The Year of Grace {...happy new year, friends...}



The photograph above is so appropriate...because it was one of my very first "official" creative projects that someone actually purchased from me.  I worked so hard to learn how to watermark...and I put that silly watermark on the actual picture...the one that sold...not just the digital copy.  That's how bad of a newbie I was.  The year was 2012.

Seriously.  In 2012, I had no art studio, no website (just a blog), no online store, no clients, no small business, no Facebook business page, no Instagram account, no mailing list, and no idea what God was about to do...

...He was about to wreak His incredible goodness all up in this place.

And it couldn't have come at a more appointed time.

See, a little over a year before, in 2010, because I was so stuck in the middle of great pain,  I started "naming" my year.  Sure, that's become very old news here in 2015.  Everyone has done it and blogged about it, and almost no one does it anymore.  But then it was pretty cool and revolutionary, and now I will never stop naming the years.

I named 2010 "Create" - and with that, I began to create intentionally and have not stopped since.  That naming thing was the end of life as I had known it up to that point.  Naming carries with it some incredibly good juju, dating all the way back to the book of Genesis.

I named 2011 "Sow!"  {with the exclamation point...because I felt such urgency in it.  I could not have been more spot-on.}  In 2011, I kept creating...and I also began a very intentional mentoring of the next generation - finally taking it outside my own household, and in a structured way.

My own daughters, whether they knew it or valued it or not (and they did, and they do) had been on the receiving end of years of my mentoring while they lived at home.  It was (and is) their time to put action to all they had received.  My nest was emptying, and I clearly heard the Lord that I was to sow into young lives "not my own".  So...I did.  Later that same year, I realized that the results of the simple decision to sow and mentor intentionally just...well, the results rocked my world.  God's smile was all over me, as I "sowed" with all my heart.

2012 received its christening as "Cultivate".  As I re-read that last blog post, I get goose bumps, because I see this in the final paragraph:

I'm beyond excited at the prospects for the coming year.  I know I will be working even harder than last year, because I will be creating the environment for the growth of what ever else sprouts from 2011. What if every bit of it sprouts?  Oh.  Mah.  Werd.  I'll be working twelve hour days.  Cultivation is a bit more involved than sowing, but the rewards are...

...a flourishing harvest.


Um...yeah.  I sort of have been working a lotta lotta 12 hour days in the last two years.

2013 was "Harvest".  That was also the year I took up the "31 Days October Challenge" and wrote for 31 days straight on the topic of celebrating middle age.  I still get emails about it - massive fruit still coming from that project, which will become a book - dare I say this year?

2014 was "Lavish", but I was too busy working those 12 hour days to write much about it.  God has lavished me with His goodness this past year.  But even more than that, 2014 was a year {...and I still can't believe the whole thing is in the rear view mirror...} when I really worked to renew my mind with the truth of God's abundance.  2014 was a year to leave all the old mindsets behind - getting tuned in to a brand new spiritual frequency of "increase".  That is hard for this die-hard anti-prosperity-gospel girl.  I will always see the "prosperity gospel" as a false gospel - but that does not mean that my God is not a God of lavish abundance.

I feel I am still working on this, in some ways.  But then again, the lessons of each and every year have always been carried into the next.  

2014 has been a year of massive, yet quiet, G-R-O-W-T-H.  I began podcasting...became a CLC (certified life coach)...did many hours of live coaching...developed my own coaching materials...got published in a Stampington art magazine, (still a future issue)...

...was juried into two art shows (one of which I opted out of, to exhibit in the other show, which was local), and experienced a breakthrough, technically speaking,  in my artistic style.  My art is showing a more fine-art, impressionistic leaning, a leaning that was not there before, and I am not sure where it came from, to be honest.   

God lavished me, and I lavished my work with time and sweat and blood (literally) and tears.

2015 has been freshly christened:

GRACE

I know, right?  I'm at it again.  Christ-centric and grace-besotted.  I will never leave the doctrines of grace.  

Besides - I have a feeling that in the coming year I will need unearned, undeserved favor from God...favor from strangers and friends...and will even get favor from enemies.  Unearned, undeserved, unexplainable, freaky favor.  

I'm not above admitting that I need favor to succeed in anything.  I need supernatural favor.

It's on its way.


Becoming - A Free Online Class {...when "it doth not yet appear what we shall be"...}

I never picked up the first paintbrush until my heart broke.  Then...just like that...I became.  I became an artist.




That was about 5 years ago, but it wasn't art that restored me.  It wasn't art that fueled my "becoming"...it was worship.

The Bible says that ..."By faith Jacob...worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. "  

Jacob felt it before I ever did.  He felt the pain of his own jacked-up-edness (that is a word in my house), he felt the misery of his own inability...and he glimpsed something of the grace of God when he saw that ladder that connected earth to heaven and heaven to earth.

 And He worshiped, leaning on his staff, favoring that hip put out of joint after his long wrestling in a black night of the soul.  Jacob wrestled for his identity, and I remember wrestling for mine.

See, I never expected to have not one, but two prodigal sons.  

(And yes...they are fine with me telling my story, and their part in it - past, present, and future.  We have good relationships, my boys and me and their dad.  I think the reason why they don't mind me telling you any of this is that - first of all, they still believe.  Not one of them has denied a solid belief in a supernatural God;  both would fight you over the truth of the deity of Jesus Christ...perhaps physically.  Ahem.   

I also think my young men know that their days in the pig pen are numbered.)

So I ended up with prodigal times two.  And it broke my heart, and it broke my identity as "The Homeschooling Preacher's Wife To Whom Such Things Should Never Happen."

I was going to write a book on child training.  Then, I had teenaged boys.  Then, they grew up.  Then, I needed therapy.  (Which I never got...)

Worship has fueled my becoming, from the time I was a little girl who wet the bed every night, through my early-married years when I gave birth to identical honeymoon twins (two beautiful daughters, who are mine and the Preacher's right arms today), and it fueled my becoming when middle age came calling...it fuels me at this moment, as a grandmother.

I am that "older woman", now, to whom the Great Apostle gave the admonition to "teach the younger women".

Teach them to love. That's the gist of what Paul told the older women to teach the younger women....teach them to love.  

With all my own becoming, it still "doth not yet appear what I shall be".  I believe - with all my heart - that my best days are right in front.

Having said all that, I am so thrilled to share with you that I have been invited by Jeanne Oliver to take part in an online course entitled, "Becoming - The Unfolding of You":






This course is FREE.  There is no cost to join Jeanne's creative community, and there is NO COST to join the 8 week course, "Becoming - The Unfolding of You".

Here is the trailer:





Here is the link to join the study directly.

Here is the course description, and instructions about how to join:

Course description:
This January join 20 women for an 8 week study all about finding your true identity in Christ.  Each week you will hear unfolding stories from the women in this study.  We will be sharing truths about who the Lord says we are and our personal journeys to accepting those truths.

We will also have fun creative videos that follow the study where the women will share one of their gifts. Think guitar playing, bread making, painting, entertaining and more.  You know I can't have a course without sharing how the Lord uses our creativity! My hope is that the study will give you fresh eyes for the Lord and yourself.  When we know who we are in Christ it changes everything and opens our paths and gifts in incredible new ways.
Some of us are carrying around "truths" about ourselves that are flat out lies and it time to lay them down

This study will be open and honest, real, Bible based and a bit of creativity too.  We hope you will join us January 6, 2015 for this free online study!

Directions to register:To join this free study you just need to be registered at jeanneoliver.ning.com (registering is free).

Once you are on the site you will find this study, free videos (business and art), my Creativity Takes Courage series and new online courses along the left hand side of the page.

You will find all of our courses/videos under the COURSES heading.

To register for Becoming | The Unfolding of You

1) Go to COURSES along the left hand side of the page

2) Go to the bottom of the course and click “view all” to find Becoming | The Unfolding of You

4) Click on Becoming | The Unfolding of You

3) Click the +join button on the upper right hand side

4) All of the details are on the page and you are all set for the study to begin on January 6, 2015


I cannot WAIT to see you in class.  Please tell your friends...share this blog post...help me spread the love and the good news of the grace of God, in the face of Jesus Christ...

2014 Fall-Winter Launch {...my first online catalog/LookBook...}




The Preacher and I just got back from a too-brief vacation, and it is time to launch my latest art and designs!  I am so excited about these offerings...I truly do believe they bring "tidings of comfort and joy"!

The back-story is this:  I wanted a way to group everything in the new collection together, so you could see it as the body of work it is...the labor of love it is.  So, to do this, I decided to create an online catalog, or "LookBook".

I've embedded this LookBook into the below link.  Enjoy!




Another Peek Into My Fall Launch {...my art, as a smartphone case...}




Just a few short years ago, I couldn't see myself with a smartphone.  I was an analog snob.  I was more than satisfied with my flip phone...the one with real buttons.  Buttons you could push.  I sent texts the old-school way...where you went with the number 1 and chose "a, b, or c", and so on.

Then The Preacher got a free upgrade on his smartphone.  He gave me his old one.

Then I started a creative business.  The kind of business that requires you to quickly master digital photography and open an Etsy shop and think outside the box.

Now I love my smartphone.  As in, "if-I-weren't-already-married-I-might-date-it" kind of love.

And I do think technology can be beautiful.  So long as it doesn't interfere with our making eye contact with our children, or making love with our spouse, or making time for a friend, I think technology is amazing.  In what other era could I run an entire business from the beach, with a few swipes of my finger, in less than a half-hour a day, while on vacation?

{Been there.  Did that.  Last year.  Made money while sitting on the beach for a week.}

So here's to the smartphone.  And yes....selfies and apps and all that smartphones entail.  Were I to coach you in your business, I would tell you in a heartbeat to get over yourself and dive into social media.  Do it yesterday.  Start instagraming and tweeting and Facebooking and blogging and heck yes, take a few tasteful selfies (don't try to be sexy - be professional, be fun), because people don't want automation, they don't want faceless,  they want to at least have an idea of who it is they are doing business with.

It isn't ego, when you run a creative business.  It's good business.

I took a few of my favorite mixed media pieces, and made them into smartphone cases/covers for Samsung Galaxy, and iPhones 4 and 5 (not 5C).

Find them here

Won't Someone Please Love Me For Who I'm Not? {...so I have a few personas...}



I don't need you to love me for who I am.  Well, I do, but I mostly need you to love me for who I am not.

Who I am is essentially understood, once you get to know me:  I am a believer in Christ Jesus.  I am a preacher's wife.  I am an artist and a communicator - a speaker and writer and blogger.  I am a mother to four grown children.  I am a grandmother to four - a three-year-old, a two-year-old, a six-month-old, and one on the way, whose name is Susanna Joy.

I am deeply loyal, deeply spiritual.  I am so intense that I need my closest friends to be not intense at all.  I have enough intensity...so much intensity, I nauseate and overwhelm myself.  I don't need more from anyone else.  I don't need a dose of hyper spirituality, complete with tears for all the world's prodigals (and my own) over lunch at Wild Wings.

I need you to love me for who I am not.  I need you to love me when I take a break from myself, which is a lot.  When, instead of primly saying that "I am a Christian", I flatly state:

"I am a jacked-up Jesus Freak!"

Or when I lovingly call my family, "The Freak Show".

When I am so broken I don't want deep conversation or even companionship.  (Know that "this too shall pass", and give me some room to be who I'm not!)

When I confess to being addicted to Red Band peppermint "crack sticks", or Dr. Pepper.  I'm really not addicted to anything but Jack Daniels - aaaand there I go again.  Just kiddin'.

See, I'm a living, breathing hyperbole.  I hyperbolate to blow off steam...all that intensity about the Gospel, it boils like a fire shut up in my bones, and occasionally I absolutely must act silly and say shocking things and adopt pretend personas to relieve the pressure of being inside my own head.

You should've been there when I played milk-pong at a church party, and pretended to get smashed on tiny Dixie cup after Dixie cup of milk.  I did make myself a little sick...but I had friends laughing until the tears ran down.

Laughter is carbonated holiness.  If that makes me holier-than-thou, I will let you figure out how to deal with it.

Yes, I hyperbolate occasionally.  It is my own signature coping mechanism, and I shan't give it up.

It's why I listen to the occasional country song.  ("Red solo cup!  I fill you up!  Let's have a party...let's have a partaaaaaay!")

It's why I sometimes use replacement vocabulary.  Dingdangdadgummit.  Shut.  The.  Front.  Door. 

It's why I can blog about boots and scarves and nail polish one day, and the Ecclesia the next. 

It's why I can think deep thoughts about pneumatology, but there was that time I almost lit my big toe on fire, and that other time when I couldn't properly signal a right turn while driving....instead, I honked my horn.  (??!  I have yet to figure that one out.  Don't you try to figure it out, either.  You'll never do it in a million years.)

The deep thinker is the real me.  The idiot-me is comic relief.  The hyperbolic mess is just for fun.

Love me...accept me...for who I am not.  Who I am won't scare you.  That other girl might.

Countdown to the Fall Launch Begins...{so much love will be in the shop for your holidays}




This design is the culmination of about a year's worth of tweaking.  I happen to love aged metal filigree - but on its own, it isn't very wearable, particularly with a heavy feature piece added to it.  I love to add something beautiful to the filigree - either my soldered designs, or any vintage or unusual new piece I happen to come across.  But they almost always end up too heavy, making the filigree cuff, on its own, difficult to keep arranged properly on the wrist.

I also love leather.  I can't get away from it, and I have tried to.  It finds its way back into almost all my designs.  But on its own, it can get ho-hum.

And so, voila.

So much of art is process.  You find out what doesn't work, far more often than you discover what does work.  I have pretty much discovered two hundred ways you cannot add a statement piece to filigree.

And one way that...oh yes, you can.

So...just as an aside...try not to balk at the price of an online course, or a piece of artisan jewelry.  I know what it is like to be on the tightest of budgets.  But trust me - you could not teach yourself or make it for that price, because you would have to buy the tools, and that is just the beginning.  You would then have to spend even more money and days and hours of your time in a trial-and-error process.

I am proud to be a maker...for you...

This beauty will be in the shop soon.  And she may be a "one-off" since I am loathe to repeat designs.

My artistic ADD gets the better of me.

FALL LAUNCH ~ My Art, As a Toss Pillow {..."comfort art"...}

I will be doing my second annual "fall launch" very soon...and I couldn't be more proud of this year's new things:





This piece started its life as a mixed media original, that sold rather quickly.  This winged-girl simply says, "In her life, youth and old age met in the middle and gave her wings to fly..."

She is only $25 for the cover (no insert), or $35 for the pillow cover with insert.



"Wings to Fly" has been one of my most beloved pieces - you've loved it as cards and prints, and now an 18"x18" pillow.  You'll want to get your order in soon...she WILL "fly" out of here.  {I have only 6 for a first run...I can make more, but the wait will be ten days to two weeks.}






This sweet little redhead says, "She chose to believe everything God says about her..."

Who doesn't need to be reminded to choose THAT?




DO you know?  I mean, do you really know?

Knowing this is a life-long quest, and full of delight.

These will be up in the shop soon!

New Cards In The Shop {...the handwritten note is making a BIG comeback...}



Did you know?  The handwritten note is making a BIG comeback.  It's all over the design blogs, all over Pinterest, all over...everywhere.

I want to help you bless others with your words, so the inside of each of my cards is blank.  I am offering a large assortment of my art pieces, as sets of 4 cards, with envelopes - and even as single cards, with its own envelope.  All my cards are printed on luscious paper.  Enjoy...

..and check them out here...

{And thank you so very much for all your care and support.  It means the world!}

My Best Art Show Yet {...an emotional weekend...}

Thank you, Knoxville. Thank you, Whittington Creek community. Thank you, clients and friends. Because of your support, I broke my record for sales in one show!













The Preacher and I loaded down his F150 on Thursday. We worked so hard to set up an inviting space, and fill it with my original art.














Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday looked like this. I met so many great people, both vendors and customers.















I so appreciated that so many of my friends dropped by. This is Jonathan and his beautiful girl, Elisa. LOTS of others came by...this is about the only picture I had time to capture, though.














...she sold! She is only my third sculpture, and she went to a lovely home, and a new client. And you know what? I miss her.



Come Sunday at 5, we had to take down my tent and pack everything up. Then we went to see my youngest son at the MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) location - a downtown motel. We shared dinner with him there, and when we had to leave him, I waited until The Preacher and I got to our truck...then, I cried until I couldn't breathe.


Then, early Monday morning, we went back downtown to be a part of this...
























He was sworn in, officially, and just like that...

...he was gone. He is on Parris Island as we speak, receiving the best training in the world...to become the less than 1% of world population...

A United States Marine.

The boy will beast it, we know.

But this week....I am careworn and weary to the bone. I'd appreciate your prayers.





Posted using BlogPress from my iPad



My Calling, My Privilege, My Joy {Telling the Stories of Women Through Art...}

This morning, I gathered some of my most recent finished pieces together...
...pieces that I have completed, scanned, and had made (at considerable cost) into the most
breathtaking (if I do say so myself) giclees.

I hung them, gallery style, on my dining room wall.

I wanted to get an idea of the "full effect" when I place the originals all in one tent - my tent - at my art show in two weeks.

Here is what I saw:






I confess...like a proud mother, I almost got teary-eyed.  So, in the interests of clarity and fairness, I called my neighbor to come give her opinion.  {...the fact that my neighbor is one of my daughters should have no bearing on the outcome...}

SHE got teary eyed.  But what happened next, I did not expect.  She then noticed something I. had. never. realized.

You see, I painted all these in random order...at different times...giving each one my full love and attention, never, never-ever thinking about the piece that came before, or what I'd paint next.

Hannah said, "Mom.  Look.  These tell the story of a woman's whole life."

And with a little re-arranging of their order, I saw what she meant.

I about fell over.  {...we say that, here in the south...}

Sure enough - 



You see my piece entitled "Before Her Wedding", lower left.  Then "Expectant", top right.  Then, "The Mother", lower right.  The smallest piece top left represents the community that supported her in those seasons.


Then, the other side -





The top left picture for me represents my twin daughters.  For someone else, that piece could remind them of their own daughters, or of a mother and daughter, or of a woman and her friend - all, irreplaceable components in a woman's life.

The bottom left piece is entitled "Mother and Son".  Oh, that piece alone has a million stories in all its many, intricate layers, and a lot of emotion.  The bottom right piece is entitled "The Grandmother".  And again, the (smallest) painting, top right,  is the second in my diptych;  it represents the "village"...the spiritual community that it took for me the woman to be able to grow and flourish in this fallen world.  

Do you see it?

Do you see how, without trying to, I have by the grace of God created a body of work that tells a story that for me is powerful?  Can you see why my Personal Art Consultation has become the most important, fulfilling thing I do?  {I interview women, hear their stories, and paint something for them that depicts the significance of who they are...}

I have a new dream job.  I can't wait to be hired to sit down with a woman and hear her stories...see the color of her hair...get a sense of her gifts...find out her most significant life events...and go back to my studio and paint six to eight paintings that depict her life stories, from early-on, right up till today...all various sizes, but able to be made into a gallery wall exactly like what is in my home -



I know it will happen.  I feel like I know that I will get to do it.  Perhaps sooner than I realize.


PS.  Every piece here is available for you to purchase as a giclee that can depict your story or stories. As you can see, the impact of creating a gallery wall is beautiful.  I invite you to become a collector of my work.  Feel free to contact me here, with this link.

{I can't believe I finally get to say things like this...seriously.  I am living a dream I have not earned and do not deserve.  All is indeed grace.}




Worship Is My Wings {...the only way to take flight in the middle...}



So I'm not even going to begin with a lame apology.

The facts being what they are, I couldn't not take some time off from podcasting and blogging and even life coaching.

It is what happens when your youngest son swears in as a Marine recruit.

It is what happens when you are preparing for a juried art show.

It is what happens when your mother has a cancer scare {praise God, she is in the clear, now!}

It is what happens when your church has three guest speakers and two weddings in the space of about six weeks.

It is what happens when you get addicted to canning produce from your garden.

It is what happens when you have to cancel a beach vacation.

It is what happens when your heart is breaking right in half, because people can be so foolish and unseeing and uncaring concerning the very heart of God.

It is what happens when life presses in fiercely, and you cannot in good conscience escape to hard liquor or pills or even (too many) crack sticks.

But I have been working very, very hard, and very, very long hours.  This has not been "a break".  This has been survival - taking time off from things I love a lot, to tend to things I love with all my heart.

I have finished my first two clay sculptures.  Here is the one I was working on today:



She is based on my "In The Middle" series of paintings, and last year's  31 Days Project, which was a full-on party I threw for no reason, for all us girls "in the middle".

She reads, "The beauty of youth and the wisdom of age met in the middle and gave her wings to fly..."

Now, I want you to sit down, right here, right now.  Here's a cup of coffee.  Here's a lap blanket.

We need to talk.

I have seen credit given for a woman suddenly finding her wings to so many things/ideas/persons.  I have heard women say "art" saved them.  I have heard women say that going into a multi level marketing business saved them.  I have heard them ascribe credit to motherhood, a man, a divorce, and eating gluten free.  (And obviously, not all those things are bad...)

In the interests of contributing to the conversation, I want to tell you that I too have found my wings - smack dab in midlife.  I have been experiencing what it means to soar above.  Can I tell you what has given me wings?  In spite of all kinds of sorrow, overwhelming responsibilities, and in spite of my every failure, can I tell you where these wings of mine have come from?

Worship is my wings.




Not art.  Not finding out who God has called me to be, now that my children are grown (though that has been amazing).  Not the empty nest, no matter how much I have come to enjoy that.  Not even grandchildren.

{...did I really just say that...}

Back to this sculpture.  I finished her up, just today.  I painted out her arms and hands, and put the words down the front of her dress.  As I was adding the doodles with my trusty Uniball (which you could not pry from my cold, dead hands...I have discovered THE PEN that will write over ANYthing) I was listening to this:






About two minutes in, I had to put that beloved Uniball down.  Tears were streaming, for no real reason.  I closed my eyes, and lifted both hands, and just took off in the spirit.

I flew.

Every burden lifted.

Totally refreshed, in a matter of moments.

I soared high above the mundane.

I soaked in the love of God.

I almost physically felt the anointing of the Holy Spirit being poured out on me, starting at the top of my head, dripping down past my shoulders, covering me with passion and purpose.

"Let us become more aware of Your presence....Let us experience the glory of Your goodness..."

Yes.

When I finally opened my eyes, arms raised, this is what I was eye to eye with:


Powerful moment.  I can't begin to tell you.

Art has not given me wings.  Rather, art is a tool I use to express the worship of the God  who has given me wings.

As she and I were eye to eye, her posture mirroring mine, I suddenly realized where every. single. thing. I create comes from.  I think I knew it already, in my head.

But after today, I know deeply and truly, I know in my heart...

...worship is my wings.

Timothy's First Week of School {Home Educating the Next Generation Has Begun...}

My heart can't take all the sweetness...

I have always known that the final analysis of my home education career - the final word on any success -  would come in the form of whether my children chose to home educate their children, even if only for a year or two.




Here is a brief peek into a moment in the little life of The Preacher's namesake.  His momma (our daughter) is taking him through a 5 minute phonics lesson.

 Doin' school.

 At home.

He's killin' it, y'all. Homeboy is so, so smart. And he lives next door (our daughter and her husband bought the house two years ago). And I have a little secret I'm carrying around about the house next door to THAT house - which also happens to be the house across the cul-de-sac from The Preacher and me.

 Suffice it to say...well...we just may end up with the urban counterpart to Walton's Mountain.

 My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. I am living a dream I have not earned, and do not deserve. Grace, grace, and more grace. I hope your summer rocks, friends.  I am wrapping up my summer "Bucket List" and I have to tell you...we pretty much hit the high points.

It's been sweet.

Parables From The Garden {...He makes dead things alive again...}


I just returned home from a church conference yesterday.

And I just shot the picture above.  Just this morning.  
And I have something important to tell you about it, if you will indulge me by reading on.

Late, late last night, after unpacking, then promptly picking, snapping, stringing, blanching and freezing over a quart of green beans that were screaming at me from my neglected garden...

...I was watering said garden to the soothing sounds of cicadas. 

I gave all the raised beds a good drink,
then shuffled in my pajamas, blissfully barefooted, over to the many containers,
beginning with two large galvanized buckets of carrots.  

Then I turned my water hose onto 
the vintage Radio Flyer red wagon and the vintage wooden trug, both filled with lantana -
about the only thing that can sit in a container in full sun, and take these hot, humid southern summers.  

Then the containers of zinnias.

Then the shady area, where only impatiens grows in the
various and quirky containers in which I have planted them.

Interesting name:  "impatiens".

I looked at my antique typewriter - a gift from my neighbor - expecting to take in
the joy I always feel when I think of planting flowers in that unexpected space.

 {The typewriter was already in this shape when I lovingly gave it a new home and a new purpose -  
outside, in my shade garden.  Take heart, fellow antique typewriter lovers - I would never take a mint machine and plop it outside.}

Those impatiens were dead.

I'm telling you, from my vantage point, there was nothing left.  In fact, I had to squint in the barely-lit darkness to even see if there was anything...anything at all in the carriage of that typewriter, 
which before I went out of town
was lush with coral-colored petals and green leaves.

Nothing.  There was nothing but dried up sticks and stems.  I even walked
over, and bent low to investigate by the light of the twinkle lights in
the trees overhead...

...with the thought of setting the hose down, and pulling out the whole plant.   
But I was too tired.

For some strange, unknowable reason, I watered anyway.

I remember thinking to myself, "Why am I doing this?  I must be out of my mind."

As I was sleeping, overnight, I heard rain.  This morning, I did my usual - I went
outside to sip coffee and peruse the gardens.

I stepped off the back deck, turned left, and screeched to a halt, my mouth hanging open.

I ran back inside to grab my camera.

The Holy Spirit spoke to me, in that moment.

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;  So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.…"

Dear one, the Lord has sent you here today...
He has sent you to me, and me to you,
to tell you this:

That which seemeth to be dead, will spring to life in one night, when God says, "Live!"

Keep planting.  Keep watering.  And trust that His Word will fall from heaven and succeed.

Scripturally, His Word is both seed and rain.  Both metaphors
are widely used by the Holy Spirit to help us understand the power of 
everything God has spoken.

Hear Ecclesiastes:

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

Things unseen and deeply planted always spring up in
 ways we do not understand, and cannot predict.  

"And Jesus was saying, "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows-- how, he himself does not know."   (Mark 4:27)

Take heart.  Have patience...don't be "impatiens".  

God is in the business of making things alive again.

What The Heck Is A Life Coach? {Episode 7 of my podcast, "Art and Life - Well Designed"}

I have been taking a very brief blogging hiatus, but am still creating podcasts.  I hope you enjoy!





Show notes are here



Sign up for the occasional new design, discount, coupons and free coaching...

* indicates required

Freedom On The 4th

Enjoy my latest podcast, on this beautiful, low humidity, soft southern 4th of July summer afternoon. We will soon be on our way to some friends' house, along with kids and grandkids, to cook ribs and swim and feast and feast and feast.  It is so nice to be loved and invited, since we are tired and still recovering from the Preacher's trip to Haiti.

Food, fun, family, freedom, and friendship.

I wish the same kind of joy for you today!

It is all about freedom...



This Grace Message





I am sitting here, right here, right now, watching it. I had to snap a picture.

And I could not resist pointing out to you...

...she's preaching grace. She's preaching radical grace.

She's preaching the same stuff my Preacher was preaching clear back in 2008 and 2009. The same stuff that some thought scandalous, yet now the message is covering this earth.

Grace has gone mainstream - just like we said it would. No longer regarded a hokey doctrine, espoused only by a few "pastors of small churches", even Beth Moore is publishing and emphasizing the fact that the law has been made obsolete, it is now all about the message of the Finished Work of Christ.

Deal with it.

There is no power over sin like the grace of God...and I quote Beth, "The very thing our mothers would not have wanted us to know, because they were afraid it would give us license to sin, is the very thing we need..."

We are no longer under the supervision of the law, beloved. "You are not under law, but under grace."





Grace and Peace,

Sheila Atchley

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

A Peek At My Easel

Fresh off the easel on a rainy, perfect Saturday...



...preparing for a juried local art show in which I will be exhibiting, this fall.  I am so excited to be doing a juried show - not just anyone with a tent and a hundred bucks can set up.  They do turn artists away.

But I'm in.

Grace, like rain.

Your "Instead" {dealing with the opposition with the opposite attitude, living life in a different spirit...}

Exclusive Access to New Designs, Discounts, and the Occasional Free Coaching

* indicates required

My Vision Board {Inspiration and Manifestation}

For years I have kept up a "vision board"...and all it is, is a wall on which I have placed various images that speak to the kind of life I know God has designed for me to live - a life that encompasses gardens and grandbabies and ministry and mission.

I thought I'd share a part of it here with you.  I can't fit the whole wall into one camera frame, but this gives you an idea...




And, if you are wondering about the words, "Disagree with your enemy"...you'll have to listen to my latest podcast!

I would love to hear all about your vision board - I hope you have one.  When it comes to manifesting your calling and your joy, a picture truly is worth a thousand words.


Get a Weekly Serving of Coaching, Coupons, Designs, Discounts