Bring the Rain

I have been thinking about rain, partly because of the weather report, and partly because of the analogy to life and blessing. I have always loved the gentle sound of rain on the roof. The sound brings a tranquil sense of relaxation.

But rain also infers the idea of cleansing and renewal. So in a literal sense the rain is good for the earth. In a figurative sense the rain is a part of the life cycle. But when rain is in over abundance as it has been this year we see flooding, errosion, and problems unwanted.

So the only words I have are these – Bring the rain. I am ready for it, and i know that whatever falls from the hand of God is going to be good, if for this season it seems challenging.

May we draw closer to the lord this year, and as the song says – bring me anything that brings you glory!

The Gates of the Year

I found this several years ago, and the words spoke to me.
May it bless you as it did me:

The Gate of the Year’

I said to the man, who stood at the gate of the year
Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown’
And he replied ‘Go out into the darkness
and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light
and safer than a known Way’.

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God,
trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills
and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still:
What need our little life, our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?

In all the dizzy strife
of things both high and low,
God hideth his intention.

God knows. His will Is best.
The stretch of years which wind ahead,
so dim to our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears are premature;
In Him all time hath full provision.

Then rest; until God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
our minds shall fill.
….Minnie Louise Haskins

Music motivations

Another video caught my attention…. and i could not resist posting this one too. How encouraging.

Looking forward to lunch

Almost 4 decades ago there were three junior high girls that became friends… sharing a love for reading, and art, and chess. We were almost inseperable… in every class together, spendng time on the phone together, and spending time after school.

Flash forward 4 decades and you need to know that the three of us each went seperate ways. One of us moved away before high school, and each of us scattered to the wind, losing touch with each other for these 4 decades.

Two of us have reconnected several years ago, and keep up with occassional lunches and emails. The third of us recently discovered us on facebook and the result is lunch this thursday. Wow…. that should be an interesting time filled with memories, and stories of the life span between those moments 40 years ago and now. I am looking forward to that time, and wondering what it will hold.

And quietly i am amazed that each of us has wanted to reconnect with each other. That friendship, that bond of fourty years ago, was something of value, of treasure, of purpose to a formative part of our lives. I hope we can pick up the friendship and move forward again as adult friends.

i will keep you posted.

Art as a life’s work

I admire those who began their work career jumping headlong into one profession, knowing they were designed for that purpose, and carefully honed their education and training to do this. I am not of that ilk.

My life has been a grand adventure with a series of course corrections, reinventions… and all wrapped in the pursuit of purpose, and the desire to be satisfied that my gifts and talents are used.

My life of this past year has been another course correction, and change of purpose and use. I am slowly building a lovely business that utilizes the artist within… hand dyed silk done in the Japanese style known as Shibori. It is quite a fascinating process and I never quite know the exact outcome of the colors and designs. It is a great joy and surprise to unwrap and untie the silk when the dye has dried… and there it is.. the pattern emerges, and the dye surprises me with unexpected patterns, or color blends. Always amazing to me.

I began my art gypsy career by upcycling plastic grocery bags into handbags, and totes… and can honestly say I have employed my first person to help me make the yarn. My 7th grade neighbor has lots of time on her hands, and she is amazingly crafty… not to mention that my offer to pay her for her work has spurred an increased interest.

Lastly I have discovered how fun it is to crochet wire, and weave beads into bracelets and broaches. My latest discovery has been something called Viking Knitting.

If you are interested in seeing pictures of my work, or want more info you can find my art blog at:
http://imagesinbloom.wordpress.com

and my etsy page at:
http://www.etsy.com/shops/imagesinbloom

Rolling forward

Steve and I signed up for a three day seminar on business management, strategies for sourcing out financing, and wealth creation. What an interesting first day it was. Woven in the many discussions was a theme that I personally have been wrestling with – Courage. The speaker said something about either we are motivated by fear to stay where we are, or we are motivated by courage to step out and move forward. Fear… I can so relate to the idea that fear keeps us restrained and resigned to doing what will pay the bills, but not necessarily what we love, are gifted to do, or what energizes us. I am not getting any younger, and what I have been doing all these years has so very much seemed like Bill Murray’s movie “Groundhog Day” – get up, do all the same things, go to sleep, and wake up the next day to do it all over again. Yikes!!!
Perhaps since 911 there has been a restless awakening of something in me that wants more from life than a mundane routine. Yes, predictable routine is a good thing but there is no risk, no adventure, no stretching outside your comfort zone, and definately no discovering what is hidden away deep inside each of us. After the loss of my brilliant job at the hospital I began to understand that this was not a bad thing, but the answer to my hope to be stretched, and to discover some of those hidden characteristics that I have been wired to bless the world with. But like a frenetic maniac, i initially lunged forward in a series of fits and starts, defying my graduate school business education logic. What I did had some measure of success. But there is something to be said for wise planning, and careful research. At the heart of anything there is a decision to either live in fear, and let that fear shackle my feet or make the brave and courageous decision to move out, to roll forward and discover new territory.

Today, in the midst of this seminar I heard him speak of how a decision to be courageous, and step out of the comfort of the routine is not for everyone…. but there is something wonderful about it. What have I to loose…. and what have I to gain?

Another amazing thing one of the speakers said was that we are put on this earth to bless each other. and every day when we wake up we need to think about how we can serve others, and bless them. I realized that I cannot bless anyone until I get my heart and mind in the right place. And then it hit me…. I have been loving being the art gypsy. It has been refreshing to see happy people enjoying life, and our offerings blessing them in different ways. I have a joy in my soul when I am using my hands, and my creativity. And I see a new life coming back to both Steve and I. We are finding a joy that was smuthered under layers of job stress, and career pressures. But the good news is the layers are melting away, leaving us more free to pursue what we have been designed to do on this earth. What exactly is still a work in progress, but I want to say that I want courage. I want to defy the odds and wade out into the territory of adventure, and watch as our faith and our joy both grow.

music sums it up sometimes

hope you enjoy this song called Stumble Fall by Anna Weatherup…. the words are powerful.

“greater purpose finds new measure…. all i have is you…. is you.”
Sometimes life feels like this. But it is a freeing from the weights that have held me back from really learning my purpose in life.

creativity discovered

I get this magazine on working with beads – an art called bead weaving is the primary feature of the magazine, and the artists create amazing pieces of unique jewelry… it is what i want to do when i grow up!!!! Over the weekend I began sinking into the magazine, really enjoying it, relishing the projects and articles…. and then i read a one page article on the featured artist. C Koop. She designs beautiful beads that are copper based, with fired enamel coatings. Vivid, vivacious, lucious color, and crafty design. then the ah-ha moment happened. This woman was another story of following your passions and turning creativity into a business that is growing.

Check out her web site: http://www.ckoopbeads.com/index.html

Perhaps it is just that my eyes are opened to entreprenurial spirit, or perhaps it is more pervasive than i ever noticed….. I love the idea of turning my passion to my bliss. How about you? Do you feel you have something out there that you want to do? long to try? would love to make your living doing?

I will ask you what I ask myself every day – What is stopping you? How bad do you want your dream? How much are you putting your energy into your dream? Do you believe? Are you willing to take a risk?

My heart and my soul crys “YES!!!!!” and i am trusting that my financial setting will follow.

Torch Enameling

I have been in love with art since i was old enough to hold a crayon, and discover that I could scribble in colors with it. Expression released through various methods is just wonderful, freeing, intoxicating to me.

So I have dabbled in different forms of art… some have been instantly wonderful, and other forms looked like they will take years to master.
But one thing I have admired from a distance but avoided was enameling. I just love the idea of a glass glaze on metal… the shimmer and shine is usually wonderful and expressive….. but I always believed I would need an expensive kiln and an anheiling cabinet and… $$$$$$$ the dollar signs rang in my head…. so i put that idea on the shelf. Until today. I was reading an article on torch enameling…
and it appears that all i need is a torch, a small fireproof station and an endless supply of creativity, copper and enameling powders….. ooooooh! The funny thing is this peaked my husband’s interest. He had remembered doing something like this in art class as a child. So perhaps the birth of another artistic endeavor is upon us.

Have you ever done torch enameling? If so do you have any hints or thougths that would make this go easier? If we are able to get this together i will certainly post the outcome here.

Traveling this life gets painful.

Life comes at you fast sometimes. OK, cheap shot from an insurance ad, but the truth of that advertising slogan sometimes resonates loudly with me.

OK, middle of the night, and i find myself sleepless, so i popped onto facebook to catch up on the world… it is cheaper and much less stressful than the nightly news. And often much more fun! I noticed an old friend was online, and started a discussion with her. I could tell a sense of anguish in her words, as she began to tell me of an old friend of hers who had changed. Once so very trusted, sharing common values, and common interests, but something deep in her heart and mind changed. Her friend had chosen another road, and with the minimum of words she relayed how those choices have broken her heart. Their shared friendship, a sisterhood like friendship of several decades, was falling apart. She no longer had much in common with this woman she thought she knew so well, and allowed to be a part of her inner circle of friends.

so i got to thinking about all the people i have traveled through life with, and how some of the choices i have made caused me to head in a different direction than many of my friends. If i look back two or three decades there are very few people who are still part of my life. I have changed, grown up, got a stronger sense of faith, made decisions that have taken me down a different path. I relayed to her the story of someone I thought would be a part of my life for the rest of my days… but suddenly about 8 years ago she began to change her ideology, her theology, and all we held in common quickly sifted through our hands until we found each other looking eye to eye, and having nothing in common. It broke my heart because some of her decisions were deliberate, and radical. And some of her decisions pointed her to a road of addiction and willful disobedience.

It is hard to watch as people choose to take up an addiction, or to seek infidelity, or throw away all they have ever believed or held dear, or everyone that loved them yet it is something that probably happens every day, slowly, with small acts of change, leading to major decisions and one day everyone realizes the common ground is gone.

I want to rescue people. I want to make things right. And if I ran the world there would be a way of waving that magic wand to end all things painful, bring common sense to those who are running headlong into oblivion, and put all things right. In my perfect world people would not feel the heartsick pain of friends adrift. But the truth is that I cannot change anything… I can only love people, and agree to disagree… and I can warn people, but if they make decisions to head toward addiction, infidelity, or any other aspect of life that i cannot fathom I will have to agree that the road is dividing, and i will take my steady path, keeping my faith, my values, my moral compass guiding me in a straight path to heaven. As long as we live on this sin scarred earth we will know pain, and feel the sting of sin through relationships… but steady on. love them, and pray for them…. and hope that what once was held dear and common will be enough to bring them back.

My heart grieved with my friend as we chatted. It is hard to watch someone stumble headlong into impending disaster, long term addiction, lifelong shock-waves of devastation to friends, family and most of all themselves. We chatted, and agreed to pray for her, but at the heart of the matter i wanted to just cry because a friendship of several decades doesn;t just implode…. there is something deeper going on in that person;s heart and mind.