Try Something New

What do you think?  My husband forwards emails from the magazine, Cloth, Paper, Scissors, a mixed media magazine I adore. He gets the email because the subscription is one of my Christmas gifts.  I have every issue…it is that good.  The last email really was a keeper, another synchronous event. I want to share Dave Matthew’s quote and Carrie Schmitt’s poem because they can support us in any new adventure along our Sage-ing journey. See what you think.

 Shared Hesitancy at Trying Something New

I was having a daily conversation with a friend who has been a witness and sometimes reluctant participant in my workshops who identified why she doesn’t jump into art. She says, “I am too timid and too rigid.”  Me, too, and yet I muddle on. 

Dave Matthews once said, "You've gotta try something new every once in a while."

 

How To Become An Intuitive Artist by Carrie Schmitt

You wake up one day and want to be an artist. You wish you could go back to school and study art.
You wonder, "Is it too late to start again?"
You discover talented self-taught artists online that are living boldly on their terms.
You want to do that.
You discover intuitive painting, which is about freeing the creativity within.
You put paint to canvas. Timidly. You try to embrace the qualities of intuitive painting--not to judge what is happening on the canvas, not to have self-doubt, to trust the process, to let go of inhibition and restraint.
You judge what is happening on the canvas.
You doubt everything you are doing.
You think this process is for special artsy types with spiky purple hair, tattoos, and combat boots.
You don't know how to let go. You've been holding on to so much for so long.
You keep painting anyway. You stumble through the beginner's shaky rite of passage. The rough patches. The unsophisticated muck. You scratch the surface of what might be possible with time.
You sense the wild within you, but it is stuck. You start to remember this long ago silenced self. You wonder how to get this out of you.
You get frustrated. You think you can't do it. You keep going.
You have so much to unlearn.
You unlearn "I am not creative."
You unlearn "Only a few special people are artists."
You unlearn "I am not good enough."
You learn to trust.
Trusting yourself means believing in yourself, means loving yourself, means caring for yourself, means your world just flipped upside down.
Because caring for your whole self-mind, body, and spirit--becomes essential. You are a sacred vessel from which creativity flows.
You are sacred.
You create. Over and over. Each time unraveling. Visiting the layers of your self. Diving deeper, your heart swells. There are sensations of light, fire, bursting, shifting, cracking, floating, flowing.
You paint what has never existed before.
You awaken parts of you that never existed before.
Your intuition grows stronger.
The wild in you begins to emerge. You are coming home to yourself.
You feel your power.
You start to see beauty and possibility everywhere. Within. Without.
You let go.
There is softness in the surrender.
You unfold. You let things out. You reclaim the parts of yourself that you love. You forgive the ones that you don't. You thank them for what they have taught and toss them out with the paint water.
You let the lines blur.
You let the paint guide you.
You let go.
You finish the painting.
You start again.
Carrie Schmitt is an artist who celebrates the beauty of flowers using an intuitive painting process. Her book, Painted Blossoms: Creating Expressive Flower Art with Mixed Media, teaches the art techniques and soulful practices that allow her joy to find expression on canvas.

 How about you?

Is there something you would like to try but intimidates you. I conclude that in a few years we can become an expert…OK…or a good-enough expert, with the knowledge explosion on the Web, text, Webinars, and YouTube videos…and, of course, all sorts of e-communication I have probably not discovered.  The photo is of the beginning of a mixed media piece on canvas board, a big step for me to experiment with Golden texture products. I plan to add some text and I just don’t know what yet…but at least I have glitter in the paint!!!!!!!!!!

 More

A favorite quote: "The enemy of the good is the better."  ("Better is the enemy of the good." Attributed to Voltaire)

 

Visit www.clothpaperscissors.com for free e-books, free webinars and a plethora of other resources if art sounds appealing

Search www.google.com for anything you want to learn how to do. Type as many words as you like to get specific resources

Upon Early Morning Awakening

I woke up at 2:30 this morning, way earlier than my usual early morning and was moved to pick up my knitting, wanting to meet my goal of finishing my first sweater. OK, I have been working on it for several years. Seems like I need to feel like I am finishing something.

Daily Inspiration

In between rows I went online to find a daily inspirational message. This one is from the Daily Word, based on new thought. I have daily spiritual readers from a variety of faiths and pick up what comes to the surface of my pile of “stuff” beside my chair. Today’s reading is “Curiosity: As I open to life, my good is limitless.” It talks about photographers moving all around, crawling, stretching, to capture a different perspective. Isn’t that we are called to do at this time of life? To approach life with curiosity and wonder rather than worry? Photography seems to keep popping up in my life just now and I take pictures frequently with my handy smart phone so this reference seems timely…more synchronicity…no accidents in the universe…pay attention…OK, already.

Shifting Perception through Reframing

That reframe is something I offered in keynotes, to reframe worry to wonder. Rather than “Oh, how can I ever get everything done today,” thinking “I wonder what today will bring.” And as for reframing, yesterday I had my weekly prayer call with a friend. Most Tuesday mornings since 1995, she and I catch up, share our concerns, share prayer requests, and pray aloud for each other. It has been a mainstay for me.  So…her prayer for me was an ultimate reframe I am still pondering.

For many months I have had a cough and what seems to be allergy symptoms. Pills and sprays, etc, don’t seem to help much, so I have switched to less chemical approaches and still seem to be carrying cough drops in my pocket. She prayed for my willingness, gratitude and to see this all as a blessing, that God is mighty in his presence. So what does that mean? Perhaps, that I stay open, see where this takes me, reflect on its meaning and trust in God, that I maintain a non-anxious presence with myself, that I move from worry to curiosity, perhaps. Yes, I have the name of a good Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist I am going to try, but, for this moment, I am called to let go of my angst and trust. Christine Valters Paintner reframes chronic illness as a pilgrimage.

Just like when I wake up early. My father was always looking for a medication to help him sleep. I have found it seems God speaks to me in the morning, whispering for me to get up with a new insight, a new energy for a book I am writing or a talk I am preparing. I grumble a bit but not for long. I turn on the coffee, settle in, and write or ponder, or today, knit, as I am called to do without worrying about not getting enough sleep. I can take a nap later if need be or go back to bed after a few hours if I get sleepy. Being worried or angry about not sleeping is not productive.

This is a time in life when several of my good friends are struggling with their shift in energy and their purpose at this time in life. I struggle, too. How do we use our gifts in a way that honors our body? What part does attitude play in our angst?

I looked up the metaphysical meaning of cough which turns out to be “wanting to bark at the world.” Really?????  OK, so as a psychiatric nurse I always ask myself what does a symptom mean? Is this all in my head? Why do I continue to cough when my lungs are clear and allergy meds don’t work? Barking to be noticed, the reference continues. Yes, I was noticed more when I was on the road speaking. What extravert doesn’t love a good spot of attention, but what do I need now? How do I continue to be vital and contribute in a new way?

I have finished my prep for the talk I give this week on Origami as a Spiritual Practice. I am excited to be teaching something I love, only having to drive 10 miles rather than take an all-day flight, yet am toying with submitting this topic for a national nursing conference. I “wonder” if I will do that. Perhaps I will wake up early with an answer.

For now, I am glancing over at the 10 origami crane wreaths I am making for Christmas gifts…the first time in years that I have made Christmas gifts, celebrating that I taught myself how to do it from an online video. Note the picture has a professional looking white title…did that myself with a photo app!!!

More:

Visit www.dailyword.org for a daily inspirational quote and scripture.

Visit www.abbeyofthearts.com , transformative living through contemplative and expressive arts.

A book I am working with now, Paintner CV: The soul of a pilgrim: Eight practices for the journey within, Notre Dame, IN, 2015, Sorin Books.

 

Origami as a Spiritual Practice…life-long learning and sharing and…ah…a Maslow Peak Moment

Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding which can become an encouragement to prayer and meditation. As we learn to fold a paper crane or other origami form and fold them over and over, our fingers are occupied without needing to think about the folding. Our mind is freed for prayer or meditation.

In my work as an expressive arts facilitator in end-of-life care in hospice, I folded cranes prayerfully for patients and families. I taught them to fold cranes, too, encouraging them to think of a word or scripture or blessing we could write on the wing of a crane. We hung them with wire and beads, perhaps, on a fan pull in a hospice room or a bulletin board in a patient room in long-term care.

One grandmother who I visited in her home set the goal to fold one for each of her grandchildren before she died, a task she happily completed. One daughter asked me to write the word “patience” on a crane for her as she tended her mother. When I needed to cope with my own grief at the loss of a patient, I would fold a crane mindfully to honor the transition, and hang it from my car rearview mirror until the Florida sun faded it, helping me to honor this person and the sacred nature of the work.

Life-long Learning

Folding an origami crane was something I had tried for years to accomplish using Japanese books with pictures. Finally I found online written instructions that accompanied pictures and was able to master this seemingly daunting task. Now there are YouTube videos to smooth the path.

As our comfort with online learning increases, it seems the possibilities for life-long learning are legion. Dipping our toe in that water, having a savvy friend on call or the nerve to ask questions over and over of any online or real person source who might help is key…OK and persistence and the spiritual challenge of dealing with frustration.

Sharing our Gifts

Today I prepare to teach women in a Catholic church to fold origami hearts as a prayer practice, perhaps with healing intention, perhaps as a gift to demonstrate that someone is cared for, prayed for, and well loved.  I found several articles on origami and spirituality/prayer. I read about knitting as a spiritual practice knowing that process works in a similar way.  We can write a prayer or a blessing inside the paper, on the heart, or simply pray as we fold.

And THEN there is Pinterest and I am off clicking and emailing links for future reference…and I feel it in my chest…a Maslow Peak Moment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_experience  (Yes, I know Wikipedia is not an academic source but can still serve us with discernment.

I find a wreath made of origami cranes I know I need to try and a crane mobile that might work with some dye-cut spiral paper I found.

Ebbs and Flows…and maybe fewer Peak Moments

And, for me, a fear of not having those grand rushes of excitement about learning or doing something new is one of my concerns about the Elder years. I realize I love to teach and need to honor that longing and do what it takes to keep on doing that in whatever form presents itself, despite that, “When-are-you-ever-going-to-retire” conversation that springs up occasionally.  I am still claiming the notion of “refirement” rather than “retirement.”  My prayer is for God to continue to offer me paths to share my gifts and at a pace that can be joyful.

Do you have something to look forward to?

Do you have an interest that needs to be explored? If you do not and feel like a person who “used to be someone,” then I encourage you to explore the process of Sage-ing. The tools for re-contextualizing your life to harvest its meaning and wisdom can support your path to living more joyfully in the present moment even if that moment looks a bit different that it did in your 40’s.

More

Visit http://sage-ing.org/  

Better Living Through Accessorizing

That’s been a motto of mine for a long time and always gets a good laugh from friends and the women in audiences. So what does that really mean? Another way of reframing the elder years, perhaps, and yet something I have long espoused…

We were at Tractor Supply a week ago. I thought I was just doing my husband a favor by hanging out in a favorite spot of his and I ended up with a rather large bag of things I couldn’t live without including a pair of shiny red flowered shoes, sort of the shoe part of those rubber boots with polka dots and other lovely patterns that a Florida girl cannot justify purchasing. But a shoe version, and on sale for $9, who could resist? So now when we are in the rain I can still have fun with dry feat and a fashion flair.

Lighten up!

I visited a friend this week, my first Sage-ing® co-facilitator. We completed the training together, did our internship together and early on as we were steeped in the content with a large dose of seriousness, we quipped that we needed to develop our “shallow selves.”  And we do tend to take ourselves too seriously sometimes. Do you know what I mean?

She has 15 years more life experience than I do and offers me a perspective on coping with chronic illness by weaving a tapestry of strategies from contemplative readings to the ritual of frothing the milk for her coffee in the morning. She leans toward conservative clothing and I have teased her into adding big earrings to her wardrobe. I shop at the beach for shell earrings and keep her stocked.  We both wear red lipstick as an essential pop for life.

Concerns about meaning-making and living in the moment and making special are at my very core and as a Myers-Briggs ENTP, have always been. Yet when I shake myself out of the Do-I-do-enough blues, I come back to center and reframe my life with humor and the desire to dress like myself no matter how old I am. OK, shoes need to be more comfortable these days so I buy ones I dub “so ugly they are cute.” Let’s see if I can get these two shoe pictures inserted here as I remember the magnet on my balance scale in the bathroom that reads, “If you can’t lose it, decorate it.”  OK…sometimes you do just need to chuckle at life’s challenges.

More:

Another motto: “If I can laugh at it, I can cope with it.”

Sara Davidson wrote a recent book from interviews of Reb Zalman's coping in his 80’s, the December years described in Sage-ing. I read it and sent one to my friend. It is The December project: An extraordinary rabbi and a skeptical seeker confront life’s greatest mystery.

News Flash: Elder not defeated by technology

Just figured out how for you to be able to follow my blog.  Now at the top of the page there is a place to enter your email, a box has you enter the "are you a real person" letters on the screen, then you respond to a verifying email.

We are no longer sure about "No pain, no gain" in the world of exercise but somehow it seems to apply when an elder (my nursing book publisher prefers "older adult") journeys through the e-world.

It is amazing how many words Google can respond to in a search. So...an hour or so, some time last night, some early this morning and I got it!!!!!!!!!!!   Too, this is all is good practice for learning to cope with frustration.

Our son, Erin, is visiting and he is my technology consultant. He is lying on the couch offering suggestions..."You should post that you figured out how people can follow you." (Check!) "You should Tweet and use Instagram. (Yikes! Ok, somewhere I did set up a Twitter account and wonder if I put that password in my list, but what is Instagram anyway? He's on a roll now.)

"You should contact the nursing schools who have adopted your text and try to arrange to speak....how about Hawaii or Aruba?" (Hmmm...now there's an idea. I love the energy and passion of our children and how they really can sleep late, lie on the couch and offer suggestions without coffee.)

AND---here is a photo collage using the app I mentioned in an earlier post. I couldn't figure out how to add the photo that was so big--figured out how to make images smaller.

We were at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY.  The text explains  they string bird feathers on fishing line on windows to keep the birds from being injured. I am dazzled by close-up photos of flowers with my camera phone...not so many years ago I wouldn't even have noticed.

Practice Gratitude

Happy Birthday, Jim, for whom I am truly grateful. We understand intellectually that every day is a gift. We hear about living in the moment and being present for one another and for ourselves, but at this time of life we come to really “get it.” 

Six years ago we found our children and ourselves crowded into a hospital room sending Jim off to surgery for a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). They would let us know when he was put on and taken of the bypass machine. A quadruple, seems in cardiac rehab one is known by how many. I sat in the dark one night in his room, knitting an afghan/prayer shawl, loving but misshapen token of my affection for him and a self-soothing practice for my anxiety. I wanted to write an article, “Knitting in the dark and other coping strategies of the nurse wife of a CABG.”  Note to self: you have to keep your sense of humor.

And so now we are truly grateful. Robert Emmons’s book, How the new science of gratitude can make you happier, speaks to the health benefits of gratitude. A simple practice with profound results, starting or ending your day bringing to mind things for which you are grateful or keeping a gratitude journal can really bring you back to center.

So there is he is still standing, coffee in hand at a chuck wagon dinner after a buffalo safari by jeep. Here is the birthday card I made him which is sitting on the table where there is an Avengers happy birthday banner strung so  he can see it as soon as he gets up. Making special is part of what I do and have always done to honor those I love. Now I am grateful for each day I have to do that.

But notice the word, practice. This does take practice. I was on the phone with a big telephone company whose name I shall tastefully omit, after 4 times of them not getting it right, maybe demonstrating a tiny bit of frustration….when Jim says no need to let this make you angry and spoil your day. Now this is a reframe for him, my glass-half-empty kinda guy. We are helping each other shift our attitude, keep things in perspective…part of the Sage-ing journey to live in the now. And so, Happy Birthday, Jim, for whom I am truly grateful.

More:

 “Ten ways to become more grateful” from Emmons’s work at:

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/ten_ways_to_become_more_grateful1/  

To create a Word Cloud like Jim’s birthday card visit www.wordle.net