Meandering 1.12.2016

"Meandering: adjective; the act of following a winding or indirect course. Ramble, roam, zigzag, circuitous. A blog post about a variety of things; a little bit of this and a little bit of that."

Today my meandering is about recent discoveries.

I discovered 2015bestnine.com, a website that will generate a collage of your nine most popular pictures on Instagram for 2015.

Last month I discovered a way to continue my bird watching/photography hobby in the cold winter months. We have an incredible Metropark system in the Toledo area and six of our parks have Window on Wildlife locations. A Window on Wildlife is an indoor room lined with windows that overlook an area that has been set-up as a bird refuge with feeders, water and plenty of trees for shelter. The glass in these rooms are tinted so that the birds don't see you watching them. I discovered the first one on Christmas day. The weather here was 50 degrees. Highly unusual for late December in the upper Midwest! So I decided that day to go to the park closest to my home and take a photo walk. At the end of that walk I peeked my head into the Window on Wildlife and was pleasantly surprised to see so many birds visiting the feeders. I discovered this to be a great way to continue my weekly commitment of getting outside and taking pictures as a way of nourishing my emotional and creative energy. I plan on visiting all six locations over the next few months. So far I have been to two.

Female Downy Woodpecker

I discovered that the male Goldfinch changes color in the fall and winter.

Tufted Titmouse - my first sighting!

White-breasted Nuthatch - I can watch these little guys for hours!

This past weekend one of my god-grandsons asked me if I would help him with a writing and art project he was working on for school. Sai'Vion just turned nine and loves animals and nature so I decided that before we dug into the project I would take him over to the Window on Wildlife at Wildwood Park. We discovered that he really enjoys watching the birds also. He made a list of the birds we saw as I took pictures. He even worked a bird into his report and drew an impressive picture of a Blue Jay. I printed out some of the pictures I took, made a binder with drawing paper in it and place to keep his photos and gave him a bird book to use as a guide for drawing birds. I discovered a nine-year-old who now can share interests in birding and art with me! His story for his writing report was about encouragement. He made up a saying for it that said, "Keep calm and believe in yourself."

Sai'Vion's picture

His model

My birding and art buddy, Sai"Vion

I discovered my word for 2016: REST. I was originally thinking my word would be solitude, as it is a spiritual practice that I want to embrace more. But the more I thought about it I felt like solitude was a part of a bigger picture of a rhythm of life and rest encompasses that picture more fully. I'm not using the word rest as in "I just need some more sleep", but rather as a mindset of developing a rhythm of life that works to better balance all areas of my life: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational. My job in full time ministry can get overly busy and stress-filled at times and I have been trying for years to find ways to rest in the midst of the busyness in order to keep burn-out at bay. I've discovered in the past few years that the busyness and resulting fatigue and burnout rob me of energy in all areas of my life and I have been developing practices that help refill that depleted energy. So this year that is my focus.Last year I added to my already busy life by taking on being a part of the founding team of the His Kingdom Come faithart community. It was a great experience and one I totally enjoyed and am happy that I participated in. But it didn't help me build a healthier rhythm of life, in fact it just added more to the busyness and that was pivotal in my hard decision to step down form the foundation team. So this year I am slowing down as much as is possible. I am re-engaging in two practices from prior years that I gave up last year in order to make time for my HKC responsibilities. I am once again participating in Ali Edward's One Little Word project which helps me stay focused on my word throughout the year. And I am joining in on the Documented Life Project again this year. I missed being a part of these projects last year and am looking forward to engaging in them in the year ahead. I'll give just a glimpse of what I've done in each so far.

My One Little Word (OLW) binder:

The quote I found about fatigue really sums up well why I need to embrace rest this year!

My Documented Life (DLP) binder:

January divider

Week 1 calendar page

Week 1 mementos 

What I missed about DLP last year was how the practice of keeping memories about my days and weeks kept me more present to the happenings of daily life. It is also an easy art practice that keeps me creative without having to do a lot of planning.

Well, that's it for my discoveries recently. I'm looking forward to the journey ahead this year and what I will discover as I dig into my word for the year and as I document my daily life.

What discoveries have you made recently?

Change and Advent Day 9

For the past year I have been a part of the foundation team for the His Kingdom Come faith art community. Helping to start this community has been a great experience and I have gained many wonderful friends all over the world. I discovered through coordinating the weekly devotional studies for the Take Me Deeper group that I really enjoy writing. However, in the past few months my job responsibilities in  my full time ministry job have changed and require more creative energy. One thing that I have found to be true of myself over the past few years is that, while I totally love being creative, it requires energy. Energy that I can't dig down and manufacture when I get overly tired and stressed out. So I have had to make the hard decision to step back from a few things in order to maintain that creative energy and keep myself from burnout. As you can imagine keeping up the weekly devotions and other duties I have for HKC, along with trying to maintain my own blog and Etsy shop, along with a full time job in ministry that generally will go far beyond a standard work week, has been difficult to juggle. My new responsibilities at my job will require creativity and writing as I take on keeping our church website and blog up-to-date. I have made the hard decision to step down from the HKC foundation team in order to be able to devote more time and energy on my own blog and shop and on the church blog and website. 

In all honesty, I went into the HKC foundation team with some hesitation. Only because I know from past experience that when a hobby becomes work it can be difficult to continue to enjoy the hobby. I managed a cross-stitch and quilt shop for 8 years and when I left that job to go into ministry I stopped both of those hobbies and never picked them up again. I enjoy art journaling and mixed media art too much to let this happen again. They have become more than hobbies to me and finding art journaling when I did was used by God as a tool for healing when I was dealing with issues of burnout. So it seems that spending one year helping the HKC community get started has been a good thing without it becoming something I don't want it to become. 

Today I sent off the last week of Advent devotions for the community and that ends my official responsibilities with HKC for 2015. Change is always bittersweet. There is sadness in leaving something you have put so much time and energy into. There is some melancholy in having relationships that have been daily and weekly experiences change. But there is also excitement and anticipation over the new adventures and opportunities that lay ahead. 

I have selected my word for the year for 2016 as is my tradition over the past few years. This year my word was RENEW as I felt there were areas in my life that needed renewal and restoration. In many ways that has taken place in 2015 and I will write more about that in the weeks ahead. Over the past few years as I have become more connected with the realities of being an introvert, I have partaken in activities of silence and solitude before the Lord. These are activities and practices I want to spend more time in next year. At first I thought that solitude would be my word next year, but after more thought and prayer, it seems that the word REST encompasses so much more of what I am after. And it includes solitude. I don't mean rest as in needing sleep or a break from activity. I am looking at REST more in terms of Sabbath rest, spiritual rest, being still and resting in the Lord. Again, I'll explore that more and write about it in the weeks and months ahead. 

Needless-to-say, my decision to step down from the HKC foundation team is tied up in this also. Next year I have a few art groups I will be participating in and exploring more areas of art and I will stay a participant in the HKC community. But I intend to slow things down as much is possible and explore what it means to REST - body, mind and soul. I will remain open, as always, to going after whatever opportunities that God places on my path. Life is a journey and I am enjoying the process!

My Advent Rolodex art card for day 9:

Today's Advent devotion for the HKC community can be found here

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30 Day Blogging Challenge day 21.

Journey of Transformation

I love the beginning of the year. Somehow it feels like, with the change of the calendar page, we can leave behind the past year and have a fresh start on January 1st. Whole industries revolve their marketing in January around this idea of fresh starts with the new year. We resolve to lose weight, gain control over our finances. organize our stuff better, change bad habits, add good habits...and we're going to start it all on January 1 with our New Year Resolutions. AND the companies and consultants and sales people in those industries are going to graciously help us overcome these issues..for a small fee.
But, usually after a few days or weeks of trying to push forward all this change for our fresh start in the new year, we begin to fade. We begin to slip back into our comfort zone and our bad habits. In Take Me Deeper this month our theme has been transformation. We are looking at God's desire that our lives be transformed into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. And our need to be willing, vulnerable and submissive to the process.
Personally, my favorite metaphor for the spiritual transformation that God calls us to is journey. Thinking in terms of a journey helps me keep in mind that spiritual transformation is a process. One that I will be on for a lifetime. I think this is why I read authors who write about spiritual transformation and spiritual disciplines -which are really just tools to help us along the journey. Some of my favorite authors on this topic are Terry Wardle, Ruth Haley Barton, Robert Mulholand Jr., David Benner. Jerry Bridges, Jan Johnson...I could go on and on.
I recently read a quote in a book by Terry Wardle that used this metaphor of journey for spiritual transformation and fit in well with our studies in Take Me Deeper. I put the quote on a page for my TMD journal:

The quote reads: 

"Real change occurs as Christians respond to the call to journey with Jesus, meeting God in the particulars of day to day life. It is not so important that one knows every detail about the path they will take in life. But what one discovers about oneself and God along the way is critically important to the process of transformation and change. In this process of discovery, the pilgrim allows the Spirit of Christ to redeem and recreate him in very deep and important ways. This change demands  surrender and willingness, foundational responses to the call of Jesus Christ. Surrender on the journey involves laying down personal agenda and self-interest. Willingness is the prerequisite for picking up the cross of Christ - the losing of one's life so necessary to finding true life,eternal life." ~Terry Wardle.

My pages for weeks two and three of Take Me Deeper:

What kind of a journey are you on? Or do you have a different metaphor that you prefer for transformation?

My Take Me Deeper Journal

As I've written over the past two months, my main focus for 2015 will be the projects we have running in the His Kingdom Come (HKC) community: Take Me Deeper (TMD) weekly devotions and art challenges and Logos365 word for the year prompts and challenges. Today I want to share my journal for these projects and some of the pages I have made so far. If you want to know more about the HKC community and our projects you can check us out here.

First, a little slide show of the stages of making my journal:

Last year for the year-long DLP project I ended up using two journals to fit 52 weeks of pages in. So, this year my plan is to make a journal per quarter as I believe I may have more content for my 2015 projects. I already labeled this first journal volume 1 with that in mind. I purchased this book at a library book sale and I loved the book plate on the inside cover so I didn't want to cover it up entirely.

Our purpose with the TMD project is to use devotions and deeper studies along with creative expressions to  go deeper in our relationship with God this year. Our theme for January is transformation. Since I like the metaphor of journey foe the process of spiritual transformation and growth, I think transformation will be a theme in my journal throughout the whole year. It also fits well as a foundation for my word this year, renew. My intro pages:

My Logos365 word and Scripture passage page:

Both side of the January tab page:

My page in response to the first devotion which I wrote about in yesterday's post.

I would love to know if you are taking part in the HKC projects. Let me know in the comment section below and, if you are, leave me a link to your blog as well. Enjoy your Saturday!

*Also, make sure you check out my Etsy shop where I have vintage paper and ephemera packs custom made to your Logos365 or OLW words.

Take Me Deeper Week 1

After months of planning the day is finally here! The start of Take Me Deeper weekly devotions and art challenges takes place today on the His Kingdom Come (HKC) site. We're building a community where we can combine our faith and our creativity with others who have the same desire. Visit the site and join us!

In the month of January we're looking at spiritual transformation. On the HKC site there is a devotion this that includes suggestions for taking the topic and this week's Bible passage deeper through the week. Members of our art groups are expressing the topic and Bible passage through various art mediums ~ from faith art journaling to photography to creative writing and many others. We have a great team of moderators who provide examples of their work each week in the groups they lead. I am serving as one of the moderators in the Faith Art Journaling group.

Week 1: Transform Willingly

Scripture: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."  Romans 12:1-2

My word for 2015 is renew and our first passage of the year contains my word! It wasn't planned. The devotions for this month were written before I knew what my word was going to be, but it did jump out off the page as I read the passage. I've heard it said that our battlefield is the mind and this passage helped reconnect me to a truth I already knew - in order for transformation to take place my mind must be renewed. And if any area of my life is going to be renewed it must begin with a willingness to renew my mind or my mindset. It's so easy to form habits, but it seems so hard to break them once they have formed and taken root. When the habit is good, that's great! But over the past few years I've allowed some bad habits to form in a number of areas of my life. I'll write more on that in my next post about my word for this year. One of those habits, though, connects directly with this weeks passage: a habit of negative thinking has formed in me over the past few years and it needs to go away! This has been my battlefield. It has ended up effecting so many areas of my life. Yet in the past few months God has used some circumstances and some people in my life to help me identify some patterns and habits and He has shown me some paths to renewal. Thus my word for the year. And so, the topic and the Scripture passage this week in the Take Me Deeper group really lay a foundation for transformation for me this year. Transformation and renewal begin with renewal of the mind. And I need a continual reminder that I must remain willing to offer God anything in my life - to hold the things in my life loosely - that He may shape me and form me for His use and for His glory, In Christ we are new creations, yet we are also continually being made new in Christ-likeness and this process will go on our whole life. What a blessing that we do this "in view of God's mercy"! The NASB says it is "by the mercies of God". We don't walk alone. God's mercy envelopes us and carries us and guides us along the way to the things that are good for us and that are good and holy and pleasing to Him. Transformation in our hearts and minds and lives is really God's work. Our part is willingness. Willingness to do what He calls us to; to go where He leads; to be who He has called us to be. 

Will you join me in going deeper in my relationship with God this year? You can follow my journey here on my blog, but it would be so much better if you joined the journey yourself at His Kingdom Come and become a part of a community who are all on a journey to go deeper with God. I'm so excited to see how God will meet us in this journey and to see where He will take us!

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?

New Year, New Chapter

I love the start of new things ~ new books, new art journals, new decorating projects, new adventures, a new journey, and right now, a new year. I found myself in the last few weeks of 2013 greatly anticipating the arrival of 2014. I am ready for the new-ness. I'm ready for a fresh start. I'm ready to put some old stuff away ~ things that have been weighing me down, things that have made me feel stuck, things that have been getting me down. It feels like the past few years have been heavy years and I'm tired. I'm weary. In some aspects I've lost heart and hope. I'm ready to move on; ready to be refreshed; ready to have my heart and my hope restored; to have my attitude and my energy renewed. At some point in the past few weeks I made a decision to simply choose to make 2014 a different year, a better year. I don't know how. I don't have it all figured out. But I am determined. I have decided that it's just time for things to change. I am realistic and practical, I know that it won't happen just like that, with a blink of an eye or the snap of my fingers. It will take time and will probably be a slow process, but every journey begins with taking the first step, and this decision to choose is my first step.

This year I am making it a goal to bring more people into my journey, into my struggles, into my joys, into my life in general. That has been part of my struggle over the past few years, I managed my pain and my trials by retreating. A few years ago I discovered that I am really more of an introvert than an extrovert. My extroversion was more a survival mechanism than a part of my wiring, and just possibly I swung too far into seclusion as I discovered my introverted tendencies. What will bringing people into my journey look like? Again I don't have it all figured out, but there are a few steps I plan on taking: 1.) I'm going to test a spiritual direction group with a few other ladies and, 2.) I'm going to explore the collaboration of art/creativity and spiritual practices by doing a group or class at church and on my blog. That's all I've figured out so far.

Some of the creative adventures I've decided to embark on in 2014:

• My word for 2014 is BE. Part of the change I want to see in the coming year has to do with both being myself and being very comfortable with that and with being my true self ~ the me who is shaped by her relationship with Christ. For me to "BE" means to live fully ~ fully dependent on God and fully living out of who I am. That means living more out of who I am than out of what I do. It's recognizing and believing that my "doing" flows out of my "being" and not the other way around. So in 2014 I want to focus more on being ~ being me. Once again this year I am participating in Ali Edwards One Little Word 2014 (OLW 2014) hoping that the prompts, challenges and structure will help me stay connected with my word through the year.
• I am participating in The Documented Life Project (Doc Life) led by one of my favorite artists, Roben-Marie Smith, and a few other ladies. It is a creative altered planner project that I am "altering" to fit me and what I want to do this year. So I am following the groups challenges and adding in highlights from my week as well as incorporating my OLW 2014 into the project. I have altered an old dictionary for my project journal rather than the Moleskein planner that many in the group are using.
• Another thing I wanted to try more of this year is collage so I am trying to make a collage a week and placing these in my Doc Life journal as well.
• I will also keep an art journal in addition to my Doc Life journal for everyday art journaling.

Well, I think that's enough for the start of my year. It will, of course, include a continuation of my exploration of contemplative spiritual practices and Bible study! Below are some pictures of the projects I've started:

My Doc Life project journal

monthly tabs

weekly calendar pages

Collage week 1 

OLW 2014

There are links to The Documented Life Project and One Little Word 2014 in the sidebar on the right.

What do you plan to do in 2014?