Leanne Shawler, Artist

I attended Flora Bowley's "Brave Intuitive Botanicals" class on Wednesday and we did some writing. In my case, that a sprig of rosemary was writing to me.  The timer was up before the letter was finished, but even so, her words are words you need to hear also, so I've done a bit of editing and put it in poem form below. I want you to know you are resilient.    Even through drought I have survived, you will survive too.  You are enough. Stay grounded,  be rooted in love. Shelter the birds, those who need you.  Keep safe by staying put.  I am full of fragrance that you love.  Your sweet medicine is useful and nourishes others.  I want you to know that all will be well, even through cataclysm and loss.  All will be well.  And you are loved. Love, Rosemary And as a graphic, using the page where I did a blind contour drawing of the rosemary sprig.

After missing one day on the P in God First challenge , Thursday I got back into it but the NRSV of Psalm 37:7 didn't resonate even a little bit. So I went to the next verse and this poem/reflection resulted. be still the psalm says I try and end up itchy -- antsy -- a mind-racing failure  be still the psalm says like a forested pond smooth glass life teems hidden skims the surface is that really still? A trout crashes upward, Pirouettes a response To an unseen call Step down to the shore Taste flowing waters, Life-giving Being still Is not becoming stone. To soften, give, respond, Some movement Is required Yeah, I don't have forested ponds where I live. I've seen them back east though...

in everything remember to breathe remember God. all, all is holy. be earthed in God, rooted and recall God's love, God is love, God is present with me. breathe in love, transform cells into compassion. breathe out and begin. this is for any task, at work or at home. an act of love is in everything. (Written while on retreat, using a prompt from Christine Valters-Paintner's "The Artist's Rule")

Tisha B’Av is the day in the Jewish calendar when Jews remember the day the First and Second Temple fell (655 years apart, the same day). It has become the day that the deaths resulting from pogroms and Crusades and the Holocaust are remembered.  To observe this day, many Jews read the Book of Lamentations, among other things.  I pondered this on the way home yesterday, read the entire Book of Lamentations and cried. Yes, cried. Between pondering and reading, here’s my take of what Lamentations might be written today (quotes are from the original Lamentations): “My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out on the ground…” Anxiety twists a hard knot in my chest, for we’ve lost our center, spinning out to the polarized fringes, convinced we’re right and the Other is dead wrong, and needs to pay for it, so we use word-daggers to shame, steel to silence. God, aren’t you disgusted with us yet? We deny You are Love,...

(A Good Sam community story about the Kingdom of God) The kingdom of God is like a seagull on a skylight with trinity-webbed feet crying crying to be heard to be let in

This week's blogging the lectionary  (Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36; 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11; John 17:1-11) is a poem inspired by the sermon ideas at Working Preache r. And this is eternal life: That we may know God and Christ. I am bread, Warm loaf, heavenly aroma, Broken and shared Enough for all Abundance to spare And this is eternal life: That we may know God and Christ. I am living water, Refreshing, cleansing, A benediction over your head, trickling down your face, Down your collarbone. I am rain drenching the land, Knocking the dust out of the sky Revealing what is hidden, Revealing heaven here on earth And this is eternal life: That we may know God and Christ. I am light, Revealing the darkest dark, Keeping you safe From the terrors of the night, Showing you The way to wholeness. And this is eternal life: That we may know God and Christ. I am sacred touch That heals. I am spit and sweat...

My monthly bible study group was supposed to meet tonight, but our hosts' children and grandchildren were evacuated to our hosts' home in the fires we're having, so we had to cancel. (Photos below are from this afternoon.) We are reading Mark and studying it through the lens of Marcus Borg ( Conversations on Scripture ). I read the study group questions ahead of time and in one of them we were asked to imagine a conversation between the daughter of Jairus and the woman who touched Jesus' cloak afterward. This kind of flowed as I fell asleep and then spent the day recovering it. Hopefully I got it all. Conversation There she is Dancing sunshine In the midst of all her friends. They say Jesus raised her from the dead. Who is that woman? She sits by the well alone A glorious halo surrounds her. Is she the witch who was Haggard, bent double, They say Jesus cured? I am free of blood But they won't believe it. They test me aga...