A time for thumb-sucking books… old & new!

Abracadabra… for I will create something from the word.

First, we have to choose which words!

Friday’s announcement that the Supreme Court had overturned Roe v Wade sent me running for words!

My first stop was a string of words which would require a whole lot of space and an infinite supply of @*%#’s to include here. Use your imagination!

My second stop, surprisingly, was a place called Printful where I’ve recently learned to make things for my shop, FierceArtWithHeart. I was an artist on a mission.

Specifically, a tank top mission.

Having gotten that accomplished, I was able to move on to other words.

My memory led me next to my dog-eared copy of The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. A tale of the first century C.E. Roman siege on the mountain of Masada, the fortress of the Jews.

You, if you have not read it, are wondering why. If you have read it, you already know.

A people with no rights and no resources. With scant food and water. And what passed for healthcare provided by women called witches.

Including abortion care.

A herb called rue which brought about cramping. Vile. Flesh burning. Effective.

The people of Yahweh. One thousand nine hundred and fifty two years ago.

Fiction, technically. Perspective, assuredly.

And, still, my mind was searching.

The Dovekeepers was a New York Times bestseller, so I went to their page. Virtually.

The marvel of reviews online yielded this:

Yet in between, instead of a gripping work of fiction that lives up to this praise, is a long novel full of middling descriptions, hackneyed characters and histrionic plot twists… Sarah Fay

Never mind for the moment that histrionic is not a word in my chosen lexicon, and the irony of the Times readers being apparently more openminded than the reviewer, I call vested interest! And power! On somebody’s part…

Beyond that, I can’t help but claim that, for me, The Dovekeepers was important for many reasons… not the least of which is my own deep, visceral grasp of the reality that abortion has always been with us and SCOTUS can’t change that.

From there, I was led deep inside to the place where truth lives. In this case, truth from The West Wing.

(And, yes, if you’ve been hanging around for more than about 10 minutes, you know where this is going. Feel free to sing along!)

Season 7. Jimmy Smits & Alan Alda – aka Matt Santos & Arnold Vinick – in a hotly contested presidential race.

Santos, a Democratic House Rep from Texas and a Roman Catholic, was being chastised by his church and excluded from Communion for his position on abortion. In response to a pointed question, he replied:

Abortion is a tragedy. It should be safe. It should be legal. It should be a whole lot rarer than it is.

To which I can only say, So be it!

What the United States Supreme Court did this week was not remotely about that.

It was about power over instead of power for.

It was about an ancient belief that women are for making more authoritarian, power-hungry men who want to tell the whole world what the rules are.

It was about intentionally mis-reading and mis-representing the message of Jesus.

And it’s still happening.

For me, I’m saying NO!

I’m saying that the way is truth and truth is love and equality and justice.

And I’m willing to risk redundancy again, for the sake of claiming the place where this very issue led me to put my faith where my mouth was, about 30 years ago.

A young woman in the church I served was wresting with an abortion decision. Her family asked me to speak with her. I did.

She chose to end her pregnancy.

An elder asked why I didn’t talk her out of that decision.

This is what I, the very new preacher, replied… face flushed, teeth chattering, and knees knocking:

If I’m going to stand in the pulpit on Sunday and proclaim, in the Assurance of Pardon, that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is ours in Christ Jesus I have to be able to say the same thing sitting in a living room with a young woman asking that question.

And, yes, there was some irony in that particular quote, but I know more now than I did then. And it works for me, still.

In this moment, my wrists hurt – a lot – from typing. And the big dogs are doing the hungry dance. So, let’s go with this…

I’ve read some more books lately.

I’m choosing the way of Love, as best I understand it. Of bodily sovereignty. Of choice. Of intentionally living Love instead of making power-grasping rules.

Let me know if you want some book titles! And may the Divine Creator pick us up and dust us off and set us on the path again. This may help…

I have 2 granddaughters growing up in this world.

ps… yes, the painting’s been around a lot lately. And yes, it’s my understanding of the Creative Divine.

pps… oh! The tank top… FierceArtWithHeart. Get yours and I’ll make a $5.00 contribution to Planned Parenthood, which will be doubled through June 30.

ppps… some of my ancestors are having hissy fits about my creating these words in this moment. Others are doing a lineage happy dance. Abracadabra! And, #BloomBoldly !

A message in a…

Nope! Not a bottle.

A plant!

Once upon a time… yesterday, to be exact, I set out on a journey. I took along two paintings. The one you see above, and this one:

I took paper and markers and and books.

I took a head full of plans. You see, I was leading a workshop in Intentional Creativity®

This seemed like a familiar journey. I was ready!

An odd thing happened along the the way…

I arrived – about 3 miles from my house – in a new world!

Okay, it wasn’t the first time I’d been there. It was just the first time I’d been one of the team!

This world was inhabited by dear people who speak languages I’m only beginning to grasp.

The language of anthroposophic medicine and the language of Waldorf education.

Each of them takes in to account, in their own contexts, whole human beings!

There’s more, if you look it up, not all complimentary, but that can be said of basically everything that doesn’t fit the boxes in our brains!

We sang.

We moved. Well, each in our own ways.

We did some right/left brain processing using the beginnings of a painting process known as Insight.

But, just before that, we looked at plants.

Now, allowing for the fact that this was a whole new adventure for me, filled with ways of noticing and wondering I had not encountered before, I’ll give you the bits that I brought home.

First, this method of observing plants comes from the work of Goethe – yep! that one! – who was, in addition to being a poet and philosopher, quite the student of botany, anatomy, and color.

This involved, as you might imagine, a trip outside!

It involved lots of looking. A bit of touching for those able to get close enough to the plants. And, after lots of looking, it involved some describing and drawing.

And yes, that’s Visual – Auditory/Digital – and Kinesthetic processing!

The thing that struck me most about this adventure into previously unknown world views was the message which came to me.

But first, a bit of imagining, if you would.

A tiny, gravel-y patch of dirt between two urban concrete parking lots. Quite a colony of plants you might consider to be weeds if you were raised in the land of suburban lawns.

(Here we’re going to depart from Goethe’s process just a bit and allow for some nouns in our description because you haven’t seen the specific plants from our adventure and deserve a bit of extra help!)

Large rosettes of moist, rounded, leathery green leaves, close to the ground. Thin, spiky, stem-ish bits reaching for the sky. Seed heads at the top of most. Loosely dandelion-like, but considerably smaller.

Oh… and the message I heard!

Delicate, vulnerable hope blown by the wind of the Spirit.

If you’ve known me for a bit, you’ve already realized that there are virtual context brackets around that message!

Mass shootings. January 6th attempted coup hearings. The war in Ukraine. Huge, intentional threats to civil rights… in the USA.

Delicate, vulnerable hope blown by the wind of the Spirit.

And people like you and me, rooted not in a lush, orderly garden, but right in the midst of this world, with the opportunity to be hope.

I’m in! Are you???

ps… need a bit of help finding or navigating your path? Your Epic SuperPower Path Survey

pps… the plant? Plantains. “Weeds” to many of us, which grow in my garden close to the dandelions (aka vegetables!) Being their part of a delicate eco-system which supports all life. I’m just sayin’!

Growing!

At our house it was a kitchen door jam. The one with the penciled height marks.

From the day I started 7th grade until the day I started 8th grade, I grew 7 inches!

My sister “may have” thought I was showing off.

My mother muttered about a plot to keep her letting down hems and buying new shoes.

I thought it was hard work.

I ached. A lot.

I got teased at school. Mostly for being taller than the boys, which was a big deal back then.

And I felt even less coordinated than usual, which I never imagined was possible.

All of this along with the hormonal initiations that happen in those years.

It seemed more than a bit much!

In the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about the other kind of growing.

The kind where we become conscious of our filters… of what they’re letting in and keeping out.

The kind where we realize that with consciousness comes the ability to edit. With intention.

And, as you might suspect, I’m hatching. A lot!

Tonight, though, it was time out from hatching as I visited, virtually, with 2 old friends.

Each of them facing, with differing details, a breast cancer diagnosis.

Some of the growing I’ve done along the way came in handy.

In both cases, my long acquaintance with the powerful guided imagery work of Belleruth Naparstek.

An occasion, both urgent and important, to fire up the bone broth cauldron, complete with organic herbs growing in our garden. And bay leaves.

And, gladly, a copy of a prayer I created during my Color of Woman® training. A prayer a bit outside the usual for the tribe that raised me.

Then, a new project for yet more growing.

One of my friends has requested a liturgy for saying goodbye to her breast, so I have some intentional writing to do.

These dear hearts are not, of course, the only sisters facing such journeys and so it seems time for prayer dots. Lots and lots of those, while the broth magic happens.

May growing – all of our growing – be both blessed and a blessing for those along the way.

And so it is.

ps… Click here for Belleruth’s guided imagery materials.

pps… this is “my” Prayer for Fiercely Compassionate Grandmother/elders in Difficult Days, with help from Dr. E.

Questions that make all the difference?

YES!!!

The Legendary Husband and I have been bonding over Jeopardy for a while. Between the two of us, most nights, we know lots of the answers.

Or, rather, the questions.

I think that’s a big part of what I like about the game which has been a long-time tradition in my family. I used to watch with my mom and with Granny, when we were visiting.

Something deep within me has always liked questions better than answers.

There are, of course, some I like better than others.

Some that, in my world, make huge differences in how people feel and what comes next.

Generally, the questions I like best are the flip side of ones that tend to make people feel less-than.

Instead of Why did you do that? how about What were you hoping would happen?

Instead of How could you be so stupid? how about What did you learn?

Which kind of leads us from When will you ever learn? to How can I help?

I’ll admit that it isn’t always easy in the moment.

When we get frustrated or angry or scared – or even tired and hungry – we tend to lose sight of one of my all time favorite questions…

What am I trying to accomplish?

Or, often better yet…

What are WE trying to accomplish?

These are not the sort of questions likely to win Jeopardy.

They are, however, the sort of questions I learned from my old friend, Steve Glenn, who was very, very clear that what were were trying to accomplish was Developing Capable People.

Steve, at least in the beginning, was pretty much talking about young people. Kids. Ours. Our students. Our Scouts.

Somewhere along the line he noticed – and helped me to notice – that those kinds of questions tend to make the ones asking them more capable as well!

No shame. No blame. Sincere curiosity.

I’ve been thinking about Steve a lot lately because my answer to What am I trying to accomplish? is getting exponentially bigger and clearer all at once.

As you’ve probably guessed, it has a lot to do with the whole Fiercely Compassionate Grandmother path.

The language still needs some work but the profound sense of alignment inside me feels enormous.

And very welcome!

I’m also discovering lots more questions.

Here’s what I do know…

If you have things you’re trying to accomplish… things which matter a great deal to you… and you could use some power-full support along the way, I have space for a very small number of new individual clients.

The first step is a conversation about where you want to go and whether you’re ready for newness.

If you’re doing the hmmmmmmmm…. thing, deep inside, here’s the link to my calendar. Let’s chat for 30 minutes and see what we learn. Daphne is excited, too!

Click here!

In honor of this season, the discovery call is a gift. And, if you’re really ready to work, let’s get busy, before the investment goes up as it must, soon!

ps… I promise to skip When will you ever learn? and go straight to How can I help?

pps… the current Jeopardy champion, Mattea Roach, is a delight!

Oh, it does! It really does!

I don’t think we read e e cummings at home when I was a kid.

My first memory of his work is from a poetry unit in my 8th grade English class. It was, perhaps, almost too late.

Almost, but not quite!

About that time, I was just beginning to realize I was a writer and that felt pretty safe to me.

Nobody had to look at me for me to be a writer.

I had good handwriting.

I was good at the rules. All the grammar and punctuation bits.

(I suspect you begin to see the problem…)

And then… huge truth from a guy who was way less hung up on the rules I was learning!

Here’s a bit I especially love:

it takes courage to grow up and become who you really are

e e cummings

Frankly, I’m still working on that bit.

I suspect life, when we’re doing it best, is a lot like that.

Especially for those of us who discover that who we really are is, perhaps, not what we heard everybody telling us we should be!

One thing that helps me is being on the path with others practicing that particular kind of courage.

You see, to borrow a bit more, those stories – or questions – we most want to hide can actually help others!

So… safe space.

Some tools for surprising even ourselves with what’s inside.

And a paper to point to if we choose to share. (Thanks, Steve Glenn!)

When you boil it down to the basics, this is what Medicine Basket your way… is all about.

My sister-in-magic, Natalie Moyes, and I are all in for growing up to become who we really are and that has a lot to do with empowering others – just like you – along the way!

You see, we want some big things!

We want our kids – and grandkids – and all kids – to live in a place where they can safely be who they are. We want to help heal the tragedies of racism. We want clean air and real food and healing for our planet.

And there’s more…

We want people like you – people of good heart – to have the courage to grow up and become who you really are

And, in the world where we all hang out, that takes resources.

I suspect you’ve noticed the same truth about the things you want and dream!

So… Unsticking Stuck Money Stuff !

There’s still time! (But not much… we start Tuesday!)

And, if you’re muttering to yourself about why you want to join us but can’t, I hear you! So… bullet points!

  • We are going to make marks on paper but you DON’T have to think you’re an artist for it to work.
  • There are 2 choices about how to invest, depending on what works best for you.
  • Can you afford NOT to do this? To stay stuck in a place that isn’t working as well as you need it to? Really???
  • It’s win-win! If you show up the first week, give it a chance, and it doesn’t click for you, we’ll graciously refund your investment.
  • If you already did the first journey, welcome back! We’re going to build on the progress we made. If you didn’t, no worries… you’ll catch on fast!
  • Everything is recorded, in case you can’t be there live every time.
  • It’s NOT just woo-woo stuff. There are decades of learning and practice and certificates and genius behind all this! And some very cool “new” stuff, like neuroplasticity.
  • The world really needs who you really are!

And, there’s a whole lot more Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? stuff waiting with bated breath for you to click the button!

REAL HELP, NOW!

ps… the art is Natalie’s Unfurled! Can you see the unicorn??? There’s one in you, too!

pps… in honor of poetry month, another:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

-Rumi (and Natalie & me!)

A funny thing happened on the way to Wednesday…

Tuesday night! More specifically, our first preview call for Medicine Basket your way… Unsticking Stuck Money Stuff!

We had a blast! Friends were made. Stories were shared. And stuff was, in fact, unstuck.

Some of that stuff was unstuck in me! (Part of the magic is that the tools work even when you know how they work… which makes for great tools to collect!)

As you can imagine, my sister-in-magic, Natalie Moyes, and I were pretty busy with our group’s learning during the actual call. Meanwhile, the Muse and Grandmother Moon were listening in. I know this because they dragged me out of bed at first light with a head full of ah-ha’s.

And, in the spirit of we all start right where we are, here’s one of the biggies for me….

I realized that I had assumed (Yep! I know…) that the folks in the room had read all the stuff we worked so hard to create for the piece of the path to registration commonly known in the biz as the sales page.

I mean, I read them. (Other people’s.) Several times. I read them when I think there’s no way I can sign up for an offer in the moment. I read them when I’m pondering. I read them 5 or 6 times even when I know I’m signing up.

Which, as it turns out, may be weird.

In any event, having seen the light, there are some things that need a bit of re-phrasing around here. The first thing – and it’s kind of odd for people talking about – you know – money, but the page formerly known as the sales page is now, officially, the Alignment Page!

Pearl and Daphne and Waldo all agreed with Natalie and me that it’s our way of talking about what we’re doing and why it matters so that people just like you can see if it feels aligned, for you.

You know, as we do, that transformation happens best in a place that feels supportive enough to risk new things. New perspectives. New thoughts. New strategies and beliefs. New tools. And, when you get right down to it, getting unstuck takes all of those things!

So, the Alignment Page is in the midst of an update. A bit less of this. A bit more of that. Some entirely new perspectives.

One of those perspectives grew out of our answer to a question that was asked last night.

It had to do with the notion of guarantees.

The inquiry went something like this… If we sign up for this journey, what do you guarantee will happen?

It’s a totally understandable question.

Here’s the answer that’s aligned for our team…

Our job is to create the container and to provide tools that reliably help people – real people who are open to change – get free enough to intend and allow it to actually happen.

The metaphor that came to mind last night was a fabulous stock pot as a container and excellent quality, down-to-earth tools for ingredients.

(And, yes, I have a thing for bone broth! Please feel free to substitute seafood broth or veg broth… we can work with all kinds of needs.)

YOUR job, should it feel aligned for you to join us, is to provide the thing that’s still missing from our pot of broth. The ENERGY!

Without that, we just wind up with a big pot of water and squishy stuff.

And, yes, there are details about the money-back part of guarantees on the Alignment Page.

There are also details about our preview call on Saturday – with a whole new tool for your medicine basket – along with materials, and dates and all that stuff we need to know to make adventures like this work. (We start April 5th!)

So if, by chance, you don’t currently have quite the resources you need to live your needs and dreams…

CLICK AND READ!

ps… we really hope you’ll join us live for Saturday’s preview call! That’s where you get a magic code for a significant investment savings and a sweet bonus! The link to register is on the Alignment Page, too!

pps…when you sign up, you’ll also receive my bone broth recipe as part of another bonus!

They’re baaaack!

Yep, Romper Room and corn on the cob!

There was a time in my life when these odd partners somehow meant home and safety to me.

As the old story goes, my dad was explaining to my 3 1/2 or 4-ish year old self that we were moving from Cleveland to Pittsburg. Already something of an expert at the moving thing, I had just two questions…

Do they have Romper Room?

Do they have corn on the cob?

Assured that they did, I agreed (!) to go.

And, yes, if you’ve been reading along for a while, you may have heard parts of this story before.

Here’s the thing… life is for learning!

And, as I learn new things, those old issues of home and safety tend to reappear. (You may have noticed a similar tendency inside yourself!)

So, a couple more questions, this time from the Guide Grammy & Personal Alchemist within me..

What has been that sort of home/comfort/safety touchstone for you?

Is it still working?

And, one more, given all the contextual challenges of our time…

WHAT MIGHT WORK BETTER???

You’re right! That last one is the most challenging for many of us.

Quite possibly because it implies trying new things. Things we don’t do.

It involves making choices instead of doing it the way we’ve always done it.

It involves asking for what we need, which was not necessarily something we learned in our Romper Room years!

And, quite often, it involves resources. Things like time and space and money.

But all of that is, indeed, possible!

In fact, it’s predictable… if we add some new beliefs and strategies to our personal medicine baskets!

And, you’re in luck!

Medicine Basket your way… Unsticking Stuck Money Stuff is about to start!

But, before that, there’s a FREE PREVIEW CALL, Tuesday, March 29 at 7:30pm ET.

If you join my sister-in-magic, Natalie Moyes, and me, you’ll go home with one of those new strategies for your medicine basket! You can even invite your friends and family to join you by sharing this blog post with them!

Let’s be real… money has a whole lot of junk attached to it. Here’s the bottom line…

Money is energy and choice!

And, unless you have all of both of those you need to live your deepest, most aligned life & legacy, this adventure is just what you need! Clicking is the next right thing!

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS AND SIGN-UP LINK!

ps… the painting-in-progress? See the silver thumb print dot, 2nd from the bottom, in the middle? That represents the node of foundation in the Kabbalah’s Tree of Life. And what we’re talking about is foundation-al for your life! (Though it may not be exactly what the ancient Hebrews meant…)

pps… you may, indeed, bring your own corn on the cob!

Sue Boardman, Certified Intentional Creativity®
Color of Woman Teacher & Coach