When I pull the same card over and over from my decks, I get it: pay attention. I shuffle the cards, plenty— but because Spirit is faithful to give me what I need, I’m getting the “Grounding” card every few days right now.
So much tumbles through me every day! It’s hard to slow down and be more solidly present with the deep grief and shining beauty within and all around. I want to notice what weighty values call me forward, and how much stops me. I try to contribute toward peace in Gaza. I fail. I ache. I celebrate my wife’s birthday. I want to offer this post even though I can’t say even a fraction of what’s moving and breaking in my heart.
To face my fears and show up as fully as I can, I want to act, speak, donate, weep, party, encourage, make art, etc, from a resourced, grounded place. Sometimes I'm there, often I'm not. I'm human, and that's a kind of grounding too... Spirit knows I need to keep returning to Center and hear what’s guiding me, and holding us, underneath it all.
No wonder I pulled the “Grounding” card again today.
What cards are you pulling, or what themes do you notice over and over these days? What does that message reflect back to you? What parts of your life or our world are calling for your solid presence? What do you know about returning to your Center and your guidance?
Blessing for your practice, my friends, and for your contributions and celebrations. May peace prevail.
If you know someone else who would benefit from a practice like this, find the Art & Wisdom card decks here.
If you’d rather share art images as a greeting card, or a pack of greeting cards to give your friends for their own mailing, find those 6-packs of 5x7” greeting cards and envelopes here.
Thanks for your support as we’re walking together.
Melanie
]]>I spoke with my spiritual companion/director recently about how small and slow I sometimes feel, especially when the needs around me are so big and come so fast. On the hardest days, my judging voices want me to be different or more than I am.
She and I wondered together what truths might be hiding underneath those judgments. As we listened, I remembered the mycelium networks among the roots of trees. We admired the way they share nutrients, information, and contribution to the health of forest communities. I felt an invitation to trust my own offerings and the way they belong as part of a web of love in action.
I made this doodle drawing right after that conversation. It represented interconnected prayers, acts of service, voices for justice, gifts of creativity, and works of care of every size. It felt really wonderful to draw all these dots and lines affirming the truth that all of us can contribute exactly who we are and what we have, sharing them into an interactive, vibrant whole.
If you wish, take a moment and try your own doodle-- it just might help you calm down, feel some belonging, or practice trust. You could draw a scattering of dots on the page and connect as many of them as you can, as you remember that every bit of love grows our collective work of peace and healing.
May it be so.
Meanwhile, I’ve started some new art as an exploration and prayer-- for nonviolence and justice in Israel/Palestine, in my country, and in my own heart. A juicy sketch came through in a moment of clarity! So I've begun the making process. Alongside grieving, yesterday I made a joyful trip to a favorite local fabric shop, Quilts ¡Olé! for supplies. Stay tuned...
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As part of my prayer for peace this week, I asked Spirit for insight and drew an art & wisdom card. For just a moment, I was surprised to see “Belonging” as a remedy for violence… but then I knew: Violence against anyone hurts all of us, and we all belong to that suffering.
Then belonging widened into a vision where we all belong in the work to grieve and cease the violence. I see a world where all children belong to each one of us, where each child and each person is cherished and protected. Justice and aid given freely help grow a deep sense of safety, belonging, and contentment, diminishing the desire for power and war. Joy and creativity are celebrated daily, in the communities I envision. No one lives in fear. Humans come to know all beings of the earth as kin— furry ones, swimming ones, green and growing ones— and we learn to relax into that belonging too. No being lives outside of love and care.
We flourish together.
All art and text ©Melanie Weidner, 2023
]]>We can strengthen our abiding skills by practicing calm and stillness, or by staying present with discomfort.
For a few minutes, imagine yourself sitting in a safe, quiet space with a candle, like the one in the art image. Or try it for real in a place you love. Practice simply staying there, without pushing, avoiding, or fixing anything. What happens in your body, mind, and spirit?
To go further, practice abiding with a specific challenge, impatience, pain, or injustice-- as if sitting quietly with a grieving friend or an unknown outcome. Try it for a minute or a month. Try it with others. Bring kindness when feelings come up, and pause when you need to as you build capacity for abiding. What changes within you, especially over time?
Here’s a bit of fun back-story if you’re interested—
—or just skip it and click this link to check out the sets in my online shop. Pre-order discounts are on now until October 16.
Every year I wonder about making art greeting cards available, because people ask for them and I love sending beautiful mail so much. As a kid, I drew and painted my own cards for birthdays, Easter, Halloween, Christmas… sometimes a dozen at a time. My favorite designs back then echoed Sandra Boynton’s cartoons. It was the early 80’s after all. A few times I even entered a local Christmas Card contest. I remember an amazing photo of teen me with fluffy permed hair and braces, holding up my art entry and a prize ribbon, standing by my parents and my favorite high school art teacher, Mr. Swanson. I’m so grateful for all that good art practice, and especially for the joy of making and giving.
Found that old photo!
These days, it’s astonishingly possible to digitally wrangle whole sets of full-color art cards to be printed in Maine and shipped to New Mexico (by the same great people who print my Art & Wisdom Card decks, so you know they’ll be good!). Incredibly, I can modify my website, sell them online to friends and friends of friends, print my own postage labels and ship out packages, and know the cards will eventually be snail-mailed with love all over the country and even farther. (That's what it's all about, right? We need all the love we can send and receive these days-- by connecting, we re-make our way of being in the world.) My teenage fluffy-haired self would be astounded, daunted by the effort, then really excited and glad.
Honestly, my adult self mostly regrets selling greeting cards that one holiday season years ago, when I injured my shoulder folding way too many of them by myself. Ouch. So I've been hesitant to try again. But this year the way is opening, and I’m offering greeting cards as a time-limited experiment. This time, the printer will fold them for me. This year, I’ve got a business coach helping forecast expenses. And I’ve put the cards in packs of 6 to keep the inventory more manageable. I’m a middle-aged-plus solo business owner now, working out of my garage, so it’s got to be doable! Most importantly, as I said before, I believe in supporting relationship and connection.
I can’t wait to use these cards myself, and to share them with you. The samples from the printer are great! I’ll be making sure the color and design are the best we can make them.
Now it’s time to pre-order your greeting card sets. I’m offering a discount until October 16, and your early orders will help me gather the funds for printing and know how many sets to make. Sales after mid-October will be full-price and available while supplies last. I’ll have cards in hand by mid-November, and your packs will be delivered between November 30 and December 8— just in time for holiday card writing and gift giving.
I appreciate your support, always, and I absolutely love the thought of my art greeting cards supporting your messages of connection, encouragement, celebration, and care. I hope your teenaged and current selves love the feel of the cards, your pen, real stamps.
Big joy and love to you. --Melanie
I hope you are well? I’m doing alright, but feeling a bit awkward and slow. My inner seasons don’t always match the outer ones, and I’ve been on an inward, quiet journey during the bright, social summer. Thankfully, that means the autumn change toward gentle darkness feels more resonant and welcoming for me this year. I’m grateful.
If you sorted various parts of your life into seasons, I wonder how many and which ones you’d find. Which of them feel awkward, resonant, or temporary?
I believe there’s a wholeness and a Oneness holding it all, and holding us. Here’s an invitation from the Deep Breath Art & Wisdom card deck:
Meanwhile, if I sorted my Listen For Joy work into seasons, right now they’d be Springtime, Autumn/Harvest, and Winter. Here's what I mean:
As in springtime, the world is growing and changing, and the prices of my decks need to grow to keep up. You’ll notice in my website shop that Art & Wisdom Card decks and Storm Journey Story Cards now cost a bit more for their high, long-lasting quality. Thanks for your understanding and support.
However, from now until October 8, I’m offering 15% off the new price so you have one more chance to buy them at a lower cost. No coupon required.
A new autumn harvest— hurrah! I’ll be offering 5x7 art greeting cards for a limited time this fall. I’ve gathered my most beloved art images into sets of 6, including two winter holiday sets. They’ll be available for pre-order in the next week or two. So many of you have been asking for greeting cards… and I’ve found a way to give it a try. See the sets in the photo below, and watch for the pre-order opportunity coming soon.
As the 3-year Brave Joy Collective project ended in June, I gathered up all those art images to begin creating a new Brave Joy Art & Wisdom card deck. I prepped the images, designed the box, talked to the printer, and hoped I’d be writing the companion booklet right away. Then winter came for that project, and for my own art process too. All the energy and output I'd given for the Collective shifted toward restorative naps and slow going.
While the new deck project waits in rest and dreamtime, please keep faith with me that it will wake up, stretch out, and get hungry in its own right timing… maybe even in actual springtime? We’ll see…
Whatever seasons make up your life in all its parts, may the Sacred Oneness and Spirit of Love hold it all in a wholeness you can trust.
Thanks for being part of the community that holds me and my work.
Love and blessing to you all, Melanie
All art and text ©Melanie Weidner, 2023
]]>As technology changes, it's a challenge for small businesses like me to navigate well! Due to recent spikes in Bot visits to my website and uncertainty about AI acquisition and manipulation, I've taken down my art gallery to protect my imagery from thievery. Hopefully, I'll find another way to safeguard images while still making them available for you to enjoy.
Meanwhile, the best way to be with my art is to have it in your hands, your home, and your heart! Art & Wisdom Card decks and art prints are still available in my website Shop.
Thanks aways for your interest and support.
Warmly, Melanie
]]>I’m grateful beyond words for this amazing creative adventure. More than 450 different people— over a span of 3 years— have shared art images and spiritual practice intentions across the miles. Subscribers and gift subscription givers made it possible for me to keep creating and believing in the art during some deeply challenging times. Our collaboration worked!
It worked in another way too: By making art monthly for 3 years, I’ve now created enough imagery for another Art & Wisdom card deck, in the style of Deep Breath and Come Through. It’s astonishing, really. And now my guidance from Spirit and my inner joy is speaking loud and clear: it’s time to make this new deck.
When a new creation begins, sometimes another needs to end. It’s a really difficult, brave decision for me to end the Brave Joy Collective subscription. And I am so sorry that it might be disappointing to some of you. But three main things are making this clear:
1. The new Art & Wisdom card deck is asking to be born.
2. I’m tired, friends. I simply don’t have the energy to continue the Brave Joy Collective while writing and producing a new deck at the same time.
3. My Listening process tells me I need a space/rest/sabbatical after this new deck, to wait for something new to emerge. (More practice with liminal space!)
So again, I thank everyone who participated in the Brave Joy Collective, for their company and support along this monthly journey! It’s a testament to collaboration and creativity that 36 images and practice sets were made so far, and 1 more to come. Amazing.
As supplies last, prior Brave Joy Art & Practice sets will still be available on my website, if you want to round out your collection or give some. I’ll be adding the last sets to the online shop as they’re ready. Art prints of many of the images are available too— and the detail and color is even more wonderful in a larger print.
Even as we grieve its ending, I hope the Brave Joy Community is proud to know we supported the making of another Art & Wisdom Card deck. If the way opens and I can stay diligent, the deck could be available in early November for the holidays… we’ll see.
Writing for the Art & Wisdom deck guide booklet will be its own deep listening/creative process! More on that in the months ahead. I’ll appreciate your prayers, blessings, or good mojo, as always.
If you’re not already on my email newsletter list, please sign up at the bottom of this website to hear about the new deck, potential workshop offerings, and always new art. I hope my transition out of Brave Joy will allow me time to actually write some posts now and then! I’ve been on a kind of media sabbatical since January, and it’s time to re-emerge. :-)
Finally, although I’m surprised and sad it’s time to bring Brave Joy to a close, this is my guidance and I’m committed to follow what I hear. I’ll do my best to keep practicing bravery and joy while the next steps unfold— I trust that all of us will.
Bravely and with love, Melanie
]]>It's a stretch for my heart to welcome the unknown, to stay open when so much is undecided, unclear, unfolding. I like to know and plan... maybe a little too much?
Over and over in my art, I keep exploring this paradox: what it means to be engaged and let go at the same time. For me, it's deep soul work to keep learning to release the illusion of control. Sometimes I find a fresh freedom to be present and flexible with life as it is. Not easy practice, but worthy. (I say that a lot these days, along with another favorite phrase, "Congratulations, I'm sorry.")
Here's a new 2 minute video clip about this theme and this new image, Carry Us. It's helping me wonder (again!) how to make a home in the flow of the journey.
Enjoy, with blessings for your own learning about flow and trust. --Melanie
Thanks once more to the Brave Joy Collective members who supported me as I made this art! I'm so grateful we're finding a sense of home on this journey together.
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My friend and SDI Creative Director, Matt Whitney, interviewed me for a Cover Artist Spotlight Video. We shared a great conversation, and he put together a lovely 3 minute clip. It features my art and everything. And yes, I actually did use the word "multivalent." :-)
Enjoy the short clip-- I'm bravely sharing it!
When I talk near the end about connecting with others, I'm including you, too:
Watch video: https://vimeo.com/753065851/ff50e27c9c
And here's the magazine cover. Nice, isn't it?
See the cover art, Be Still and Know, in my Art Gallery or as an Art Print.
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Thanks once more to the Brave Joy Collective members who supported the creation of this art! I'm so grateful we're on this journey together.
New art always raises new questions for me, and this Remember image brings up so many:
What do the layers of memory feel like within me?
What memories stay strongest in me?
How have I strengthened memories I’d like to keep?
What’s it like as I encounter the fragility of remembering or thought?
When I find a light in grief or a difficult remembrance, how did I find it?
How will I love and bless the memories of the dear ones I have lost?
What has my family forgotten that it would be healing to remember?
What truths do I want my communities and culture to honor and remember?
How will the Earth remember me, and us?
How would I like to be remembered, now and after I’ve died?
What would help me remember who I want to be, when I forget?
What do I choose to remember, to keep lit in the center of my life?
I often find poetry rising too, when I explore a new art image. Here are three that came up for me this time (click the title to see the full poems):
Finally, because I made this collage-painting at a tender time, the memory of someone beloved also tugs at my heart whenever I see this Remember art.
If you would, please join me in blessing the life and memory of my father-in-law, David, who passed just over a month ago. My wife and I have felt rearranged, in both grief and love, through his loss. So this art has become for me a memorial also-- for David, and all those who've gone before. So many luminous lives have flown recently, and over the years… I hope they remind me to live well now, as fully as I can, in each day I am given.
What do you choose to remember, to keep lit in the center of your life?
May it be so.
Thanks again to the Brave Joy Collective members who supported the creation of this art! I'm so grateful we're on this journey together.
Thanks once again to the Brave Joy Collective for supporting the creation of this image.
These little breakthroughs aren’t so small
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Thanks once again to the Brave Joy Collective for supporting the creation of this image.
]]>I made this art last year for the Brave Joy Collective, on the Humility theme. I’ve shared one of the Brave Joy spiritual practice pages here too, in honor of Earth Day.
You’re welcome to join us in the Brave Joy Collective, if you’d like to receive a monthly art print and practice set in your mailbox!
Please also consider sending a donation or getting involved in Earth-forward groups working to change policies that protect the planet and our communities. Two of my favorites are the Sunrise Movement and the Third Act.
Recycling is awesome, but it’s really greedy corporations and harmful policies that need to change. It doesn’t have to be this way.
With more gratitude than I could ever write, for all the beings and our Earth home.
-- Melanie
#EarthDay #EarthDay2022 #humility #BraveJoy #BraveJoyCollective #ListenForJoy
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All through the making process, this new art image and I went back and forth between my desire to mend and its intention to unravel.
I kept trying to return to my first idea-- to heal things, put them back together. I thought Mending would be a beautiful theme to start 2022, since so many, many things are currently falling apart. I'm heartbroken that we're still, more, deeply enduring the pandemic, climate crisis, racial injustice, political failure. The fraying edges and breaking seams are ever more apparent. I'm finding my way through sorrow, anger, and sometimes despair.
And yet. In my life, I've experienced so much valuable growth, change, and possibility on the other side of things falling apart. God / Spirit / Love brought me through the very real 'end of my world' too many times to ignore that unraveling also offers a gift: When I'm bound up in knots I don't even know about, unraveling shows that truth. Sometimes, if I let it, this truth can set me free.
I wholeheartedly believe this; but I don't really like it. Although I've sometimes practiced on purpose to be ready for sacred deconstructions when they arrive, some parts of me are still scared. And of course they are! Unraveling feels terrifying in the places I've known trauma. My inner "neat and tidy" voices are afraid too, conditioned by a lot of tightly-woven niceness and white supremacy to resist grief, change, and the unknown.
So for me, any unraveling needs plenty of love and support, self-compassion, spiritual grounding, art-making, and community. I need help to remember it's gonna be ok and maybe even good to let go. I need practice to relax enough to imagine something beautiful or more useful could come next. Maybe you do too... and maybe this art image can be a reminder for us all.
Do you think we could practice unraveling in a group way too-- in our friendships, families, communities? And good gracious, do you agree that we need some willingness to unravel in our culture and in our world? I think all the things that break my heart need some breaking down and reconfiguring: pandemic, climate crisis, racial injustice, political failure, etc. There are many wise ones with the gifts to know why, when, and how we unravel or deconstruct systems and situations. I often need to learn the most from those at the edges of dominant culture: people of color, Indigenous communities, LBGTQIA people, people with disabilities, people living in poverty, those who are incarcerated, elders, children, etc. I want to pay attention and follow their lead.
Though I still hope for mending, I pray for the humility and courage to welcome this season of unravelling. I shudder a little as I pray it, imagining some of what that will require. But I know in my spirit I can open again to Mystery, guidance, and eventually a new way forward. If we practice together-- because we need each other!!-- I can strengthen my faith that the Spirit in unraveling can transform our communities and our world, too. May it be so.
How little I knew when I started this painting, Holding Space, in December 2019. I tested out some new markers and made a circular doodle that traced the yellow center over and over. My around-and-around marks created a protected space. They held a bright focus. The doodle felt good, safe, certain. I wrote the words "holding space" at the edge of the light. None of us knew a pandemic was coming.
Then Covid hit, and I pulled that doodle out of an art drawer. I wondered what to make with it. So many things were changing that spring-- the circle felt too small, too tight, too simple. I definitely felt less safe and certain, wondering what would come next. I sat with myself and the circle doodle, and felt that it wanted to break apart. (And no wonder, considering what was coming in the months ahead.)
But as I listened in the art process, this breaking wasn't just a destructive shattering, though it felt like it at first. The opening created by my uncertainty took the shape of the wise cottonwood tree in our back yard. That great, living being made of patience stood right in the middle of this art. I think it appeared to help make a little meaning out of so much falling apart. Once I welcomed her in, the Grandmother Cottonwood expanded the tight way I was seeing and holding the light. She made room and a home for the wisdom of Owl, who can see in the dark, too.
This year I return to winter with a less certain but more spacious sense of light in the darkness. I join those from so many spiritual traditions cupping our hands around the lights of candles and faith to keep hope alive-- and I hope we learn to find faith together in the darkness of mystery too. I pray we continue to encounter unexpected spaces for wisdom and create fresh ways to make meaning. I pray we shape new, expanded ways to take care of ourselves and each other when things fall apart.
May it be so.
From the Brave Joy spiritual practice** that goes with this painting:
Remember a time in your life or community when a plan or conviction broke open into uncertainty. Did some part of that process feel like a shattering? Or like permission, or freedom? What happened over time?
Blessings for the darkness and mystery that hold the Light. --Melanie
Holding Space art gallery page
Related blog post: "This Dark Night," April 2020
Mystery Brave Joy Art & Practice
Brave Joy Collective monthly subscription
** This Holding Space image and spiritual practice were added later to the Brave Joy Art & Practice sets, as Mystery for May 2020. The first actual Brave Joy Collective image was Generosity, made in June 2020.
Art & writing ©Melanie Weidner 2021
My brother and I have a long standing inside joke about my art career. I'm so grateful he's a fan, and even glad he teases me a little about how serious I can get. He and my art invite me to loosen my grip and trust.
Here's a 5-minute video excerpt from the Brave Joy Collective Zoom Gathering in October 2021, where I tell the story about how his joke actually shaped this art image and gave me courage to make that one mark.
What mark are you wanting to make these days? What urges you forward? Which parts of that motivation are most trustworthy?
How might you practice being "doodley," loosened-up, and trusting as you bravely take an action?
Blessings for us all, doing our best to trust.
--Melanie
Big, happy thanks to Brave Joy Collective members who supported me and the making of this art and video. THANK YOU!
]]>But honestly, all jumbled up, it was just an ugly pile of fabric scraps. I’m not kidding— it took a lot of love to see any possibility for art.
I spread the bits out on my studio table and left them out for a few days. (With the door shut to keep the cat out!) The more I appreciated and welcomed the mess, the more beautiful it became. The leftovers were abundant when I saw them with appreciative imagination.
I hope this new image helps you hold what’s dear, in an offering to your own heart. Or if it’s time, may it encourage you to pass forward and offer what’s ready to bless someone else.
Happy Thanksgiving, dear ones.
With gratitude— Melanie
I still try too hard, too often. I'm still learning to be wise about how I use my time and energy. And deep into the pandemic, I’m still recognizing the extra effort it takes to move forward each day. Many of my earlier-in-life expectations or goals have shifted, for sure. Sometimes I get really bugged or I grieve about that! But sometimes now I practice self-compassion or am even relieved when these shifts help me clarify what’s most important.
I’ve focused my energy this year on my Brave Joy Collective project— a monthly art and practice subscription. This means I’ve posted less on my blog and social media, but I’m really proud to be making new art every month and sharing it as 5x7 prints with practices in envelopes mailed all over the country. (Thanks to all the subscribers who make this possible and join in the surprise and adventure!)
So, belatedly, I’m posting to share September’s Brave Joy art and spiritual practice theme, Thrive. I invited the Brave Joy community— and now you too— to explore the conditions where life blooms: in a mix of just enough newness, just enough loss, and just enough healthy boundary to maintain a vibrant wholeness.
One of the Thrive practices feels especially relevant for the holiday season. Expectations can pull us way beyond what’s sustainable this time of year. This exercise is pretty simple: find some paper and draw your own stripes like the ones in this Thrive fabric art image, and see what belongs inside and outside your thriving zone.
I’m redrawing a few of my lines this month, looking for the truth of what my life needs and what it can and can’t give at this time. Maybe thinking about your own thriving will be useful for you too.
Finally, Thrive was partly inspired by Brian Swimme's teaching on homeostasis and the "sacred parameters for life." So I hope this image will also remind us of the balance our Earth ecosystem asks us to respect. I'm supporting groups like the Sunrise Movement and The Third Act, while world leaders gather for the Glasgow Climate Summit/COP26 and US leaders work to pass legislation to protect our planet and our future.
How would we draw the lines and add in life-giving ideas using this spiritual practice exercise on behalf of our Earth community? There's still a chance to thrive if we make changes now-- from trying to control the balance to learning to live within it.
May it be so!
If you’d like to engage art and practices like these each month, or want to send them to friends and loved ones, join the Brave Joy Collective monthly subscription or send a Brave Joy Gift Subscription!
Thrive Art Prints and Brave Joy Art & Practice sets are available for sale on my website, and so are all the past Brave Joy images and art & practice sets.
Visit the Thrive fabric art gallery page too.
Thanks for your support. I hope this Thrive art and practice supports you right back. —Melanie
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Feeling a bit lost is almost always part of my creative process. After all these years, I'm still getting used to that. (You'd think I might welcome it a little more by now. Ah well, this being human is quite a ride.) Same is true for lostness in my life... and these days there are extra helpings of unsure and Mystery to go around. Maybe you feel that way too?
I decided to get curious about my discomfort, and spent some time exploring the theme Bewilder for the Brave Joy Collective September art & practice. This line came through: Sometimes our disorientation or confusion can become an allowing space, where we are found by a new way.
I really believe in humility, and surrendering my over-control... and yet-- allowing myself to get lost in the creative flow, letting it lead me, isn't always easy for me. Sometimes it's unreasonably uncomfortable not being in control. Some of that is heritage I think, and white supremacist perfection culture, and some of it is just being really nervous about messing up. :-) But over and over, if I cling to an early thought or my own map of what I think should happen, creativity just doesn't flow. Again, this is true in my art and in my life, both. Weirdly-- or not-- in the long run I actually enjoy being somewhat surprised/confused along the way, then found again. In the end, it's more meaningful and definitely more fun!
No surprise, the process of making art on the Bewilder theme involved me having and dropping plans several times. Thankfully, I was more able to open up this time and see what emerged-- trusting the shapes I wanted to make, the ideas that showed up for A Wild Thread.
So I thought you might enjoy these process photos of a little bewilderment in my studio. :-) Sometimes it's an encouragement to see something beautiful come out the other side. I always need the reminder that it's worth it to stay faithful to my curiosity and to follow the thread of faith.
Blessings to your threads and flow too.
Thanks for following along the thread of this creative process. May your wanderings lead you to fresh and beautiful territory!
With blessing-- Melanie
It’s been a tough month for just about everyone I’ve talked to... myself included. (Yes, I talk to myself— even more since the pandemic started. Ha!) The July theme for the Brave Joy Collective, Strength, has really focused my attention on the relationships and connections that help us make it through the tough stuff. So many kinds of things contribute to our well being, and can give us energy to share! It's done me a lot of good recently to look closely for the obvious and the obscure support.
A few highlights:
Hummingbirds at our feeders, and the mama on the nest in the tree nearby.
The Insight Timer meditation app, and loads of people all around the world using it at the same time I am.
Our weekly farm CSA bag full of vibrant veggies and fruit. Cherry tomatoes!
Texas Democrats protesting to protect voting rights.
The guy at the Fed Ex shop who said hello again when we randomly both showed up at the Post Office an hour later.
The other guy who moved his cart out of the way at the grocery store.
Healthcare workers and researchers.
The friend who told me, “Go get some rest. You are loved, you are enough.”
Rain! Blessed rain in the desert.
Peaches!
Planning to see family— in person— for the first time in so, so long.
A beautiful, hand-made gift full of love and care.
The ways our neighbors watch out for each other.
The full moon.
A solid sense of the Spirit’s guidance for a decision.
Moving through a stuck place into a deep breath and a fresh try.
Grooving to new tunes about transformation in a friend’s terrific Spotify playlist.
Finding and supporting a fantastic project using art for conversation and positive change. Their Kickstarter Campaign thrilled me with what smart, generous creativity can do! (Educators, scroll to the bottom for free resources.)
Taking turns sharing fears and tears on a walk.
Meeting new neighbors and joining our voices at a small Line 3 protest here in Albuquerque.
Rubbing my cat’s big, fluffy belly. Who could resist?
Greeting fellow dog walkers on the trails around the fields.
Receiving a wonderful thank you card, out of the blue, from someone who uses my art.
Cracking up at jokes my wife read from a website when we totally needed to laugh. (What’s the best thing about Switzerland? I don’t know, but the flag is a big plus.)
Listening to Robin Wall Kimmerer read her gorgeous book, Braiding Sweet Grass, one night when I couldn’t sleep.*
Making this list. This little practice totally lifted my mood and my spirits. I couldn’t stop thinking of things I wanted to add… Thanks be!
What would your list look like?
Try it as a spiritual practice... you just might like it, and it just might lift your mood, too. :-)
With love and blessing, Melanie
PS: If you're humming a tune you can't quite figure out, it might be "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music. I couldn't help but make a little pun for the post title... thanks, Julie Andrews.
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And yet... when another artist uses words in their art, I always want to know what those words say! So I thought I'd be kind to the curious and share. :-) Keep reading for a bit of the process, and then the text.
As you might have guessed, I wrote a lot words and cut the bird out of the middle of a larger paper. In fact, I wrote prayerfully in a free-writing, stream of consciousness style about my daily life and themes like water, trust, and simple ritual.
I did a bit of choosing about where I would cut out the bird shape from the whole writing page. But of course I didn't get to control exactly what words would stay on or be trimmed off... so it became a kind of found poem that wrote itself on the bird cut-out. Here it is:
generosity are
all the radiant joy
and pollen, song after song
between trips back and forth
fresher, brighter way than
did I head out as always to fill the bird
now than our little stone basin.
birds, bugs, and creatures that count
poured the water for my own heart
real danger and true need, I add
in the redistribution of water wealth
true and essential: giving and reciprocity
wise to keep this ritual of stopping
tempted to make a task of this joyful action
humility and care return to pull me back out of the grip of
false importance. May the birds themselves remain my teachers
the day as it is
the sustenance in the moment, treasure their
dwellings
as easily as this rainstorm passed
nests and chicks
my ego might decide
release
I really liked this partly-happenstance poem! And then, here's the whole prayer writing from which I cut out the bird. (The bold words are those that remained on the bird, as typed above.)
“It rained last night. Four inches of storm rain after months of dry. Here in the desert, it’s always a matter of trust and faith that just enough water will arrive. Yet in these days of climate emergency, it’s rough to keep that faith! In the paradigm of measurement and logic-only, we are speeding through the limits into our demise. What lifts our faith?
Lately, I’ve been learning about ritual as one way to find balance and remember daily the truth of Earth and her possibilities. Abundance and generosity are her favorites, it seems, as evidenced by that incredible rain and all the radiant joy rising up out of the ground in leaves and grass, mud and pollen, song after song from the birds. So much happy chirping and trilling between trips back and forth to the nests.
It’s humming with life out there in a fresher, brighter way than I’ve heard in a long time. We all needed the rain. Why, then, did I head out as always to fill the bird bath? There are puddles everywhere more popular now than our little stone basin. True, but I needed the daily motion of care for the birds, bugs, and creatures that count on the water in dry times. I scrubbed the bowl and poured the water for my own heart as much as these dear birds I treasure.
In the face of real danger and true need, I add this simple act of generous repetition. Participating in the redistribution of water wealth reorients my spirit again to the perspective of what’s true and essential: giving and reciprocity in radical trust.
When my time is too scarce, I am wise to keep to this ritual of stopping my urgent plans to make this offering. When I’m tempted to make a task of this joyful action, may the sacred intention of humility and care return to pull me back out of the grip of stress and deadline and false importance.
May the birds themselves remain my teachers as they greet the day as it is, find the sustenance in the moment, treasure their temporary dwellings, and, just as easily as this rainstorm passed, they let go of nests and chicks and everything my ego might decide is too necessary to release.
They live, seek, trust, and fly. They keep faith that God and Earth will bring the water and the seed, and sometimes I am the ambassador with both.
The daily service feeds me just as deeply, I think.
If that sounds too dramatic, I only mean to say that I lean on these rituals of water, and listening, and remembering, to practice and recover who I truly am as a child of Earth and Spirit, sister to the sparrow and the microbe, cousin to the stars above.
God, please help me fill my heart with life each day as I pour water for the birds and for the tea. I want to remember that abundance and trust beget faith and generosity enough to transform us. I choose this small ritual to hold the largest prayers for love and mutual flourishing.”
It's (mostly) a joy to share what's given to me in the creative process with you. It's also bit vulnerable, but that's what's alive and juicy, right?
Thanks for enjoying this with me. I hope the rest of the Return to Center painting offers you some inspiration too... especially as it echoes elements of mystery and creativity.
I told stories about the other two birds for the Brave Joy Collective community, in posts I wrote specifically for them. And then I crafted a spiritual practice on the theme Ritual for this new art image. Come join us in the collective if you wish-- and receive fresh art and practices like this in your mailbox each month. It's a meaningful adventure and spiritual boost.
One member said, "It has been a joy to receive these inspiring images. They provide my body, mind, and spirit a clear focus for staying positive and taking steps toward clarity on the path. I feel grateful that you offered these this year!"
You can also order just the June Art & Practices, or a Return to Center Art Print. I always appreciate the support, and I love knowing the art will inspire you or a loved one. And there's always plenty of strong beauty to bring into your heart or share with another in the website shop.
Blessings for the prayers and daily rituals that help to fill us with Spirit.
Art & text © Melanie Weidner, 2021.
]]>My monthly art series for the Brave Joy Collective gives me the chance to explore similar shapes or symbols more than once. These two images from April and May use this beautiful doorway or temple shape as an invitation into sacred spaces.
Come on in.
Blessings for what you find in these images, and what you discover in all the reverent spaces you create in your own life.
--Melanie
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It's definitely painful to hear some of what the natural world is saying right now, yet that listening is imperative. But before we despair and stop trying, I hope we'll remind each other that it brings a deeper joy and belonging (that I still can't quite explain) to listen with that daffodil, my backyard trees, the Rio Grande river... or with you.
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Also available:
Faithful to the Light art prints
Faithful Brave Joy Art & Practice packs
Brave Joy Collective subscriptions
A small Western Screech Owl started nesting in our yard about this time last year. She came like a little, wild angel, just when we began our first COVID stay-at-home orders. My wife and I gratefully watched for her at twilight, learned about her ways, and admired her quietly fierce beauty. Later in the spring, we saw her children poke their heads out of the owl box and then fledge into the neighborhood trees.
This winter, when I listened for a new Brave Joy Collective art and practice that might bring some inspiration, our dear owl came to mind. I thought we all could use some of her clear-seeing along with the thrill of being trusted with her presence. And as I started painting her portrait, Owl brought along some other animal friends-- including Fox, who has showed up five times now in my art. No doubt I have more to learn about Fox's cunning, adaptability, and intuition!
When the human community in our time seems to have lost some of its guiding light and wise leadership, we need all the teachers, images, and kinds of insight we can gather! Our friends Owl, Fox, and Elephant seem to invite us to admire and receive their wisdom. But I'm sure they also want us to investigate and expand our own. If animals can be known for smart qualities and ways of being, why can't we?
So I wonder: What’s your main wisdom style? How do you find, know, or make a good way in the world? Do you like trial and error? Do you glean tips and tricks from stories you hear? Maybe you watch and imitate those you admire. Do you follow a tradition, listen for guidance, read instructions, or use your own unique strategy? If you were an earth creature (which you are), for what wise way would you be known?
Are there times when your smarts and talents aren't enough to meet the challenges at hand? What happens then?
If you need more wisdom, could you try using a new-to-you wisdom style, learned from a fellow being? As a community, could we each bring our best knowing and asking into a kind of conversation where we hear all the good ways of moving in the world? What kind of collective wisdom could we create together? What networks of innovation, care, and hope could we weave?
Obviously, paintings and wonderings alone won't meet all the deep challenges we're facing. But maybe this bit of wisdom that I've been given could create something more when it's added to yours, and to ours, and to the wisdom of the Universe shining in the heart of our friend Owl.
Big thanks yet again to the Brave Joy Collective whose support helped me make this art image and so many others.
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For me, healing whiteness is a journey of becoming. It's about shedding-- layer by layer-- an identity and culture that's too small and hurts my neighbors. All of us are so much than our White Supremacy culture or lineage wants to let us be.
I believe we can create a new culture of care and creativity where justice frees us. So I keep learning and unfolding the layers. I keep making the changes I can, inward and outward.
Thanks to so many who show the way! And I am grateful to so many of you who walk it.
#BlackLivesMatter #MLK #MLKDay #Whiteness #WhiteSupremacy #SpiritualPractice #ListenForJoy
Art Prints available.
Brave Joy Art & Practice available.
See Gallery Page.
Related blog post: Real Story, Piece by Piece.
Thanks to the Brave Joy Collective who helped make this art possible.
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