom-land with three new friends, also walking (inner) sidewalks which have become familiar to me over the last year. Sidewalks through the land of Rosa Mystica. And a chance to help answer a few questions and pass along a bit of hope.

Grandmother Moon has been working overtime on the processing bit.

This morning I woke up with a figurative stock pot full of questions bubbling in my head… which is about as good as it gets! (And, yes, I’ll keep you posted!)

I also woke up with Grandmother Moon suggesting, with a big grin, that all of this brave stuff going on just might call for a bit of celebration.

I didn’t even have to ponder!

And, just in case you’d like to join us…

Grammy’s Chocolate Almond Bark

Ingredients:

  • 1 c. organic roasted almonds with sea salt, coarsely chopped if desired
  • 1 Tbsp. + 1/2 tsp. coconut oil, measured while solid
  • 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 c. finely chopped excellent dark chocolate, like Endangered Species’s 88% cacao (about 2/3 of a 3 oz. bar) or dark chocolate chips
  • 1 scoop Cacao Bliss or a slightly rounded Tbsp. of organic raw cacao powder
  • 1 good pinch Anthony’s espresso baking powder, if desired (or instant espresso granules)
  • 1 tsp. Maldon flaked sea salt for garnish if using unsalted almonds

Recipe doubles easily!

Line a sheet tray with unbleached parchment paper.

In a heavy saucepan (or double boiler) combine chocolate, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Stir over low heat until completely melted. Add Cacao powder and espresso powder and stir thoroughly. Add almonds and mix until covered.

Pour chocolate mixture onto tray with parchment paper, spreading evenly with a rubber spatula to a thin layer.

If you used salted almonds, you’re done. If you used unsalted nuts, sprinkle evenly with sea salt flakes, or omit if you prefer.

Refrigerate for an hour, or until well set. Break into bite sized pieces and store, tightly covered, in fridge or freezer. Allow to warm a few minutes to cool room temp before serving, preferably with roses on the table!

*****

Technically, I suppose, you could call it candy. I call it sustenance. Body. Mind. Spirit. And, just maybe, courage food!

Or, in the eternal words of Charles M. Schulz…

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt. 

ps… the new leggings are here! Two more designs!!! They’re comfy. They come in lots of sizes. They wash really well. And they might just be heart-on-the-outside choices for you, as they surely are for me. Check it out… and help send an artist to France! Just click here for cool leggings!

Contemplations

Sanctuary: a place of…

Posted on by sue boardman

Officially, refuge or safety.

In this case, also community and discovery!

And you’re invited!!!

We’ve been a bit short on that sort of gathering place these last few years. And there are some folks in the world who would probably like to keep it that way! (I’m not one of those!)

So, I have an invitation for you… an invitation to Red Madonna Sanctuary, 2023.

And, yes, this particular Sanctuary is all in the virtual realm with sisters from around the world. (Well, at the moment… many things are possible!)

I’ve been a part of the Intentional Creativity® journey known as Red Madonna for several years, now. And, yes, paint is involved!

If, by chance, you’re muttering that you don’t paint… that you’re not artistic, perhaps… I so hope you’ll keep reading because I’ve been there, too! And Sanctuary is also about writing and sharing and being on a year long adventure with an amazing group of women, all gathered for – well – growing, in community.

The painting, above, is deep under-layers from the 2022 Red Madonna journey, known as Forest of Grandmothers.

It’s Intention, of course. And paint and collage. And roots and mountains. And Grandmother Moon’s alter-ego!

It’s also tears and prayer dots and deep, deep learning.

And, perhaps my favorite part of all… claiming my story! Where I’ve been and where I’m going. And my life is different because of that journey!

It is, even though we didn’t necessarily call it that all the time, medicine painting.

There’s a lot of neurological stuff involved in that statement. What it all boils down to is that opening ourselves to processes like this one gives us more access to our stories and to experiences that can help some of the hard ones heal.

This is a glimpse of Our Lady of Living Waters with some details on the exciting plan for this year…

Maestra Shiloh Sophia McCloud will be leading an amazing painting process with the Divine MA (That’s Maaaaaaa, not Master of Arts, though…) and the circle of the years and the elements. Anasuya Isaacs will be teaching on the Black Madonna and Dr. Havi Brysk Mandell will be doing teachings from Jewish mystical traditions, with a half-year painting on the Tree of Life elements and the Divine Mother, through Shekhinah. Mary Ann Matthys will be offering teachings every waxing moon on creating meaningful rituals. And, on the waning/Crone moon, I will bring in Dr. Clarissa Pinkola-Estes’ energy of the fireside of the dangerous old women in a variety of ways. All of this with a focus on the Divine Mother, Sanctuary, and Sacred Sovereignty. 

Just in case this sounds to you like lots of rules, it’s not! Instead, it is, intentionally, a place for making our own choices. For walking the spiritual path which is calling to us. (And, in my case, for following the path of several of my way-back great grandmothers who made very similar, intentional, choices in their lives!)

This is the invitation link: https://musea.org/red-madonna-sanctuary/. I’m so hoping you’ll summon your courage and click it, even if you’re not yet sure this is your thing. There are great stories in there. And a whole lot of Hope!

We are also a part of Musea University, so there will be 3 university credits available, if you choose.

I know it is going to be a deep, powerful, and amazing journey and I so hope that you will be bringing your voice, presence, art, and sacred self to our Red Madonna sisterhood this year. It’s going to take a lot of us, still standing, still dancing, and being Sanctuary to help shift the energy in this world! And, it’s time!

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to talk.  I would love to share the Sanctuary journey with you!

ps… there is an investment involved and we really want this to work for you if you feel called! There are options available for workable payments.

pps… the painting at the very top of the email you got, if you’re on my list, is my second ever IC painting – my Tree of Life. (If you’re not on the list yet, click the annoying pop-up thingy and the elves will hook you up!)

ppps… when I started painting, I had to ask how to wash brushes. And now, I get to help guide! We’ve got you!