What’s been on my mind lately… Lean in toward God Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is I can trust God to keep me safe from harm The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is that I can trust God to keep me God is a Creative Force Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is Home is where the Brat is I'm happy and pleased to announce that an article I wrote has just been accepted for publication in the upcoming Why artists spend so much time alone In a recent arts newsletter I received, the writer referred to a podcast featuring Anne Lamott and said that she Having the courage to create and show up at the drawing table "An artist must be open to the muse. The greater the artist, the more he is open to “cosmic currents.” Catch and release – the important message transmitted by Station Eleven I just finished binge-watching “Station Eleven” on HBOMax. It was a weird but strangely compelling story. It jumped all over Nurturing my inner hillbilly on New Year’s Day On this New Year's Day, I am nurturing my inner hillbilly by carrying on the Southern culinary tradition of preparing How to diaper your baby without stress during the “diaper shortage” SOLUTION to the COVID-19 "diaper shortage." (Please share widely for those who are stressed out about this problem.) Yesterday, as Rest is essential The most important message I picked up from today's readings overall is that rest isn't optional. Rest is actually a « Previous 1 … 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next »
Lean in toward God Ceilon Aspensen, January 2, 2024February 4, 2024 Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is lean in toward God. My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this: Genesis 3-4: 1) We have a spiritual enemy and he is continuously temping us into rebellion against what is good for us. Steven Pressfield calls this Resistance. God makes it clear what we’re supposed to do but when we allow ourselves to be led astray, there are consequences. 2) It wasn’t the offerings of Cain and Abel that were rejected or preferred, it was the attitude of their hearts in the offering. Abel leaned toward God. Cain leaned inward toward himself. His resentment of his brother’s relationship with God is what led him to murder. (I imagine Eve spending her whole life as Cain’s parent saying, “Stop focusing on what your brother is doing! Focus on what you’re supposed to be doing!”) If Cain had been leaning toward God he would never have been resentful of his brother. 3) Yes, we are all our brother’s keepers. It is our responsibility to be mindful of our attitudes and behaviors toward others. This passage strikes me as a foreshadowing of the teaching Jesus will give us later, when he says that there are really only two commandments, not ten: to love God with all our heart, soul mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself. That’s what it means to be our brother’s keeper. Who is my brother? I’m sure Jesus would answer that the same way he answered the question, “Who is my neighbor?”: everyone. Matthew 2: 1) People who are in conflict with God’s will may go to great lengths to bury the truth. Herod was willing to murder an entire generation of boys from one village n order to remove what he perceived as a threat to his power. 2) Dreams are important! Read Morton Kelsey’s, Dreams: A Way to Listen to God for more on this. Rarely, if ever, do we have dreams giving us clear instructions like Joseph received. However, dreams can and do inform us when we are on or off the right track in our lives. Pay attention! Psalms 2: Earthly power is fleeting but God’s plans will prevail. Taking refuge in God is the only wise course of action. Proverbs 2: Wisdom begins with seeking God. When we center ourselves in the word and the way of God, we are centered in the way of wisdom. That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today? You can join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day. If you haven’t gotten the FREE “Read the Bible in a Year” worksheet yet, you can Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. It is not necessary for you to start on January 1st–you can start from the beginning on whatever date you get the worksheet. Join us! Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit. This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.” To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.
I can trust God to keep me safe from harm Ceilon Aspensen, January 2, 2024January 28, 2024 The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is that I can trust God to keep me safe from harm. My primary take-away from each of the passages was this: Genesis 3 & 4 – Even when we make potentially fatal mistakes God still provides for and protects us. Matthew 2 – When I’m listening to God’s voice and doing my best he directs my steps and keeps me safe. Psalms 2 – God is a place of refuge and is in control of everything–I should not fear. Proverbs 2 – God is the source of all wisdom and when I center myself in God’s wisdom I am protected. Many people read the passages from today’s readings in Genesis and interpret them as warnings to not make mistakes, or else. One of the reasons I like to read the Old Testament and New Testament books at the same time is that they frequently provide balance and perspective when attempting to interpret the meaning of the scriptures. I spent the first thirty years of my life living in fear of the angry god that was preached from the pulpits of my childhood. After a life-changing experience in my early thirties (that was when I started reading the Bible every day) I began to see things more from a perspective of grace and mercy than of crime and punishment. The first reading for today shows the ways that God still provided for Adam, Eve, and Cain, even though the author portrayed him as being angry that they had broken his laws. The second reading shows the ways that God went ahead of Joseph and warned him of dangers which Joseph was able to successfully avoid because he was listening. The last two remind us that when we need safe harbor and wisdom for handling difficult situations, God is right there with the answers if we are listening. That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today? You can join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day. If you haven’t gotten the FREE “Read the Bible in a Year” worksheet yet, you can download it here. It is not necessary for you to start on January 1st–you can start from the beginning on whatever date you get the worksheet. Join us!
God is a Creative Force Ceilon Aspensen, January 1, 2024February 4, 2024 Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is that God is a Creative Force. My primary take-away from each of the passages was this: Genesis 1 & 2 – God is a Creative Force. Matthew 1 – God provides us with all we need. Psalms 1 – To “delight in the law of Yahweh” is to center ourselves within God (the Creative Force) and trust it to provide for us. Proverbs 1 – God speaks to us in our dreams. These were powerful messages for me, being an artist and a writer. These verses reminded me that all of my creativity comes directly from God, and without being in alignment with God my creativity dries up. They also reminded me that if I feel like I’m out of creative ideas, or if I am in need of money, resources, or anything else, the reason is likely that I have placed myself outside of the Creative flow. The key to having all I need and being creative is in placing myself in God’s Creative flow. Too often we pray for what we need from a place of lack, attempting to beckon God in our direction and bend him to our will. That’s not how it works. It is true that God meets us where we are, but he beckons us to himself–we must move ourselves from our barren surroundings to his fertile lands, and if we make that first move he gives us everything we need to make that journey. That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today? You can join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day. If you haven’t gotten the FREE “Read the Bible in a Year” worksheet yet, you can Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. It is not necessary for you to start on January 1st–you can start from the beginning on whatever date you get the worksheet. Join us! Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit. This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.” To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.
Home is where the Brat is Ceilon Aspensen, December 31, 2023January 22, 2024 I’m happy and pleased to announce that an article I wrote has just been accepted for publication in the upcoming anthology, “Home: It’s Complicated,” to be published by MAMF (the Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center). The book will be released and available for purchase in April 2024. All proceeds go to support the 501c3 non-profit MAMF. I hope you will consider buying a copy to support their important mission.
Why artists spend so much time alone Ceilon Aspensen, December 5, 2023January 22, 2024 In a recent arts newsletter I received, the writer referred to a podcast featuring Anne Lamott and said that she referred to artists as “narcissistic loners.” I love Anne Lamott, but if she really did refer to artists as “narcissistic loners” she’s wrong about the narcissistic part (for most of us, anyway). There’s nothing narcissistic about trying to cut out the noise of other voices in order to center and align oneself in order to hear God better. I recommend Susan Cain’s book, “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.” THAT is why so many artists spend so much time alone. One cannot connect to God’s Creative Conduit in a crowd; it takes solitude and a listening posture to do that. Artistic community is so important, but we can’t get our important work done in that crowded space. The community is where we connect with other people who are like us and understand us, and where we can share what we are doing with people who do understand us (because the rest of the world doesn’t). But the important work only happens when we are alone. We each have work to do that only we can do, and that only happens when we get quiet and alone with the CREATOR.
Having the courage to create and show up at the drawing table Ceilon Aspensen, February 9, 2022January 22, 2024 “An artist must be open to the muse. The greater the artist, the more he is open to “cosmic currents.” He has to behave as he does. If he has “the courage to be an artist,” he is committed to behave as the mood possesses him. . . .The price an artist pays for doing what he wants is that he has to do it.”–William S. Burroughs If you’re not an artist, that might not seem like such a high price to pay. In fact, it might seem like “she gets to do it,” rather than “she has to do it.” But it’s not. It’s akin to a bungee jump for someone who has never bungee-jumped and has a fear of heights they want to overcome. You stand at the precipice of the jump, determined to conquer your fear, and it’s a binary choice: I either conquer my fear or I don’t. I either jump or I don’t. If I change my mind and step back and don’t make the jump, I’ll still be facing this fear for the rest of my life until I come back and make the jump.” I’ve never had any desire to bungee jump, but my whole artistic life has been on hold because of other things that I felt I had to do. Duties. Obligations. Responsibilities. Now, I have the room, the time, and the space to pursue the artistic life that I’ve put on hold for 40 years. Daily, I find myself at that precipice, hesitant, afraid to make the jump. So I check the straps and the cords, and do some deep breathing…I made the artistic jump. I’m in a free fall and haven’t hit that point where the cords pull me back yet. It’s a LONG drop. It’s terrifying. It’s everything I was so afraid that it would be if I ever got to this point. But I made the jump. That’s the important part. I put myself out there. I didn’t retreat at the precipice. When I was about 10 years old, I was visiting my cousin of the same age and we went to the pool at Andrews Air Force Base. He wanted me to go off the high dive at the pool. There was a line all the way up the tall ladder and back down around the pool. I was terrified of heights. We got in line together and waited for our turn. He went before me. I got all the way up there, walked out onto the board, looked down from the end, turned back around, and worked my way back down the ladder through the line of annoyed kids until I had made my way back down to the concrete around the pool. It wasn’t a bungee jump but it was just as terrifying in my ten-year-old mind. To some extent, where my art is concerned, I’ve been doing that my entire life. Right at the precipice I’ve pulled back, climbed back down the ladder. The concrete around the pool is my safe, important, and very respectable job. I’ve always thrown myself into that, giving it more time and energy than it actually needs. I have plenty of time to also work on art and put it out there now that I’m not working on that PhD, and I can still do the teaching job that I love (and plan to for many years). There is room in my life to regularly walk to the high dive and jump, then return to the concrete; then do it again, and again… The important thing is to climb up there at regular intervals and keep jumping. Burroughs was right. It’s a “have to” situation. To not do it is to live a life of regret and longing for what could have been. That’s a recipe for depression and despair. You will never see me bungee jumping or on the high dive at the pool, but you will see me at my drawing table every morning at 4:00am, and in that art studio every Friday night, listening to the muse and doing her bidding. Life is good and I am grateful.
Catch and release – the important message transmitted by Station Eleven Ceilon Aspensen, January 23, 2022January 22, 2024 I just finished binge-watching “Station Eleven” on HBOMax. It was a weird but strangely compelling story. It jumped all over the globe and the timeline, but everything came together perfectly in the final episode. As the final credits were rolling, I realized that all stories are just one story: the search for connection and meaning, the survival of loss, the mill of trauma, and “the show must go on.” We are all looking to the past for answers and projecting any grain of truth we find there into the future as prophecy. Our pain inflicts us on the world like weapons, creating more trauma and cycles of pain. When we are able to develop empathy–really feel the pain of others, put ourselves in their shoes–then we are able to forgive, let go, and move on. We are all passengers on the wheel of time and life, each doing the work we were meant to do, whether that’s writing a book, illustrating stories, making music, conducting symphonies, acting, directing plays, turning on the lights, or just walking someone home. “Station Eleven,” weird as it was, was the perfect story. It made a full circle and closed the circle, not only on the lives of the characters in the story but also on the human story. It played out why the works of Shakespeare are still alive and vibrant four hundred years after his death. Shakespeare tells us our own stories over and over again, because all stories are just one story: the stories we connect with are the ones in which we see not only ourselves but all of humanity, from the flawed to the heroic. In the end, it’s as Ram Dass said: “We’re all just walking each other home.” That’s how one rights…I shouldn’t have crossed that out. I meant to write, “That’s how one writes a truly good story,” but I made a Freudian slip. Isn’t that what all of our struggle, pain, striving, and creating are really all about? We are trying to right our stories; fix them; write out the errors; redeem ourselves and our existence. So, as I write my own story I need to be wary of who I cast as villains. There are true villains in that story (my story), and there is actual evil in the world; but not all of the villains are Voldemort. Some of them are just…well, that’s what we’re going to find out, isn’t it? I think J.K. Rowling did a pretty good job of identifying psychopathy and the lengths it can go to in her books; but, in fact, most psychopaths don’t get that far. Hitlers are rare, and most often defeated once their agendas are revealed (if only because they are so rare that they are easily outnumbered if identified early enough). But most psychopaths are hidden among us, acting out their own pain in small side-shows “off the strip.” Most of them have small roles but leave wide swaths of destruction in our lives. The key to a good story is focusing on the right things and the right characters. Side note: I can’t believe that I don’t own the complete works of William Shakespeare. I thought I did but I couldn’t find it (I just went through every bookshelf in my house–it must have gotten lost in one of the moves). Aunt Wynn would be appalled. I just bought it on Kindle for thirteen cents (William Shakespeare would be appalled). “Station Eleven” seemed at first like a depressing story, but it ended up being exactly what I needed to bump me out of a creative funk. Every part of that story was relevant to me; especially the part about the writer of “Station Eleven” not caring whether anyone saw her work. She only printed five copies, and only delivered two. Those two copies changed the lives of hundreds of people, long after she died. How will my work change the lives of anyone? I need not concern myself with that. I only need to concern myself with making my work and releasing it into the world. What happens after that isn’t up to me. All art is ultimately a message in a bottle thrown upon the waves of a tumultuous ocean of humanity. We have no control over where the message goes or how it is received. It is merely our job to create and release; which it now occurs to me is the exact opposite of catch and release. Well, maybe not the exact opposite. Catch and release is what I have done with “Station Eleven” (what I am doing now). The artist and author created the story and tossed it onto the waves. I was standing on a distant shore when it washed up at my feet. I read the message, added a note of my own, and now I’m tossing it back. Who knows where it will go now? Only the wind and the waves. Times like these in my Morning Pages are rare and to be savored. I want to linger because they are so fleeting, but I already feel the brilliance and intensity of the moment fading, and I have my own art to make today. “And miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep.”1 1Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1923, © 1969 by Henry Holt and Company, Inc., renewed 1951, by Robert Frost.
Nurturing my inner hillbilly on New Year’s Day Ceilon Aspensen, January 2, 2022January 22, 2024 On this New Year’s Day, I am nurturing my inner hillbilly by carrying on the Southern culinary tradition of preparing pork, collard greens, and black eyed peas. This is a “soul food” tradition passed down through generations of Black folks. It came to my family through a woman named Mary Ellen who worked for my great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my mother, and who helped my mother raise me for a brief time when I was very young while also helping my mom care for my great-grandmother in her later years. My father’s side of the family also enjoyed this particular fare, and my father would have hated me calling us hillbillies (but we were!). The reasoning behind this old soul food tradition on New Year’s Day is this: pork represents prosperity, greens (usually collards) represents dollars, and black eyed peas represent pennies. I usually make a ham but this year I decided to make pork spare ribs. I also usually make my collards from scratch, but it has been hard to find fresh ones that are in good condition lately, and this brand of canned collards is as good as any I have ever made. The tradition holds that if you eat this meal on New Year’s Day you will be prosperous and lucky all year long. Optional: The Cholula hot sauce is the closest in flavor to my Grandaddy Hall’s homemade pepper sauce. One does not eat their collards properly without pepper sauce (in my opinion). I have never missed a year cooking this combination of foods on New Year’s Day, but it has never brought me luck or prosperity. Perhaps this will be my year. ? But another way to look at it is that I am simply lucky to have this tradition and to be fortunate enough to have good food on a cold wintry day. Life is good and I am grateful.
How to diaper your baby without stress during the “diaper shortage” Ceilon Aspensen, March 22, 2020January 22, 2024 SOLUTION to the COVID-19 “diaper shortage.” (Please share widely for those who are stressed out about this problem.) Yesterday, as Jonathan and I were driving over to Kalispell for our big stock-up to get us through the duration (food, people–just food; no toilet paper…not that we could have bought any if we had wanted to…) I heard an NPR story about the DIAPER SHORTAGE! A video of a woman crying over her inability to find diapers that fit her baby went viral and NPR (and probably every other news agency) picked it up. Everyone in the story talked about what a huge problem it is. Everyone listening probably agreed…EXCEPT ME! I saw it as an opportunity to reboot some disposable habits, and am glad to be able to share an EASY SOLUTION if you are experiencing this stressful problem. I’m sure I”m not the only mother of a certain age who did NOT use disposable diapers when my daughter was an infant. I was poor. Disposable diapers were considered a LUXURY item back in 1982. So I did what everyone else who was poor did: I used CLOTH DIAPERS. It was EASY! All you need to provide diapers for your little ones throughout the CoronApocalypse is: 1) A kitchen sized trash can 2) Reusable cloth diapers (click on this link to get some–I do NOT receive compensation from Amazon for this) 3) Bleach 4) Waterproof, breathable diaper covers (click on this link to get some— 5) A plastic serving spoon or spatula from the dollar store Here’s how you can become your own very affordable diaper service and never run out of diapers again: 1) Keep your toilet CLEAN (you’ll see why in a moment). Make sure whoever is using it is always wiping down the seat (top and underneath), and doing a quick swish with the toilet brush and some toilet cleaner under the rim. 2) Keep a 10% bleach solution in the bottom of your covered, kitchen-sized trash can. You will want to start with a few inches, and as you fill the can throughout the day add a little more of the 10% bleach solution to keep the dirty diapers covered as you add them. (IMPORTANT: Right now you may be tempted to up the amount of bleach just to be on the safe side. Here’s why that’s a bad idea: it will make your diapers rot and fall apart, and according to a scientist friend who works in an FDA food lab, if you use more than 10% bleach “the bugs will encapsulate and then come back after the bleach evaporates”–10% bleach is all that is necessary, and actually kills the bugs BETTER.) 3) When you remove a dirty cloth diaper from your baby’s bottom: a) take it to the toilet b) lift both the cover and the seat c) let go of all but one corner of the dirty diaper and let the poop fall into the toilet (you might want to use that dollar-store plastic serving spoon/spatula to dislodge stubborn poop; you can store your spoon/spatula on/next to/inside your dirty diaper can) d) FLUSH e) After the toilet tank has completely filled back up, while still holding on tight to that one, poop-free corner of the dirty diaper, submerge the whole diaper (except the part you are holding). PLUNGE the diaper in and out of the water and swirl it around a little to further dislodge any poop still clinging to the diaper. f) While still holding on tight to that one, poop-free corner of the dirty diaper, and with the diaper still submerged in the toilet water, FLUSH the toilet. DO NOT LET GO OF THAT DIAPER! Hang on for dear life and don’t let the diaper get flushed down the toilet–this would make your self-distancing at home very complicated! 4) Take your thoroughly rinsed-in-the-toilet diaper over to your diaper can and drop it in. 5) At the end of the day: a) transfer all those diapers that have been soaking in 10% bleach solution to your washing machine b) wash them in HOT water and whatever baby-safe laundry detergent you like to use c) DO NOT ADD MORE BLEACH! It is entirely unnecessary! d) once washed and rinsed, throw the diapers in the dryer, fold, and put away If touching poopy diapers grosses you out, you can always wear non-latex gloves (such as dishwashing gloves), the same as you might for cleaning your toilet. It is THAT EASY, people! Don’t stress yourself about not being able to provide the right size diaper for your baby! This is what I and millions (billions) of other mothers did before disposable diapers became the norm, and throughout history before they were available (minus the luxury of the washing-machine, for mothers living before the advent of electricity, running water, and washing machines). You can DO this! BONUS: by doing this you will also keep mountains of dirty diapers out of landfills, and save a TON of money! You’ll wonder why you didn’t do it before. Finally….breathe in….breathe out…. This is a very stressful time, and you need to give yourself a break and not beat yourself up for not having the “right” diapers. There’s always a way to take care of your children and do what you need to do to take care of yourself. This one is easy, and it’s a win-win!
Rest is essential Ceilon Aspensen, January 2, 2020January 28, 2024 The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is that rest isn’t optional. Rest is actually a part of the creative process. I have a tendency to work until I drop. That’s not what we’re supposed to do. My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this: Genesis 1: After each cycle of creation, “God saw that it was good.” The act of creation is a good thing; a God thing. God rested on the seventh day. I could take a lesson from that. Also, God created us–male and female–in his image or likeness* (see footnote, below). I got an impression, while reading that passage, of character traits rather than physical appearance. God is our Creator. He created us to be creators, also. As an artist and a writer, that fills me with a sense of purpose. My mind goes to the parable of the talents. What are my creative gifts? How am I giving them to the world? And how do those gifts from God, given back to the world through me, honor God and the life he gave me? How do they intrinsically acknowledge that all creative gifts derive from God’s creative power, not from ourselves? We are conduits for creative energy, not gods ourselves. Matthew 1:The family of Jesus was a blended family. Mary was an unwed mother. Joseph was a stepfather. God had a purpose for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, individually. They supported each other in those individual roles and also as a family. Psalms 1 – If I plant myself in God’s word and way, all of my projects will succeed, “For Yahweh watches over the path of the upright. (That’s something I’ll have to ask for an extra measure of faith to believe, because I feel like I’ve had a lot of failures.) Proverbs 18 – People who set traps for others will find that they only snare themselves. (This is another one I’ll have to trust God on, as there are several people in my life who have been setting traps for me, but who seem to be getting away with it. It takes all of my strength and patience to trust God to handle that without my intervention. I suppose that’s why it’s called “faith.”) That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today? You can join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day. If you haven’t gotten the FREE “Read the Bible in a Year” worksheet yet, you can download it here. It is not necessary for you to start on January 1st–you can start from the beginning on whatever date you get the worksheet. Join us! Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit. This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.” ——————————————————— * This is the language from the passage. Do I think God is male? Yes. No. Maybe. I think we ascribe gender to God in a way that makes God in our image, rather than remembering that we were created in God’s image. Sometimes I refer to God as he; sometimes as she; sometimes as Ganesh. Ganesh is a Hindu representation of God which is both male and female. Ganesh has the genitals of a man, the breasts of a woman, and the head of an elephant. Ganesh is the remover of obstacles. I suppose I could refer to God as they/them, too. After all, in Christianity we see God as a triune being, so them fits perfectly. Divisions of gender are ways in which we diminish the Creator to such a small size that he/she/they fits inside our own limitations. And if you’re a Christian, thinking it’s blasphemous to compare God to a Hindu representation (Ganesh), I will suggest that you have missed the point of Ganesh–he removes obstacles between differing entrenched belief systems, too. Do I believe that God is a he-she with an elephant head? No. But I also don’t believe he’s an old white man with a long white beard, either. We should be careful that we don’t confuse the symbols of our faith with the objects of our faith. The objects are intangible. The symbols were created by us as references of convenience. When we hold on too tightly to our human-derived symbols we lose the part that is most important.