Leanne Shawler, Artist

This time I'm participating in a link at chatting at the sky on "what I learned..." It isn't so much a "what I learned" as a "here's some interesting reading stuff" because I haven't unpacked what I have learned this past month and am not ready to write about it yet. (emily will understand ( "In Celebration of Slow" )) So here's a couple of videos (one really funny) and a handful of posts that have been quite thought-provoking. (And one thing I did learn at the foot of the post.) This is a really cool song, Body by Barbara McAfee (I went and bought it on iTunes). You can't not dance to it. Why Men Shouldn't Go to the Grocery Store (thanks to Lory for finding this one). This comedienne is hilarious but ya got to wait for it, wait for it.... (video) Redeeming Eve by Ronna Detrick. A TedX talk that Blogger won't let me embed, so here's the  link My favorite monastery on the West Coast has opened up a l...

last year's wisteria. Despite this year's total lack of rain (until Thursday, anyway) -- this year looks just as lush I recently posted on another's blog a response that focused on church history: the Catholic view vs the Anglican view and how we kind of ignore the mainland Europe view despite its great influence on both sides in the U.K.. It struck me how quickly I leapt to the defense of Anglicanism, and how the more I wrote the more I realized I wasn't revealing the whole story. Yes, Protestants killed Catholics and Catholics killed Protestants probably in fairly equal measure. And we talk of kings, popes, queens and lives lost. But what about lives lived? Was there a mob mentality of only bad things happening: loss of life, destruction of vestments, hiding one's faith? Did nobody act kindly to another? Or did they persist in seeing the Other: not my beliefs, not my God, not-fill-in-the-blank. Was nobody kind even within the constraints off how cul...

Here are some blog posts that resonated with me over the past month or so: Samantha Field at Defeating the Dragons with "It's not the rules that are the problem" Alisa Noble at Life is a Beautiful Place to Be with Chasing Sunbeams Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary with the funny and honest The Courage to Rest  (we are similar in this respect!) From Christine at Abbey of the Arts : Pray your heart (and I love the illustration by Kristin Noble) and a new-to-me blog, Krista Dalton with Resources for Reading the Bible and Rabbis . I think I'll be referring to this one a bit! Have you found any posts that have moved you recently?

Today we had a discussion in our Christian Adult Education class after listening to a TED talk about the history of the universe (in 18 minutes). A lot was said, from pointing out the scientific errors (or glosses) in the talk to intelligent design to the question of whether complexity means more vulnerability. And how does that apply to religious institutions? I wish I could say hilarity ensued, but it was pretty much each individual's belief of who/what God is. Words like "infinite" "omnipotent" "mystery" were shared. Vulnerability was pretty much seen as a "bad" thing (seriously, if there's another TED talk session we should watch Brene Brown ), which it isn't, but that didn't even occur to me until after. One of the points raised was that science asks the question "how?" and theology asks the question "why?" and each has its own set of tools and procedures for figuring out those questions. However, if...

that moment holy freshly birthed candle flicker I bow, honey upon my tongue chant echoes  wholly that moment

It seems to be the thing: memorizing Scripture. Last year, Ann Voskamp led an online group and her family in memorizing Romans, an important book of the New Testament for her, and is currently leading another scripture memorizing group. I didn't get it. Didn't do it. But Leanne, you say, the title of this post? See, if you put music to it, I'll memorize it. I have practically all of the First Song of Isaiah memorized because of this. ( "Surely it is God who saves me, I will trust in Him and not be afraid... " everybody now! " for the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense and He will be my Savior..." ) But I know that one because it was a popular song choice at my church until fairly recently. I've memorized bits of the psalms, ditto ditto. Either through their use as a song in church or through chanting them. Heck, I almost fell over (if I wasn't already sitting down) when meditating on Jesus being anointed by the woman in Matthew...

... but I succumbed anyway. After much going back and forth etc., I joined the masses of scrapbookers and project lifers and bought myself an IKEA Raskog cart. (Please note I ordered online as I really don't like the IKEA in-store experience.) Innit pretty? What sold me was that it rolled, so I can move it out of the way as needed. That and I had various baskets and things lying on the floor within reach as there wasn't room on my desk. (That's another story. I do have paper bits to file away.) This is what it is holding right now. Bottom bucket: small boxes containing tiny paper pieces, paper napkins to use in collage, AquaMarkers and ProMarkers (I don't use these much but when I do, now I don't have to go digging for them) and a bowl containing various oddments like a measuring tape, date stamp, sandpaper block, etc. Middle bucket: in the back are inks and pouches containing other markers/pens, watercolor set on the side, and Golden fluid acrylics an...

First, I have learned that it's only the first icon ever that you keep, the rest may be kept or given or whatever. So with the next icon I do, I shall have to keep that intention for whom I'm writing it in my mind/prayers throughout the process. me and Mary after the icon was blessed, Sunday after Christmas The best part about writing an icon with Helena was that our friendship deepened as a result. We never got right down to it (it being icon writing) the moment we walked in the door. There was a meal or a cup of tea and a sharing. However, unlike the intensive five day long icon workshop, we were able to take our time, ponder over our choices. (We decided not to do a border and it took us a while to figure out our color choice for the lettering.) It did feel sometimes like we were going too slow for there was also a tension present. We both work full time and so the weekends were our only open time for this.  This meant there were weekends that the hubby h...