I do, indeed, hear your question!
And if you’re relating to more than one Intentional Grandmother Archetype, you’re not alone!
Many of us had more than one Grammy-teacher when we were growing up. I was blessed with two grandmothers who loved me. One of them had strong Artisan tendencies, though I doubt she would have known or claimed the word. The other was, perhaps, more Protector, and there was a whole lot of protecting that needed doing in that part of the family.
There was also lots of context going on for my Gramma Elsie and Granny Elizabeth.
Elsie was a mid-western farm girl who raised 6 kids and 2 orphaned nephews while baking 40 loaves of bread a week on a wood stove and selling eggs for college funds. Grandpa Frank died in a tragic freight train accident when my dad, their youngest, was sixteen. Dad lied about his age and ran away a year later to join 3 of his brothers in the military.
Elizabeth was more of a city girl with a flock of family to “mom” after her mother died about the time my mom and a herd of grandkids were born. At one point, she moved to “the home place” to keep house for her dad, while looking after a differently able brother for most of his life.
I mention these details because I’ve realized, in all my studies, that what’s going on in the world has a huge impact on what’s going on inside us and in how we cope…
And none of it’s right or wrong. It’s just there and we’re all doing the best we can. The current moment in history is nothing if not proof of that.
My deepest hope is that the Field Guide will become a resource… another way of knowing.
In fact, there are many ways of knowing! And, since I don’t know how you process things, yet, I thought you might enjoy exploring our field of Intentional Grandmothers with some help from my old friends, the Neuro-Linguistic Programming wizards who would remind us that…
There are three primary processing patterns common in humans:
Kinesthetic, which means movement and feeling – both touch and emotional
Visual, which includes things which we see – optically and in our imagination
Auditory/digital, which includes sounds and words – read, spoken, or written
As the theory goes, we all have a primary – or first move – tendency and a strong secondary backup mode. I like to think about the third as kind of a growing edge.
I’ll use me for an example. I’m a primary kinesthetic with a very strong auditory/digital backup who’s leaning into the formerly fuzzy land of images.
What about you? I’d love for you to email me with your noticings at suesvoice@gmail.com
Now, here’s the BEST part of all that science stuff.. our beloved littles all process the world in these ways, too! And now we can see all their wonders and help them know more!
ps… check out FierceArtWithHeart for some posters and mugs and other goodies to remind you of why you and all this matters. Also mugs and t’s for little ones!