REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Day 3: Twelve Days of Mary Love, Santos Sophia

How do you connect with the divine feminine in every day life? My art is one way for me. This is my mixed media Santos Sophia I created a few years ago. I am very attracted to santos cage dolls and her face reminds me of one that I own. 

"...I believe that all our names for the Divine, whether male or female, are inadequate. All these metaphors are our feeble human attempts and projections as we try to draw near to the Mysterious One. Probably the only adequate name for the Holy One is that which was written long ago: "I Am Who I Am" (Exodus 3:14). In order to have a personal relationship, however, it is helpful to name the Divine. "Sophia" has become the best divine name for my prayer. I resonate immensely with her qualities of guidance, truth-bringing, and companionship. She is always with me as I search for the way home, which is what I am consistently doing on my spiritual path.

...As this relationship continually unfolds, she constantly leads me deeper, challenges me to grow freer, and keeps inviting me to be more truly my best self. I know that this relationship is never just for myself. It is out of this affinity with Sophia and my ongoing transformation that I am consistently led outward to the world in which I am to give my life and service.

Sophia always draws me up and outward once I have been led down and inward. It is a cycle that I trust. I do believe that I am a much more compassionate woman for having sat in Sophia's presence...."-- Joyce Rupp

If you would like to participate in Twelve Days with Mary you are invited to link up with Rebecca at Recuerda mi Corazon who started this lovely tradition of creating a Circle of Mary love five years ago. This goes beyond religion or culture, but unites a community in these days leading up to the Feast day of Guadulupe on December 12.

 

 

Our Lady of Sorrows SoulCollage®: Day 2 of Twelve Days of Mary

Today I introduce you to a SoulCollage® card I call Our Lady of Sorrows as part of Rebecca Brooks Twelve Days of Mary Love 2015.  Part of the process of SoulCollage® is to write what they call "I am the one who" statements to personalize each card we create. I am the one who is crying for you over the recent losses of your friend Orma and nephew Bud. You've internalized these deaths resulting in high anxiety and you wish you could just cry yourself. Intellectually you know that death is part of the circle of life, but you remain in denial. Closure will come when their memorials are held later this month.

You can also ask a question of the card inSoulCollage® . So, I tell Our Lady, "I am carrying these losses heavily although gathering and scanning  photos for the memorials has helped me remember so many happy memories. I don't take most deaths of family and friends this hard. What else can I do to deal with the grief and celebrate their lives?" Continue the scanning, your journal writing, minimize the phone calls back and forth regarding death and burial details, and how about making an art journal page for each of your loved ones? The tears will eventually come. 

Twelve Days of Mary: Our Lady of the Southwest

For many years, artist Rebecca Brooks at Recuerda mi Corazon blog hosted Twelve Days of Mary beginning December 1 and ending on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In addition to her studio in Arizona, she now hosts artist trips to Mexico. She also has some chronic health issues so she doesn't have the time for blogging that she used to. Several of us used to post links to our versions of Mary directly to Rebecca's blog those 12 days. She uses an application called Mister Linky. You can still go to Rebecca's site each Friday. She calls that Haiku my Heart Fridays. 

Anyhow, I am going to do the Twelve Days of Mary on my own at Sacred Ordinary blog even if no one else participates. So here is my December 1 entry: Our Lady of the Southwest created digitally at the Polyvore site. 

I would like to invite others who are interested to join me, but I don't know the technicalities of Mister Linky, the application Rebecca uses for collaboration. I'm e-mailing her now so I can learn, but in the meantime, feel free to comment here or on Facebook with your own images/poems/memories to celebrate the Twelve Days of Mary. This isn't just for Catholics; it's for everyone who celebrates the divine feminine. 

This Has Become a Time of Discernment for Me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, Sacred Ordinary blog, I’m back. On May 21, 2015 I posted at my blog Sacred Ordinary and since then I haven’t gone back. I miss it—and I miss the blog walking I used to do. When I started blogging in November 2003 I vowed that it would be part of my daily spiritual writing practice and for several years it was. I poured out thoughts, posted photography, art and spiritual things that struck me. I have written 2,491 posts over this 12 year span. So, what happened?

Social media has really, really changed and it changed me. I got sidetracked with Facebook primarily, but I also use my “computer allowed” spare time for Pinterest and Polyvore and to Google stuff I don’t know about that I want to know about. I haven’t even used Polyvore for several months and I loved creating digital art there.

This summer I had a health crisis and in September I had my second surgery to remove an adenocarcinoma from my bladder. Right now I’m feeling well, almost normal, and the surgeon got good margins. I’m back to work three days a week, but my life has been forever altered. Part of my bladder was removed and that all by itself has physically and emotionally changed me. I’ve survived breast cancer twice, so I’m hoping for the best, but frequent testing is in the cards. And because of my age, I am simply not as mobile as I used to be. Traveling, for example, will be rethought because of some new limitations. I am, however, filled to overflowing with gratitude for each day, far moreso than I have ever been.

I’m really second-guessing how I want to spend the time I have left, I guess. It’s a process of discernment. I am blessed with a great family and lots of friends so I have many opportunities to meet and mingle. I also feel very strongly about giving back through community service. But—and this is a big but—I find myself preferring being home alone reading or doing art, or streaming movies vs. being the human doing I have been until recently.

I’m even very unsure about whether I want to continue my part-time job; I have so loved it until recently but the climate has changed and I have not changed enough, and I'm not sure I want to. Am I really benefiting anybody anymore with this use of my time? I already resigned from two non-profit Boards this past year, even before I got sick, because there was more minutiae and politics going on than I was comfortable with. 

All I know is that today I wanted to post to Sacred Ordinary and to officially announce to anyone who might trip across this post that I have entered yet again another period of discernment. I’m going to start examining what I really love doing, what I dislike doing, and making changes in my life. I am just so blessed to have had the great life I’ve had—and I’m planning on making my life even more meaningful. 

Feeling the Energy of Three SoulCollage® Cards

Yesterday at a monthly SoulCollage® gathering, I made three cards to share with others. We meet from 11 a.m. to about 4 p.m. and we have a loose format that we follow, including check-in, image searches from shared magazines, trading of images, and lots of chit chat. This gathering has become one of the high points of my month as we women have known each other since our children were small. 

This card is in the Council suit and I call her Earth Mother; I will put her on my altar tonight as a reminder of Earth Day tomorrow. I am the one who has always been deeply drawn to Mother Nature or Mother Earth since I was a young child. Judaeo/Christianity’s story of how the earth was created in seven days by one God is a powerful myth for me. But I like to think that creation of all the universe, however it happened, has male and female aspects. I am the one who believes Gaia, as Mother Nature, personifies the entire ecosystem of Planet Earth. The way of Mother Gaia is the passive, feminine, Yin way of healing.

This card is also in the Council suit and I call it Ecstatic Dance. I am the one who used to love to go to movement expression gatherings and dance with Gabriel Roth on her videos. I am now more limited in movement, but I believe ecstatic dance is a powerful way to connect with God.

This is another Council card I call The Crone. I have several Crone cards in my deck because I am one and they inspire me to be more positive about the aging process. I am the one who is grateful for the graciousness with which I have aged. I bitch and whine sometimes about pain and limitations, but I know I'm blessed to have made it to cronehood, though I sometimes miss the mark when it comes to wisdom, patience and acceptance. I'm a crone in progress. 

If you would like to see more of my SoulCollage® cards on Pinterest, go to Redondowriter's SoulCollage® site. 

 

 

Reviewing Your Life With Rear View Mirror Meditation

One of my plans beginning now and into the new year, is to actively stay in the moment and regain spiritual practices that I seemed to have let fall by the wayside. Because I'm so darned curious about everything, I get easily side tracked. 

I belong to Spiritual Directors International and when the monthly newsletter "Listen" recently came, I was excited for a variety of reasons. One is the annual conference which will be held in Louisville, KY in the spring with a focus on Thomas Merton. I have long been a Merton lover and actually did my M.A. thesis on Merton. The second reason was on their Field Guide page and a "Rear View Mirror Meditation." 

It reminds me of some of the exercises in the National Intensive Journal that I taught for many years, but it also seems like a perfect option for my monthly journal group that meets on Dec. 29. 

Because I have been posting at Sacred Ordinary blog more frequently lately, I'm going to try to get back to that at least once a week. 

Here is the meditation: 

Rear View Mirror Meditation (from Spiritual Direction International “Listen” newsletter, Dec. 2014 –www.sdiworld.org)

Set aside a half an hour or more, have paper and pen, or a writing device nearby.

Breathe deeply for five or more minutes. Feel into your physical self. In your body, where are you tense? Spacious? Flexible? Are there spots of bliss or resistance? Simply notice any sensations without judgment or analysis.

SHIFT

Allow your attention to travel your life timeline. Recall age five, or the youngest age you remember. What energies, sensations, or memories surface? For what are you thankful, grateful, and least grateful? Acknoweldge without judgment, and move on…

CRUISE

Recall age ten…

Recall age fifteen…

Recall age twenty…

Pause for a minute, and fast track into present time. On this present date. Acknowledge the road you’ve traveled, together with any consistencies and incongruities.

Now recall age twenty-five…

Recall age thirty…

Recall age forty…

Continue to your present age (or stop if you’ve already reached it.)

TUNE INTO YOUR BIRTHDAY AGE, THIS YEAR

Pause to idle in the present time: what reveals itself to you about here and now, the life you live, the silence you do—or don’t—cultivate, the kindness you embrace and share, and life blessings for which you give thanks.

REFLECT ON THE YEAR AHEAD

Choose one aspect of your life to tend to with care and compassion. Be willing to give permission to fine tune the necwssary actions and changes to involve all the best parts of yourself to engage and shift into gear.Who and which activities fuel your creativity, compassion, kindness? Can you create a roadmap?

STOP

In your own words, on paper or in the silence of your mind and heart, give thanks for life in all of its beauty, complexity, and simplicity. Then, park all your thoughts, and simply attend to the present moment.

KEY

The next time you meet with your spiritual guide or companion, give permission for this reflection to become part of your exploration and inquiry together. (If you don't see a spiritual director, share this with a close, trusted friend.) 

 

Twelve Days of Mary Love (Day 11) - SoulCollage® Black Madonna

This is a SoulCollage® card in the Council suit I call "The Black Madonna." I have been using this method created by Seena Frost since 2003 and was certified to teach the method in 2005. I facilitate only one group per month, but the collagers are girlfriends I've known since our kids were little in the mid-1960s. We raised them together and CFM (Christian Family Movement) played a huge role in that. Making SoulCollage® cards together each month and then sharing them has become a very special part of each of our lives in our older years. 

The spiritual/archetypal suit in SoulCollage® is where I keep most of the madonnas that I have created using this process. I made this card several years ago and she reminded me of Joseph and his coat of many colors.

To see other participants work in the Loving Lupita: Twelve Day of Mary Love, go to Rebecca Brooks Recuerda mi Corazon. There is only one official day left of our twelve days. 

 

Loving Lupita: Twelve Days of Mary Love (Day 6) - Our Lady of Sitka

A few days ago I shared a photo of a three-handed virgin icon I saw in Sitka, Alaska when I was traveling there this summer. It was there I also saw the icon of Our Lady of Sitka, which you see above. The story goes like this: 

From the Antiochian Website, some perspective: The Sitka Icon of the Mother of God in Sitka, Alaska is one of the most revered Icons in North America.

This icon has been attributed to a famous Iconographer, Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky, and a protégé of Russian Empress Catherine II who was instructed at the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg, Russia. …

The Cathedral received the Icon as a gift from the workers at the Russian American Company in 1850, two years after the Cathedral was completed. Even with their meager wages, the men generously made contributions to the Church.

I bought a beautiful photograph of her in a religious articles store near the Cathedral and I hope to frame her. The Internet abounds with stories about her and she periodically travels to Orthodox churches around the world for veneration. 

If you would like to see more virgin variations in our twelve days of Mary, visit Rebecca Brooks site Recuerda mi Corazon. 

 

Loving Lupita: Twelve Days of Mary Love (Day 5) and Haiku My Heart

Rebecca of Recuerda mi Corazon is currently hosting Loving Lupita: Twelve Days of Mary, but on her blog every Friday she always hosts Haiku My Heart. She is combining the two on this Friday. I hope you have time to visit and perhaps participate yourselves. 

In 17 syllables we write what we feel in our hearts and today this SoulCollage® card, another art process that I use, presented itself to me. I created it in 2011.

Always inspiring

Eternally maternal

Divine feminine.

I purchased a vintage sepia photograph of the focal image at a garage sale several years ago and I use it in many forms in my art.

 

 

SoulCollage® Cards: Explorer and Ellen DeGeneris

On Monday I got together with friends for our monthly SoulCollage® group and made two cards. I'm far behind scanning my cards for Pinterest and have neglected Sacred Ordinary blog so much. If one thing is certain in life, it's change.  Facebook has definitely affected the blog. 

This card is called The Explorer and is in the Council suit. I am the one who recently took yet another silly quiz on Facebook called "Which Jungian archetype are you?" and to my great surprise I was the Explorer. I equate explorers with travel and adventuresomeness and though I travel, I'm not driven to it and I would not call myself a physical explorer. However, I'm definitely an interior explorer. I love to explore people, places, animals, history and thought. Books and the Internet are my playgrounds. I am the one who looks every day for the sacred in the ordinary of my average days. I am the one who for years traveled alone in the U.S. after my divorce and I would research whatever town I was in and then explore its sites and history. I am the one who realizes I am an explorer after all. 

This card is in the Community suit of SoulCollage® and now Ellen DeGeneris has become part of my community/family in a more aware way than ever before. I like this description of the community suit, a favorite suit in my deck. "The Community Suit, or the communal dimension, is for the people and pets who have loved you, taught you, and challenged you.  These people can be family, ancestors, friends, teachers, healers.  You may know them personally, or you may only know them through their art, writing, or special accomplishments.  They may be alive or dead.  Relationships are honored in this suit, and your support system is represented here."

I am the one who has loved Ellen DeGeneris's style of humor and timing ever since I first saw her on television. I have been attracted to her as my next door neighbor girlfriend who is funny as hell but also has the wisdom of a sage. When she had the courage to come out publicly as gay, my admiration increased. I am the one who admires her courage and wishes I had it. I rarely watch her show because of the time frame and my ignorance about programming my TV, but when I do, I am so darned happy. She is a mentor to me of finding light and love even in the midst of what seems like disaster. I am the one who was utterly delighted with her large group selfie at the Academy Awards. I wish she were the permanent host.