Moon Play (SPECTRUM giveaway!)

Winter certainly seems to have a firm grip upon us - at least here in the Midwest. After subzero temperatures, snow arrived wrapping my world up in a lovely, but icy blanket of whiteness. All the more reason to stay hunkered down inside, my diffuser puffing out a steady steam of essential oils (ah, spearmint, lemon and rosemary wafting green freshness throughout my kitchen!) and a cup of tea ever by my side. 

I may be living in a monotone world, but inside there is colorful chaos as I finish up my deck of Alchemy Air Cards. I look around and realize I have 4 art journals going ... one for sketching practice (holding wonderful Scribble drawings inspired by the juicy online offering of the same name, Scribble Art)

another journal as a form of conversation with mama Nature (my response to the ideas presented in Reclaiming the Wise Woman by Sharon Blackie)

my ongoing Sketch Diary (stew pot of everything bubbling up in me), and my Moon Mandala practice. (Okay ... I am not including writing journals ... the composition book holding tarot explorations or my new The Moon Is My Calendar journal ... sigh ... I apparently have a little journal problem ... as do many of us ... )

Yesterday I had my yearly physical (you know, that one ... the quick check under the hood physical - eek!) and new to me were all the questions apparently screening me for depression. "Do you ever have days where you are not enthused to get out of bed?"  Goodness me, no! I can honestly say even on these frigid grey mornings when I wake up and realize I have a day ahead of me to immerse myself in creating, I bound out of bed.  (Okay, I shuffle towards the coffee pot and then I bound and bustle about) 

There is just so much to learn, so much to discover. I cling to my creative practice as a life raft to carry me through the challenging days (the low light days of winter, the days of confusion, the days and months after my mother's death) and I gleefully dive into my practice on those days when Life feels full and abundant. My creative practice keeps me anchored firmly in the center of this Wheel of Fortune, this Wheel of Life. And now I see Cowgirl reaching for her new journals immediately upon finishing her homework. She immerses herself in drawing dragons and the deep engagement, the transformation of her art, continue to astonish and inspire me. 

Art, my friends, is our medicine, our therapy, our prayers of gratitude and our songs of love and joy.  I truly believe it is part of our human (and divine) nature to create. The impulse is as common as a dandelion popping up in an empty field but the impact upon the spirit is akin to light passing through the stained glass of a Gothic cathedral. 

Transcendent. Transformational. Holy. Sacred. 

The best way I've found to experience the power and potential of creative action is to surround myself with others engaged in creative exploration. Ever a student, I find much I can learn and try on by taking courses, looking at books, watching videos and practicing practicing practicing. (Hence the justification for so many journals!)

I have some exciting news to share today: I am going to be a guest teacher in Spectrum 2016 this year - and I have 1 spot to give-away here at my blog as part of the Give-Away Blog-Hop! 

Spectrum 2016 online art & creativity workshops

Spectrum is an online Holistic-Creative workshop going on its third year, and organized by Hali Karla of Hali Karla Arts. Spectrum 2016 will be guided by 20 NEW featured teachers and more than 20 returning contributors offering a variety of workshops, inspiration and invitations - all intended to empower, nurture and celebrate your innate creative expression, healing journey, and personal development! 

That's over 40 workshops/lesson ideas to support and inspire endless days of creative and personal exploration.

There will be weekly inspiration and reflective activities related to mixed-media art-making and journaling, guidance on integrating your creative process and holistic awareness into your day-to-day life, and a variety of opportunities to connect, support and share with others in the growing Holistic-Creative online community.

The themes that will loosely guide the 2016 Spectrum experience are Forgiveness, Shifting Perspective, Navigating Uncertainty, Integration, Alchemy, Connecting with Nature, Honoring Body, Trusting Joy, and Expressing One’s Truth! You can expect a variety of perspectives on these - and so much more.

To learn more about the details, including all of the contributors and workshop offerings for this course CLICK RIGHT HERE. 

My previous Spectrum workshop - Mandala Moon Meditations will be made available again as a bonus offering for the 2016 journey, so if you missed it before, now is your chance OR you can re-visit it to see how it speaks to you in the coming year.  (Go HERE see examples of my monthly moon mandalas.)

Pre-registration for Spectrum 2016 officially opens on February 1, 2016 (and the program will begin on May 2). So be sure to bookmark this page (or link) - so that you can check back to see if you win the giveaway here or sign up just as soon as it goes on sale.

About the Give-Away:
 I have one spot for Spectrum 2016 to give-away to a lucky winner in our January blog-hop - but if you follow the blog-hop list below, you will have an even better chance of winning a spot by entering the other give-aways as well.

All of the new teachers are playing along - and quite a few of the returning contributors volunteered to join in the fun, too - so there are over 30 chances to win a free pass!


Thank you to everyone who participated! I so enjoyed reading your responses and your intentions for incorporating creative play into your daily life - so inspiring!

The name my Cowgirl pulled out of the hat (yes, I wrote out everyone's name who commented or emailed me and also added extra slips for sharing on social media!) is ...

Angela! "Creative play means freedom to make a mess, follow a wild idea, be present to the fun of color and texture. This year I plan on dusting off the art journals and letting myself loose on the page! Miss the vibrant feeling that arises from this kind of creative joy."

Pre-registration for Spectrum is now open!  As a thank you for all the enthusiasm and interest, Hali is offering a 3 day registration special! The regular price is already an *excellent* value at 98 USD, but if you sign up in the next three days,  between February 1-3, you can claim your pass for just $88 – so don’t miss out.


If you didn’t win a spot this time, and you are facing financial hardships, you may be eligible for the new Spectrum scholarship program this year.

The eligibility requirements and application open up today as well and can be found over at the Spectrum Registration page.  Head over there, make sure the program feels like a strong YES for you and if so, scroll all the way to the bottom. There you will find a green button that will lead you to the scholarship details. This will be open until the spaces are filled. They will go fast, so don't wait!


Spectrum 2016!

Just below is a list of the other teachers who are playing along in the Spectrum 2016 blog-hop, with the dates their give-away goes live - so be sure to visit their site and enter there, as well.

13 January: Hali Karla http://www.halikarla.com/blog/

14 January: Andrea Schroeder http://www.creativedreamincubator.com/blog                     
Angelique Arroyo http://schoolformedicinewomyn.com/

15 January:Bebe Butler http://www.bebebutler.com/Beth Morey http://www.sheofthewild.com/

16 January:    Briana Goetzen http://www.orangespiralarts.com/Carissa Paige http://carissapaige.blogspot.com/

17 January:    Cat Caracelo http://catcaracelo.com/ Catherine Anderson http://catherineandersonstudio.blogspot.com/

18 January:    Chris Zydel http://creativejuicesarts.com/Effy Wild http://effybird.com/

19 January:    Elloa Atkinson http://www.elloaatkinson.com/Grace Howes    http://www.redbarn-studios.com/

20 January:    Gretchen Miller http://www.gretchenmiller.wordpress.com/Kara LC Jones http://motherhenna.blogspot.com/

21 January:    Kelly Johnson http://www.wingswormsandwonder.com/Kitty Oppegard http://handoverheartstudios.blogspot.com/

22 January:    Kristal Norton http://kristalnorton.com/Lisa Hofmann http://dandelionseedsanddreams.blogspot.com/

23 January:    Lisa Wilson http://www.beingbreath.com/Lucy Pearce http://dreamingaloud.net/

24 January:    Malini Parker http://www.maliniparker.com/Meghan Genge http://www.meghangenge.com/

25 January:    Melissa Harris http://www.melissaharris.com/Michelle Turbide http://michelleturbidestudios.com/

26 January:    Petrea Hansen-Adamidis http://www.arttherapist.ca/blogRachael Rice http://rachaelrice.com/

27 January:    Robin Hallett http://www.robinhallett.com/Shelley Klammer http://intuitivecreativity.typepad.com/

28 January:    Suki Ciappara Ka'Pinao http://sukihealingarts.com/Tara Leaver http://taraleaver.com/

Enjoy the blog-hop, good luck on the give-aways, and I hope to see you in Spectrum in a few months!

Spectrum 2015 (giveaway!)

I am excited - and a wee bit daunted! -  to announce that I am part of an amazing array of instructors participating in collective offering known as Spectrum.  This is the love child of Hali Karla who has done an inspiring job of gathering a beautifully diverse and rich group of women dedicated to self discovery, healing and celebration through a variety of means including art, photography, meditation, sacred ceremony, and so much more. In Hali's words:

Spectrum is a collective of holistic-minded artists, healers and visionaries
that have come together to offer a unique online experience devoted to awakening, exploring, deepening & celebrating your innate wisdom and intuition through visual journaling and more.

When you sign up for Spectrum, you will be receiving access to 25 workshops offered by some of my favorite teachers, writers & artists including Jamie Ridler, Julie Daley, and Lisa Sonora Beam, to name just a few.  Content will be delivered in 4 installments of downloadable PDFs which means you can work at your own pace, dip in and out and revisit whenever you like! And you will want to revisit some of these beauties ... just take a gander and drool at the individual listings HERE.

My offering is Mandala Moon Meditations, my on-going practice for the past years of creating a mandala each month to investigate and celebrate the wisdom of that month's moon cycle and how I experience that energy manifesting in my own life and consciousness.  It has been an incredible vehicle for deepening my connection to Nature and to understanding my own inner cycles and rhythms. By understanding the impact of the seasons upon my own energy, I have been better able to utilize that energy, knowing when to flow, when to create, and when to rest and recuperate.  I am excited to deepen my own practice as I share my work with others.

The first journal (pdf with 6 workshop/lessons) will be sent out on May 1, 2015 with subsequent deliveries on June 15, September 1 and October 15, 1015.  Right now there is an early bird reduced registration price of $99 available until January 31.  After that, the price is $120.  That's less than $5 per workshop! 

I have one membership to gift and am offering it via a giveaway here and through Facebook.  Leave me a comment here (or on the corresponding Facebook Thread) and let me know what is your intention for self care in the coming year? What one-thing could you commit to right now to deepen your relationship with yourself, as an on-going act of befriending and honoring the sacred being that is you? 

I will draw a winner on January 20 (the new moon of course!) and announce on the 21st.

Good luck! 

Full disclosure: I am an affiliate of Spectrum, so when if you register after following the link here on my blog, I will be receiving a percentage of that registration fee.  

mother Christmas (holiday giveaway)

Love is in the details.

This is something my mother exemplified.  She was not an overtly demonstrative person: she would not heap words of affection upon you nor would she be constantly hugging or kissing you.   

Much to Cowgirl's chagrin, I am very different in this respect from my mother. I am wildly verbal and physical in my love. If I wore lipstick, Cowgirl would be perpetually smeared from head to toe in holly berry red.  I am both a toe nibbler and cheek pincher, and I can (and do) say I love you in four other languages. 

No, my mother did not shout her affections.  She quietly demonstrated her love and care through attention to detail and consistent presence.  She always said "I love you" at the end of our phone calls and she always greeted me with a quick peck on the lips (our family falls into the lip kissing versus cheek kissing camp). Her love was quiet, but it went deep.

My mother was the best gift giver.  It wasn't just that she gave me the gifts I asked for;  more often than not, she gave me the gifts I didn't know to ask for ... the gifts that I would not have imagined to be mine.  She did this by paying close attention.  She would remember a comment I made about a robe in a shop window and months later, it would appear wrapped and under the tree.  She excelled in slipping items to shop clerks when my back was turned, sneaking  the gift home and tucking it away until the time came for her to surprise and delight me.

When I was very little, I desperately wanted these Country Mouse, City Mouse play house sets I saw in the F.A.O. Schwartz catalog.  That Christmas I received both.  But not the store bought ones (overpriced and bland) -  she made me the two houses herself! She decorated the insides with wallpaper, carpet, doll furniture, and tiny aprons for each mouse. I loved those houses until they fell apart.

Another year, she made me my own Little House on the Prairie Doll ...

complete with a wardrobe of dresses, bonnets,nightgowns and quilt she sewed herself ... 

and little shoes!

In the past few years, it was my turn to surprise my mother with unexpected gifts, especially at Christmas time.  Her stocking seemed to be the fattest as I filled it with fun little treasures and pleasures. Nothing fancy, but what I remembered she loved.

These past few weeks I have been drifting through my days.  Slowly, slowly I am easing myself back in.  I had the pleasure to create a set of prayer flags for a woman expecting her first child.   She shared with me her intention for the coming year Is Trust.  Like my mother, I try my best to tease out the meaningful through attention to details.

As I sat at my mother's sewing machine, it struck me as wildly fitting I was working with the intention  of trust as I return to my daily activities and my work. 

I've created my own life, but it was nurtured and supported by the constant love and attention of my mother. I never questioned her being there for me.  Her love and her belief in my abilities, mentored me in the experience of Trust.  Not just in her love, but trust in myself.  In turn, I hope I can do the same for my daughter.   

To honor my mother's memory this holiday season, I want to hear more stories about our mothers. How did your mother convey her love and care to you?  What magical memories come to mind when you think about the holiday season and how did your mother feed that magic?  Perhaps yours is a memory not about your biological mother, but about someone mothering you in a deep and rich way.  I would love to celebrate those stories as well.

To celebrate the spirit of perfect gifts, I am giving away a deck of Awakening to Your Divine Self Oracle Cards.  

This deck contains 44 beautiful images created by 39 artists from around the globe, including yours truly.  Each card offers a message of loving wisdom and quiet inspiration, messages gleaned from each artist's conversation with her deeper self. For every story shared in the comments section below, I will enter your name into the drawing. If you would rather submit your story via email, you can contact me at: Lishofmann88(at)gmail(dot)com.  I also have decks to sell ($29.95 includes shipping to US and Canada; other artists selling the cards can be found HERE)

I will pick a name and announce a winner next Sunday (December 21). So be sure I have a way to contact you should you win!


My wisdom card in the deck?

Trust, of course!

home (finally, friday)

I've been traveling and it always takes me several days to feel rooted again.  

Inhabiting an in between space of seasons, work, and myself.  Shedding so much, but not ready to fill up just yet. Marveling at the signs of new life ...

the deer of SouLodge ranch

 while at the same time, it seems summer is making a hasty retreat, autumn's grey skies hustling quickly on to the scene.

Some of us are more prepared for this change than others.

Taking deep breaths, taking it all in ...

A long, cleansing exhale and I will be ready.   

A beautiful, feisty and loving warrior sister is about to embark upon what will certainly be a empowering exploration of fear:

we will be exploring the wholeness of fear (it's light and dark sides), reconnecting with it's medicine while finding out how to use it in a way that is medicine, and pioneering new trails for us to be in an authentic and wise relationship with fear.

I will be hitching my wagon with Nissa's e-circle as I recommit to my spiritual practice through my own offering The Gift of Practice.  For a chance to win a seat in my course, visit Nissa's blog HERE and leave a comment.  I cannot think of a better way to nurture and support myself in this season of releasing than by circling with Nissa as I step into the deep water of Fear.  I know I will be supported and gently guided as I tackle some big medicine.  I am ready.  How about you?  xo

* finally, friday *

so this is how you swim inward,
so this is how you flow outward,
so this is how you pray.

- Mary Oliver, excerpt from Five A.M. in the Pinewoods

This is how I pray ...

  
Tell me: how do you pray?


Congratulations to the Boundaries Boot Camp winners: Carrie & Renee.  I've contacted you for your information.  Thank you everyone who entered.  Please know if you didn't get in and want to be there but cash flow is an issue, Pixie offers scholarships!  For more information and to apply, go HERE.

simply close the door (thoughts on boundaries + giveaway!)

I was about thirty when I first learned about the concept of personal boundaries.  It was a pretty pivotal moment, I suppose because I didn't have any real boundaries.

As my therapist explained, I was like a house with many doors and windows.  When someone has healthy boundaries, they determine who or what is allowed to enter the house; they control the opening of doors and windows.  In my case, my "house" self had no glass in the windows and the doorknob were on the outside!

The renovation of my house - of me! - is a continual and on-going process.  Just as I installed proper doors and deadbolts with my family of birth, I became a mother.  This new terrain is challenging. I want the best for my girl and I know all-too-well the ease - and the danger -  of projecting my tendencies, my desires, my fears upon her.  She is her own person but balancing the task of guiding, providing, and safe-guarding with an understanding of when it is necessary to let go, allow, release is a tricky thing.  

I share what I love with her, not in the hopes of grafting her life upon mine, but with the intention of her crafting a life lived with passion, curiosity, sense of power and creative possibility.  

we created a water wheel in celebration of Beltane; our wheel was made from chalk, crystals, & stones

we added birdseed, cornmeal, lavender and our prayers and songs to activate the wheel

Sometimes I am not thrilled with her choices: Nintendo DS (I don't even know what the DS stands for), Pokemon cards, Beyblades, Ninjago ( I sense a trend here with pseudo-Japanimation) but as a kid I too binged on some junk entertainment before discovering real nourishment.

THIS thrills me: her enduring passion for dragons (and new love of riddles)

Just as I impose commonsense limits upon sweets (one sweet a-day) while offering healthy options, my hope is she will understand it is in her power to make good choices.  

At her school, they introduced a concept of bucket-filling, and bucket-dipping.  A good friend is someone who fills your bucket through words, gestures, and actions.  A bucket-dipper is someone who is hurtful, rude or disrespectful.  The worst thing you can be, according to Cowgirl, is a bucket-dipper.  But I've tried to point out to her that if someone is dipping in her bucket, she has the right and the responsibility to cover her bucket. 

Or in my case, to simply shut the door.  

There is so much more to learn and share.  I am excited to be able to offer 2 spots in Pixie Campbell's upcoming online offering Boundaries Book Camp with Mountain Lion.  I can think of no better way to define, clarify, understand and strengthen boundaries.  This  two-week intensive with daily prompts, media and interactions is 

 about building stronger communities, relationships and partnerships through the superheroic gesture of protecting ourselves from others’ psychic debris, and protecting others from ours. Clarity of awareness and loving language emphasized.

I will be there, gathering ideas and tools to pass on to my girl-cub ...

tools for our ceremony, including this song

I will be drawing 2 names from comments on this post and on the accompanying facebook thread.  (If neither work for you, please email me lishofmann(at)novia(dot)net and I will enter you into the drawing.)  I will announce the winners next Friday (May 16) so be sure to leave you name before then! Make sure I have a way to contact you.

Boot camp begins May 19.  Get ready to step fully into your power, your voice.