Under the Red Tent: a monthly gathering for women to do art and/or pamper ourselves, perhaps with a collaborative journal making project??

Four-to-Six-Week Courses at Karen’s Abbey:
• art based spiritual practices
• art journals for you spiritual journey
• nurturing your child’s spiritual instinct
• ….maybe follow some of these up with a “complimentary” spiritual direction session to help participants assess which spiritual practices are “working” for them (one month after class ends) $40-60 bucks a class, plus purchased supplies (list provided), minimum 6 in attendance maximum 12
• collage basics – taught collaboratively with my neighbor, Claire
• Artist’s Way: a guided practice

Book/Art Projects
• Magpie Girl: A Look Inside my Head for the Narcissist Inside Me
• A Year in the Life of Monkfish Abbey
• Holding Space (a secret book)
• Priestessy … {read more…}

We did the “money” chapter in The Artist’s Way this past week. It really opened my eyes to a lot of things about how I related to money. Actually, I guess I already knew those things about me and moola, but something about my inner artist being at stake here has finally motivated me to make some changes.

See, I’m a money monk. I’m afraid money will corrupt me. So whether I have money or not, I don’t want to deal with it. If I touch it, it will ruin me. The result of this is that I do everything I can to avoid dealing with money. (A Tangent: Jim says if this was true I’d be a desert father, … {read more…}

Woo Hoo! We got to drive my mom’s convertible for a week! Here’s a picture of Eden and Cate cruising along I-90 on our way to Fall City for a weekend drive in the country and the all-important road trip milkshake.

If I light any more candles I’m going to burn the house down.

For those of you who are the praying type, please encircle our monks with prayer this week. There’s a lot going on… surgeries and marital challenges, home alone with the kids, long distance trips, visits to challenging family members, depression…you name it.

Encircle us Lord, with your love.
Keep shalom on in the inside,
keep anxiety on the outside.
Keep clairity on the inside,
keep confusion and deception and on the outside.
Keep hope on the inside,
Keep despair on the outside.
For you are love,
and in your love we stand.

Amen.

- chopp veggies
- simmer soup
- sweep living room and dinning room
-vacuum rug that is getting thread bare
-stack up shoes in entry way
- put away various outdoor ride on toys
- sweep front porch
-set up front porch altar
-dust living room altar, replace flowers
- clear toys off dinning room table
- put away dress up clothes
- freshen up bathroom
- slice bread
- pour wine
- welcome guests
-start communion
-serve supper
-hold space
-say good bye
-clean up kitchen
-recycle paper plates
- wrap communion bread
- rinse chalice
- say prayer beads for the monks
- sleep

addendum:

-hang out with Jen P and kiddos at wading pool
- break plates with six year old daughter who hasn’t known a time w/out war and is angry about it
-chat about collaging with Tonya
- make plans to do art with … {read more…}

I went to Artist and Craftsman today to pick up a sketchbook for a round robin journal I’m doing with Jen L. Of course, I couldn’t leave with just that one item, so I also picked up: several vintage postcards with black and white photos of circus performers, different sized envelopes with those clasps where you twist a string around two discs, a small package of handmade paper, a round postcard of an eye drawn from an anatomy book and colorized. Ephemera all.

As the cashier rang up my purchases I got a bit shaky and tremulous. I know this is something I am supposed to be doing, this secret book. I only wish I could already begin working on … {read more…}

Which is more important: knowing Jesus loves you, or knowing how to live-out the reality of that love?

Of course even as I write that I know the answer is both/and.

The reason I am thinking about this sort of thing is because of VBS. For those of you who grew up outside the fundamentalist or evangelical bubble, that means Vacation Bible School.

Now, my little post-modern, post- evangelical, post-mainline kiddos don’t go to Sunday school. They know their Bible stories, a fistful of songs, St. Pat’s Breastplate and how to do centering, encircling, and Sabbath prayers – but they do not go to Sunday school. So far Paul and I and our monkfishy friends have managed to be their … {read more…}

New Obsession

First off, I’d like to say that I’m very VERY excited about my new outdoor “studio.” I’ve recently become obssessed with moasics. Paul has indulged me and we spent 20 minutes in the cement-and-grout aisle at Home Depot last week so I could adjust my technique. Right now I’m just making stones to border our anger/sadness altar in the backyard. But I’ve checked out some books on mosaic techniques and I’ve got two bigger projects in mind: a series of panels depicting alternative images of God and a copy of the tinted glass windows at COTA’s new Abbey.

Speaking of Studios….

I’ve started … {read more…}

6.28

Right now I am curled semi-fetal position on my bed staring out of my left eye at my very spiky shoes (which are also on my bed for some reason.) And I’m wondering, “If you stabbed yourself in the eye with a stiletto, would it get rid of your migraine?”

And this is not even a “bad” one.

I don’t know why I’m telling you this. It’s not that I need to complain really. It’s just that I find it all rather amazing – that the human mind-body complex can be under so much duress and still function mostly normally.

For instance, I was up all night last night with a strip of metal jammed behind my eyes and slipped under the … {read more…}

Rebecca just threw down the gauntlet. We were “talking” on IM when she suggested blogging everything on our bedside table, just for a lark. She says she’ll do it if I’ll do it, but I can’t cheat. By this I assume she means I can’t take stuff out that makes me look shallow or add stuff in that makes me seem deeper than I really am…or maybe she just means I can’t lie and say I have less stacked up there than I really do. So here’s my list, no cheating involved.

Lying (or is it Laying?) on the bedside table:

The Artist’s Way
Julia Cameron
-and my really cool journal for morning pages which I should scan in and show you. I … {read more…}