Leanne Shawler, Artist

You may have noticed that I took a wee little blogging break. No particular reason, beyond that I always take a blogging break, it seems, around December-January of each year. I've also been participating in an online course over at Abbey of the Arts: "Coming Home to the Body" , which is my first tentative step towards a better incarnational understanding of God in the world, in me. (aka God's presence.) This page of my art journal is an illustration of one wee line from the class: Meanwhile, part of me wondered about the point of continuing this blog. The priest at my mum's church posted a link on his Facebook feed called "Social Media as a Sacrament" which made me think some more, although not in the direction the author meant. (And I confess, I whined a little bit in the comments.) I still have blog post ideas, but is it the best use of my time when I can count my regular commenters on one hand and still have fingers left over? (And that...

I've been on vacation (holidays) to Australia for the past three weeks, hence the silence. There is much to post about, but I am going to start with what is uppermost on my mind. The amount of time I waste. I came home to a DVR that was 99% full (and some episodes had been deleted in our absence) and over 400 blog posts in Google Reader. There would have been more, but I had snuck on a time or two to do some whittling down and had started catching up once we landed in San Francisco and were waiting for the plane home. This is out of control. I actually felt the pinch of wasting time while staying at my Mum's but have come to realize that my getting online in the morning is equivalent to her turning on morning television -- it stops both of us from doing what we want to do, which in my case is morning prayer and meditation. I had plans today to spend a good chunk of quiet time just being, but now I think I need to clear some mental clutter first. I am going to stop wat...

So I kind of got started, so in case you were wondering why the change, read on... My goal for this blog is to create the beginnings of a community of those who have either once thought they are not worthy of God, or who still think it.  (And if God isn't your bailiwick, your thing, that's okay too. I hope my story, this new-maybe community, will help regardless.) One way to get the ball rolling is to share my story. My story is about discovering that I am beloved of God after all, no matter how unworthy I feel about that honor because of my past actions. I figure there are others out there who don't think they are worthy of belonging, being loved by God, others who might need to hear this and be heard themselves. (Now if you need help in dealing with whatever is blocking you from feeling worthy, seek professional help: a psychologist, a therapist, or other qualified person. I have not the skills nor the qualifications, and my prayer is for you to be healed not to ha...