Blog Hop With a Difference

A few weeks ago my friend, Bernice, invited me to participate in a blog hop that is a bit different than a traditional blog hop. Each person participating is asked four questions about their creative life and then introduces their readers to a few other bloggers they follow and are inspired by.

Q1: What am I working on?

As usual, I have a number of projects I am participating in and September seems especially busy on the art journaling front. 

30 Days of Lists September 2014 - I wasn't going to join this time around, due to the other projects, but I'm a sucker for a list, so I caved in at the last minute. The cover of my journal is actually the back of a book but it has my initials on it so I made it the cover!

I wrote about the Made Course 2014 in my last post which you can see HERE.

Kingdom Come is a free online class offered by art by Shonna Bucaroff. Shonna is a new friend, who I was introduced to by Bernice, and participating in her class was a way for me to get to know her better. My first project from her class is still in process. Her class just started last week so it's not too late for you to join in!

I continue to participate in The Documented Life Project and, seriously, I'm so amazed I have kept up for almost nine months! Pretty good for one who loves to start projects but doesn't always finish them!

Q2: How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My "genre" is art journaling which includes so many genres: mixed media art, lettering, paint, collage, etc. Through art journaling I learned to make my own journals, and more specifically, altered book journals, and that led to the start of my Etsy shop {found on brighton}. I don't know how my work really differs from other art journalers, but at the heart of my art journaling is my faith. Art journaling is, for me, another way to express my journey with God.

Q3: Why do I create what I do?

In regards to art journaling, I create what I do because it is a way to recharge my emotional, mental and spiritual energy. I am an introvert who works in ministry full time. I work with people, meet with people, serve people, and help people all day long. Art journaling helps restore my energy, helps me sort out my thoughts and emotions, and helps me visualize and "incarnate" my spiritual journey. It is also a great creative outlet for me. I love doing anything with color and texture and I must use up the creative energy that is usually bouncing around in my head!

Q4: How does my creative process work?

Much of my creative process begins with my morning habit of prayer, Bible study, writing in my journal, and reading. This morning habit is often the kick starter to my pages. Fridays are my day off and the day I protect as a "Sabbath" day. Fridays offer me a day to extend my morning habit without time limitations and then I will spend a few hours recharging with art. I will often simply make background pages with paint and collage. This process requires no thought and I can get lost in it! It also sparks so much creativity. I will jot down and sketch my ideas for art journal pages while I "play". Then, throughout the week on my work days, I will spend time in the evenings making my pages - anywhere from 15 minutes squeezed in to an hour or so. A little bit each day, no matter how little, is so healthy for me!

Well, that gives you a little more insight into my creative life. Now let me introduce you to a few of the bloggers I follow. They will each post their Blog Hop With a Difference stories next Monday.

Felicia Aaron blogs about her art and her faith at her blog There's More To Me Than You See. I actually met Felicia through my blog and through comments she has left. On her blog you will see her art journaling, stamping, Zentangle, and water color painting.

Leigh Ann Lukens blogs at His Artist. Leigh Ann has great posts on her blog about Faith Art Journaling. I stumbled on Leigh Ann's blog and found a kindred spirit! Leigh Ann's combination of Bible study and art journaling drew me to following her right away!

I hope you will enjoy getting to know these two women of faith and creativity!

Come back and visit on Thursday ~ I have something to celebrate and share with you!

Something to Ponder

For a few weeks in August five ladies from my church got together with me to make art and listen to my ideas about being creative, our faith and identity in Christ, and self-care. It was fun introducing some of these ladies to art journaling. It was also a good exercise for me and testing my teaching voice. I have taught on various topics for different events at church, mainly in regards to Bible Study or mission, and I have used my voice here on this blog. But I have had a nudge in my heart and spirit to explore using my voice in other ways regarding faith and art. What I discovered over these weeks is that I have way too much inside me and it really needs more time to develop into something cohesive. But this time with these ladies also sparked some different creative ideas which I will share here on my blog in the months ahead as well as through some other projects I am going to be a part of in the near future.

In prep for our last get together to talk about self-care, I read a passage that is very familiar to me, and probably to many of you, but this time reading it brought to mind some different questions. Let me share:

The passage: "Jesus replied, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two verses." Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus had just been asked by one of the Pharisees in verse 36 which commandment is the greatest. The verse above give His answer. Not one, but two commandments are given as the greatest: loving God and loving your neighbor. Paul points to this last part, loving your neighbor, as a way of summing up all of the commandments in one (Romans 13:9) and as a way of fulfilling the entire Law (Galatians 5:14).

The part that brought about my questions was "Love your neighbor as yourself."

I think sometimes we view self-care as being selfish or self indulgent, but this verse makes an assumption: that you are already loving yourself in a manner that is healthy and good, and that out of that place you will love your neighbor/others in the same manner.To me loving yourself is about self-care. It's about taking care of yourself in ways that keep you healthy emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually so that you can be your best for others. Jesus modeled this when he withdrew and sought solitude, rest and time for prayer. He even did this at the expense of not serving others needs. He taught it and modeled it to His disciples. He was so in tune with His Father and the Father's will that he was able to discern when it was time for self-care and when it was time for caring for others.

So ponder these questions with me:

• How well are you doing at loving yourself?
• If you are not putting self-care/love practices into place that are healthy, then how well are you really loving others?
• Are you loving others out of something unhealthy? Such as co-dependency? Dysfunction? Facades? Trying to get your own needs met? Selfishness - to get something in return?
• Do you know yourself and your limits well enough to know how to fill your energy tank in the areas I listed above?
• Do you regularly take time to examine your emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental health?
• Do you regularly practice spiritual disciplines or habits that help shape you spiritually? Habits of rhythm such as rest, Sabbath, retreats that help energize you?
• Or are you spiritually thirsty? Worn out? Running on empty or burned out?

These are just some of the questions this passage brought about for me. 

For me, self-care is a way of loving myself that is healthy, not selfish. In fact, Cloud and Townsend in their book "Boundaries" call self-care stewardship of the gifts God has given us. The end goal of self-care is what determines whether it is selfishness or stewardship: Am I doing this to make me better for God and others or just to make me better. The answer definitely requires soul searching and listening to God in prayer.

I encourage you to make self-care a priority. Pray through the questions above. You may even want to use this as a topic to explore for art journaling! I do quite often!

Earlier this week I got a surprise in the mail. Elissa, who I know through the Documented Life Project sent me an envelope full of "Happy Mail". Thanks Elissa! Here's a small sampling of what was in the envelope.

Last weekend I spent some time painting papers for one of the exercises our group did. I noticed I  reach for The circle templates, stencils and stamps a lot!

And a recent non-Documented Life art journal page. 

My Sabbath Day and art are big parts of self-care for me. What practices are significant to your self-care?

July Art Journaling

In July I have been playing catch-up in my Documented Life Project journal.

Week 19 challenge: A random act of kindness

Once my June pages were finished my DLP journal could hold no more! With July's pages I began a DLP volume 2 journal for the second half of the year.

And in my everyday art journal this month:

Stencil Girl Products hosted a blog hop last week for the Documented Life Project and I won one of their stencils! It was fun opening the mail yesterday to see which stencil was inside. So, today, I'd like to share that anticipation and excitement with one of my blog followers. Simply leave a comment on this blog post by next Friday (7.26.14) and then on Saturday 7.27 I will draw a name from the comments and that person will receive a lovely package of vintage papers and ephemera. Enjoy your weekend!

Pause

For the past 5 months I have been immersed in studying and reading about Sabbath. I have been a part of a team who studied Sabbath in preparation of developing a theology of Sabbath for our church community.

We (our church congregation) spent six weeks in May and June on a theological journey through the Bible, and a little history, and discovered what it means to keep a Sabbath Day according to God's design. Sabbath is not something we hear a lot about in the Christian community. It has mainly been relegated to denominations such as Seventh Day Adventists or Seventh Day Baptists, or as a Jewish tradition. What we learned in our journey is that Sabbath is a practice modeled by God in the recording of Creation in Genesis 2:1-3. As beings created in His image, God's people model God. Sabbath is a gift from God where we can pause from work and find rest in Him. The other important thing we came away with from our time of study is that we cannot regulate Sabbath observance and practices for others, thus making it legalistic. Jesus had much to say about man regulating and legalizing practices of the heart in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7). Sabbath practices will look different for each of us. For example, yard work would be tiresome and dreadful work for me, but to my husband it is recreation and relaxation, and even a way in which he spends time connecting with God. Sabbath observance may happen on different days. Being in full-time ministry and working half the day on Sundays, I have practiced Sabbath on Friday for years. In response to our study, our congregation is going to stop scheduling meetings and classes after church on Sundays to free people up to practice Sabbath and spend time with their families.

For me, the thing that has spoken to my heart the most is that of leaning into God to create a rhythm of Sabbath throughout the week. The idea of taking mini Sabbaths each day with an extended Sabbath day once a week fits well with my practice over the years of keeping white space in my calendar. I really connect with the idea of receiving God's gift of Sabbath and pausing my day and my week to connect more with Him and to accept His gifts of rest, love, enjoyment, and refreshment.

We have a practice of ending each series with a Sunday devoted to celebrating what God has done in that series. I led our service that morning and below have included my call to worship that morning.

"Today is a day of celebration.

Over the past 6 weeks we have slowly unwrapped a gift –

A gift that helps us pause and take in the glory and the grace of God.

We are busy people.

We live in a culture that values busy-ness.

There are always things to get done – in our jobs, in our homes, our lists at times seem never ending.

But today is a day that has been set apart by God where we can pause-

We break the rhythm of everyday life.

Let’s practice that right now-

Everyone sit still for a moment, breathe in deeply. Let it out slowly.

We have paused the week,

we have stopped the hurry and the running around, the focus on worries,

The busyness of everyday life.

This morning we have gathered together,

In the tradition of our people,

And we enter into the rhythm God has for us, His people.

We breathe is His love.

We come together to celebrate who God is

And to celebrate who we are in Him.

We come together to worship Him.

We come together to enter into His rhythm.

We offer up to him all that we are.

We offer up to him the heavy loads of busyness, responsibilities, trials and suffering, the hassles of everyday life.

And today we receive from Him the gift-

 to pause, to breathe, to celebrate, and to remember who God is and who we are.

Sabbath is a gift from God and today we celebrate what we have heard through this series on Sabbath."

Rest and Creativity

Since Memorial Day life for me has been a whirlwind of activity with preparation for end of the school year events for our ministry to the public school we adopted as our community partner. Each year the school and Parent's Club holds a Field Day in the last week. The role of our church is to provide a bag lunch for each student and to provide two volunteers to supervise lunch in each classroom while the teachers get a much needed lunch break. Since I lead our school partnership ministry this makes for a very busy end of the year in addition to my other activities at the school. April and May are always very busy months at our church and for me in the roles I serve in on staff. I find, that when June comes and we have finished our events and activities at the school, that I have been operating on adrenaline, and my energy quickly leaves me like air leaving a balloon, and I deflate! So I scheduled a 10 day vacation for the week after school closed - a "staycation", a time to rest and renew.

On day one, I was amazed how quickly I felt re-energized just by doing some of the things that I know bring me energy and joy. This is where knowing yourself is beneficial. I know what drains me and I know what energizes me. Part of self-care is being in touch with these things and doing what is necessary to keep them in balance. Someone said, "Stress kills creativity" (sorry, I can't find who said it!), and I resonate with this from experience. When I get overly busy and tired I find I have a hard time creating. So, this week at home has been about restoring and making time for creativity, art and some of the other things that are enjoyable to me.

Some highlights from my past week:

• My pastor had asked me to share in a Sunday service while we are in our series on the Theology of Sabbath. He had asked me specifically to share how practicing a Sabbath Day has enriched my soul and to share some of the spiritual practices and "non-spiritual" practices that fill my Sabbath day. So I did that last Sunday. One thing that really stood out for me as I prepared for sharing was that keeping a Sabbath Day has been an instrumental part of getting to know how I am wired and what energizes me. It has helped me discover how much being creative energizes me. Sabbath rest is a gift from God and a spiritual practice I am very thankful for. Check out the Sabbath Society at Redemption's Beauty http://redemptionsbeauty.com/sabbath-society/ for more Sabbath practice information and ideas.
• I got on a roll making altered book art journals for my Etsy shop:{found on brighton}
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

I have already sold three! I participated in a course by Jeanne Oliver (http://www.jeanneoliverdesigns.com/) about how to have a creative business and this past week I have been catching up on watching the videos. I made a decision a while back that if I was going to have an Etsy shop I might as well be serious about it being a small business. So far I am enjoying my little business. :)

• I have done very little outside my home this week and have really enjoyed it! This is when I have no doubts that I am more of an introvert than an extrovert (another discovery made through practicing Sabbath!). The few things I have done were: attending the boys Little League baseball games. participating in my spiritual direction group, and yesterday my friend Rox and I went to two library book sales. We found a lot of goodies! They will be used for my personal journals and to make altered book journals and paper packs for my shop.
  
• I have also been catching up on my art journaling challenge projects, making art, and catching up on some movie watching (two I highly recommend are Monuments Men and Philomena). I post some of my art pictures in another post this weekend.

So, that is the start of my summer. I'm hoping for a slowed down pace - actually, not hoping for - I intend to have a slowed down pace this summer. How are you planning to spend your summer?

Art Journaling This Week

I continue to work in my Documented Life Project journal each week. I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself! I have a habit of getting tired of something ~ classes, challenges, etc ~ before it is finished. I'm a great starter! I love the planning and the creative energy that comes with starting a new project. So, I am feeling pretty proud of myself that I have worked on this project every week. We are now in the 21st week and getting close to the halfway mark of the year. Wow! I am going to squeeze the month of June into my journal and then start a new journal for the second half of the year. My journal binder has really become very fat!

Doc Life Week 20 page spread

Doc Life wk 20 side 1

Doc Life wk 20 side 2

Last week Mindy Lacefield started a group/course called "Sunday Mornings". (Check it out here: Sunday Mornings) Mindy has a habit of attending church on Sunday mornings and then going home and making art inspired from her worship experience. She has now invited others into her experience. I'm following along as I feel inspired. Last week I didn't participate in the portrait challenge she had cuz I just don't paint that way. But she also had a writing prompt which did inspire me to do some art journaling. Her prompt was "Lord lead me to your light..." and immediately I thought of Philippians 2:15-16.

The Sabbath theology study group I was a part of over the past few months has become our current Sunday series. Our website if you're interested: Grace Church Toledo, just click on the messages tab. Also on the blog tab you can see some resources we put together about Sabbath. One resource not included on that page is a blog I found recently Redemption's Beauty. Shelly Miller writes regularly about Sabbath. Below I art journaled a quote from one of her articles:

Last is just a random art journal page. I enjoy art journaling quotes and I love playing with painted paper!

I hope you found time to do the things that give you energy and joy this week. We are heading to my sister's for the weekend for a bridal shower and to just hang out with family at the lake, Enjoy the first holiday weekend of the summer!

A Rhythm of Life

I am very intrigued by rhythms in life. Maybe it's because routine is so important to my well-being on so many levels. When my routine is messed up my whole world seems out of whack. Routine keeps me grounded and focused and keeps a handle on my sanity.

Rhythm: from Greek "rhythmos", any regular recurring motion, symmetry.
Dictionary definitions: 1.) Recurring at regular intervals. 2.) An interval during which a recurring sequence of events occurs. 3.) A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.

We have started a study group at church to develop a theology of Sabbath. Sabbath seems very foreign in our modern church culture. It seems very Jewish, something left behind with Old Testament traditions and laws. But in our staff book study (Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership by Ruth Haley Barton) it became a topic of conversation as we read the author's encouragement to establish spiritual rhythms for the health and growth of our soul.

"Sabbath keeping is the linchpin of a life lived in sync with the rhythms that God himself built into our world, and yet it is the discipline that seems hardest for us to live. Sabbath keeping honors the body's need for rest, the spirit's need for replenishment and the soul's need to delight itself in God for God's own sake. It begins with willingness to acknowledge the limits of our humanness and then to take steps to live more graciously within the order of things." Ruth Haley Barton, pg. 122

Our first occasion of seeing Sabbath in the Bible is in Genesis 2:2-3 where God patterns the Sabbath for us. He  models a life rhythm of work and rest. "By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done." God set this day apart from the other days because on it He rested. The day is holy, set apart, because on it we do what is different than the other days. We cease working.

"Sabbath provides for us now the rhythm for an entire reorientation of our lives around the living God. On Sabbaths we imitate God by stopping our work and resting." Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

So, here in this first occasion in Scripture, before the Law was given, before God commanded us to observe the Sabbath, we see Sabbath as our opportunity and invitation  to imitate our Creator, in whose image we have been created.

This is just the beginning. It will be exciting to see where this study leads us over the next few months and how it impacts our rhythm of life individually and as a church community.

Over the past few years I have developed a rhythm of rest that provides time daily each morning to rest in God's presence ~ to spend time in contemplation, prayer, Bible reading and journaling. I set aside a day each week to rest from work and, as an introvert, to have a "no people day"; a day filled with the things that re-energize my body, soul, and mind. And I set aside Sundays after church to have a day with my husband, a day where we try to keep busyness and events off the calendar and simply rest together. I think that when we have completed this study even the rhythms I do have in place will change some, will become more holy and set aside for the Lord.

Today we had a break in the routine, but one that has become a much needed rest...yet one more snow storm in this never-ending winter. I'm enjoying the unexpected break at home.