Jonathan McCloud

WIP Wednesday… this week!

Posted on April 3, 2019by sue boardman

In the land of Intentional Creativity, Wednesdays are Work-in-Progress days. A time to reflect on where we are and, often, to share a glimpse with the community.

In the land of Sue, Wednesdays are also blog days.

I have this apparently bizarre notion that I will leave space in my calendar so that getting a blog done doesn’t wind up feeling rushed or exhausting.

Sometimes it works!

Sometimes, though, Wednesdays come after rather intense Tuesdays.

Yesterday’s Tuesday was great in the sense of good friends and lots of painting. And hours of leaping the studio angels! I got pretty tired in a good way, but tired all the same.

This morning, when I noticed all three dogs laying in the hallway, I decided to wander through the studio to the kitchen in search of one of my favorite sunny yellow mugs with lemon and hot water.

(I hate to admit it, but I’m sleeping lots better since I’ve backed way off the tea again!)

The face in the painting pictured above was basically the last thing I saw last night and the first thing I saw this morning. Fortunately, the light was good for getting some photos just then.

I often see something new when I look at my work through the eye of my camera.

This time, I realized that I had been dreaming about her.

Some of you will recognize her as my Codex painting, moon 7-9. For the rest of you, she’s almost 7 moons finished in a 13 moon journey with a world-wide group of artists. The tricky part???

We have no idea what comes next or where the paint journey is going. (Though I suspect the inner journey won’t actually end!)

Here’s what I can tell you. The face you see represents the inner Observer we all have but aren’t necessarily well acquainted with. Her job is to give us a place outside our old stories and immediate experience from which to watch what’s unfolding. Rather, as I’ve always imagined, like an owl in a tree. To notice and wonder and, perhaps, to learn new and helpful things for understanding where we are and envisioning where we want to be.

From the unknown consciousness where myth and imagination live, through what we were taught to be, often in order to exist, in whatever enmeshed systems we encountered, to the personas we became, to the crafted, or curated, beings still developing from our experiences and intentional choices, our Observer helps us to see more clearly and choose according to our deepest, and ever-shifting, awareness.

I met my Observer 20 or so years ago in my hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming journey.

Now, with the brilliant help of Shiloh Sophia, Jonathan McCloud, and the Intentional Creativity community, it feels as though she has moved from high in the tree to deep inside me. It’s amazing!

Last night, she surprised me yet again with her insistence on the bright yellow drips of paint that surround her.

What do they mean? I’m not totally sure yet but it feels like it has something to do with busting out of the box! (And something this Grammy needs to spend some time contemplating!)

For this moment, while my friends, imaginary and real, are hopping up and down to join the conversation, Sarah would like you to know that she was very, very cooperative for her chiropractic treatment today and that Luther made it back into the library to hang with Maren, our new dog Auntie. Phoebe, of course, showed up too, hoping for treats even though she didn’t have to twist and pop.

I, on the other hand, had the odd sense while we were working that a portion of my Observer’s wisdom lives in these three dogs. (This is not official teaching… just truth.)

For now, we all took a vote and decided that a nap was in order. Sarah’s taking hers in the bathtub!

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

Being Fed

Posted on October 7, 2018by sue boardman

About two weeks ago, a miracle came into my life, suddenly, as miracles often do.

I was offered an opportunity to join a group of Intentional Creativity sisters, none of whom I’d ever met in person, on a retreat to Florence, Italy. (Or, Firenza, if you prefer, which means City of Flowers.)

There was much hustling and bustling at our house, and a considerable amount of counting on fingers and toes, to make this whole adventure possible.

An adventure known as a “retreat” designed for encountering the wisdom of the Holy Mother.

We are painting, of course. Or we will be on Saturday, having seen some of the stunning spiritual, artistic, and cultural sites of Florence on Friday, and walked through the amazing city enough for my knees to not-so-gently remind me that I might be pushing my luck just a bit.

There was a great deal of soul-feeding going on.

There has also been a bit of body-feeding going on, which, when done really well, is soul-feeding as well.

First, let me admit that virtually my entire grasp of the French and Italian languages comes from watching Food Network. (Which is totally inadequate in airports!) Fortunately, we are blessed with the super-historian and magnificent Chef Jonathan McCloud among us!

We have, it seems, arrived in one of the local food capitols of the world. Balsamic vinegar, olives, wines, stunning black tomatoes, fabulous bitter greens. Local cheeses and olive oil practically flowing from the fountains.

And, perhaps most amazingly of all for one who has been largely grain free for a couple of years, pasta.

Well, duh! I mean, we’re in Italy.

This, however, is no big box store, back-home pasta. According to Jonathan, it is made silky and delicate, from locally grown wheat which is naturally low in gluten (gluten not being a major structural necessity for pasta as it is, say, bread) and grown as it has been through the centuries without genetic modifying and chemical this and that to keep it from spoiling.

You don’t have to keep it from spoiling when you make it and serve it the same day!

Last night, handmade tagliatelle, simply dressed with local fennel and onions, a smidge of crushed pistachio nuts and divine olive oil, beside an abundance of green salad blessed with local balsamic vinegar, all with the slightest tang of real, local, raw milk cheese.

And as we ate, we told stories. Stories of our first recollections of The Holy Mother. Stories which, in their wild diversity, brought us closer into community, as good stories and good food have always done.

Despite some technical challenges, I’ll have more stories and more images, I’m sure.

For this moment let me say that I completely get that most of you, for a great many postmodern, first world reasons, will not be whipping up some homemade pasta for dinner tonight.

I do believe, though, that it matters deeply for us to know both our food traditions and our stories and our images. To touch the spiritual base of all our peoples when we can.

Not legalistically. Not to prove, as Shiloh Sophia would remind us, that we are believers (or grandmothers!) enough.

But to be fed, deeply and cosmically, of who we are so that we might more intentionally choose what makes us whole and share it with the ones we love.

With blessings, and just a spot of stove envy, from Italia!

Contemplations Grandmothers

An hour…well invested!

Posted on August 15, 2018by sue boardman

Not so long ago, I began experimenting with the notion of investing money, rather than spending it.

This shift turned out to be a pretty good example of what my hypnosis/NLP friends would call a one step reframe.

One step as in — boom! — new thought — new language — major new experience.

Then, as such reframes are known to do, it began to shift other things.

Before too long, I was experimenting with investing time as well as money.

Now, just between us, it usually only feels like one step. Generally, there’s a non-conscious lead-up to a reframe like this that works a bit like trick-or-treating.

We wander about our lives, collecting experiences and stories and comments in a non-conscious sort of way. Then, one day, the boom! happens.

And, if we look back, sometimes we can see hints of how it came to be.

One of those hints, in this case, was a conversation in my PRISM painting class about acting in integrity with our values.

There were, undoubtedly, other hints along the way. Use your imagination.

For today, let me tell you about investing an hour (and $79.00) this morning.

I went to the DeKalb International Farmers Market. Here’s what I came home with:

An hour of intentional walking. Complete with air-conditioning! And a bit of strength training.

Six bags of produce. Mostly leafy green things. Mainly for the 2-footed peeps.

Three bags of prizes for the raw-fed beasties. Including a major score of grass-fed beef hearts at $2.99 a pound!

One small basket of fabulous organic black mission figs, which are one of those gifts from heaven sort of things that must be celebrated.

A plan for lunch. (Hint…figs!)

Some organic walnuts.

And, a wedge of raw milk Manchego, which is a sheep’s milk cheese imported from Spain, that goes by the name of Don Quixote’s horse. (How cool is that???)

Not to mention, several encounters of the peace-making variety.

Sign language conversations with the guy unloading avocados and the one stacking gorgeous rainbow carrots in a bin.

An actual verbal conversation, which also included a lot of bowing, with the man who weighed all the various poultry parts the dogs love. His name tag said he spoke French, English, Arabic, and another language that started with a “T” that I didn’t even recognize.

And, it was a great day for waving at babies!

Waving at babies is a major part of my plan for peace on Earth.

That, and eating real food.

And helping to employ the immigrant community nested around my neighborhood.

All of which turned out to be an amazing opportunity to act on a whole lot of my values in an hour flat, and come home with the grace of figs.

Should you happen to encounter some figs where you live, slice them in half the long way.

Drizzle with the best balsamic vinegar you have. (Preferably the syrup-y kind!)

Sprinkle with a combination of freshly ground red and black pepper and just a smidge of good sea salt.

They really go well with the Manchego.

And, they’re also delightful roasted, cut side down, in a cast iron skillet. Preferably one you’re cooking lamb chops in!

That’s a fantasy for another day.

For today, an hour. Really well invested!

Art Journey Contemplations Grandmothers

Oddly Quiet

Posted on June 17, 2018by sue boardman

Lightning bugs flicker in the gathering dusk while the big dogs amble in from the yard.

It’s an oddly quiet moment in the urban jungle.

It’s been an oddly quiet day, as well.

A day for settling in. For changes to take hold.

Bill, just back from a week in Seattle, is doing the time zone thing and trying to catch up on some much-needed rest.

The fur kids are re-adjusting to a two human household with about three times the moving around to keep track of.

We had a bit more furniture to move.

Fine-tuning huge progress over the last few weeks.

I have three paintings rolling around in my head (and dreams!) and much new learning to find space for.

And, somewhere deep inside me, an inner voice is chanting an old Quaker saying I may have mentioned about 42 times lately:

In order to learn, we must be willing to be changed.

Perhaps it’s the news.

Or my most recent encounters with Quantum physics.

Or even a shift in the dogs’ energy levels.

Heat?

Better Feng shui?

Or just getting used to this world rather than the ones from which they came?

I don’t know. It might be a shift in me.

I’m clearer about what I’m trying to accomplish, which helps a whole lot in trying to explain it to them!

I can feel my perspective getting bigger.

A willingness, as my new friend, Jonathan McCloud, would say, to allow for more possibilities.

New language for my experience and my questions. For my hopes and my dreams.

Soon, there will be some new language around here. Not different so much as bigger. Clearer, I hope. More current.

And some reflections on how it’s all happening.

Kind of like spots for next season’s TV!

I hope you’ll stay tuned and invite your friends along. We’ve got some growing to do.

For tonight, there is more processing to do.

More being willing to be changed.

Not to mention dog food to thaw and dishes to do.

And lightning bugs to watch.

Don’t they just wonder you?