Category: Medicine Basket

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Medicine for too much news…

Posted on by sue boardman

It happens now and then.

And this is definitely NOW!

Unlike a migraine, with its frequent warning signals, this snuck up on me. A really big case of news-overdose!

I know. I could just not watch. (And sometimes I don’t.) But, in this moment, it all feels really big and close and there’s a muscle in my back that’s more committed than usual to the really cool chair and – well – I have 2 granddaughters trying really hard to grow up in this world!

This world which feels overflowing with discrimination and hunger and conspiracy and book banning and guns and rampaging vested interest.

(This is me… trying to be something approaching broad-minded, which – frankly – can be pretty exhausting!)

So… you fill in the blanks. Suffice it to say, that I was literally drowning in news.

I did take time out for a virtual meeting with a dear friend and former intern. Predictably, the conversation turned to paint!

She’s been invited to share a workshop on Spirituality and Art! And that, when you get right to the heart of things, is a whole lot like Medicine Painting.

And, yes… you can probably guess where this is going!

One of the things we reviewed, as we chatted, was the amazing fact that painting – especially the practice known as prayer dots – helps our whole brain be occupied with something other than the horror of the news!

It has to do with primary patterns of neuro-processing and boils down to this… when we move our hands to make a mark while saying/thinking a word of intention, we see the mark with our eyes, and we hear the word, and our brain is doing kinesthetic, auditory/digital, and visual processing all at the same time.

It’s a bit like patting your head and rubbing your belly while singing a song!

And, it gets easier with practice because our brain actually gets more integrated while it happens.

This, by the way, is even more miraculous to me, having had my hands inside human skulls with real, living brains… which are not remotely like the plastic models in bio class!

So… canvas, paint, an old, scrubby brush, and a squirt bottle. A bit of Vision anointing oil on the crown of my head. Plus, the intent to heal, move, or transform, which is the working definition of Medicine Painting in the land of Intentional Creativity®

Oh! There’s another intention which goes with such an adventure!

…to heal and receive insight both during the painting and afterwards.

Which, all things considered, feels a good deal better than swearing at the news!

After I painted, scrubbed off most of the paint and fixed myself some food – along with a bit of really dark chocolate – I switched to Madame Secretary.

I don’t have it memorized yet, like I do The West Wing, but I’m making progress. (Feel free to shake your head and laugh if you need to!)

Here’s the bit that jumped out at me in this moment:

It’s only impossible if we fail to try!

And that, dear heart, along with the paint spatters all over my glasses, is quite likely to get me out of bed in the morning, ready to try again.

And that ain’t nuthin’!

Let us begin with Peace….

ps… huge thanks to Shiloh Sophia McCloud, and the host of art ancestors before us, for sharing the hope!

pps… curious??? I do Medicine Painting journeys virtually and in person! Stay tuned… or ask!!!

ppps… want some prayer dot leggings??? I’ve got you covered! (Literally!) Just ask the elves at FierceArtWithHeart to show you around. They wear and wash great and you can choose your own intention!!! (Choose two pair and add the magic code BUY 2 – SAVE $8 at checkout for a great savings!)

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She’s gone to meddlin’ !

Posted on by sue boardman

Grandmother Moon has, apparently, been listening closely from her place on the wall. And, wow, was she feeling chatty this morning!

Chatty, in my dreams…

This time, the place where Filters, my mom, and the news bump into each other. This, by the way, is a deeply important place!

If you’ve been reading along, you may recall that my mom was a Republican. My grandmother was a Republican. I’m betting her mother was, too, though I never knew her.

And they were Republicans who grew up in the context of the Great Depression and World War II and FDR and Truman.

We “stayed safe” in my family, by doing things the way we’d always done them… even when the world wasn’t the way it had “always” been.

And, yes… I can feel you nodding as you read!

Let me admit, up front, that I am not an expert on Carl Jung. I did spend a good bit of time hanging out at Pacifica Graduate Institute with people who were. That’s probably where my ear heard this:

The first thing we learn, as humans, is that the way to survive is by keeping the tall people happy!

That notion, which I think is Jung’s, lives, in my mental library, on the same shelf with Steve Glenn’s work on Developing Capable People.

Jung is to the left, which – in bookshelf land – means before. Steve comes next… which also means in a new context.

To the right of Steve is my book, Grandmothers Are In Charge Of Hope! (It’s what gets me out of bed on the tough days!)

A bit to the right of that is the wild card. A box of Alana Fairchild’s Sacred Rebel oracle cards. (And no… that’s NOT the way we’ve always done it! In fact, some of we might seriously consider voting me off the island for this one!)

And, yes… that’s bit of wisdom Grandmother Moon told me to chose today!

So, card #4. AGAINST THE GRAIN. The reading begins this way…

You want birds to be able to fly underwater. You want love to [overcome] power. You want humanity to relate to each other as equals and to recognise the sacred in you and in the world around you… you want to make possible what others say cannot be. You are a radical dreamer, a sacred rebel, and you bring the light of a more positive future to this world.

And, I do. Deep breath, now… for the punch line:

The price you pay for the gift of individuality is that you must take care of it and guard it so that you are not dulled down and conditioned into playing at being something you are not… You will then find other dreamers, other wild butterflies and atypically coloured sheep to join you in conjuring better visions for our world.

Granted, it’s a bit optimistic. And I’m on it!

Here’s the thing… the GOP filter worked for mom but – in this context – it isn’t working so well. So I can add a few other strategies… without throwing out all the ones I learned that ARE working!

One of those strategies I did learn from my folks – in retrospect – was the benefit of empowering over enabling.

Possibly because, after I had reached the ability to think abstractly, I had Steve whispering in my ear, too!

For this moment, though, it’s time to circle for a landing!

The stroll down memory lane which Grandmother Moon decided would be helpful is all about Filters and context and how to get where we long to be, even in moments like this.

Grandmother Moon also told me to choose the glimpse of Liberating Lily for our “featured image” today. Trust me when I tell you, I let go of a whole bunch of the way we’ve always done it when she was on my easel!

And, just a couple of days ago, I realized that Lily is me! At least the me I am becoming!

So, if you’re still reading and, possibly, reaching for Kleenex… I have an offer for you! 45 minutes. My gift. We’ll talk about what is you and how to get closer to where you feel called to be. I’ll even share why Filters could be exactly what your medicine basket is longing for! The Calendar Elves will hook you up!

Grandmother Moon and Daphne will be thrilled to meet you! They ARE Good Trouble!

ps… the #Flow Nouveau painting I’ve been so excited about lately… it goes really well with the Filters journey! There are prints coming soon… and great stuff now, at FierceArtWithHeart!

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I never imagined…

Posted on by sue boardman

Well, a whole lot of things! And, frankly, a bunch of them are bumping into each other in my head just now.

Blame it on the news… or perhaps my over-consumption of the news… if you like. And the memories bubbling up inside me in the context of the news!

Back in the mid-80’s, when I was a young single mom, I began my second job as an RN.

Surgery! And, as you may recall, I got really tired of being told I didn’t get paid to think! So, I got busy thinking about what I was going to learn next.

Mind you… having a 4 year-old and student loans and a rather socially limited perspective of the world meant that the options felt limited.

The first hurdle was accepting my sense that my childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian didn’t seem likely to happen for me just then. It was hard. I’d fought for that dream for years.

And, I let it go because my world had gotten more complex.

Feel free to laugh at this next bit!

Two of the paths I considered were becoming an accountant or an attorney! Blessedly, I paid attention to the very vivid nightmares I was having and decided my first intention needed to be a Bachelors Degree.

Six years later, I was graduating from Seminary!

The world – and my living in it – have changed a good bit since then!!!

It is, however, Sunday morning, and I do have things to say! Bits and pieces of what’s bringing me comfort and hope in this moment…

Mental quilting, if you will.

Mostly with paint!

You see, what I discovered this weekend, as three paintings clamored for attention and energy and space, was that I am claiming my truth in liquid acrylics!

Yes, there are external plans and intentions. Fabulous guidance from all my chosen art-mamas. Like more context!

And there’s also my growing awareness that my heart – my dreams – my history and my hopes – are guiding my brush. (And my fingers!)

I’m experimenting!

And comforted by the deep knowing that I can learn new things. I can change my mind. I can be me.

Not simply on canvas, but in my being!!!

And, it’s still Sunday morning. So, conscious of the context of the news, garbed in my favorite red thread paint shirt, and barefoot (Gasp!), a message which feels helpful and empowering and eternal from my heart (and one of Kathleen McGowan’s books) to yours…

…this is all so simple. It’s about love and faith and community. And that’s it… The only piece of spiritual wisdom that really matters… It’s this: you can throw away the entire Bible if you just keep what Jesus tells us in Matthew 22: 37 – 40. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law of the prophets. Done. Finito. That’s all you need to know… we can make Bible study courses three minutes long, because that’s the entire teaching right there. Everything else just gets in the way and obscures the message.

May it be so! Preferably, NOW!!! And, as another of my teachers – Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes – would say… A-men, a-men, a-men… and a little woman!

ps… the quote is from The Book of Love. The character speaking is Fr. Peter Healy. Thanks, Kathleen!

pps… just in case you suspect you hear Filters at work here… You’re right! Want to know more??? Check it out! (The elves are, indeed, at work!)

ppps… looking for an amazing paint adventure??? Have I got an invitation for you! It’s the next part of the journey we Intentional Creativity® folks refer to as Red Madonna. Specifically, a call to explore the Divine Mother and the Tree of Life through Painting, Community, and Sisterhood!!! Just CLICK HERE (Soon!!!) for all the details… The charming glimpse of a hopeful being, above, is a peek from our current exploration…

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Of red ink and other curious things…

Posted on by sue boardman

I’ve spent a whole lot of time flinging red ink around the world.

It’s often called editing and, back in the dark ages, when I began doing that sort of thing, we really did use red ink.

It all began with yearbook staff when I was in high school. I got named head of the grammar police!

I don’t know why I’m good at it. I just am. And that may be helped along by the fact that my brain hears what my eyes read!

So, I’ve needed a good bit of virtual red ink this week. Here’s what happened…

A week or so ago I had a conversation with a paint sister. One thing led to another, as things often do, and I ended up agreeing to shake an idea out of my head and into a form that could be shared. With more people.

Gulp!!!

That meant fluffing some not-quite-current things here on the website. Which meant adding a recent book title and replacing a couple of photos, and the kinds of really tech-y things for which I need – and am blessed to have – serious help.

And, while all that was going on, I was wrestling with a painting. Flow Nouveau!

I spent much of my weekend flow-ing. And it was fun. Except for the part where the next right thing totally didn’t work for me! A couple of times!!!

All of which made it kind of a miracle that I got any sleep at all.

Then, Grandmother Moon showed up early this morning, to help. (And, yes… I was getting nervous!)

Along with the usual whispering in my ear, she left a story under my pillow. And, oddly for me, a glimpse of an image in my head. A glimpse of the next right thing for my painting.

Story first!

My son is mostly colorblind, which I didn’t know until he was about eight!

The new eye doc with the fancy kiddie-cartoon tools figured it out and a whole lot of things made more sense.

One of those things has kind of taken up residence in my head. It has to do with Dave’s first grade teacher. You see, Dave made lots of marks in the way the world refers to as backwards.

Math was a struggle. I asked for a meeting with his teacher.

I tried really hard to explain that when he made numbers backwards it didn’t mean his answer to the math problem was wrong!

I begged her to use a color other than red to re-draw the number in the more usual left-to-right fashion.

And, yes… it was about two years later before I learned he was colorblind. Which gave both of us more information for learning!

I even tried editing my work in other colors for a while, but my brain understands “fix stuff in red” so I mark my paper stuff up that way. Still! Also, some of the professional projects I help with. Book drafts and such.

I did a bunch of red ink stuff this morning and things are way better. So much so that I pushed the button and sent the thing and set up a meeting. (I’ll keep you posted!!!)

Then, I took advantage of that rare inner glimpse of an image

And I spent a bunch of my day helping my painting make its way back much closer to where it was when I fell in love with it. It wasn’t that I did it wrong. I just didn’t know where I was headed!

There’s more to do… fixing the fixing, if you will. And then a few finishing steps I didn’t quite make it through, before. Kind of like the undo button!

It FEELS so much better, already…

If you squint a bit, you may notice that the paint – much of it red – is still wet.

And I have huge hope!

ps… these days I think of red ink – and red paint – as symbols for the red yarn which connects us with all those who will be important in our lives, if we’re willing!

pps… there’s one more thing I’m done editing! It’s the first thing you’ll find when you click here and it’s really, really cool!!! Go for it…………………… (The other stuff is really cool, too!)

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In the Flow (Nouveau)!

Posted on by sue boardman

It is a journey of Hope and Intention.

People from 12 global nations… gathered in the mostly-virtual land of Intentional Creativity® for the adventure.

We began, at the Equinox, by honoring our ancestors. If you’ve been reading along for a bit, you know that I have a pretty big collection of those folks and I know their names. I think the thing we sometimes lose track of is that we ALL have very big collections of those folks!

(I’m way better at names and stories but the math is mind boggling! You can look it up if you’re curious…)

We also recognized that, for almost all of us, the land on which we were standing, paint brushes at hand, was once the home of other peoples. In my case, they were the people of the United Cherokee AniYunWiYa Nation.

Much of our intentionally inclusive medicine painting adventure was about learning trust with ourselves, so that whatever limiting parts of our perceptions or habits or beliefs which are ready to be moved can be! In an embodied way!!!

Medicine Painting is all about allowing our deep identity to speak as we paint. It is permission to be who we are. Not external permission, so much – though that is there – but an experiment with internal permission!

If you’re like me, this may be a relatively new concept for your Inner Child!

My personal Inner Child learned that she was the smart kid. The good kid. The big sister in charge of keeping the little sister out of trouble.

(This – mind you – is not an assumption that my parents meant me to learn these things. It’s just what I learned!)

So… it was at about this point in the journey that things got complicated for me. I wanted to rebel! Really!!!

You see, I was totally in love with what had happened on my canvas and I was NOT a fan of the next right thing, commonly known as big, scary glaze!

And, yes… this was a familiar feeling! So, while the rest of the painters glazed, I stared at my canvas. I tended in the chat, which was part of my team contribution to the adventure. (I love tending!) I even confessed my stuck-ness in public!

Then, it came to me! I would wait until good daylight, the next morning, and take a really great photo. Then, I would glaze – and spatter! – before it was time to begin again with the group. (And, yes… it’s the photo you see at the top!)

And so, I did.

Day 2 was quite the adventure!

Kind of ironically, it had a whole lot to do with what I refer to as Filters! Turns out you can paint them, too. Or, paint what they mean!

Here’s a peek… we can choose filters different than those we grew up with when we are longing for different outcomes! Even if others – shall we say – aren’t quite on board!

A lot of the rest had to do with who we choose to be. I’ve been working on that one for quite a while. And it has, indeed, meant claiming a lot of things that used to get me in trouble.

Like any notion at all of fierce. Or, worse yet, rebel! And yet, in certain contexts, with my interpretations, those notions are a huge part of who I am.

The Fiercely Compassionate Rebel Grandmother!

For a brief time, complete with wet paint, my adventure looked like this:

It still does, in my heart. And, with some fixing, it will be back, pretty close to this, with the addition of some roses and a bit of coding. (Learning is not always straightforward!)

For now, I’m tired. And there’s one thing more my painting needs me to share.

My wild child wants me to know that I have found my Way of Love.

And a big part of that is helping people like you find and claim their own paths! That’s why the Filters pre-sale offer is good for a few more days! (It’s a really good deal… and we’re really close to launching!) Just click HERE for all the details!!!

ps… huge thanks to Shiloh Sophia McCloud, Jonathan McCloud, and all the Intentional Creativity® team for Flow Nouveau and Origins and all the other utterly amazing things coming up! Questions??? Ask me!

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Who decides???

Posted on by sue boardman

True confession… my head feels, in this moment, like someone has taken my neatly sorted plastic boxes of quilt scraps and dumped them in the road and run over them a few times!

All the bits which made sense among their color or pattern or designer friends are now in chaos.

And yes, I’ve been watching the news.

We’re going to call that context for the story I want to share…

Fair warning… a bit of time travel will be involved!

In July of this year I was in France. Not just in the contemporary nation of acres of blooming sunflowers and fabulous food and art, but in the places where my ancestors stood in the Middle Ages. In the places where some of them lost their lives for their spiritual beliefs.

In January of 1989 I was in Hungary with a group of students from Columbia Theological Seminary. I passed through customs into – and out of – a communist country. I sat in worship with women on one side of the sanctuary and men on the other. Church was permitted. Christian Education was not.

I visited a Jewish Rabbinical Seminary – the only one in Eastern Europe to survive World War II – where students removed their shoes before entering the library… a place which had not been permitted to acquire any new writings since before the war began.

There was a lot of conversation on that journey about the Protestant Reformation.

The simplistic explanation for that time in history would be the break of Lutherans and Calvinists from the Roman Catholic Church.

I’ve recently learned that The Reformation was considerably more complicated than I once understood. And I had relatives involved in that, too. Many of them European women with enough resources to be able to read and write and support the education of girls.

Lately, l’ve taken to watching Madam Secretary on Netflix. For the uninitiated, Secretary of State, Elizabeth McCord, is married to a religious ethics scholar named Henry. In one episode, Henry explains that the Reformation happened because of the printing press… because scripture could be printed in the language of real people who could then read for themselves instead of only hearing what priests chose to share, in Latin.

Which brings us back to the news. Here’s what I heard…

The battles over the Department of Justice, and the national budget, and election fraud, and having enough personnel to run the military, and civil rights, and the education our children will receive all boils down to who gets to decide who gets to decide.

And, in my opinion, in this place at this time, the answer still needs to be we, the people.

Which, clearly, isn’t easy.

It means that we, the people need to show up. Even when it’s hard.

And, yes, I took a break today for painting and energy healing!

Then, I went back to the thing I call Filters, and my process for getting it out into the world.

It’s coming! Soon!!! (The videos are done…)

And, it’s my best way of being the printing press in the face of all the AI stuff in our world.

For now, though… one more story from Hungary. A group of us were speaking with a young Hungarian seminary student. He told us that he and his friends were raised with the need to wake up every morning and find out who was in charge and where they lived.

I was horrified, then.

I’m way too close to relating, now.

If you’re still reading, I’ll bet you already get it, but please, please, please… ask the hard questions. Get involved. And check your voter registration! Your voice matters… now more than ever before in your life.

And, yes…

I have 2 granddaughters trying very hard to grow up in this world!

The Rev Dr Susan L Boardman, Gnostic Judeo-Christian Mystic Medicine Woman, walking the Way of Love (aka: The Fiercely Compassionate Rebel Grandmother, For Rent!)

ps… the special pre-sale offer for the Filters journey is still available, but not for much longer! Get all the goodies at a considerable savings by acting now. Just click here!

pps… the photo at the top is underlayers of a painting which became known as SuperPowers and you could have leggings like this! (Really!!!) Wearable Art! And, if you see more pairs you’d like, use the special code at checkout… Buy 2 – Save $8

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I confess! I wanted to rant & rave.

Posted on by sue boardman

And, yes, I’ve been watching the news again. There’s a LOT there to want to rant and rave about.

Then I heard her whispering. The Great Emergent MA from the land of Red Madonna which is a neighborhood in the world of Intentional Creativity®. (And one of my paintings-in-progress.)

So, here’s the deal…

You go ahead and fill in anything you need to rant and rave about. Really! There’s so much to choose from!!!

Then – if you’d like – you can sit with me under MA’s gaze, and wonder what she might do, instead. Or next.

Technically, what they might do. There are three figures in the painting, but some aren’t feeling ready for major photo shoots just yet. (I can relate!)

So, the Legendary Husband and I did a bit of the out with the old/space for the new dance and then I sat with the canvas for a while and listened.

What I heard was something She must have heard many times…

If you love me, feed my sheep!

You can’t make this stuff up. Well, I can’t! So, I sat and listened some more. And what I realized was that She meant literal food. And that meant a trip to the shelf where the cook books live!

Since we’re feeling the first faint hints of Autumn in these parts, I found myself wandering amongst things which go in the oven.

Here’s what called to me the most…

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Apples and Walnuts

Gluten-free, Vegetarian, Vegan

Note: I survived about the first 50 years of my life having eaten only one Brussels sprout. Boiled and squishy, with a sulfur-y taste… it was awful! Fortunately, neither of my parents thought they wanted to eat them either, so I was rescued from the “everybody eats it all” law. Then I discovered roasted Brussels sprouts! Absolute Heaven. A whole different world. Here, they make an excellent side dish or the base of a hearty meal for just about everybody. Call them something different if necessary. I hope you’ll love this, too!

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Use all organic ingredients if possible!

Wash, drain, trim stems, and remove outer leaves as necessary from 1 1/2 – 2 lb. Brussels sprouts.

Compost trimmings. Cut sprouts in half, the long way. Place in large mixing bowl. Add: 3 Tbsp. good olive oil and 1/2 tsp. coarse ground black pepper.

Toss with clean hands. Spread sprouts into single layer on sheet pan lined with parchment paper, cut sides up, and place in preheated oven for about 30 – 40 min. until sprouts are getting crispy at edges.

Place into fairly large serving bowl: Roasted Brussels sprouts, 2 Granny Smith apples – washed, quartered, cored & chopped into small dice, 1 c. chopped walnuts.

Drizzle with about 1 tsp. very good quality, well-aged Balsamic Vinegar & extra olive oil as needed.

Toss all together and serve hot or at room temp.

For a heartier dish, serve with cooked Quinoa. This is a delicious complete protein that’s good for nearly everybody. Wild rice works, too!!!

ps… a quarter cup dried, organic cranberries will elevate everyday sprouts to holiday traditions!

pps… want more great receipes??? There’s a whole book full! (Paperback or Kindle) Just click: WE GATHER TOGETHER… holiday feasts with the family you have!

ppps… the calendar elves are ready to find you a time to move forward on YOUR dream! 45 min. My gift. And, one of the best questions I know!