Coming Attractions II**

 

"SOUTHEAST ASIA TALKING TREES"
Mixed-Media Collage, 24" x 36"

"While role models are helpful, we are not called to copy other people.  Rather, we are to become fully the people God created us to be, living our own lives in response to our own calls - as Jesus lived out his life faithful to God's call for him.  So it is that hearing one's call is akin to discovering one's self."*
  

What interesting paths we are led or called to in our lives.....innocent and seemingly little acts of influence from others,  habits we develop,  urges, and magnetic forces take us where they will.  Role models' lives that we've admired or interacted with, whose mere existence seemed beyond our grasp, become easy acquaintances and not so far from where our own paths have steered us.

In my life right now, I'm amazed at forces that have brought me to this place of contentment that I find in my construction of mixed-media collages. I marvel at the energy that  is projected toward me and drawn from my own childrens' ambitious lives, the joy of sharing discovery in a sibling's life of her talents and achievements, the glow in my heart from living with a spouse who continues to follow his own call to work with people of faith and people of little and sometimes no faith, the tears shared, the smiles and laughter coming from friends recovering from grief, the recent joy of admission from a friend that she had been plagued by certain possible situations occurring in her life and her being surprised that when the events did occur, she actually survived them and marveled at how wonderful it is to be finished with those fears!  A rebirth, a reawakening of call, of existence, of life!

Coming Attractions II** refers to my one woman show scheduled for June, 2011, but coming attractions too also points to the vitality and conviction that I feel I'm stepping into at this time in my life.  How about you?  Are you feeling a call for something new, a long-held fear that should be erased, the knowledge that there is more to life than you've been allowing yourself to experience?  Why not embrace coming attractions too and get on with our amazing life.

*Quote - "Listening Hearts/Discerning Call in Community" - Morehouse Publishing

**Opening Reception - June 3, 2011 
Gallery at the Weinhard
Weinhard Hotel - Dayton, WA

Ordinary Days?

Image via Wikipedia

In the scheme of momentous, expansive days in my life, last Thursday may not have been exceptional.  Yet, I've rolled the memories of the day about in my head quite a bit, reminding myself of how remarkable an ordinary day can be, if only we allow ourselves to be in the moments of the day and perhaps later reflect on the extraordinary influence in our lives of those ordinary days. 

It was a sunny day, remarkable in itself as the last few weeks have been very grey here in our valley.  Sunshine out, my day was one of errands of little import except to me.  Stop #1 was a beautiful orchid warehouse, where the sun was softened but not grayed through the greenhouse windows, the humidity just right, and the orchids bursting with color - it almost felt as though an orchid melody was prevailing! The greenhouse proprietor led me through expansive, hypnotic, blooming aisles pointing out variety and characteristics of those orchids I stopped to admire.  Together we selected a number of specimens (she warning and I wisely rejecting those that had to have very special humidity and every other day watering).  Under her deft handling of characteristics, color and composition, I was fortunate to carry a beautiful touch of creativity back into my home.   I reflected that the greenhouse did not exist in actuality when my spouse and I resettled our home in this small town - now it is an outlet to retail and private customers on and offline on a global basis.  A fine example of embracing one's passion and building a business on it!

Stop #2 was to pick up several garments that I've been thrilled to have altered into smaller versions of attire:)  Here I was welcomed warmly into the shop by Irma's smiling, precocious 4 year old  granddaughter who was "helping" her grandmother for the day.  Irma fetching my order all the while chatting with me as the 4 year old boldly clicked open the cash register in order to place my check inside the drawer......she allowed as how she knew how to work the machine on her own and gave me a very nice thank you as she stashed the cash.  This was all very unremarkable I suppose except that I marvel at the fact that the young grandmother apparently has a burgeoning business, confident in her skill, her entrepreneurship, and her tenacity to make it happen - all the while probably unknowingly influencing her granddaughter in a very positive manner!  

Stop #3 was a Stephen Ministry visit with a friend who needs a neutral ear to share life issues that feel way too heavy on her heart these days.  It was my honor to provide those ears and to be allowed into the depths of her heart and sorrow, not to advise or to fix but to just listen.  Again, though as I listened, I was quite certain that my friend was unaware of how remarkable I believe she is - in her stature as a woman, as an educator, an artist, and a beloved mother.

1, 2, 3 women's paths intersected mine in the day, entrepreneur, educator, artists, each competent in their fields, each setting an example for other women younger and older (I older than all three of them) in how to move through life the best way possible, how to set positive role models for those around them, how to succeed in spite of diverse circumstances, cultural differences, and age related issues.  Not mind-blowing stories of heroism, courage, triumph; just women in their everyday lives exhibiting competency, spirit, warmth and welcome......last Thursday was a humbling, remarkable day of heart expansion for me.  I bet someone touched you last week or even today in a similar way -  reflecting upon your day, I hope you can remember that other person or maybe even come to realize that you, in your own special way, made a difference to another person today.

For those who weep

Having lost a friend this week to sudden and unsuspected death, I've come to the conclusion that there are no human words to comfort the surviving spouse who has lost a beloved family member. The friend and his surviving wife live in a community other than mine so I've attempted to compose the words through blurry, tear filled eyes, I've felt the ache in envisioning myself being in the survivor's situation; my words have been written, sealed, stamped and sent. But it's not over for me with this friend in pain. That is not to say that I'm on-the-spot with casseroles and tissues, it means I remember daily and pray that God is the on-the-spot presence for my friend. I say "daily" but last night as I wakened for no reason, I felt pretty sure that if no drugs were involved, my friend was most likely awake weeping. Weeping without relief for her loss....I tossed, turned and prayerbook words rang truer than ever for my own consolation and for that of my friend.....

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch,
or weep this night,
and give your angels charge over those who sleep.
Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying,
soothe the suffering,
pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake.
Amen*

Please remember my friend and her family in your own prayers.


*From The (Episcopal) Book of Common Prayer, service of Compline

New, Good, Better and Best

Image by Getty Images for 20th Century Fo via Daylife

Having recently watched "Bride Wars", (stars - Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway), a thought that had been percolating for a while began to take shape in my head. The movie is a cute, sometimes hilarious, sometimes pathetic story of two life-long friends being torn asunder by their similar wedding fantasies. With a scheduling snafu in the wedding planner's office, requiring one of the engaged to yield the cherished date and venue, the life-long friends become selfish, battling, first rate enemies!

The characters engage in petty squabbling, stooping to do most anything to keep the best friend's wedding experience unpleasant while at the same time striving to arrange every possible detail for their own perfect day. The underlying theme in question would seem to be the competing bridezillas and their personal self-absorption - viewed in a comic light - rather entertaining.

Upon reflection, as I have been internally analyzing this "friend thing" lately, my question is why two young women see fit to throw away the sanctity of a lifelong friendship in favor of their own means to an end - the perfect wedding day? When does someone deemed a friend become tagged as new, good, better, or best friend? What is it with those categorizations?

There are persons I've met who just "feel" right to me from the first moment - upon sharing, I've had similar experiences as they, both good and bad, I might admire their ease in social settings, or be drawn to them by their outer trappings of dress or hairstyle, or for the fact that we quickly discover similar marriage and birthing patterns in our lives. Those persons might be labeled in all four categories - "new, good, better, best." But where is it that friendship is really born into a category beyond acquaintance, new, better, or best?

I greet the post office clerk, the grocery checker, the bank teller, the board member, persons in church, etc. perhaps each week or several times in a week. I smile, converse a little, perhaps notice physical changes or demeanors. Are these people my friends - I certainly wouldn't categorize them as enemies....maybe just acquaintances? On the other hand, persons I've literally known for years, greeting, visiting, commiserating and departing but with no real sense of an established friendship. Always something held back with no eagerness to establish further ties. Once more, they're not enemies, just not friends.

Then there are those who I've known for a short time, cherish immediately, and strive for connection and similarities without even realizing that striving. When do these relationships go from "new" to "best?" For me, it may be when adversity strikes a blow to that special person I've met. I can feel sorry for an enemy or an acquaintance, even pray or wish for their well being, but the "reaching out" for a person through adversity is where I believe the initiation of true friendship may be born. It's when I find myself yearning to comfort them in a personal loss, reaching out to them with a word, a small gift, a particular email message, or even that perfect snail-mail Hallmark sympathy card. For me, I think there's something about the need to reach out in love that tips the balance from acquaintance, to new, to good, better and maybe even best!

Does any of this pondering ring true with you? If so, where do you experience that good, better, best connection of friendship?