Okay, I accept that there are people coping with these days by binge watching CNN. If you’re anything like me, though, there’s only so much of what passes for “news” that you can absorb.
There’s a reason for that, and it has to do with filters, but that’s a story for a different day.
In the meantime, I’m depending on Grey’s Anatomy binges and at least three episodes of The West Wing each day. Kind of like extra vitamin C! (And colloidal silver and selenium and… Well, you get the drift!)
I do my prayer knitting meditations while voices that are familiar, and rarely openly maniacal, mutter away in the background. It helps distract the beasties from the need to bark at every bird flapping its way past the window!
And, yes, I realize that praying while knitting winter scarves when it’s 70 F. and headed up outside may seem a bit counter-intuitive. But, it will (probably) get cold again before we’ve solved the homelessness challenges in our world and, as you might have guessed, I ordered Pride colored yarn for June!
Last night, though, I took a break of a different sort.
A painting journey called Meridian. A preview, in a sense, of Shiloh Sophia’s new Artifact adventure in medicine painting.
Now is a really good time for me and medicine painting. It also appears to be time for lots of things to hurt. Mostly my left shoulder and hip.
It’s hard to have a concrete answer for why. Less than helpful genetics, according to my primary care doc, who’s into DNA things.
In a lot of ways, it really doesn’t matter why. What matters is what to do with it.
I am, as you’ve no doubt noticed, open to things I didn’t learn in nursing school. Like the gentle shoulder yoga class a dear friend sent me. I’m working on it!
Clean food. Minimal chemicals. Prayer. And paint! (At the moment, it helps that I’m right-handed!)
Meridian was amazing. And, yes, that’s a glimpse of what happened, above.
The bigger thing was the inner journey which is probably not all that surprising. For me, the question went something like:
What would happen if we believed that the pain could be different?
(I’m not at all sure that’s what Shiloh asked, but it was my inquiry and all important paintings in the land of Intentional Creativity® start with one of those.)
My shoulder isn’t miraculously all healed – read that pain free – today, but it’s better than it was before I painted.
I’m still hung up on the question, though in a bigger sense.
What would happen if we believed that the world could be different?
You name the pain. Racial trauma. Covid-virus. Global warming. Self-serving politicians. Domestic violence. Children in pain. Voter suppression. Hunger…
What would happen if we believed that it could be different?
I don’t know what the answers are. I don’t know what your answers are. I do know this:
If we act like we believe “it” can be different, a whole lot more will happen!
So, I’m going to do some more medicine painting. And record the demo for my SuperPower SelfPortraits process. And read a book called My Grandmother’s Hands…Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies, by a guy named Resmaa Menakem. (It showed up yesterday!) And knit some more prayer scarves. (The smaller size makes them hurt less to knit than big shawls!)
But, first, I have a Soulful Vision Plan to finish. You see, there are a couple more old friends whispering in my ear just now.
The guy named Steve Glenn who taught me that:
If a teenaged child has five adults who will listen to them and take them seriously and not shame them or blame them for their questions, that child is practically immune from ever attempting suicide.
Steve has graciously consented, at least in my mind, for me to add a few words to his list:
help them to find and claim their SuperPowers
If you’re curious, it goes right after take them seriously! And I still want to be one of those five people!
Then there’s another friend whispering in my ear. A guy named Walter Brueggemann who taught me about believing for others on days they can’t quite believe for themselves.
Perhaps having really smart friends is one of my SuperPowers! I’m pretty sure that now is a good time for listening!
ps… There’s more stuff about being there for the kids you love in my book, Grandmothers Are In Charge Of Hope
Dear dear Walter. He preached at my church a lot when he lived in Cincinnati. I miss his wisdom. ALOT.
Walter came to Columbia Seminary just about the same time I did, Frances, and I feel very blessed to have had so much time to listen and learn. I had no idea that some of what I learned from him would make such a difference in my Intentional Creativity journey! Let’s keep planting!!!