Category: Grandmothers

#Magic!Art JourneyGrandmothersMedicine Basket

Of calendars and singing walls…

Posted on by sue boardman

It’s one of those forward and backward kind of days in my world. You know… memories and dreams bumping into each other!

Friday, my older grand-teen graduated from High School!!! Her world is about to change in a huge way. My hope and prayer is that the “who” she’s always been will learn and grow, and discover more of her chosen path!

Then, the memories. It was just about exactly this time, in 1987, when – having just finished my BA – my son and I set out for Columbia Theological Seminary in an ancient VW bug. He was 7 years old. Some young adult church buddies caravanned along with us, to help with the move before continuing on to Montreat in North Carolina. It was quite the adventure. Especially the flat tire!

And, there were way more adventures to come!

That first summer was known as Baby Greek School, and wow, was I lost! In fact, I was approaching hopeless when the miracle happened. Our word for the day was Blepo which is Greek for “I see!” Suddenly I had something I could relate to as I was very familiar with eye surgery words, some of which actually begin with Blepo! And there was a bit less chaos in my world!

Our friend, above, is a bit of one of the paintings that whispers in my dreams. That’s the Asherah side of a 60″ wide canvas, from the adventure known as #Codex. The Divine Feminine side, if you will, complete with her winged eye for wisdom.

And a bunch of triangles on her forehead. The Greek letter Delta, which is a symbol for change!!!

Last night, she was singing…

“The times, they are a-chan-ange-ing!

They are, indeed. And, yes… it’s scary! (Well, at least a lot of it is for me!)

When I was making our Graduate’s card, a bit from an old movie came to me. Perhaps you’ve seen The Help. Old, southern, USA. Plantation country, in a way. Comfortable white families. Lots of help from black folks. And, lots of vastly overlooked wisdom, too!

Imagine a young maid/nanny whispering to the small girl she’s more or less raising:

Remember! You is smart. You is kind. You is important.

That is part of my prayer for our new graduate. And for ALL our Littles!!!

Our job is to VOTE like that matters!!! (Early run-off voting has begun in Georgia!) I’m choosing the ones who aren’t focused on keeping the White House happy. Who know that we are ALL important!!!

For this moment… a peek at the card I made for the amazing person who helped me see a whole new world and a whole new me…

ps… have some smart, kind, important magic of your own to set free in the world? I can help! 45 min. My gift. You bring your dreams. I’ll bring a lot of years of practice and a medicine basket brimming with cool tools! You can also bring a cuppa and a bit of Red Thread, if it’s handy. We’ll name your next right thing and then talk about what it might be like to work together. Just click here and the calendar elves will hook us up. Hurry, though! The calendar is filling up!

pps… more questions, before you click??? Here’s the basic bio stuff…

#Magic!Filters!GrandmothersMedicine Basket

All the “me’s” have bizzy brain!

Posted on by sue boardman

I’m guessing you might, too! News… much of it of the lunatic persuasion.

Metro DC going through massive chaos and dragging way too much of the world along.

In my own calmer and considerably more intentional way, things are also shifting. Part of it is the normal course of endings and new beginnings. A year’s worth of community and work completing even as the next artful adventure takes form. (Stay tuned!!!)

Yet more painting adventures beginning, as well.

The Book-in-Progress is taking over my world and I’m thrilled! The individual stories pretty much existed from the beginning. The structure – the flow – the voices – are appearing magically in my dreams and, in the context of this world, my Grammy Heart is overjoyed.

All of that newness leads – at least for me – to new awareness of things which aren’t yet optimal. And, as so often happens in our world, that involves moving things. You know… being body comfy while having easy access to books, tools, light, etc.

I think our magic friend, Glinda, must have invited the Feng Shui books to join in and – wow! – did that help!

Here’s an example… as much as it made sense and I tried to make it work, the whole nesting thing just wasn’t going to work in the studio. So, the most adaptable chair is back in the room now known as Sacred Skills & Knowledge, so that I have a better chance of being able to create deep and be something which loosely resembles comfortable. And, yes… that will mean moving books!

The paintings, of course, all want to be new places, too. Inspiration. Energy supportive colors. Even a sleep supervisor dedicated to healing and abundance! She’s the one up top… a mythical shape-shifting Selkie in charge of useful things like intuition and unblocking trapped potential!

There’s another painting going on in my world, too. #Threshold. If I believed in being behind, I would be. Instead, I’m going with being exactly where I’m supposed to be to be, hearing what I need to hear! My big ah-hah, so far, is to discover… instead of expecting! As we used to say back when, that’ll preach!

For this moment… an invitation!

If you’re a real human reading this, instead of some AI mystery being, and you have dreams about putting your magic to work in the world, let’s talk! 45 min. My gift. We’ll name a next right step for your path and explore what it could look like to work together… you, me, and Glinda! Hurry, though! It’s about to get book-busy around here and I only have space for two brave folks like you. Just click here and the calendar folks will set you up!

ps… now would also be a great time to check out all the magic at WingedEye Wisdom! Just put 2 sets of my really cool wisdom cards in your basket and save 20% on them!!! Great gifts. Fun for travel. Best of all, a doorway into wonder and wisdom! (And you don’t even need a secret code!) Oh! Browse around while you’re there… everything from art prints to kids’ books, many items on sale!

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The walls have taken to singing!

Posted on by sue boardman

Today, in many traditions, is Pentecost Sunday. It’s also a planning nightmare when it happens to occur on Memorial Day weekend! Just between us, I’m kind of okay with having a different role these days! Kind of more free to set aside the Lectionary’s notion of what story goes with which day and open myself to inspiration which, in many ways, was kind of the original point!

Clearly, my song leader friend agrees! This is what I heard…

Deep and wide… Deep and wide… There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide…

Deep and wide… Deep and wide… There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide…

Now seems to me like a really good time for that!

According to my late seminary professor, Dr. Walter Brueggemann, Pentecost can be seen as a revolutionary rupture of the status quo in which the outpouring of the Holy Spirit dismantles hegemonic power structures, shatters psychic numbness, and actively subverts the homogenizing, empire-building impulses of the world.

Walter goes on to contrast Pentecost with the Tower of Babel which represents a human society driven by fear and a desire for hegemonic power, seeking to impose a single homogeneous culture. By miraculously allowing the gospel to be heard in native languages, the Spirit affirms God’s will for radical diversity, ethnic pluralism, and localized variation… not a soothing comfort, but a disruptive “wind” that upends society’s comfortable routines and privileged arrangements… and makes way for new, just, and inclusive communal realities… in which every single person has both a voice and a purpose.

My painting friend and I offer these whisperings in full knowing that your tradition may be different. Your teachers may have shared different wisdom. And, if you hang around here, you’d probably stand beside me in claiming equality and radical hospitality, in this world, now. Deep and wide!

For now, I join the the prayer from Ephesians that we, whatever our traditions, might grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of the Son of Creators. That’s what all those dots are for… healing wounded hearts!

And one last thought from an episode of The West Wing… It’s season 7, episode 8. Presidential candidate, Matt Santos, is speaking in a predominantly black church, just after one of their teenagers was killed by an hispanic police officer. He begins with a quote from Dr. King:

If we could find compassion… if we could express compassion – if we could pretend compassion… it would heal us.

As the congregation begins to hear… to respond… Santos goes on:

We are tired. Tired of understanding. Of waiting. Of trying to figure out why our children are not safe and why our efforts to make them safe seem to fail. We’re tired. But we must know that we have made some progress… and slowly… too slowly, things will change.

This is the message of my heart for this day…

#Magic!Art JourneyContemplationsGardenGrandmothers

Hope… it’s a Mom-thing!

Posted on by sue boardman

May 10 is a big day at our house. It’s our wedding anniversary every year. (36 years so far, if you’re curious!) It’s also the anniversary of the day I graduated from Columbia Theological Seminary, the first time! And, sometimes, as it was in 1990, it’s also Mothers Day.

At the moment, I’m missing generations of Moms and Grammies. I’m missing my grands and their dear Mom & Dad. And, there’s part of me that’s missing the feeling of Hope.

Here’s the thing, though… Hope is not just a Hallmark-y feeling. Hope is a choice!

A choice I’m choosing! Even in the face of the all the chaos and news. And, I’m planting symbols of hope, like sunflowers. (We’re a smidge late, due to a couple of cold snaps but, again, I’m hoping.)

I’m hoping, with my painting friend, for Peace.

I’m hoping that, like the star glyph in the painting, we will rise from the chaos. And, if you squint a bit, you might notice that the phoenix is rising from love!

There are two more hopeful things going on in my world, today. Prayer dots, which are no surprise, I suspect, and also help me a lot.

And, soup! A body-mind-spirit thing for me. With huge help from my anniversary buddy. (In case you missed the recent easy version of the recipe, just click here!) Shopping with local, sustainable farmers spreads the hope even more!

For this moment, Mama Bear and I are sending you hugs and Hope!

#Magic!ContemplationsGrandmothers

More Real Truth???

Posted on by sue boardman

One of the reasons I write is to help me figure out the chaos of our world. Chaos which often takes over my dreams. To externalize it and watch for patterns.

Punctuation helps, too, in an odd sort of way! You know… intentional pauses and emphasis.

And, Morning Pages help a lot. Actual pen and paper. Texture and motion and causing newness to appear in manageable chunks. Tea, too, of course!

Here, though, is the real secret for me. Morning Pages happen right after Dream Time! Last night was a really big time for that. Well, early morning, really.

With some help from my old teacher/friend, Walter Brueggemann, I had wandered off to sleep pondering the notion of speaking with Creators.

From my tattered copy of Walter’s book, Finally Comes the Poet:

…it is the voice of human hurt and hope that evokes the presence and response of God (p.51).

Here’s the thing, though…

What I heard in my dream was the connection between all the lunatic evil of our time and the desire of proudly fallen humans to be more than Creators. To be controller-in-chief. Owner. Maker of all choices.

To own people and to decide who matters.

Which brought me, of course, to the voices of the paintings on the wall. Yep! The one you see, above. A very early work of mine, called Codex. I put the brush down and signed the back in 2018. (Maybe 2019 – it’s too big to get off the wall to check!)

An adventure of claiming Creation and – for me, at least – my place within it. Symbols. Lots of prayer dots. Claiming the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine next to each other. El and Asherah.

The core problem of the Epstein gang, and those who continue to support and shield them, is their unwillingness to be part of something greater…. where everyone matters. Instead, we have way, way too many people wanting to be like him!

You’ve heard me quote this before…I matter. You matter. We matter. And knowing that THIS is the kind of mattering that matters!

ps… want to help your Littles start learning this now? Begin with Creation… words and images! Just click here and the elves will transport you to WingedEye Wisdom where Daphne will be delighted to get you your very own copy of A Creation Poem. And even a bit of extra art with orders of more than one book shipped to the same address!

#Magic!ContemplationsGrandmothers

From Deep Within the Cave…

Posted on by sue boardman

I slept. Well, sort of. Mostly, I wandered in dream-land, sorting — apparently — the chaos of our time. When I began to wake, there were six words in my awareness.

Black Saturday.

Now I know more.

Between times. Deep, deep loss. Fear. Darkness. Massive uncertainty. Not just the old, old story on which huge numbers of humans have chosen to focus their identity, but also the context of this time.

I suspect many, many of my ancestores — our ancestors — knew this feeling. This un-knowing.

How long will the darkness last?

Will we have hears to hear?

For this moment, I’m choosing — again — to follow her.

And hope!

ps… want some company on the Hope-path? Sensing a call? Hunting magic for your basket? Let’s talk! Just click here and ask the calendar elves to hook you up with 45 min. My gift. The world needs all of us it can get!

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Scrap Quilt Brain Day!

Posted on by sue boardman

My conscious day began with a scary sound. You know the kind! Oddly high-pitched, and coming from the direction of the front window, which is where the TV lives.

It wasn’t chirpy bird sounds, though I was hoping it was. It was quite regular. Drippy. Peeking out the windows & front door didn’t help. Nothing likely happening next door. My next thought was the dreaded basement. A bit of Hardy Boys help from the Legendary Husband ruled out – you know – floods.

About that time, I decided tea was in order. And, news! Frankly, the potential flood was more more fun!

The US Supreme Court, battling over Birthright Citizenship. Let’s start with the reported presence of POTUS in the public gallery during the oral arguments, for the first time, ever. Intimidation springs to mind, and I object… but let’s move on from that!

The next thing that sprung into my mind was a song from the Broadway play, 1776, probably because the current Attorney General is a guy named John Sauer. Thus…

Sit down, John! Sit down, John! For God’s sake, John, sit down!

In the play, the reference was to John Adams who was, at least, making sense back in the day.

Apparently, today’s actual event got boring because MS NOW reported that POTUS headed back to the gold (Oops! White) House with nothing resolved.

I, however, have more words in my head. You’ve probably heard me quote the ones from my Intentional Creativity® heritage, before.

I matter. You matter. We matter.

And, my own addition to them…

Mattering Matters!

And, that, dear friend, is what this whole us and them debate is about. “Leaders” who want to matter MORE than everybody else. To decide who matters and what the only right things are to think. Kratos!

I, as you’ve no doubt guessed, OBJECT!

And that takes us straight to the scrappy notion of MetaModern… the place where many things are true and not all of them get along very well. The place where we live! The place where we can choose what to create out of all those scraps. So… off with the news!

I’m off to research geese which live in Florida swampy places. Really! It seems my #Mother Nature painting has requested the symbolic presence of the Holy Spirit! And such geese apparently have pink legs and feet! (Patience, please… photo to follow!)

It’s kind of an odd way to matter, but it feels better and that, as the old saying goes, ain’t nothin’!

Love it if you’d leave a comment, below, and let me know how mattering is happening in your world! (In a scrap quilt world like this, it’s going to take a whole bunch of us!!!)

ps… want some more info on the whole MetaMod thing? Check out my Wisdom Cards… Survival skills for here & now!