A Special Week {In Pictures}

Beginning with last weekend, Mother's Day...





Took my mother to Bravo's for a special lunch, followed by a long visit to a local art gallery...







Me and my gang...daughters and granddaughter...had breakfast together, and then went on a major shopping trip to art supply stores and the mall...




Playing with a new iPhone app called "A Beautiful Mess". Go get it!





More Beautiful Mess app going on up there...so much fun...





A special Mother's Day card....






Coming forward...I got 24 plants into the ground or into our new raised beds this past week!







Breakfast with a friend...







Working on my next-in-line commission...this is the background.





Hung out with this sweetheart, at her big brother's high school graduation...





So proud of this one! (The one with the "high honors" addition to his robe!)

And now, this morning, I have to get going. It's the Lord's Day, and it is my privilege to be with the family of God today! Looking forward to it...




Grace and Peace,

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

MORE "New in the Shop" {Sheila Atchley Designs}

Just a sampling of what I got photographed and posted today, in my shop...

6.5x6.5 framed mixed media original...

16x20 framed mixed media original...

8x8 mixed media original, gallery-wrap style, ready to hang on the wall, finished with wire and beadwork...

5x10 mixed media original, gallery-wrap style, ready to hang on the wall...

And I still have a bit of product left, to shoot and post.  Keep an eye out:  I have two of my leather cuff-watch designs going up soon, as well as yet more cards and prints...(I had three watches, but one sold...it is on its way to Chicago, Illinois.)

But for now, my back hurts, and I'm tired after putting in a nearly 12 hour day, which started with getting said watch out to the post office, followed by a long product shoot, an even longer stint at this computer doing post-process work, some laundry, a prayer appointment, followed by a second trip to the post office to mail off a print someone ordered today.    

So my back is killing me.  No matter...I feel so lucky and blessed and favored to get to be doing what I do!

Brand New In The Shop {...so much goodness...}

...choose from this...

or this...

or this...

or this...

...there are cards for you...
 

...and prints for you...

 
(the actual print does not have the edges cut off...Blogger is playing games with this photo, for some reason...)





I hope you enjoy browsing!  And again...thank you so much for the outpouring of support I have received...all the new business...art clients who have or are becoming friends...

"If we encourage the women, we encourage the world!"  ...that is the idea and the ministry you are supporting when you purchase a little piece of my art... 

Depression, Self Harm, Thoughts of Ending the Pain {Part 2}

A few weeks ago, I shared my own very personal and painful experience with depression and suicide. What I did not tell you, is the other way that suicide has directly affected our family...

...I do not have a father-in-law, and never have. Because The Preacher's father committed suicide when he was eleven years old.

So we have been deeply touched by these things. When we speak to the issues, we aren't speaking from borrowed experience. The pain is first-hand.

After I hit "publish" on that post, I did get emails with just first names, taking me up on my offer to mention those names to the Lord. I received Facebook messages from more women than I expected...each one telling me in her own quiet way that she, too, has fought a battle for joy.

But here is, by far, the most moving story I have ever heard:




A mother and her son read my blog post, and decided to tattoo the semicolon and cross on their wrists...and do it together.

Only, they improved on my version, by adding the Scripture reference "Jeremiah 29:11" underneath.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares The Lord. Thoughts to prosper and not harm you, so that you may have a future and a hope."

See, I have known my friend...and she is my friend...for over ten years. Yet, when she shared her story with me, I was stunned by the magnitude of the Finished Work of Christ in the life of this quiet, beautiful lady and her son. And I never knew. No one knew.

She had attempted suicide many years ago, and had never even told her husband until recently. Back then, after her attempt at suicide, she spent some days in a psych hospital, and there heard God speak to her, very real and personally. She made the decision to never again try to end her life.

But she has lived in such shame over the fact that she tried...she has never told a soul about that powerful part of her story.

Her son grew up, not knowing how his mother had fought and won. He also made several attempts on his own life.

She has kept her story hidden, buried in shame, until now.

Until today.

She took the blog post, a few weeks ago, and showed it to her son, and shared her story. They made the choice to get tattooed together...a promise to one another and The Lord that they will forever value their one precious life.

When I got this picture-text today (the "deed was done" in time for Mother's Day), tears filled my eyes, at the power that this one woman's story is going to have...the Spirit of God is going to use her courage to set others free...

...our stories matter to God, and when we can overcome shame and tell our stories, the grace of God can touch lives in supernatural ways.


Grace and Peace,
Sheila Atchley


All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

Already Part of the "In Crowd" {Accepted in the Beloved}

I knew a woman who was part of our church years ago (she has been gone for many years now) who used to tell me...all the time..."I don't have any friends in this church."

But what she was really saying was, "I don't consider myself close to certain, specific women."

And what she really meant, truthfully, was, "I want to be on what I consider to be the inside track. I think the pastor's wife needs to make me her BFF."

(she later admitted to this, that is how I know...)

Meanwhile, I knew of at least two other women in our church that had reached out to her, who were quite available for her, who cared a lot about her. This woman's blatant disregard for her friendships made me angry. I asked her, point blank, "Who is __(name)___________ , then, chopped liver??!"

I had a way with words, in those days.

Today, more than a decade later, I might be a little more gentle. I said might.

Because I see today, more clearly than I saw back then, that everyone...everyone...wants to be beloved. They want to be special to someone who they consider special.

Today, I would be gentle...but not permissive. I still do not respect a woman who does not treasure her own beautiful life...her own friends...her own husband...her own children....her own home (whatever its size or condition...love and making the best of four walls makes every home a beautiful place)...

...I do not get along for very long with women who devalue what they have been given, because what they have been given is not what they want. They want what someone else has...maybe what I have, maybe someone else and what they have...someone else's success, their gifts and talents, their friendships, their whatever.

Celebrate who you are!

Never let who you are not, cancel out the beauty of who you are!

Your friends are the most lovely, your life is the most blessed, your children the most special of all, your home is the sweetest, your work the most meaningful, your church the most precious.

And when your child is a dedicated prodigal, your job stressful, your marriage lacking passion, your friendships not "meeting your needs"....

...that is when it is urgent that you begin to see your own life and your own dear ones as infinitely more beautiful than anyone else's.

If you do not consider your own friends to be the very best ones you could ever have, the most lovely, perfect women in the world... if you don't see your husband as the most attractive, your children as the most amazing, your grandchildren as the most beautiful...your mother as the greatest, your father as the most strong and wise...your sister as the most fabulous...

...maybe that's because you don't
treatany of your beloveds that way. Maybe they are not worth the effort in your estimation?

Or maybe they don't treat you with celebrity status, so you treat them likewise.

How lacking in grace and creativity. I am sad for you. Only because I see the same tendencies in me, and I sadden my own selfish-self.

I have come to the conclusion that I want to be the first one to celebrate you. Or I want to be the only one of the two of us who celebrates anything...that is okay by me.

I don't always celebrate first (or even at all) but at least I know for sure I would rather beat you to it. I will smoke you, in fact, if you give me half a chance.


Do you see? It's all in how you choose to see and celebrate your one, gorgeous life, and all who are part of it.




You don't have to be accepted into the inner circle of "those" certain women. You don't have to be one of their "beloveds" to BE beloved...the King is your Friend. God has accepted you into His heart...His inner circle...through Christ. He will relate to you as warmly and intimately and affirmingly as you believe Him to be towards you.

He sets your boundaries...those lines have fallen to you in pleasant places, the Bible says. If you cannot see the beauty of your very own life, it is your thinking towards it that is your problem. You don't need someone else's gift, personality, friends, money, or lifestyle.

You need to treasure what you have already been given.

Celebrating who you are frees you to do the same for others. You become free (truly) to celebrate who they are, without hoping they crown you their "BFF" in exchange for the favor.

Suddenly...you are doing unto others the way you wish they'd do unto you.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.


Grace and Peace,
Sheila Atchley
All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

Way Too Much Fun {This Whole Artist Thing}

So today I got the last of my art show commissions plus two more prints (ordered over the weekend from my shop) off in the mail. My head is brimming and happy with a hundred new-to-me techniques, and two hundred original ideas.

I am having so much fun, I almost can't stand it myself. "Artist" is who I am, and "Artist-Teacher" is my sweet spot.

When you toss in two darling grand babies...one next door...one two minutes away...just watch me lay down and die from sheer joy, resurrect, die, and resurrect.

I am living a dream I have not earned and do not deserve. I have been made rich in a few ways money can buy...yet I am sloppy-rich in all ways money could never buy.

God has been so very good to me.

Grace and Peace,

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

Art For Sale {An Original Mixed Media Canvas, Entitled "Achsah"}

(Post-edit: this painting has sold)

I have loved every mixed media girl I have ever painted...truly. But this woman has always had my heart...she is my favorite woman of Scripture.  Her name was Achsah.  She was Caleb's daughter, and this painting was inspired from the verse found in Judges 1:15.

She asked for what she should not have.  She asked for something that was against Jewish law (the law of God!) for any woman to have.

And she got it, baby.  Why?  Love trumps law.  Every time.

There are no words to describe the feeling I had today as I finished her...to see her come out of the Scripture, and out of my imagination, and into the light of day...

I have learned so much from this woman, who is only mentioned in Scripture so very briefly.

 She has taught me, over many years, to ask boldly...to be fully persuaded of my heavenly Father's love for me, and His willingness to lavish me with gifts I have not earned and do not deserve.

 If any life is a testimony to that truth, it is mine.

 "Achsah" is available for sale. She is a 16x20 mixed media original, rendered in willow stick, vine stick, charcoal, pastel, acrylics, inks and even collage...all on a beautiful, textural background of antique book and hymnal pages - many of which, the words peek through to surprise and bless you.

If she needs to come to your home to bless you...or to the home of a friend...contact me via email.

Grandchildren

I know, right? They sort of favor one another. This was a completely uncoached, unplanned, spontaneous shot...

...oh, how I love.

PS. They were watching the television version of the Maurice Sendak's children's book
Little Bear.

If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can watch it for free here...

PPS. My blog is one of the few
notmonetized. That doesn't mean I never will monetize...that just means right now I don't get anything from Amazon if you click on the link, which I hope you do, because Little Bear comes highly recommended by this PopPop and Mimi.





Grace and Peace,

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

3 Steps To Greater Faith {So Simple}

A pastel and charcoal sketch I did tonight...

(...practicing tone and value. The expensive drawing lessons are finally paying off!) 

 Three steps to a greater faith...when you find that your faith is too small...when you are "of little faith"...

 1. Begin to consider how much you are loved by God.

 2. Multiply that by infinity.

 3. Be completely persuaded that He loves you.

 Then repeat those three steps, again and again, every day of your life. You will become a woman of great faith.

  "Faith works by love..."

Hey, Soul Sister! {I Adore You}

At my first art show, I was approached by a dark skinned beauty.  Long hair, very confident and so, so pretty.  She took her time, looking at each canvas, as her husband patiently waited, making small talk with my Preacher.

Then, she matter-of-factly rocked my world.  She said, "I want this painting, but I want her to have dark skin.  And I want her hair to be long and straight."

Then she said, "And I want this painting.  But I want her to have dark skin.  And her hair needs to be short, like this painting, but also curly."

Then (you guessed it), she said, "And I want this one - Soul Restoration.  But I want her to have dark skin.  And I want her to have this hair over here..."  (and she showed me an entirely other canvas....)

My head was spinning, as I wrote down her every wish.  This beautiful woman's wish was my command, and I heard the heart of God talking to me in her wishes...

"...I want her to have dark skin."

Now, I had tried to paint dark skin before, and I have long wanted to paint dark skinned beauties in my she-art, but I never could get it quite right.  So I'd quit.  In spite of that inner knowing that was admonishing me to keep trying, I would quit, and set the whole thing aside for "another day".   

So this is for all my dark skinned beautiful friends...my soul sisters...with whom I share a special bond.

You wanted her to have dark skin.

I've worked so hard...but I think I got it.

8x8 print available in my shop

Depression, Self Harm, Thoughts of Ending The Pain {There Is An Answer}

I don't have a tat. (That's hip-speak for "tattoo"...because I am a hip kinda girl. Kind of.)

But if I did have a tat, it would be this one. That's me, up there, drawing on myself with a Sharpie. I am forty-some-odd years old, and still had the feeling that I wanted to look over my shoulder, afraid my momma was going to catch me writing on myself.

That was a big no-no in my house, growing up. I am absolutely certain I got spanked for writing on myself, at some point in my childhood.

(No phone calls, mom, please. I wrote on myself. Get over it.)

Wow. That was better than therapy. That felt good.

(And my mother is reading this and laughing, I promise...)

The message portrayed here is just this - the semicolon represents the writer's decision not to end a sentence, but rather to add to the story.

The cross represents the message of the mighty grace of God. It is your only source of healing. It is the Word that must come after your semicolon. The cross represents the rest of the story. The part of your story where life comes out of death, and He gives you beauty for ashes.

My mother chose a semicolon, over forty years ago, and I am so glad she did. There was so much left of her story to tell, so much beauty waiting to be discovered.

My mother, with a handful of sleeping pills, and a hopeless heart, had an encounter with the Living God one night. Not long after that, she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and set free from her torment.

Ask me again why I am a firm believer in what the old saints called The Second Experience.

Fast forward a few decades, and you will find me...a preacher's wife...fighting for my joy, against the formidable giant of clinical depression.

It was a howling in my soul that would. not. stop. A desert-place is more than just dry. Being dry was the easy part. A desert-place is howling and empty. Desolate.

I don't know how else to describe it. If that sounds like melodrama to you, then you haven't been clinically ill. You've had a bout with the blues, not a pitch black night of the soul.

The Gospel saved me again. It saved me as a six year old girl. And it saved me again, not so many years ago.

The Preacher began to revisit the doctrines of Grace in January of 2009. I will never forget the exact Month and year. Not even he knew the depths of my despair at that time. I have always refused to make him responsible for my well being. I did not want to burden him or frighten him, that is the simple truth.

But he began to preach the scandalous grace of God as though that was all there was in all the world to preach. He preached grace courageously...even dogmatically...as though he sensed that lives depended on it.

Little did he know, back then. One of the lives was mine. I was listening, and I was investigating everything he taught.

I was set free from loving and serving the law of God, and I began to simply love God because He first loved me. I discovered for the first time that God no longer blesses those who keep the law...He blesses those who are in Christ Jesus, who depend on a righteousness that is not...not...not one whit...not their own.

The real Jesus took your sin and your sorrows and bore that burden to Calvary. The punishment that paid for your peace and total well-being was placed upon Him. By His stripes, you are healed of all manner...all manner...of sickness and dis-ease.

Don't put an end to your story. Choose the semicolon.

And come to the cross. Lay your heavy burden down.

I would love to pray for you. Simply slip me an email, with your first name, and I promise I will pray for you.

How The Lord loves you!


Written for you with love...

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

Part 2 - Are Your Friendships Sacred? {They Should Be}

Now, the flip-side of the coin, and the other-side-of-the-moon-side of my heart.

Part 1 of this two-parter fell along the lines of autonomy in healthy relationships. No one should be allowed to write their name on your foot. (Um...Toy Story? Get it? Never mind.)

In other words, I don't own you.

And yes, the less I "need" you, the healthier my relationship to Christ must be.

But there will come a day when I will need you. So much. There will come a day when, no matter how deeply and well I honor my marriage, nothing can substitute for the love and compassion another woman can lavish on my heart. Home girl needs her homies.

Yeyah.

Okay, I'll stop. I'm so white. I shouldn't even try, but I keep on trying.

The fact that we live in a broken world doesn't escape me. Sure, if you are married, that man is designed to be your Most Significant Other. But what if you are divorced? Let's be real. June Cleaver would creep me out a little, if she lived next door. Leave It To Beaver families don't populate our cities...or our churches.

Under normal (and even sub-normal) circumstances, no one can replace a mother or father, and if someone attempts to be more important in your life than your family, you should be suspect of motive.

But more often than we care to know, circumstances are not normal. Sometimes, a relationship is broken beyond repair, and spiritual mothers and fathers must step in to give a love and sense of identity and yes, necessary correction, that would otherwise be entirely non-existent. The family of God is a very real entity, and urgently important.

My neighbors to one side are raising their grandchildren, because their daughter keeps needing to detox, and can't take care of her own babies.

Down the street, a mom sent her young son to us, to ask if he could shoot basketball on the goal in our front yard...because, he said, his parents were fighting that afternoon, and might get a divorce.

Across the street, her elderly husband just died. And her grown (wealthy) son is stealing all her dead husband's tools.

These aren't ordinary times we are living in. It is more vital than ever to have a support system of relationships...people willing to go the distance.

I also think its wonderful to have girlfriends who are willing to put on a ball cap and dark sunglasses and go threaten someone who has hurt you.

I feel sorry for those not part of a local church. They got no people to threaten people for them.

Not that any of my home girls have done that for me. Yet. Prank phone calls? Maybe. As of now, though, no one has actually threatened my enemies.

But at least they want to. And if anyone hurts them?

Hold. Me. Back.





Written for you with love...

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

Of Men "Like" Sons, and of Grandsons

The Preacher's namesake...my grand...on the left. A friend, who is more "like" a son, on the right.

See previous post.

Almost couldn't love him more, had I raised him. But his parents did a better job than I could have done.

See previous post.

Is that baby boy on the left not the cutest? The most expressive little boy I have ever seen. And all mine, in that grandchild sort of way.





This is why grand parenting is the bomb dot com. The best. Awesome.

You get to enjoy this up close, when you want, and from a distance if you get a headache.

He is already a gifted drummer, not even lying. His poor parents.

Earplugs, anyone??



Written for you with love...

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

Part 1: Are Your Friendships Sacred? {They Should Be}

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.” 


“In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”
 ~C.S. Lewis

 My attitude towards my friendships is just this: once I am "in", I am all in.
 You would have to leave me, because I ain't leavin' you. I am happy to be stuck with you.

 Were you to deny the infallibility of Scripture or the diety of Christ, we'd have issues - simply because I am not a closet Christian. We would end up "having it out". Even then, I would work hard to salvage the relationship, to whatever degree I could.

 Now, if you run off and leave me...well, I'll leave the porch light on for you. You prefer your friends to be witty and good looking, so I figure you'll be back. And I will miss you, too, because I have a weakness for witty, good looking, interesting people myself. I sort of collect them as friends. But I won't chase you and attempt to tie you down, because that wouldn't work. If you are the one who cut the ties, you have be the one to bring your half of the rope back to where you cut it - that's just scientific fact, and its also good for your soul.

 I have a strong belief in autonomy and interdependence, when it comes to friendship. I know, that seems awkward and impossible, but it actually makes for the most healthy relationship. I am a "boundaries" kind of girl. I won't seek to be anyone's "bestie"(gah), nor would I ever try to take the place of what should be a significant relationship in your life. Jurisdiction, jurisdiction, jurisdiction. God loves boundary lines - He created them.

 You have a momma. You have a blood-sister. Bond with them, however you can! Under any sort of normal circumstances, they are infinitely important, and should be given honor - no matter how flawed the person and how tedious the relationship may be. I refuse to allow you to put me in what should rightfully (and Biblically) be their place. I don't like for my affirmation to come that way.

Let me be "just" your friend - that means the most. Then, if I have earned the right (versus being merely sentimental,and cheaply sentimental, at that!) you can call me a mentor, someone who is "like" a mother to you, or your sister in Christ.

 Lots of people call me those things - interestingly, the ones I permit to call me "mentor" and "mom" usually have, or strongly pursue, healthy relationships with their parents and/or spouse.  Maybe that's  because I won't have it any other way.  If those relationships are fractured, I see it as my job as a true mentor or an actual spiritual mother to stand in the gap and build up that breach, doing all I can to bring healing.

 I get the whole "family of God" thing. I live it, breathe it, and love it. I "get" that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. I am a "mother in Zion".

And I understand the Holy Spirit's use of metaphor. Very important.

See, the whole reason that metaphor works, and the way that metaphor works best, is when we understand and cherish and pursue healthy relationships with our blood family, our blood kin....as well as our blood-bought family in our local church.

 The less you need me, the healthier our friendship will be. Because that means your most important relationships - Christ, your spouse, and your family - are your first line of defense.  Then, when you do need me, I know I can make a difference by doing something doable. Something small.

There, I said it.

 Where have we gotten the idea that all our gestures and all our doings towards one another must be grand or heroic? I don't need to have to feel as if I must give my body to be burned - because the ante and definition of "true friendship" has been upped past what is reasonable. Because you don't turn first to me...because you turn first to Christ to get your needs met, I am under no pressure to perform. All is grace.

 Besides, it is the small and the ordinary that defines our lives. Big acts of love have no context without being able to deeply value the small graces. Every gesture - every prayer - every thought a girlfriend offers for me is a gift unearned and undeserved.

 Oh - and let's not forget your husband. He is designed from the garden of Eden to be a primary relationship in your life. Your "bestie", if you can bring yourself to use that word. Let him be your...best friend.

 When those two relationships with God and with your husband are solid and functioning, that's when I come in. When I am in my proper place, accepting my jurisdiction in our friendship, and you are content with healthy boundaries....oh, then I get to shine! I can help you bear a few of your burdens, and show you a good, good time.

 Lord knows, I dearly love to have fun.

On Spike TV {My First Art Show Got a Little Crazy}

Have you ever heard of Joey Tattoo?

Me neither, until Saturday, when two very large video cameras, and a mic on the end of a very long stick, and Joey Tattoo and his entourage came to my booth at the art show...

...for a quick interview...

...on television...for TV...

...the "angle" of the show is to be about art and small business.

I'm thinkin' they should let me license my images to them for the purposes of body art.

I'm pretty sure I said something about markets and shows and how, if you are considering doing them, you should shoot yourself in the foot.  Give yourself every excuse not to do it.

Just kidding.  But I feel like I've been whipped like a rented mule, and so does my Preacher.  Art shows are hard work.  If you go to one, please, please, please buy something from each and every artist.

Just sayin'.

My TV interview, and meeting Coretta and her momma from Texas were two of the highlights of the weekend - as well as discovering what an incredible team The Preacher and I make...in every way.  Not just in the church, baby.  Not just...other places.  We make an incredible team/duo of artists.  Dynamic Duo, for sure.

Or something.

And make no mistake - preaching...good preaching...is an art form.  A nearly-lost one.  My Preacher has got it going on, though.  And he is becoming a seasoned photographer, with a discerning eye for composition.

Here's me, in my booth, scratching my nose, I think...

And here's a look at the incredible crowd...tens of thousands...that walked the main street of Acworth, Georgia (juuuust north of Atlanta)...

Incredible fun I had.  (Gosh...I sound like Yoda in Star Wars...."Very tired, I am.")

And that darn Preacher is insisting I get off this computer and come to bed.  Something about him being exhausted from the entire weekend and needing sleep.  He's so demanding.  Cute...but demanding.

My First Art Show {What I Know}

I know I've been up since 4:30 a.m.

I know I've already had six tons of fun, and this rodeo is only halfway done. There is still tomorrow.

I know people are paying me for my art. I know, right? It's a mad, mad world.

I know I've been up since 4:30 a.m.

I know I will never forget the little 13 year old girl who shyly stalked my booth, and asked her momma for two (expensive) paintings...of girls in pretty dresses. That little girl read every one of my paintings (all my art has words...can't...stop...talking...evenwhenIpaint). She stole my heart.

I know I will never be the same after a 40-something year old woman left my booth, weeping. She choked out the words, "You have touched me. Thank you so much." She didn't buy a thing, but she could not have affirmed my calling more had she bought me out.

I know I've been up since 4:30 a.m.

There's so much more I know from this experience so far....but I don't remember what it is.

Goodnight, moon...


Written for you with love...

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

The Mighty, Wonderful, Powerful, Sweetest Name {Jesus}

Can I ask you to bear with me...to grant a little grace...cut me some slack...

...because I am such a jacked-up Jesus Freak.

I just love the Name. I believe "God" has a mighty name. I believe that this name...all by itself...has power. And the fact that a few fearful souls won't say the Name, for fear of offending or losing art clients or blog followers or hurting their networking opportunities...it all serves to make me more passionate about shouting this name from the housetops...

...Jesus.

Truly, "the Name that has heard my cry/and seen my tears and wiped them dry" (lyrics from the Margaret Becker song, "Say the Name") is a person, with whom I share an intimate, spiritual relationship, worshipping Him in Spirit and in truth.
I know Someone who has carried my griefs and sorrows, who has delivered me from my fears, who has set my feet upon a rock, who is my best friend.

Why would I not tell you His name?

Written for you with love...

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

{Originality} What Is It...and What It Is

“Originality doesn’t mean making something that’s completely new;  nothing is completely new.  Originality means bending and shaping what’s come before until it belongs to you.” 

- Robert Hunt

Nothing...nothing at all is completely new.  "There is nothing new under the sun", the Bible says.  The only truly original Artist is The Original Artist - God.  So feel relieved...bathed in grace...free to be originally yourself in every way...the way you dress, the way you express your gifts, the things you love {and don't love} to do...the art you create.  Take what you see in someone else, deconstruct it, find out what you love and don't love about what you see, take what you love, leave out what you don't, and remix the whole darn thing.  Put your heart into it.  

What comes out, will be yours alone.  Who cares that you first saw it somewhere else? 

Obviously, this doesn't mean that we slavishly and sloppily copy others.  That constitutes a true lack of self respect on the part of the person copying...not to mention it could constitute stealing and plagiarism and copyright infringement and all sorts of unpleasant and illegal things.  

But no one...no one at all...pulls a style or a philosophy or a creative idea out of thin air.  Each of us is the sum total of our input.

So let your input be  mighty fine.  Mighty fine, indeed.

Easter Adorableness

The grandson was sick today...and this Mimi stayed home with him on this Easter Sunday, so that his parents could go lead worship at our church. So no pictures of him in any Easter Glory or Finery.

But this....oh, this...






And this....






Apparently hair accessories taste good. Or help with teething. Or both.

Later, the grandson was taken to his house for a nap, The Preacher made it home from church, and he and I went to the granddaughter's house for Easter lunch.

This Mimi has been deep in the throes of First Art Show Preparation. Deep, deep. And sick with an evil headcold absolutely all of Holy Week, on top of it.

Let me tell you, it rocks to have daughters old enough to host holiday meals. I cooked a ham and took it. BAM. I did not one thing more.

After the Easter Swine was joyfully consumed (because I can) The Preacher played with his new professional level (something having to do with CMOS and sensors and stuff and things) Birthday Nikon, and grabbed this shot...





SOC. Straight Out of Camera. A little bit low light (rainy day) but a money shot! And guess who she was looking at?

Her Mimi. Me-me.

I know, right? You want me to stop my bragging and get on with my bad self.


Written for you with love...

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

Introverts Are Different

Do you love being with people? Do you have a felt need to socialize? (We all need it, to varying degrees...we simply were not created to be alone...)

If you answered "yes", you are not an introvert. Introverts have a felt need for more solitude than an extrovert. Many extroverts almost never feel an intense, consistent need to be alone or quiet, thus they will never really understand it. And unfortunately, they will often try to force their introverted loved ones into their own extroverted perspective. Extroverts mistakenly assume that everyone should be just like them, and oooooh boy, do extroverts need people!

Typically, introverts are more creative than their extrovert friends...which is good, because we introverts need all the props we can get. The entire world, it seems, is trying to make us apologize for the way we were made.

Yes. God made us this way. And some of us (like yours truly) He has made to be quiet souls, and souls that need quiet...

...and then He called us into public ministry. This requires a near-daily dying to self, and a continual setting aside of our own, very legitimate, need for quiet time alone. Something an extrovert will never comprehend. Just know that you don't know. Compassion for your introverted loved one starts right there: opening your mind to the idea that you may actually not know what it is like to be "her". And you do not know what she needs, so let her tell you.

May I gently encourage you to tell your artsy, introverted, quiet friend that she is enough? That she is enough as a friend, as a daughter of God, as a mother, that she is loved exactly as she is?

I can almost promise you, she will go off by herself and weep with gratitude for being told one simple thing: that she is loved, lovely, and enough. Tell her you delight in her in spite of herself.

Endeavor to understand and encourage the introverts in your life.





There is a link to a Facebook fan page for your incredible introvert here


Written for you with love...
Sheila Atchley
All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

The Preacher's 50th

The love of my life turned 50 today.

I have spent the better part of two days cleaning my house, shopping, decorating, and generally preparing for what for us is a small family gathering of 16.





















That box...my gift to him..."brown paper packages, tied up with strings"...definitely had in it one of his favorite things!






Cards from friends...





I decorated the house in spring...





Having his grandchildren all around is definitely his favorite thing. (The granddaughter was napping during gift opening time...)

Surrounded and spoiled and adored and loved by his family. He rocked his 50th, for sure. Spent it exactly how he's always dreamed he would.

I am so honored to be the girl beside him and the one dearest to his heart. My beloved man of God, who has poured himself into all his relationships...thus has never had time for a mid-life crisis...he is too busy loving and being loved.

Happy birthday, Preacher!

You are the love of my life...




Written for you with love...

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...