About Betsy

I create containers for words and paint and I fill them. I craft safe, sacred spaces for people to wrestle, create, heal and shout from the mountain tops.   And I teach people to do all of these things for themselves.

Mermaids and Liturgy

Sunday 10 December 2017

Snow and quiet moments
Broken strands of lights
The perfect song
Multiple plan B’s
A blossom
A bird
A drink of water
Bubbles
Lights
Mermaids and liturgy
I can’t always explain what catches my eye.  What consumes my attention. I don’t always know why one thing weighs more than the other.  Why one event is charged and another supposed-to-be-significant moment passes on by.  I do know that December in particular seems to have all the things.  Lights and favorite people.  Stress and movement.  Gatherings and loneliness in blender.  Reflection and anticipation. And lists.  All the lists.
I’m waking up early and sometimes sleeping in.  I’m carrying my camera and sometimes putting it down.  I’m paying attention and holding hands with only the most important things.  Everything else can pass on by.
Wishing you all the most important things.
“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.”  Marcus Aurelius, The Emperor’s Handbook   
By |2017-12-11T12:05:51-04:00December 11th, 2017|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Release Expectations

Expectations:
magazine perfect family gatherings
gorgeous butter cookies w edible glitter
beautiful IG posts every day

Reality:
constantly cleaning up after aging pets – rug at the curbside this week…
borrowed batteries out of a remote to light up the mantel for this photo
writing deadline displaced cookie baking. Day 3 and I’m already behind on my own personal challenge.

The full moon is my cue to let go of that which does not serve. Once a month seems to be about as long as I can go without a healthy accounting of my angst, agendas and judgment. When the moon shines bright, I let go. I forgive. [Especially my 18 year old self. She did the best she knew how.] I bless and release. I surrender. Today’s gentle reminder has a heaping teaspoon of truth telling. Because tis the season for agendas and unrealistic expectations. Listen, decide what you truly want and let go of the rest. Unrealistic magazine expectations and perfectionism don’t deserve your energy. Give your attention to the important things. [Pro tip: You decide the important things.] For us this year: generosity, family and simple ways.

I’m letting the light of the moon wash me w clarity and grace. I’m opening my hand and releasing image management. My intentions are focused on rich connection and good chocolate. On analog faces and peaceful spaces.

 

 

Open your hand. What stays and what goes?

By |2017-12-06T17:35:25-04:00December 6th, 2017|Uncategorized|2 Comments

Zero resolutions and cross fit for the soul

“We have another chance to navigate, perhaps in a slightly different way than we did yesterday. We cannot go back. But we can learn.”
– Jeffery R. Anderson   The Nature of Things – Navigating Everyday Life with Grace
It’s the time of year for resolutions.
It’s also the time of year where I dig in and refuse to make them.
Let me clarify.  I think SMART goals are well…smart. My calendar has been and is filled with coaching sessions helping people identify  goals and vision and vocation.  I’m all about setting goals and putting new energy behind your dreams.
Reality for me is that the “new year” happened back in the Fall.  I love a fresh school calendar, fall clothes and new supplies.  And even though school days are behind me, I still hit reset at the end of October around my birthday.

Stone Mountain and fog

January is the middle to me.  Winter is here.  In Georgia that simply means a handful of blustery, gray days and some rain.  But I’m still hunkering down and making soup and playing the long game of getting through forever nights and limited sunlight.
I have no list of resolutions.  What I have is down time and, true to my overall spiritual practice, time to reflect.  This time of year is more about orientation and course-correction than restart and beginning.
The richest lessons for me have to do with staying aware and present.  With paying attention to what it feels like when my soul is fraying at the edges.  Because if my soul comes undone how will I make, offer, do or BE?  I continue to receive feedback and let my ego dissolve.  Man, I’ve gotten some hardcore feedback this year about things I’ve done and not done.  Thank you to my sacred circle and some courageous truth speakers.  Gah.  Painful and good, like lancing a boil or stairs after leg day.   Speaking of discipline.  NO continues to strengthen my YES and I’m choosing gratitude like a boss.  Collecting gratitudes is cross fit for the soul when turkey buzzards and Persephone are your your spirit animals.
I’ve been trying on words and intentions like maybe I needed something new.  I don’t.  I’m still good with the concept of Sovereignty and the work of Inhabiting my Territory.  I want to feel Tranquil and Empowered and am aligning my behavior to bring that about.  I want to listen to my Inside Voice and use my Outside Voice in a more focused-project-to-the-back-of-the-hall kind of way.  All variations on a theme from the last couple of years.  I don’t need new, I need deep.  I’m throwing my roots down into the earth and finding water and lava and gold.  I’m reaching my hands up to the heavens to find breath and spirit and stars.  I’m singing and shouting.  I’m arranging words and flinging paint and issuing invitations for you to join.
Salud 2017.   Salud.
By |2017-06-01T15:55:11-04:00December 31st, 2016|Uncategorized|4 Comments

When to share your story.  Lessons from an Ent

Details Inside
“I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate.’ A queer half-knowing, half-humorous look came with a green flicker into his eyes. ‘For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I’ve lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time saying anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.” 
 
>>  Treebeard in JRR Tolkien’s The Two Towers
Sunday 24 July 2016
75/100
I started this morning’s Sunday meditations by flipping through my journal to reflect on this past week and take an accounting of lessons learned and changes necessary.  It’s part of my weekly rhythm.
This page with the last little backwards bits of a photo transfer reminded me of an Ent, a race of tree-like beings in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy world Middle-earth.
I am not going to tell you my name
I was struck by the wisdom of being slow to share name and story.
Brene Brown says it this way in The Gifts of Imperfection,
“You share with people who have earned the right to hear your story.” 
Man, that’s so good.  It’s one of the things I would tell my 16 year old self.  
[And my 21 year old self.  And my 40 year old self.  And for sure my 51 year old self.]
Be quick to smile and slow to share the details of your story.  
Rarely Seen
This morning I poured my story into the pages of my journal.  The pages have proven themselves trustworthy friends.  As have a very small handful of people in my sacred circle.  You’d be surprised by how small the number is.  Like Treebeard, I’ve learned to weigh and measure who gets to hear ‘the story of things’.
Here’s some more wisdom from Brene Brown:
I loved when she said this:  
“You have to think long and hard about who has earned the right to hear this story.  And, with whom am I in a relationship that can bear the weight of this story?”
My name is like a story
May you find companions along the way, who are trustworthy and who have sight to see you.  May your sacred circle be filled with quality over quantity.  Overflowing with those who can hold your story with skill, empathy and grace.
BE in your life,
Betsy

By |2016-10-19T14:20:22-04:00July 24th, 2016|Uncategorized|4 Comments

Coming back around

IMG_5688
“And now you’ll be telling stories
of my coming back
and they won’t be false, and they won’t be true
but they’ll be real” 
>> Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings
Thursday 14 July 2016
71/100
Sometimes in the ebb and flow of the creative process, living and creating is The Thing and sharing shifts in priority.  That being said, I appreciate projects and thinking about other humans, because sharing product and process keeps me engaged with the world.
I’m circling back around to sharing for the #100sharesproject. Stuffing 8 days of delicious creative living into one post.
Last week was filled with prayers in poetry and painting form, collections of words, and pages and pages of private musings and discoveries.
IMG_5638
There were coaching sessions and days of painting at the studio and a long Sunday brunch with a friend that was full of dream talk and vision casting.
What is the Next?
There have been workshops filled with prepped pages and the joy of watching women discover how exquisite it is to create with abandon.  I’ve been covered in paint and spent a summer evening with a dear one catching up over glasses of French Rose.
Amy & French Rose
May your life be full to overflow.  May the work of your hands be rewarding.  And may your offerings to others be clear and refreshing.
BE in your life,
Betsy
By |2016-10-19T14:20:22-04:00July 14th, 2016|Uncategorized|0 Comments

All the universe conspires 70/100

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