Category: Phoebe and Luther

I suspect you’ve been here, too!

Lots of things on your list. Many of them feeling huge. It’s not necessarily the most comforting place to be.

Especially on about four hours of sleep!

At some point in what passed for morning around here, I happened to check the groovy moon phase app on my phone. (This is definitely a growing edge in my education!)

We are currently in a waxing Gibbous phase, which means growing toward the full moon.

According to the app elves, my advice for this day was:

Break new ground, get back to the things you have been putting off, turn your creativity into success. Your family and home will benefit the most from this lucky day.

Maybe it was enough to shift some of the stressful stuff from right in front of my face to a bit farther out of focus. Or, maybe, the lack of solar guys crawling all over the house improved my perspective.

In any event, for some reason, today I could see how many things I could make better just in the course of wandering through the house.

So, I spent the day putting away and straightening and recycling as I made my way from one official thing to another.

You know the way..

On the way to the studio? Take the new box of neurographia pens and put them away!

Waiting for soup to bubble on the stove? Clean some stuff out of the fridge. (I mean, how many tiny partial bowls of bar-b-que sauce do we really need???)

Stashing a book on the bedside table? Scoop up a load of sheets and head for the washer!

Is a day like this going to save the world?

Nope!

But, it did let me get some stuff done on a very tired day.

Possibly because I put the energy it takes to ignore things to good use… And, I got some extra movement in there, too!

All of which suggests, not only with the moon app elves, but with a lot of the things I’ve been learning lately, that I am, indeed, a bit closer to creating good things with creativity.

Also, for the things that weren’t going so well, but need to, I actually asked for some help!

One day, as the old saying goes, at a time… with much love from me and the Studio Angels who are, not surprisingly, sound asleep!

ps… the painting is deep under-layers of a journey called Codex.

You know how an old story or an old song will suddenly burst with new meaning when you’re in a different place on your journey? Well, I’m having one of those moments!

Fair warning… this may be one of those stories where you kind of had to be there but, if you’ll hang with me, I’m betting you’ll find a spark of something just for you!

The story seems to start — but of course it doesn’t — on a teaching retreat I was blessed to attend with the folks from Channel Your Genius Academy this weekend.

Our topic was, in its most basic sense, getting un-stuck. (At least that’s what I heard through my filters from other traditions!)

The ah-ha moment for me had to do with MOTION as a key to getting where I want to go.

(Time out for duh’s and laughter!)

The thing is, we were talking about both literal and metaphorical motion.

After years of pain and orthopedic challenges, I’m all over the metaphorical kind of motion but more than a little resistant to the literal.

We’ll return to this in a bit.

First, calendar check!

“Today” is Halloween. Here’s our coping strategy…

But, today being Halloween means that tomorrow is All Saints Day and that gives me a chance to tell, once again, one of my favorite seminary stories.

Dr. Walter Brueggemann preaching in chapel on All Saints Day… After acknowledging that it was, perhaps, a bit outside the Reformed theology world view in which we were being “raised,” Walter said this:

The Saints are all those who believe for us on days when we can’t quite believe for ourselves.

Leaping a bit, but perhaps not so very far, we come to one of my personal Saints, a guy named Puddleglum.

For the for the uninitiated, Puddleglum is a Marsh Wiggle, who, with the Prince and some children, is 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, The Chronicles of Narnia

Now, I’ve loved this story for ages, but yesterday, in the midst of our retreat, I realized that part of the power is that Puddleglum is MOVING, even though anybody with half an ounce of sense knows it’s scary!

If you’ve been reading along for a bit, you know that I’m partial to questions. So, predictably, I asked a few in that retreat, which involved rather a lot of risking being the odd kid on my part.

One of those questions had to do with HOW we started putting what we were learning to work for us.

The answer, from Mellissa, our slightly quirky fearless leader, following in the footsteps of one of her biggest teachers, was GIRAFFE.

Really!

And then I got it. You see, the glimpse of the painting with which we began is known as Blossom and Aria. Aria is the Abundance Muse with the winged eye. Blossom is the mystical giraffe who appeared beside her in the last stages of the painting, despite the fact that I had no idea how or why to paint a giraffe.

Now I know more.

Specifically, that MOTION, now known as GIRAFFE, is the key to the abundance of body, mind, spirit, and community I so desire. I suspect it will take many kinds of motion. Today, I’m starting with dog brushing!

For now, may you feel your Saints believing for you, and believe for someone else.

ps… Lately, I’ve come to realize that Grandmothers are especially suited for Walter’s notion of being saints… of believing for our littles when they can’t quite believe for themselves!

You know how, before you set out on a journey, your head tends to spin with all kinds of thoughts and things to do? Well, this day has been like that!

The Journey is Legend. Like plane reservations and a safe place to stay, I’ve already begun in the sense of stocking up on paint, washing brushes from Insight, and beginning my journal.

My Muse, known these days as Charlotte, is ready! Ready enough that she had me out of bed at about 4:30 this morning, editing quiz questions and results descriptions. Charlotte doesn’t want anything to be missed while I’m wandering!

Eventually, she was content enough to be quiet while I snuck in a chair-nap.

I woke to about a ton of email, including a very exciting piece I’d been hoping for. Twelve new family members for my tree. (Several of my paintings are thrilled!)

It’s my Gramma Elsie’s family again. All four great-grandparents, 36 generations into the mists! One of them, a woman I know at the moment only as Leutgarde d’ Auvergne who was born in 935 CE. Really!

It boggles my mind!

And, clearly, I have some more exploring to do for I hear, thundering in the background of my awareness, Walter Brueggemann imploring me to, “Just tell the story!”

But, time out for a massage. Charlotte was almost as delighted as I was, for we cannot go adventuring if we’re not taking care of ourselves!

Jessica is amazing in all kinds of mystical energy ways. She’s also a gifted artist! (Stay tuned…)

Wandering through all this, the notion of medicine basket.

The photo is the non-traditional version which followed me home from Italy just about 3 years ago, along with a few other items essential to journeys like Legend.

In a way, a major contextual question of this moment in time is, What’s in our medicine baskets?

It’s not a new question. It is, perhaps, more urgent.

And, just between us, I’m grateful for a powerful journey that is happening in the relative safety of my studio, among the 4-footed angels.

There are many, many unknowns. What I do know is this… I’ll come home with more medicine for my basket.

In fact, I think I’ve already found the first bit.

When I was doing the chair-nap thing this morning, a lioness appeared and strongly suggested that she’d like to be included!

We shall see…

For now, Safe Journeys wherever they lead you and yours…

ps… if you’re looking for another journey option, here’s a fun one… fierceartwithheart! (You won’t need a big bag. We ship!)

I suspect the Weather Channel peeps are feeling like essential workers this summer.

Floods. Tornadoes. Hurricanes. Unprecedented heat waves. Fires.

I’m all for a welcome dose of rain pattering gently on the new metal roof, but this has not been that. In fact, for a huge part of the world, it’s been terrifying. And it’s touched a story that’s lived in my heart for a while.

Since the summer of 1989, to be exact.

I was Camp Nurse and Director2 for the Presbyteries of Orange and New Hope in North Carolina.

On that particular day, the kids – 100 or more of them – were out doing what kids do at Camp. Volley ball games. Sail boats. Arts & Crafts.

And then, as some of my Southern friends would say, “There come a storm”.

A tornado, to be exact.

The staff scrambled to get kids to the closest shelters. For about half of them, that meant the dining hall. My assignment on the emergency plan.

About three quarters of the kids were terrified. The others wanted to watch out the huge glass windows which was, of course, no place to be.

Step one: Get them all sitting in circles on the floor, far from windows. The littlest ones, under tables.

Step two: Prayer. It was, after all, church camp!

Step three: Something to do. We sacrificed some apples and oranges from the kitchen to use as balls for tossing around the circles. (And passed out some of the disgusting pink stuff known as “bug juice” so they’d have something to drink.)

Step four: As they started to calm, songs and stories.

The wind picked up some more. Branches and trees started falling nearby. A lawn chair flew by a window.

We sang louder.

Goin’ on a Squeegee Hunt is especially helpful for such a time! Especially the line that goes, “I’m not afraid!”

If you’re at all like me, the world has felt more than a bit like that stormy day all those years ago.

And most of us have had scared kids we love caught in the middle.

Grammy Camp starts Saturday!

Why?

Because there are things we can learn from each other, and realize in ourselves, to help those littles we love so much to ride out the days when there come a storm.

I’d be okay if we skipped the bug juice, but some skills for listening, for taking their fears seriously, and for not shaming or blaming them for being where they are would be a great start!

A medicine basket, if you will, helping to get conscious of what you have to offer in the midst of wherever they are.

And, in order to help them with their fears, we need help with our own!

Bandaids and M&M’s are not enough for these days!

Journaling and painting and sharing in circle work better for the Grandmother-Elder-Teacher- types. Even very brave Grandfathers!

In a moment I’m going to ask you to take action. Even if you’ve done it before and decided that now was not the time.

Now is the time.

And, due to a gift from a generous donor who knows how much this matters, the price has become more affordable.

There’s not much time left to choose. Hobby Parent and I are ready with a plan. A plan to worry less and help more.

Isn’t that what you need???

So, here it comes. Our request…

CLICK THIS THING!

ps… The resident Studio Angels have their camp t-shirts ready and they’re so hoping you’ll come, too!

pps… The art is my Work-in-Progress for today. (Which is a lot like all of us!) It began a year ago, when Congressman John Lewis passed… the stormy weather in my heart and in our world. Let’s look these storms in the eye and help our kids!

It has, as the old saying goes, been a bit of a day!

We’ll skip the early morning tree surgery next door and move on to the the fact that I had a massage appointment today. First time in 3 or 4 years! Part of the healing formerly scared muscles plan in Sunday’s not-quite-as-bizarre post.

This adventure occurred at home as I haven’t been driving much lately. (The whole brake thing feels really tricky!)

Fortunately, my new buddy, Jessica, had a Newfie when she was a kid and was thrilled to meet the official greeters. They, of course, were thrilled to meet her.

We did the brief history of all the scars, the allergies, and the positioning challenges with Phoebe sulking outside the door because there wasn’t room for her and the massage table.

Then, complete with aromatherapy, bird music, and some insights about Intentional Creativity®, I was reminded why massage can be a very good thing.

THEN, for reasons completely unknown, we wound up locked in the room where we’d been working.

Yep, locked in!

I didn’t even know there was a lock on the door.

Texting Bill brought no immediate rescue attempt from the basement and Jessica had more appointments scheduled.

Fortunately, there’s a drawer in that room with an odd collection of household tools that don’t have another place to live.

Hammer and screw driver in hand, I managed to get the hinge pin out of the top of the door. Bill arrived about then and somehow forced it open.

And, yes, I’ve already notified Greg, the fix-it-wizard, that his list just got a bit longer.

Here’s the thing, though, amidst all the weirdness.

While we were working, Jessica asked me about my girls and I told her that since the first moment I found out that the first granddaughter was on the way, my life has been changed.

Changed as in, I have two granddaughters growing up in this world and it could use a bit of work.

These days, more than a bit.

So, I had a chat with my Grammy-Sister-Art-Buddy, Hobby Parent, and, as part of our plans for Saturday’s workshop, we’re going to squeeze in a bit more really useful information and reduce the price.

You see, Saturday is the first anniversary of Congressman John Lewis’ passing, after serving 34 years in the US House of Representatives (D, GA-05). Lots of concerned Grandmothers, Elders, and other wise people are planning events across the US to encourage some Good Trouble, Lewis style.

And our workshop, Healing the World… starting with the Ones You Love is Good Trouble with paint!

Our kids… especially the teens and young adults, are facing unprecedented challenges and way too many of them are not making it. We can help. So, among lots of other cool things, we’ll be learning the three most crucial I am… statements we can help our kids learn. And we want you to be able to join us.

That’s the reason the new price, which is even lower than the early bird price was, is $134 for one or $234 for two.

Here’s the challenge!!!

I don’t know how to make the price change in the checkout process. I’ve emailed Veronica, the tech-wizard, and she’ll fix it as soon as she finds out I’m messing with the world again.

For now, CLICK HERE to read all the good stuff about when and why and what you’ll need. Share this with a friend. Maybe wait until Thursday morning to sign up. I promise we’ll make the money thing work!

Comment on the post or email me at suesvoice@gmail.com if you need help.

Our kids are counting on all of us. And Good Trouble is a good way to be!

ps… That’s Phoebe, up there, right under my feet, helping with the webinar last week. (Complete with toe licking!) She likes to help. And she’ll be sad if you’re not there! (Yes, I’m that committed!)

I have a rather bizarre story for you, today. One many of my medical and therapeutic – type buddies might actually declare, “not the way we’ve always done it”!

Frankly, I do too.

A year ago I finished my Motherboard certification which translates into Certified Intentional Creativity® Coach.

This was a journey which involved a whole bunch of a thing called MetaCognitive Drawing, as I learned it from Shiloh Sophia McCloud and a talented team of folks open to new things.

The operating definition is something pretty close to thinking about something while moving a pen and watching the pen move.

The process allows one to notice things which are “beyond” our day-to-day patterns of thinking.

There’s more, but first, a pause for a bit of history.

If you’ve been reading along for a while you will no doubt have noticed that I have rather more frequent than optimal challenges with joints and muscles and pain.

I won’t bore you with the details except to say be kind to your knees! I will say that I’ve spent a bunch of time, energy, and money trying to get things to hurt less.

Things have been different, lately. (Which is great if you’re into optimism… and not so good if nothing much is helping.)

Then, while working on some workshops about helping the teens and young adults we love, especially in this pandemic-impacted moment, I had a new thought!

I did such a good job of sheltering at home – read that isolating – that, in addition to not catching Covid, I lost a good bit of muscle strength. (Not that I had a whole lot to spare in the beginning…)

That new thought led – as new thoughts often do – to a few more new thoughts with a batch of questions tagging along.

I wrote out, like a story, what I was experiencing. I looked a bunch of things up online. (Really!) I called my doc and made an appointment.

He listened. And didn’t laugh… even when I explained that I had come to the conclusion that my muscles were afraid.

We checked some wild card things out and adjusted a few other things and made a plan, last Monday.

I called a dear friend and got a referral for a massage therapist.

Somewhere along the line, I mentioned to a Grammy buddy and Motherboard grad from this year, what I had realized about my muscles being scared. We did a short review of all the surgeries and falls, etc., etc. Then she offered to wander with me if I wanted to do a bit of MetaCognitive Drawing to see what else I might learn.

I did!

You kind of had to be there but here’s the punch line. After drawing a me out of a bunch of spirals, I was feeling way more hopeful. Then, I knew. I need to be as patient and hopeful and compassionate with my muscles as I was with Luther when he came to us so abused and terrified and then lost his vision. I needed to see me with my heart, just the way he sees the world.

Time out for tissues. For me.

And an update.

A med shift Mark and I hatched up is helping. My new massage buddy is coming to the house on Wednesday. (She’s an artist, too, and loves Newfies!) And, she’d heard of Intentional Creativity®

It turns out that, before Covid, she had plans to go help an old friend of hers with an IC retreat in Mexico.

My response was an immediate, “Emily Grieves”! And I was right. Emily is an amazingly talented IC sister.

Que the chorus of, It’s a small world, after all!

I can’t wait to see what happens when I explain to my new buddy that my muscles have been scared and my goal is to help them be less scared…

For this moment, back to workshop planning… you’re invited!

And let me know if you’d like to talk about drawing yourself a miracle…

ps… That’s Luther in the glimpse of my 2nd Legend painting, above.

pps… Many, many thanks to Gail Simon Darlington, Red Thread and Motherboard sister, extraordinaire!

Well, the good news is that Luther survived the warm-up fireworks last night without the need for CBD oil! For a guy with his history of abuse and trauma, that’s right up there in the land of miracles.

If you’re new around here, WELCOME! And Luther is the guy on the left, sporting the collar that reads blind dog. His sidekick, Phoebe, is – blessedly – the prize winner for chilled out Newfie.

Chilled out is exactly what we need around here, today.

Folk music marathon on YouTube. (Well, when I’m pushing the buttons!)

A huge meatloaf production project for dinner with lots of leftovers for the freezer. (Our version of fast food.)

Bunches of videos and worksheets in prep for a meeting to start bringing my Grandmother Quiz to life. Stay tuned!

Probably some more consultation with a new – and extremely talented – artist, face to face with her first commission and a really big canvas.

A couple of loads of laundry.

All of which is to say that we’re not likely to win the award for observing 4th of July traditions. And there’s part of me that is missing the fried chicken and potato salad that were dependable parts of this day when I was a kid.

Fortunately our friend, Josh, who owns The Corner Pub, is planning to observe National Fried Chicken Day which is, apparently, a thing that happens on July 6th. We’re planning to help!

For today, though, a question. It’s not an easy question. It is one that helps me focus, especially in times like this. You already know what it is.

I have a new answer this year.

Healing.

Yep, healing.

Wherever and however we can.

And right now, in a world of many things I can’t much change, my plan is (Wait for it!) ART.

Well, not exactly art, but INTENTIONAL CREATIVITY®. The process of using our whole beings to envision that which we need or were born to express or to teach.

And, very soon now, you’ll have a chance to join in for one, or two, or all three of the experiences my IC Sister, Hobby Parent, and I are busy creating. In fact, you can click HERE to find everything you need to know for a free webinar designed to deal with HOW that healing happens!

For this moment, our prayers for you are peace, freedom, dignity, and whatever else you need to do what you believe. Blessings, Sue, Phoebe, and Luther

ps… If you know any cool folks who relate to the Grandmother Archetypes, Hobby and I would be thrilled if you’d share this with them. They’re invited, too!