Oh, what fun it is to see how the Creativity Challenge is going! Have you seen this from inkberryblue, or maybe this from picture this?

There’s still time to enter this challenge…the last day isn’t until the 21st. And remember there’s a sweet little surprise present for one lucky art muckerabouter.

If you’ve already tried your hand at altering photos, there’s other ways you can stoke your creative fire this week. (Ooooo! Doesn’t that sound deliciously naughty!) While you’re waiting for the next creativity challenge you can submit a page of your wrecked journal, take a themed photo, complete an assignment from a superhero, show off your newest inspired couture, or carve out a little time from mommyhood to say Om.

I love the way these gentle “I dare you’s” creates an encouraging synergy for we artsy types who are learning to ply our crafts.

Now, enough web surfing, go out there and do something creative! (Me, I’m going to go make a Fall Zine.)

Thanks for playing!

This week’s theme at Mama Says Om is “decision.” We happen to be standing on the edge of a pretty big decision. We are looking at some employment opportunities overseas. This comes up every six months or so, and up until now there’s not been a very good fit. But something new is on the horizon and we’re wondering if it might be for us.

There’s a kind of artwork that I do which I tend to think of as “art as spiritual journey.” These pieces are more craft and meditation than they are actual “art.” (Whatever that means.) I often find that they solidify a concept I’m trying to get my head around, or point me in a direction that I didn’t know I was longing for. Working on this piece for Mama Says Om helped me feel like the possibility of relocating was real, was firm. The collage embodied a concept in a way that my mental imagination alone could not. Now I feel like if we pursue this as an option it’s less ethereal — there’s something solid to stand on, and that is making me feel less afraid of the exploration.

To make this collage I used a piece of stationary with a travel theme as a background and applied a map from a European tour book. The birds are a stamp I carved out of a wine cork. The big red “you are here” arrow was cut out of electrical tape and the letters are stickers that I cut up so they didn’t look quite as scrapbook-y. Small pricing tags from an office supply store detail out the verb “to decide.” More stickers on the bottom spell out what I’d have to do if I moved out of familiar surrounds. The sentence in handwriting says “I have a fork” in Danish — the only thing I remember from the round of language lessons I took a year ago. (Actually, that’s not true. I also remember the word for apron and the word for living room … I’m sure those three things will take me a L-O-N-G way!)

Mama Says Om is a great experiment to help creative mom’s hold on to their art-and-soul. You can play too! Just check the weekly theme, and write, photograph, paint, collage, or whatever your way to a post on the topic. Then link to Mama Says Om to inspire and be inspired. Mama Says Om is brought to you by the wondergals at Elaine and Krystyn.

Ps. Here’s some links to other art-as-meditation projects that I’ve done in the past. A little note for context…I am an ordained minister and work with artists who are trying to find a new way to practice old faiths, as well as with interfaith communities, and with women who are trying to access the feminine divine. I teach workshops on art-based meditative practices. Contact me if your interested in booking me for a conference or retreat. moi at magpie dash girl dot com.

Other Stuff
spring equinox
dia de los meurtos: derrida (by Lindell Alderman), altar for darfur
feminine divine,
ignatian examen high point,
ignatian examen, low point
thank you
perched
tsunami intercession
justice (by Rebecca Dallin),

The Ramadan Collection
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two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight

For those of you who attended the BlogHer session “Its not your size, it’s your passion that matters” I did today with Jen Lemen and Krystyn Heide, here’s some ideas for dealing with the Small Bloggers Blues

1. Take a break from your site meter
2. Redefine success for yourself. List all things your blog does for you (fosters gratitude in your life, helps you hone your craft, organizes your thoughts…)
3. Write yourself an affirmation. I like this one: “My story matters.”
4. Reach out to another small blogger. Take this feeling that you have about being discouraged or not “not mattering” and take it as a cue that you need to reach out to others who are feeling the same
5. Join the SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL google group. (I’ll link to it when it is available.)
6. Follow an comment you like back to the commenter’s blog you’ll probably find an inspirational read from someone who shares your values.
7. Tag your posts with your name (or nom de plume) and your blog name so like minded souls can find you.
8. Remind yourself that you are writing for an audience of one. Make yourself a sticker that says “I heart authenticity.”

If there’s one thing the Mee-Chapman family is good at, it’s reading. So this week I’m turing my Magpie Suggests list over to my kids. Eden (nearly 9) and Cate (barely 7) wrote the first two while playing “school” on Monday. (Yep, it’s the second week of Summer and what do they beg to do? Play “school.” I guess that means they like their school. Yeah public school teachers!) If you need a good list to take for the library, or you want to add only stellar tomes to your kid’s collection pop over here for some great ideas.

P.s. Purchases made from the Magpie Suggests pages help support my blogging habit. Just click on an image or title!

One of the best examples of humilty I can think of is Simple Way. Simple Way is a tiny community in Philedelpia’s inner core who try to live a (re)newed kind of Christianity which focuses on taking care of their neighborhood, the earth, and each other. Living at or below poverty level, these generous, clever, imaginative folks have found stunningly do-able ways to support and celebrate the poor but VIBRANT neighborhood in which they live. From helping the neighbor kids grow much needed produce in the backyard of an abandoned house, to shooting pollution sucking clover seed through the fence of a toxic dump site with supersized water guns, these folks refuse to believe that they are too small to make a difference.

Shane Claiborne is the public voice of Simple Way and I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with him at a conference and in conference calls. One of the things I appreciate most about Shane and Simple Way is that even though they live lives of awe-inspiring genersoity and sacrife, I never EVER feel guilty after talking to them. They manage to spread what they call “prophetic imagination” for a better environment and better neighborhoods without holier-than-thou attitudes or condemning speech — a gift rarely seen among dedicated activists. If I could describe Simple Way using only two words I’d say they were brilliant, and humble.

I was just preparing to blog about Simple way and thier stunning humility when I learned the Simple Way common house–in which members live at poverty level– several of their neighbor’s homes, and their neighborhood community center was destroyed this morning. The 7 alarm fire ripped through the low-income neighborhood decimating houses, cars, and business. Members of the Simple Way and their neighbors have lost all of their possesion, including their equipment for the small cottage industries that keep them afloat.

All my love, thoughts and spare change go out to this astonishing community who are teaching me to live with humility and hope. May they soon find their way back home.

I’ve finally figured out how to track bloggers using feeds, so now I actually read blogs! I know, I know, it’s about time for some blogdom karma on my part. Anywhoooo, one of my new favorites is Wannabe Hippie where Elaine recently wrote this great post on pain, motherhood, and equity (or the lack thereof.) As these are all commonly musings of my very own, I felt less lonely reading her poignant post. My favorite line was about how when you are in chronic pain, you sometimes must climb under the covers and “hide from your own body.” It’s disconcerting, but in pain, it is sometimes true.

The other thing I loved about this post is that Elaine suggest to her mother, that she was thinking about hiring some help the next time her husband had to travel and her mother totally affirmed her! Once, when my children were both in preschool and I suggested this same idea to my mother she said, “I don’t know why you girls can’t handle this on your own. I had three children and I did it without help from your father.” Holy revisionist history batman!

This of course immediately neccesitated a call to my sister — at the time the mother of three — where we both spent a lot of time commiserating, shaking our heads, and drinking that ubiquiteous mother’s comfort, diet coke. We decided to make a virtual tape we could play in our own heads. It went like this:

“If I choose to suffer, it will not negate Mom’s past suffering.”

This makes us much less martyrish and a great deal more balanced when it comes to getting help.

In her defense, when my sister had baby number four, my mom got right on board with the hiring help thing…

Mama Says Om has a weekly theme and this week’s theme is gift. I was going to put up a picture of my studio, which is one of the greatest gifts in my life right now. But as I was looking through my images I came across this picture. I snaped it with my little rink-a-dink digital camera on one of the first sunny days of Spring. This heart appeared unexpectedly on my walk to work, and on that first hopeful day after the grey, it was a gift to me.