Buttons

Posted on July 11, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

Closer

angled

detail

acrylic paint applied with fingers, buttons I bought in May in thrift and antique stores in North Carolina.

Inspired by this sight – a rust patina stained sidewalk, scattered with “helicopter” seeds, at the Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand, Indiana (April 2016)

button1

And this sign at a craft store in Linville, NC, May 2016. It was a board, painted green, and the word “OPEN” was nailed on to it using soda-pop caps and nails. Allowed to rust outside in the rain.

button2

And perhaps most importantly, my English grandmothers’ metal tin full of buttons.

I’m so sad that I’ve misplaced it. It had such a beautiful smell along with the sights of the buttons, the sound of them clinking together, the different textures (wooden, fabric, plastic, rubber, metal). I never met her, and I cherished those buttons. And now I can’t find the box. I’m sure it is in my craft room. More uncovering needs to happen. And I need to stop buying craft supplies and use what I have.

Autumn leaves

Posted on July 11, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

New artwork

close up

acrylic paint applied with fingers, “crushed glass” glitter, skeletons of leaves, canvas

Evolution at work

Posted on July 11, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

Nothing makes sense anymore. All the things that used to work don’t. It is as if our teachers have left the room and we are now faced with a test and we can’t have our notes or books with us. It is as if we have been dropped into a deserted island and we have to figure things out on our own. All our old schedules and routines no longer apply.

I know that I am not alone in this feeling. It feels as if we all have gone through a week of our brains being stuck in molasses. It is very unsettling.

It is like we are at a strange stage of adolescence that we weren’t prepared for. Imagine how weird it is to be in the in-between state between being a inchworm and a butterfly. Have you seen how strange baby penguins look when they are getting their adult feathers? There’s that awkward part about maturing where our voices change and our body doesn’t seem to fit. But this evolution and growth is not something that we have seen before. We are not prepared for this. What are we growing into? What are we becoming?

And how do we navigate this new way of being? Who are our guides?

Random

Posted on July 11, 2016 by betsybeadhead | 5 Comments

It isn’t just about cops killing black people. It isn’t just about cops being killed

It isn’t just all that which has gotten us all worried and concerned.
There is more. We forget all the incidences of mass murders that have happened in this country. We forget the incidences of rape that have occurred that have had no punishment for the rapist.

The issue at hand is all the various examples of random and unexpected violence that have occurred in the past several years. It doesn’t make any sense. It is violence that seems to come out of the blue. It is school shootings. It is shopping malls, it is movie theaters. It is anytime anyone out of the blue starts killing people who have done nothing to him. And that is the operative point. It seems that all of these incidences have involved single men acting alone, and often young white men. They’re angry at something in general but not someone in particular and they don’t know how to express their anger, so they kill the person in front of them. The thing that is most frightening about all of this is that it could happen to any one of us at any time. It is nothing that we can control or prevent.

We feel helpless and constantly on guard, but even being on guard won’t do us any good. It is as if we can do all the right things and still be victims. We haven’t angered anyone. We’ve done all that society expects us to do and still someone, randomly, on their own, can decide to kill us. It isn’t personal at all – it is as impersonal as it could possibly be.

We were terrified by Ebola and then the Zika virus. These two things are seemingly random and they can forever affect your life (if not end it). There was no way to avoid them. These incidents of random violence are the same. There is no way to prepare or prevent them from happening.

This is why we feel so helpless. We can’t legislate it away. We can’t do anything. Our “thoughts and prayers” seem to be falling on deaf ears.

To turn away from the newsfeed is to be accused of being indifferent. It is to be accused of “white privilege”. Tell us what we can do, and we will do it. Otherwise, to continue to drown in these stories is to be psychically attacked over and over.

Peace of mind

Posted on July 11, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

peace of mind 071016.jpg

It is difficult to get a good scan of my art in the spiral-bound art journal I use. But – it lays flat for working on. So I’m not sure how to fix this, or if I need to.

Created 7-10-16. Magazine images and words, fortune cookie message.

A meditation on how I need to break out of my comfort zone, and how I want to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostella soon – next year is the goal. I cannot wait until I retire to start living my life. I may not have the energy or physical ability – or even be alive. Life is short and unpredictable. Better to start doing the “bucket list” things ASAP.

The baptism font at St. Meinrad’s

Posted on July 11, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

Let us approach the baptism font at the monastery of St. Meinrad’s Archabbey in Indiana. It is near the front doors, although almost nobody uses them because they are up three flights of stairs. Most use the side doors instead.

And now we look inside.

There is a constant bubbling of water in it. It is rather soothing to watch. It is big enough to put an infant inside.

Here is the base.

This next photo is very interesting. I was taking a picture of the altar, but with the light it looks like the font is the chalice on top of the altar. This is very appropriate, as the baptism font and the altar are connected symbolically. We enter the faith through our baptism. We are reminded of our redemption through communion.

I wonder what it is like for these priests to baptize, when they will never have children of their own (since they cannot marry or have sex)?

There is no reason from the Gospels why priests cannot marry. Peter, the “rock upon whom the church is built” was married before Jesus called him to be a disciple. (See MT 8:14-17, MK 1:29-34, or LK 4:38-41, when his mother-in-law was healed.) Jesus never said that his followers couldn’t be married. He also wanted us all to live communally and work together, sharing what we have with each other.

Dividing the waters

Posted on June 27, 2016 by betsybeadhead | 1 Comment

We tend to think of Moses being the only person who divided large bodies of water in the Bible, but there were three others.

The prophet Elijah at the Jordan:
2 Kings 2:7-8
7 Fifty men from the sons of the prophets came and stood facing them from a distance while the two of them stood by the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the waters, which parted to the right and left. Then the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

His successor, Elisha, at the Jordan:
2 Kings 2:13-14
13 Elisha picked up the mantle that had fallen off Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 Then he took the mantle Elijah had dropped and struck the waters. “Where is the LORD God of Elijah?” he asked. He struck the waters himself, and they parted to the right and the left, and Elisha crossed over.

The famous scene with Moses:
Exodus 14:15-22
15 The LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to break camp. 16 As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I am going to harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh, all his army, and his chariots and horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh when I receive glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” 19 Then the Angel of God, who was going in front of the Israelite forces, moved and went behind them. The pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and stood behind them. 20 It came between the Egyptian and Israelite forces. The cloud was there in the darkness, yet it lit up the night. So neither group came near the other all night long. 21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back with a powerful east wind all that night and turned the sea into dry land. So the waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with the waters like a wall to them on their right and their left.

And last, Moses’ successor, Joshua at the Jordan.
Joshua 3:9-16 (HCSB)
9 Then Joshua told the Israelites, “Come closer and listen to the words of the LORD your God.” 10 He said: “You will know that the living God is among you and that He will certainly dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites 11 when the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth goes ahead of you into the Jordan. 12 Now choose 12 men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe. 13 When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, come to rest in the Jordan’s waters, its waters will be cut off. The water flowing downstream will stand up in a mass.” 14 When the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of the people. 15 Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge 16 and the water flowing downstream stood still, rising up in a mass that extended as far as Adam, a city next to Zarethan. The water flowing downstream into the Sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea) was completely cut off, and the people crossed opposite Jericho.

In spite of all these miracles, we have to remember that Elijah, Elisha, Moses, and Joshua did not divide the waters. God did. They were simply the people who God worked through to make these miracles happen. It is like when someone asks for prayers for healing, and they give credit to their pulling through to the people who prayed. We must always remember the One who answers prayers. We must pray, certainly, but it is important to remember the One we are praying to, the author of healing.

Careful in that car

Posted on June 22, 2016 by betsybeadhead | 2 Comments

There’s something about driving that makes you forget what you’re doing. It is easy to get lulled into a sense that driving is more like watching a movie or playing a video game than real. Perhaps it is the climate control so you don’t have to experience the weather. Perhaps it is the good suspension that smooths out every bump so you don’t experience the road. It is easy to forget that the other cars on the road are real and filled with people. It is easy to forget that one wrong move and someone will die.

The most aggressive drivers on the road are those who drive large trucks, like Ford F-150s. They are so high above and removed from everyone else that they seem to forget that there is anyone else on the road. These vehicles are very sturdy and give a sense of protection to the driver, but result in a sense of threat to everyone else, because the driver often drives as if he is the only person on the road.

I think it’s a good idea to have a car that has lightweight doors that make you realize how fragile and how thin your protection is between you and other cars. I think it’s a good idea to have a car that doesn’t have quick acceleration so you don’t feel you can cut off other drivers. A slow car makes you wait for an opening rather than forcing one. I think it’s a good idea to think of your car as a two thousand pound weapon. This way you will be considerate on the road.

When you ride a motorcycle you are fully in the elements. You are made aware of every moment and everything has to be done very carefully and mindfully or you will get hurt. The same is true for bicyclists or walkers. The less you have between you and others, the more careful you have to be, but also the more considerate. Imagine how many fewer accidents there would be if everyone drove as if they had the same level of protection as a motorcyclist.

What if we all had one 800 numbers on the back of our cars saying “How am I driving?” How many of us would get complaints? What if police pulled people over for driving well? How many of us would get stopped then?

Here is a prayer to be said before starting your car:

Lord, help me to remember to be careful on this road. Help me to remember to look out for the safety of myself and for others. Help me to drive in a way that would bring honor to you. Amen.

Persistence

Posted on June 20, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

I love finding trees that grow around obstacles.

The ones that I find the most are hackberry trees. They are considered “junk” trees – large weeds, a nuisance. Normally they are scraggly bushes, but when you cut them, they sprout out even more branches, like a hydra. Your choice then is to let it grow as is, or to dig it up.

Here is one I found at a Persian restaurant off White Bridge Road in Nashville. The restaurant (Hot Kabobs) is not there anymore, but I bet this tree is. Look how it has grown around the chain link fence.

Here is one at the Mercy Convent in Donelson. There is a back part of the property, next to a farm. This is not part of the normal area for retreats, but I was on a wander. There was a metal wire that was used to show where the property line is, and this tree has grown around it.