Leanne Shawler, Artist

Here are my cards from week 2 of the ICAD (Index Card a Day) challenge . The top three cards were done at work -- two using a freebie Spirograph from Rubio's that they apparently gave away back in the day (they were in my co-worker's desk which she was cleaning up, so I got one) with the red pencil that goes with. It was easier to use than the actual spirograph that I have. The bottom two were done at home. One journaling how I'm feeling about the challenge (the martini is kind of relevant) and the other putting together snippets of stuff that were littering my desk. That's the good news. The bad news is I haven't done any cards this week. But I can always start again today.

I've almost finished writing this week's blogging the lectionary (pretty much), but I'm not posting it. I might a little later on, after I've had time to process the news I got this week. (Mum, we're okay.) One thing is for sure, I'm glad I am blogging the lectionary. It sure is helping.

I wrote the beginning of the following earlier this week, but today during Chris' sermon, I realized it was really a half-finished thought, and worse, may have left one with the impression that I had all the answers and I "get" God. I don't. This is what I wrote last week: I was going to write of my knowing of the Trinity from childhood until now, a sort of spiritual autobiography from my view of a God who protected yet Who I foremost saw as judge, a Jesus who was a human prophet, a Holy Spirit that was a bit too woo-woo for me -- to this wonderful threefold Divine blessing in my life.  Instead, I shall write advice as how to achieve a deeper knowing: Be challenged. Talk it out with one you love. Question, seek answers. Pray, even when you don't see the point. Be open to possibilities. Be vulnerable with God. Uncover how your story and God's intertwine. Be still. And not necessarily in that order. And I should have added: "Repeat. Often."...

#1: When Good Ideas Die Blogging the lectionary is getting serious. I purchased " Feasting on the Word " from Westminster Knox Press and edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor. Three essays on every reading every week, plus feast days. It's pretty awesome reading but this week had the effect of me thinking that anything I wrote would feel like I'd copied rather than inspiring something soooo.... #2: Advice to a Deeper Knowing of God I was going to write of my knowing of the Trinity from childhood until now, a sort of spiritual autobiography from my view of a God who protected yet Who I foremost saw as judge, a Jesus who was a human prophet, a Holy Spirit that was a bit too woo-woo for me -- to this wonderful threefold Divine blessing in my life. Instead, I shall write advice as how to achieve a deeper knowing: Be challenged. Talk it out with one you love. Question, seek answers. Pray, even when you don't se...

Last Friday, I attended my first Erev Shabbat service since starting work at the synagogue. Well, it technically was my third, but I'd missed most of the service where I volunteered for registration for the Shabbabeque last summer, and the second service was the Learner's Shabbat, which was a great primer for attending a service but not quite the same. Don't know why it took me so long, but there it is. I loved it. I had trouble keeping up with some of the Hebrew but that's simply a matter of practice. But I found myself entering a Sabbath state of mind. We finish work at the synagogue at 4:00 p.m. -- plenty of time ahead of the earliest service starting but not quite enough to get home and come back again and a little too long to have dinner nearby. Which I guess is why it's taken me so long to get to an evening service. I used the gap between work and the service starting to go sit somewhere quiet. It was a small greenspace that was artificially cons...

Without further ado, here's some thought-provoking reading: Let's Talk About Sexual Entitlement from Wordgazer's Words . This so resonates. What Story Could You Set Down Today? by Liz Lamoreux: Saying Yes to This Moment The Original Christian Gospel by Fr. James Bernstein at Pravmir: Orthodox Christianity and the World #YesAllBiblicalWomen on Twitter (you don't need a Twitter account to view it), or the "best of" summary run by Time.com -- Extraordinarily powerful stuff. What thought-provoking reading have you found lately online?

Acts 2:1-21 Psalm 104:24-34, 35b 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 John 20:19-23 Several ideas have floated through my brain while figuring out what to write for this post for Blogging the Lectionary and Pentecost Sunday. I got two thirds of the way done with a West Side Story parody called "Sophia" all the while knowing that, clever lines and all, this was just a distraction. Then I kept singing "God You Make All Things New", the song we've sung the past couple of Easter Vigils: God you make all things new Wash us Renew us Breathe your Spirit into us Which often ends up as a help into writing but I think this time made a change from singing show tunes. As my focus has been the gospel of John, why drop it now just because the Acts passage is so much flashier? But what could I say? Starters for Sunday from the Church of Scotland came in handy. (Although I can't find the file I read there earlier in the week.) The opening of the Gospel has...

Happy Shavuot! Rachel Held Evans recently posted a list of summer reading , which was a bit like last year's actually -- but given that I have books on my to-read list including a couple that I bought based on her list last year, I shouldn't be surprised. Oh, and yes, Rachel, I was one of those people who had that competitive streak to read the most: especially when it was the MS Read-a-thon. (Am I remembering that right?) Anyway, these I haven't read (except the first which I've almost finished reading), so these are not recommendations, just what's on my list to read this summer. 2 works of fiction (of course, I have a whole other pile for that!) and the rest non-fiction... Rosalind Franklin: Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox (so far a good read!) Watermark by Joseph Brodsky The First Paul by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan The Regency Detective by David Lassman and Terence James (am hoping this is fiction!) Found by Micha Boyett The...

I have other posts planned, but am taking a break from pondering this week's Blogging the Lectionary post (and you'll be relieved to know that I've moved on from the parody of West Side Story's "Maria") to share that I am taking part in ICAD -- using an Index Card A Day in some creative manner for the next two months. These first two are experimenting with embossing folders (without using a fancy machine) and a new ink pad that has multiple colors on it. Not successful but the goal is to do something every day and it doesn't have to be a priceless work of art at the end either. Learn more about ICAD at daisy yellow .