home for 9 days

Home :) Going away makes me appreciate it so much! Here for 9 days after an amazing three day workshop at Sitka Center in Otis, Oregon then driving back down to Portland to indulge in a workshop for myself!, tour a campus, have a business-coffee with a new friend, seek out a new wax supplier, demo at ArtMedia then vend at Art and Soul Saturday night! Whew! So much good stuff on my path; God is glorious :))) in love. trish

degrees, standing, new cars, big house, current fashions....

It's not about who has more stuff, it's about who has God
in love. trish

changing things up~

I have noticed that my gingerfetish is carrying a lot more musings and life explorations than images, new work or creative inspirations! Therefore, a change is in the air (it's fall, the seasons are changing, so why not the blog posts as well!?)
Starting in October I will continue to use Gingerfetish as my platform for introspective growth, exploration and sharing through stories, life lessons and musing. My new blog, www.encaustikits.blogspot.com will carry all the other good stuff: New work, workshop inspirations, site updates and new merchandise releases! So, I'm going for a split personality :) Find me at www.gingerfetish.blogspot.com and at www.encaustikits.blogspot.com! Both me, just a venue for all of me now! best and blessings~ and both in love. trish

why do we always have to 'do'?!

I started with earnest determination; I would make it work and I would bring about peaceful coexistence. I would DO all that I was asked to do!
I continued in earnestness-resulting in only the flitting of my minutes away in flustered brain thoughts flying here and there yet never landing and never coming to be.
I earnestly-frantically- returned again and again to this resolve to do it right-increasing my tension and reinforced the wall in coexistence.
Then I gave up.
I went to bed.
I slept fitfully.
I dreamt deeply.

I woke up.
I looked back and saw that He wasn't asking me to DO anything.
That He wasn't expecting me to act, or do or make happen. He was asking me to do nothing. He was telling me to shut up and be still :)
It was not a day, an experience, for me. It was for her. And I had to do nothing.

I want to listen next time instead of keeping on talking.....in love. trish.

now find it

each disciple should check within themselves to see if they have a low-burning pilot light or a blazing fire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf5WYigZHME

So what of this life right now? What of this moment by moment living we are called to walk in? Is it enough to simply have this confidence of life eternal and coast through the days here on earth until we reach the end of the ride and get off in the heaven we've been promised? Is that what we're here for? Is this enough for the souls, hearts and bodies designed in the likeness of the one who created all? Is this enough of an experience to shine this love that out shines all love?
Coasting can be so boring. Coasting can be safe and comfortable and feel secure, but it is oh so not enough. Turn up the heat; ignite the pilot light and come along~

Coasting may lead to the same end; we will all meet at the exit gate. But the ride is hardly enlivening or exciting neither is it anything we are well equiped to experience. It does not carry any depth of connection, growth or wisdom. It can offer no passing-along of love and life; it affords us not a bit of the sharing we've been designed to live in.
We need, nay are designed to go after, the ride! We are here to experience the ins and out, ups and downs, turns and straightaways that this ride provides. The heights are needed-craved after-even, in spite of the fact that, the climb feels crippling and the descent all pervading. Oh those heights are affirming and convicting! Yet, only because the descent is so wisdom-filled and self actualizing. We just can't have the one without the other. And this is why some choose to simply remain in the confidence of eternal and sit alongside the ride watching and waiting. But this is not enough. Not for anyone who has been called and is truly listening. When you choose to live in and accept this reality, the descents and the climbs are welcome-even anticipated and relished-albeit painfully and with resistance. Why? How you ask? Because the wisdom is so good. Oh so good. Better than the best of anything you have touched or felt or spoken or heard. Even in the depths of the descent, even in the weary, often tear-filled, straining of the climb, the wisdom shines bright and bold-righteously carrying us to that great height. Even in the knowing that there will be another dip; another descent; another climb, we welcome each and every bit of the experience because the height is so good that the depth becomes just as much a joy and treasure and peak we will not wish away or pray deliverance from. The one begins to shine bright on the other and all of this life, all of this living and doing mesh together and point back to the all and all that is the salvation we sought. Not just in eternity, but here. and now. life is now. life is forever. life is living. He made it so. We live it so. That good. Find it. in love. trish

old new

My old self has gone into desperate shock and my new self is reeling under the dead weight....

I'm sitting in the Lexington, Kentucky airport at 3:05pm est on Labor Day. I've spent the past three days touring horse country with John, the previous five intensely shooting the photos for the next book due out in the fall of 2011, and the three days before that in Chesterton, Indiana teaching a workshop and catching up with my guys come down from Michigan in the moments in between. Whew. This is me?! This is my life?! This is the living that belongs to the scattered, frenzy-brained girl of just three years ago who couldn't discern a clear future nor what passion or profession would get her there?! Wow. What a turn around.
That old, worn-out, worthless weight of self that is the worry, fear and desperation of unknown and ungrounded is hanging on like a child clinging to its mother's leg on the first day of preschool; my old self cries a mournful wail when the tides run high or the motion gets too rocky in this new-life living.
The new self continuously shakes off this clinging-scowling away the fear and desperation and determinately straining the next step forward, and the next, to move further and further away from that clinging old self.
And it's working. By the grace of God, and only by this, the new self is winning the battle with the old and persevering under the pull of worthless past fears, frustrations and desperations. The new me, with bold new understanding and confident, fresh assurance, smiles with ease to the old. Cling all you want; you can do me no harm. I move forward with determination only found in trust and faith.
And I'm off to Oregon twice in the next four weeks; then Colorado, BC and North Carolina....bring it on :) in love. trish