<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997</id><updated>2011-09-01T08:15:02.225-07:00</updated><category term='childhood'/><category term='simplicity'/><category term='childhood memories'/><category term='spiritual practice'/><category term='Steadfast Love'/><category term='votives'/><category term='generosity'/><category term='visions realized'/><category term='fruits of the Spirit'/><category term='New Year'/><category term='creating'/><category term='grace'/><category term='lists'/><category term='labyrinth'/><category term='shopping'/><category term='Holy'/><category term='Water Gallery'/><category term='bedtime'/><category term='art'/><category term='Halstead'/><category term='winter'/><category term='friends and family'/><category term='creativity'/><category term='angels'/><category term='meditation'/><category term='odds-n-ends'/><category term='mosaic'/><category term='blessings'/><category term='life journey'/><category term='oil pastels'/><category term='flow'/><category term='sound'/><category term='Advent Wreath'/><category term='silkscreen'/><category term='window'/><category term='trees'/><category term='spring'/><category term='e-newletter'/><category term='candle'/><category term='stones'/><category term='blessing'/><category term='Conway'/><category term='longing'/><category term='printmaking'/><category term='Jesus'/><category term='fruit of the spirit'/><category term='craft supplies'/><category term='prayer'/><category term='healing'/><category term='Drawing Nearer book'/><category term='cross'/><category term='walking'/><category term='waiting'/><category term='spiritual'/><category term='block prints'/><category term='Drawing Neaer'/><category term='creation'/><category term='Images'/><category term='God'/><category term='Advent'/><category term='Christmas'/><category term='bills'/><category term='holiday'/><category term='creative projects'/><category term='goals'/><category term='gratitude'/><category term='Passion'/><category term='Pendle Hill'/><category term='joy'/><category term='spirituality'/><category term='snow angels'/><category term='rest'/><category term='oil pastel'/><category term='art studio'/><category term='wonder'/><category term='Mountain Top experience'/><category term='patience'/><category term='retreat'/><category term='creative energies'/><category term='play'/><category term='resurrection'/><category term='stain glass'/><category term='Easter'/><category term='tree'/><category term='snow'/><category term='art show'/><category term='stillnes'/><category term='special openings'/><title type='text'>Drawing Nearer: Art ~ Prayer ~ Retreat</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>36</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-2223331286227919671</id><published>2011-05-18T12:13:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-05-18T12:17:47.866-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='labyrinth'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='fruit of the spirit'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='stain glass'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='mosaic'/><title type='text'>The Labyrinth &amp; The Wall</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#0000EE;"&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0BnemxY_WAY/TdQZ8kVkg2I/AAAAAAAAAKM/-ubkqWYOfJ0/s1600/labyrinth%2Blayout%2B%2526%2Bwall.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 92px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0BnemxY_WAY/TdQZ8kVkg2I/AAAAAAAAAKM/-ubkqWYOfJ0/s200/labyrinth%2Blayout%2B%2526%2Bwall.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608135964320105314" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Last year the Labyrinth was built!&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sf2T-cHucC0/TdQWYWbn7bI/AAAAAAAAAKE/cdOC_-nXc28/s1600/faithfulness.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sf2T-cHucC0/TdQWYWbn7bI/AAAAAAAAAKE/cdOC_-nXc28/s320/faithfulness.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608132043577224626" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;This year the Wall will be adorned!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;It is a joy to work with two dear friends on this massive project -&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Mosaic artist Margaret Almon and &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Stain-glass artist Wayne Stratz&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Together they are known as Nutmeg Designs and are collaborating on 9 signs using the "fruit of the spirit" from &lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style=" ;font-family:Cambria;"&gt;Galatians 5:22&amp;amp;23.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:Cambria;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style=" ;font-family:Cambria;"&gt;The refereed to Wall is cinder block, 4 feet high x 22 feet long.  The nine Fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.  Wayne will be designing the letters and cutting them out of stain-glass, each word a different color.  Margaret will then mosaic in and around each word with contrasting colors. Then I will be expanding the mosaic with shells, stones and tiles to fill out the 1 foot by 4 foot substrate on which the words are adhered.  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style=" ;font-family:Cambria;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style=" ;font-family:Cambria;"&gt;I am so excited as Wayne has already started on the longest word in &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:Cambria;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;orange&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style=" ;font-family:Cambria;"&gt; - faithfulness!  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style=" ;font-family:Cambria;"&gt;Stay tuned as this project progresses!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style=" ;font-family:Cambria;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style=" ;font-family:Cambria;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style=" ;font-family:Cambria;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;!--StartFragment--&gt;&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;    &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-2223331286227919671?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/2223331286227919671/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2011/05/labyrinth-wall.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/2223331286227919671'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/2223331286227919671'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2011/05/labyrinth-wall.html' title='The Labyrinth &amp; The Wall'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0BnemxY_WAY/TdQZ8kVkg2I/AAAAAAAAAKM/-ubkqWYOfJ0/s72-c/labyrinth%2Blayout%2B%2526%2Bwall.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-24154008289912401</id><published>2011-04-14T18:03:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2011-04-14T20:46:06.044-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='joy'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Steadfast Love'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Passion'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Easter'/><title type='text'>Passion Week</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CrRoseK_TnU/TaebWBr9NeI/AAAAAAAAAJs/gkjfb-A7uck/s1600/P1010125crop.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 160px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CrRoseK_TnU/TaebWBr9NeI/AAAAAAAAAJs/gkjfb-A7uck/s200/P1010125crop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595611864743359970" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:lucida grande;"&gt;Passion Week&lt;br /&gt;In a Word - Love&lt;br /&gt;The Word&lt;br /&gt;The Logos&lt;br /&gt;The Christ&lt;br /&gt;Love&lt;br /&gt;There is no other greater...&lt;br /&gt;Love&lt;br /&gt;Then to lay down one's life...&lt;br /&gt;Love&lt;br /&gt;Palms, Trial, Cross, Tomb,&lt;br /&gt;Sorrow, Emptiness&lt;br /&gt;EMPTY&lt;br /&gt;Death Defeated&lt;br /&gt;Alleluia&lt;br /&gt;Amen!&lt;br /&gt;So Be It&lt;br /&gt;LOVE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-24154008289912401?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/24154008289912401/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2011/04/passion-week.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/24154008289912401'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/24154008289912401'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2011/04/passion-week.html' title='Passion Week'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CrRoseK_TnU/TaebWBr9NeI/AAAAAAAAAJs/gkjfb-A7uck/s72-c/P1010125crop.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-317541180878474959</id><published>2011-03-08T09:55:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2011-03-08T10:19:25.346-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='art show'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='special openings'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Halstead'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Conway'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Water Gallery'/><title type='text'>Earth &amp; Spirit Art Show</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XU8TQWgDzUQ/TXZwYrRh9hI/AAAAAAAAAJM/c4haxRD0heo/s1600/WATER%2Blogo-re2crop.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 142px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XU8TQWgDzUQ/TXZwYrRh9hI/AAAAAAAAAJM/c4haxRD0heo/s200/WATER%2Blogo-re2crop.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581772357407733266" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:x-large;"&gt;Earth &amp;amp; Spirit&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:large;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;March 18 - April 24&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:large;"&gt;Special Openings &amp;amp; Meet the Artists on Fridays March 18 &amp;amp; April 1, 5-9 pm&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:large;"&gt;~~refreshments, live music, book signing~~&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;Water Gallery is in the Dresher Arcade #5 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;319 Main Street Lansdale, PA 19446&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:large;"&gt;Pastels by Suzanne Halstead &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:large;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;"&gt;www.drawingnearer.com&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: right;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:large;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:large;"&gt;Jewelry by Bette Conway&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: right;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:small;"&gt;www.betteconway.com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y3o5DWoxV7s/TXZujY-IlYI/AAAAAAAAAI8/vRXL3I_sXEI/s1600/Earth%2B%2526%2BSpirit.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 229px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y3o5DWoxV7s/TXZujY-IlYI/AAAAAAAAAI8/vRXL3I_sXEI/s320/Earth%2B%2526%2BSpirit.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581770342449845634" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K3PpuUFQo9Y/TXZuWO8tMnI/AAAAAAAAAI0/mgnvBROTuQo/s1600/betteconway%2Bjewelry.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K3PpuUFQo9Y/TXZuWO8tMnI/AAAAAAAAAI0/mgnvBROTuQo/s320/betteconway%2Bjewelry.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581770116421202546" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-317541180878474959?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/317541180878474959/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2011/03/earth-spirit-art-show.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/317541180878474959'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/317541180878474959'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2011/03/earth-spirit-art-show.html' title='Earth &amp; Spirit Art Show'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XU8TQWgDzUQ/TXZwYrRh9hI/AAAAAAAAAJM/c4haxRD0heo/s72-c/WATER%2Blogo-re2crop.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-7394647149295079712</id><published>2011-03-08T08:57:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2011-03-09T13:39:53.536-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Art Show &amp; Book Signing April 1st (no fooling!)</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-viF5Nw5vZjU/TXZkG4okrLI/AAAAAAAAAIE/w80d3HksUKE/s1600/PosterMusicjpeg.jpeg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 247px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-viF5Nw5vZjU/TXZkG4okrLI/AAAAAAAAAIE/w80d3HksUKE/s320/PosterMusicjpeg.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581758857616862386" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k2TlV1iQYaE/TXZhPWjUcqI/AAAAAAAAAH8/VADFWZvjhWQ/s1600/Drawing%2BNearer%2BBook%2BCover.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 154px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k2TlV1iQYaE/TXZhPWjUcqI/AAAAAAAAAH8/VADFWZvjhWQ/s200/Drawing%2BNearer%2BBook%2BCover.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581755704551961250" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#6600CC;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Greetings from Drawing Nearer!  &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;We are excited to announce that our newly self-published book &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Drawing Nearer: Devotional Workbook of Creative Prayer &lt;/i&gt;will be available for sale at the Water Gallery in Lansdale during the exhibition &lt;i&gt;Earth &amp;amp; Spirit &lt;/i&gt;March 18 - April 24, 2011.  &lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#6600CC;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#000000;"&gt;Come visit us on Lansdales's &lt;/span&gt;&lt;b&gt;First&lt;/b&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#6600CC;"&gt;Friday night April 1st&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#6600CC;"&gt; &lt;b&gt;between 5 - 9 pm&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt; when we will both be present and signing our books.  We would love to see you then!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Also that evening will be refreshments and live music by singer/songwriter Joel Halstead with guest jazz singer Emilia Halstead.  In addition there will be live Traditional Irish and Folk Music being played by Bette Conway and other guest musicians throughout the evening.  The opening evening of &lt;i&gt;Earth &amp;amp; Spirit&lt;/i&gt; is &lt;b&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#6600CC;"&gt;Friday March 18, 5-9 pm&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#6600CC;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;when a full evening of Irish and folk music will be performed.  Come celebrate with us either or BOTH nights. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The Water Gallery is located in the Dresher Arcade #5, 319 Main Street Lansdale, PA&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;wwww.watergallerylansdale.com  - 215.393.7180&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-7394647149295079712?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/7394647149295079712/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2011/03/art-show-book-signing-april-1st-no.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7394647149295079712'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7394647149295079712'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2011/03/art-show-book-signing-april-1st-no.html' title='Art Show &amp; Book Signing April 1st (no fooling!)'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-viF5Nw5vZjU/TXZkG4okrLI/AAAAAAAAAIE/w80d3HksUKE/s72-c/PosterMusicjpeg.jpeg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-4654848195993642224</id><published>2011-01-18T15:08:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2011-01-18T15:23:31.589-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='art show'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='oil pastels'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Water Gallery'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Drawing Nearer book'/><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/TTYeQ6xNCII/AAAAAAAAAHw/oLQ1io9vb9E/s1600/Offering%2Bof%2BColor.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/TTYeQ6xNCII/AAAAAAAAAHw/oLQ1io9vb9E/s320/Offering%2Bof%2BColor.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563667665665198210" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Happy New Year from Drawing Nearer!&lt;div&gt;Wanda &amp;amp; I are excited about all the new energy and upcoming adventures on the 2011 horizon.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;This original oil pastel, titled &lt;i&gt;Offering of Color&lt;/i&gt;, along with 17 others were selected to be showcased at the new Water Gallery in Lansdale, PA  March 18 through April 24.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;This was the first in a series of 52 oil pastels I did as part of my early morning devotional time while I was up at Mensch Mill Camp &amp;amp; Retreat Center from 2002--2005.  &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Each of these oil pastels are unique unto themselves and yet themes would appear in the images and the groups of such themes are used in Wanda's and my book, &lt;i&gt;Drawing Nearer: Devotional Workbook of Creative Prayer&lt;/i&gt;, where many of these artworks are displayed.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;For more information about the oil pastels, Water Gallery and the book please visit our website www.drawingnearer.com&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;We wish you all the joy and adventure this new year will bring to each of you!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Blessings,  Suzanne &amp;amp; Wanda&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-4654848195993642224?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/4654848195993642224/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2011/01/happy-new-year-from-drawing-nearer.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4654848195993642224'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4654848195993642224'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2011/01/happy-new-year-from-drawing-nearer.html' title=''/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/TTYeQ6xNCII/AAAAAAAAAHw/oLQ1io9vb9E/s72-c/Offering%2Bof%2BColor.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-946897553500012055</id><published>2010-12-04T10:15:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-12-04T10:30:47.225-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='e-newletter'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Drawing Neaer'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='art studio'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Drawing Nearer book'/><title type='text'>Book available in Print!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/TPqG95I_4HI/AAAAAAAAAHk/MB3TPKt8qgw/s1600/BOOK%2Bprint%2Bcover%2B11-15-2010.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 154px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/TPqG95I_4HI/AAAAAAAAAHk/MB3TPKt8qgw/s200/BOOK%2Bprint%2Bcover%2B11-15-2010.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546894288928890994" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Wanda &amp;amp; I are pleased to announce that our book is now available in print!  &lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;Drawing Nearer: Devotional Workbook of Creative Prayer  &lt;/i&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;You can order it through our website: www.DrawingNearer.com &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;You can also sign up for our e-newsletter, retreats, workshops and visit the new Drawing Nearer Studio in Pottstown, PA&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;We wish you all a Happy Advent Season full of prayerful and creative anticipation to the wonders of the Light &amp;amp; Love of Christmas!  Blessings, Suzanne &amp;amp; Wanda&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-946897553500012055?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/946897553500012055/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/12/book-available-in-print.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/946897553500012055'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/946897553500012055'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/12/book-available-in-print.html' title='Book available in Print!'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/TPqG95I_4HI/AAAAAAAAAHk/MB3TPKt8qgw/s72-c/BOOK%2Bprint%2Bcover%2B11-15-2010.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-8273039822470520835</id><published>2010-08-26T12:13:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2010-08-26T12:18:05.722-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='art'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='retreat'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Pendle Hill'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='prayer'/><title type='text'>More Pendle Hill</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/THa9wXPnDgI/AAAAAAAAAHU/gBDR7O8RnjQ/s1600/SANY0490.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/THa9wXPnDgI/AAAAAAAAAHU/gBDR7O8RnjQ/s400/SANY0490.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509799832705240578" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/THa9g7Ge__I/AAAAAAAAAHM/Kf54r9c-A_M/s1600/SANY0485.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/THa9g7Ge__I/AAAAAAAAAHM/Kf54r9c-A_M/s400/SANY0485.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509799567452733426" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/THa9V2bCKnI/AAAAAAAAAHE/25bo282beWs/s1600/SANY0488.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/THa9V2bCKnI/AAAAAAAAAHE/25bo282beWs/s400/SANY0488.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509799377218185842" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-8273039822470520835?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/8273039822470520835/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-pendle-hill.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/8273039822470520835'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/8273039822470520835'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-pendle-hill.html' title='More Pendle Hill'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/THa9wXPnDgI/AAAAAAAAAHU/gBDR7O8RnjQ/s72-c/SANY0490.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-3882497367404137171</id><published>2010-08-26T11:56:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-08-26T12:11:27.147-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='art'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='retreat'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Pendle Hill'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='healing'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='prayer'/><title type='text'>A Healing Retreat</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/THa8D8oNwII/AAAAAAAAAG8/XIDZNploPUE/s1600/SANY0512.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/THa8D8oNwII/AAAAAAAAAG8/XIDZNploPUE/s400/SANY0512.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509797970134810754" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Suzanne and I attended the Creative Spirit retreat at Pendle Hill lead by Melanie Weidner. It was fantastic!!! If you are in the area and she is speaking, don't hesitate - just go. You will be blessed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At this retreat, we prayed and created and prayed while creating. "Juicy" poetry stimulated our spirits to dig deep and express ourselves with paint, collage, boxes, altered books.... Oh what bliss!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There were 16 of us. We began as strangers and ended with a hug-fest, with promises to see each other next year. When I got home, there was already an email thread connecting us and a round robin project developing between us.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As I write this, a week has past and I am still spiritually high and blissful. The peace that comes after turning monster fears into angel blessings on paper and in the heart is true healing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On a side note but not connected to our retreat, I came upon an article on how art can aid healing from trauma and the resultant PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). It is from a trusted source and you may be interested in seeing it: http://www.ptsdspirituality.com/2010/08/22/ptsd-spirituality-art-and-craft-can-heal-ptsd-soul-wounds/&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's amazing what God can do with paper, brushes, scraps, and a willing heart.&lt;br /&gt;Blessings on your journey,  W&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-3882497367404137171?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/3882497367404137171/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/08/healing-retreat.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/3882497367404137171'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/3882497367404137171'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/08/healing-retreat.html' title='A Healing Retreat'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/THa8D8oNwII/AAAAAAAAAG8/XIDZNploPUE/s72-c/SANY0512.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-4584363690473909294</id><published>2010-05-29T05:14:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-05-29T06:34:17.912-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='creative projects'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='visions realized'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='friends and family'/><title type='text'>Drawing Nearer this weekend</title><content type='html'>Ok - this is going to be chatty - no deep thoughts or inspiring words or even profound imagery. Just me and my thoughts and maybe you reading them.  So hear goes.  &lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Ever see on your calendar a few days in a row that are ::gasp:: empty.  I mean - nothing written on them - really.  Not a single 'have to' or 'should' (well - there are always &lt;i&gt;shoulds&lt;/i&gt;).  No appointments, no deadlines - just little empty white squares with &lt;b&gt;nothin' in 'um&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;For me - this is dangerous.  Especially when I see them a month or so in advance.  I take a moment to think hard on this amazing reality - really Suzanne?  &lt;i&gt;Really&lt;/i&gt; blank?  If the internal answer, based on external circumstances, comes back "yes" well - that's when my normally controlled and under-active creative energies go - "Oh Yea, Let's Party!"&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;And that is just what has happened this Memorial Day weekend - yes &lt;i&gt;weekend.  &lt;/i&gt;All day Friday, Saturday, Sunday AND Monday. Four - count them 4 whole days to....to...?  &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;First thoughts were, "Great, I'll go away, go on an adventure - camping, canoeing, or do the City - art museums, see a show, or go visit friends and family, etc..."  After checking in with the loving spouse my initial "go &amp;amp; do" bubble burst - &lt;i&gt;I&lt;/i&gt; may have 4 blank days - in a row - but he does not.  "Rats" as the beloved Peanuts character, Charlie Brown, used to say.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Besides, God had other plans for these open spaces - in fact, it was the vision that I  had (really Divinely inspired) when we first moved into our house 5 years ago.   You see the previous owners had a vision of their own that was only partially realized - a large above ground aluminum framed swimming pool with attached deck.  We know this because they left behind a flat area dug out of an all slopping yard and a 4' x 21' cider block wall (to hold the hillside back) and all the pieces and parts of this pool meant to be assembled.  &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Since our children were up and out in their mid-tewnties and we had just finished taking care of an in-ground pool we had at our last house, we weren't to eager to go that route again.  Besides, the many pieces and parts came without instructions so it all became scrape metal for income towards the next project - make that project&lt;b&gt;s&lt;/b&gt;!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Fast forward to this weekend. We are, God bless my husband, filling this wonderful open days with a vision FULL of outdoor projects:  The &lt;b&gt;flat area&lt;/b&gt; was calling to be become a &lt;b&gt;labyrinth&lt;/b&gt; - a walking pathway in a scared circle for meditation, contemplation, centering prayer and time with the Holy in a lovely tree surrounded, bird song setting.  The&lt;b&gt; wall &lt;/b&gt;was calling to become a beautiful mural - a  place for  visual inspiration and creative expression, a focal point to enhance the walker experience. The space begs for a &lt;b&gt;waterfall &lt;/b&gt;- soothing sounds that surround you, light sparkling on the water both providing a sense of peace.  &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;As these projects are in the making not only by me but also with the loving assistance of dear friends and family members, a deep longing id fulfilled, awesome creative energies are explored, a sense of accomplishment is felt and a vision is realized.  Most importantly, the results of these four days will provide a place for people to come and participate in a &lt;b&gt;drawing nearer&lt;/b&gt; experience with God.  &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;So God, please bless all our hands and this place as we offer it back to you.  Call all souls who you know need a place of rest and inspiration to come.  So be it. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Yahoo!!  Suzanne&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-4584363690473909294?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/4584363690473909294/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/05/drawing-nearer-this-weekend.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4584363690473909294'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4584363690473909294'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/05/drawing-nearer-this-weekend.html' title='Drawing Nearer this weekend'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-6993634783041228556</id><published>2010-05-15T08:37:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-05-15T08:54:03.132-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='wonder'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='sound'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='God'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='creation'/><title type='text'>Wonder -ring</title><content type='html'>&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#330099;"&gt;I'm wonder-ring this morning...  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#330099;"&gt;For me, that's letting my wonder ring - as in ringing true.  It's like opening a big space inside myself and letting the sound of me ring around.  The more I am open to wonder ring the more the internal sounds echo, linger, create harmonies.  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#330099;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#330099;"&gt;I wonder if God wondered - you know wondered us and all of creation into being.  In the beginning was the Word - the sound - we are spoken - rung into existence.  Vibrations of sound waves creating patterns, colors - even light itself.  And it was good - yes very good!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#330099;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#330099;"&gt;Try it - try wonder-ring.  Create an open space inside yourself where sound - the Word - can reverberate beautiful harmonies within you. Then -- watch light sparkling on water, listen to the wind in the trees, soak in the colors of a flower, touch the softness of the skin of someone you love, taste your favorite fruit and let your self  - wonder.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#330099;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#330099;"&gt;Enjoy this day,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#330099;"&gt;Suzanne  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-6993634783041228556?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/6993634783041228556/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/05/wonder-ring.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/6993634783041228556'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/6993634783041228556'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/05/wonder-ring.html' title='Wonder -ring'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-6571196702599313456</id><published>2010-04-01T07:10:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-01T07:11:03.037-07:00</updated><title type='text'>On a Hill Far Away</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S7SpW_FaBFI/AAAAAAAAAG0/zKAHqmqVuBc/s1600/IMG_1865.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S7SpW_FaBFI/AAAAAAAAAG0/zKAHqmqVuBc/s400/IMG_1865.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455171261008839762" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-6571196702599313456?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/6571196702599313456/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/04/on-hill-far-away.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/6571196702599313456'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/6571196702599313456'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/04/on-hill-far-away.html' title='On a Hill Far Away'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S7SpW_FaBFI/AAAAAAAAAG0/zKAHqmqVuBc/s72-c/IMG_1865.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-8923649212831402917</id><published>2010-04-01T06:59:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-01T07:10:14.460-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Daylesford Abbey, PA</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S7SpG2xNEOI/AAAAAAAAAGs/WgIpY06mhpU/s1600/IMG_1873.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S7SpG2xNEOI/AAAAAAAAAGs/WgIpY06mhpU/s400/IMG_1873.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455170983898714338" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-8923649212831402917?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/8923649212831402917/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/04/daylesford-abbey-pa.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/8923649212831402917'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/8923649212831402917'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/04/daylesford-abbey-pa.html' title='Daylesford Abbey, PA'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S7SpG2xNEOI/AAAAAAAAAGs/WgIpY06mhpU/s72-c/IMG_1873.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-7195396997100389703</id><published>2010-03-28T11:42:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-03-28T12:06:52.190-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='resurrection'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='joy'/><title type='text'>Transformations</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S6-kSaiUiHI/AAAAAAAAAGc/yIQsN6FtwYk/s1600/resurrection.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S6-kSaiUiHI/AAAAAAAAAGc/yIQsN6FtwYk/s320/resurrection.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453758310036834418" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande';"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande';"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;death to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;life&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;sleep to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;awake&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;chrysalis to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;butterfly&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;seed to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;flower&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;winter to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;spring&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;sorrow to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;joy&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;cross to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;resurrection&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;darkness to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;light&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;old to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;new&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;frozen to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;flowing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;never to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;always&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;somber to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;song&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;closed to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;open&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;From &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#666666;"&gt;________ to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="color:#FF6600;"&gt;_________&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-7195396997100389703?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/7195396997100389703/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/03/transformations.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7195396997100389703'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7195396997100389703'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/03/transformations.html' title='Transformations'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S6-kSaiUiHI/AAAAAAAAAGc/yIQsN6FtwYk/s72-c/resurrection.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-7915631146216219261</id><published>2010-03-22T14:41:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-03-22T15:14:02.489-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='creativity'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='spring'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Easter'/><title type='text'>Welcome Spring!</title><content type='html'>Happy Spring to one and all!  &lt;div&gt;I am enjoying the beautiful warm sunny weather these past few day.  Daffodils are blooming and the smell of spring is everywhere.  It does refresh my spirit.  Wanda and I have been busy doing Drawing Nearer workshops and presentations in our area.  Please check out our website for a listing of the workshops and retreat options we offer.  And our book is available for personal download through PayPal.  www.drawingnearer.com&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;We wish you the joys of this holy Easter season.  May your hearts be filled with a renewed spirit of creativity~!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Suzanne&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-7915631146216219261?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/7915631146216219261/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/03/welcome-spring.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7915631146216219261'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7915631146216219261'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/03/welcome-spring.html' title='Welcome Spring!'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-4057334253315632471</id><published>2010-02-26T15:25:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-02-26T15:37:29.940-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='rest'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='winter'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='stillnes'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='God'/><title type='text'>Winter - Still</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: lucida grande;"&gt;Yes, it's still winter.  The snow fell and the wind blew.  The shovel scraped along the l-o-n-g driveway once more.  A thousand piece puzzle was assembled.  Emails were written.  And then - what - what to do -now?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Be still - its still winter. &lt;br /&gt;Be still - hold still, breathe, rest.&lt;br /&gt;Be still - know that I am and that You are.&lt;br /&gt;Be still - know that I AM God.&lt;br /&gt;Be still - pray, breathe, rest - its OK - really.&lt;br /&gt;Be still - just be, become, come and be still.&lt;br /&gt;Be still - its still winter.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-4057334253315632471?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/4057334253315632471/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/02/winter-still.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4057334253315632471'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4057334253315632471'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/02/winter-still.html' title='Winter - Still'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-2397709495138933497</id><published>2010-02-17T05:43:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2010-02-17T05:46:21.455-08:00</updated><title type='text'>WORDLESS WEDNESDAY</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S3vzG1Hr_SI/AAAAAAAAAGM/FKus-nuReiM/s1600-h/IMG_2058.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S3vzG1Hr_SI/AAAAAAAAAGM/FKus-nuReiM/s400/IMG_2058.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439208273644092706" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-2397709495138933497?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/2397709495138933497/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/02/wordless-wednesday.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/2397709495138933497'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/2397709495138933497'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/02/wordless-wednesday.html' title='WORDLESS WEDNESDAY'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S3vzG1Hr_SI/AAAAAAAAAGM/FKus-nuReiM/s72-c/IMG_2058.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-4132148987108608171</id><published>2010-02-15T06:50:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-02-15T06:57:20.702-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='spiritual practice'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='bills'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='generosity'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='gratitude'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='simplicity'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='spirituality'/><title type='text'>PAYING BILLS AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S3lgHkLldgI/AAAAAAAAAGE/dWzK5ewwC3g/s1600-h/Checkbook.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float: right; 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	mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;} .MsoChpDefault 	{mso-style-type:export-only; 	mso-default-props:yes; 	font-size:10.0pt; 	mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; 	mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; 	mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; 	mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; 	mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;} @page Section1 	{size:8.5in 11.0in; 	margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; 	mso-header-margin:.5in; 	mso-footer-margin:.5in; 	mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 	{page:Section1;} --&gt; &lt;/style&gt;&lt;!--[if gte mso 10]&gt; &lt;style&gt;  /* Style Definitions */  table.MsoNormalTable 	{mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; 	mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; 	mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; 	mso-style-noshow:yes; 	mso-style-priority:99; 	mso-style-qformat:yes; 	mso-style-parent:""; 	mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; 	mso-para-margin:0in; 	mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; 	mso-pagination:widow-orphan; 	font-size:11.0pt; 	font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; 	mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; 	mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; 	mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; 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There is never enough cash to clean the slate every month. I keep thinking there has to be a better way to do this, to not feel so frustrated and anxious every two weeks. So, I wondered, is there a way to turn bill paying into a spiritual practice that would contribute toward shaping me in a contemplative way?&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Jesus taught that we should not be anxious as to what we will eat, what we will wear, or where we will lay our heads, because our loving God is aware that we need all these things and has provided us with abundant resources. I do have all those things and so much, much more. As I look around my place I see the vestiges of the materialistic society I have bought into. Maybe there are things here I do not need that drain my resources in maintaining them. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Also, the priniciples of simplicity and generosity come into play. We are not to squander our resources to the point that we can not share our abundance with others who are in need, who have less than we do. I believe God gives some people an abundance of resources in order to cultivate compassion in them to share with those who have much less. There are materials in my craft room which I could make into gifts, an extra table and gently used clothes I could donate to a charity resale shop.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Then there is gratitude. My grandmother always told me to count my blessings. In fact she loved to play a hymn about it on her organ. She survived the Great Depression and the World Wars by relying on and thanking God for everything she did have – which wasn’t much.The disciple of gratitude keeps our minds on the blessings that we do have instead of moaning over the things we do not have. This will clue me in to the abundance provided to me by a generous God, much of which I don’t stop to notice.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;So, back to the bills. I think if I look at each bill and contemplate how that service or item benefited me (or those I blessed with gifts purchased), then gratitude would swell instead of anxiety. Thanks, God, for providing enough for that dental bill, and for guiding me to a gentle, compassion and skillful dentist. Thank you for the roof over my head and for a place where my family feels safe and cared for. Thank you for the abundance of food available to me every day.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;And while I’m at it, I could write a check to my church or favorite charity who uses the resources to help others who need the basic elements of life which I take for granted. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Maybe if I consider these principles while paying my bills, it won’t be such an onerous chore!&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Wanda&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-4132148987108608171?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/4132148987108608171/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/02/paying-bills-as-spiritual-practice.html#comment-form' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4132148987108608171'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4132148987108608171'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/02/paying-bills-as-spiritual-practice.html' title='PAYING BILLS AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S3lgHkLldgI/AAAAAAAAAGE/dWzK5ewwC3g/s72-c/Checkbook.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-4380229525677414772</id><published>2010-02-10T13:17:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-02-10T13:20:54.374-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='snow'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='tree'/><title type='text'>Wordless Wednesday - Snow Trees</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S3Miq3tIefI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MI45HeNOX-o/s1600-h/SANY0119crop.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 309px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S3Miq3tIefI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MI45HeNOX-o/s400/SANY0119crop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436727295069420018" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-4380229525677414772?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/4380229525677414772/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/02/wordless.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4380229525677414772'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4380229525677414772'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/02/wordless.html' title='Wordless Wednesday - Snow Trees'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S3Miq3tIefI/AAAAAAAAAF8/MI45HeNOX-o/s72-c/SANY0119crop.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-1703369126496239904</id><published>2010-02-02T17:03:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-02-02T17:28:16.826-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='art'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='prayer'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Drawing Nearer book'/><title type='text'>New this week!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S2jPa88ip2I/AAAAAAAAAEs/nfxow3MILYI/s1600-h/DrawingNearfront%26backcovers6.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 154px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S2jPa88ip2I/AAAAAAAAAEs/nfxow3MILYI/s200/DrawingNearfront%26backcovers6.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433821012366108514" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Greetings everyone!&lt;br /&gt;Wanda and I are so pleased to offer a free sample of our Book &lt;span style="font-style:italic;"&gt;Drawing Nearer&lt;/span&gt; on our website Drawingnearer.com. Check out our website for more information on the workshops we offer and insights on retreating, praying and creating.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Coming &lt;span style="font-style:italic;"&gt;very&lt;/span&gt; soon you will be able to down load the whole book!  We are completing the final edits and have set up a PayPal account for your convenience. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When Wanda &amp; I first started leading art &amp; prayer programs and workshops together two years ago we had no idea God would be calling us to create a whole book on the process of these workshops - a real labor of love!  We feel so blessed to be able to offer this book to you as a resource for your personal devotion or retreat time with encouragement to spend time each day praying and creating.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We look forward to hearing from you! Try out the sample page for free and let us know how your experience went.  You may comment here on our blog or email us at drawingnearercc@gmail.com&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Creatively yours,&lt;br /&gt;Suzanne&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-1703369126496239904?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/1703369126496239904/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-this-week.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/1703369126496239904'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/1703369126496239904'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-this-week.html' title='New this week!'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S2jPa88ip2I/AAAAAAAAAEs/nfxow3MILYI/s72-c/DrawingNearfront%26backcovers6.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-8117806740770115265</id><published>2010-01-31T11:52:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-31T12:11:15.083-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='art'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='grace'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='silkscreen'/><title type='text'>Wordless Wednesday</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S2Xixh0bcuI/AAAAAAAAAEk/aWydu6b8y0c/s1600-h/Grace+circlecrop.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 398px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S2Xixh0bcuI/AAAAAAAAAEk/aWydu6b8y0c/s400/Grace+circlecrop.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432997866012111586" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Grace" by Suzanne Halstead, is a hand printed image&lt;br /&gt;        of white silkscreen ink on black paper.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-8117806740770115265?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/8117806740770115265/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/wordless-wednesday_31.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/8117806740770115265'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/8117806740770115265'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/wordless-wednesday_31.html' title='Wordless Wednesday'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S2Xixh0bcuI/AAAAAAAAAEk/aWydu6b8y0c/s72-c/Grace+circlecrop.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-1209262469905249527</id><published>2010-01-25T08:10:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-25T16:24:26.658-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='play'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='creative energies'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='flow'/><title type='text'>More Insights on Play and Creativity</title><content type='html'>On 1/16 Wanda shared about how her desire to be creative got waylaid by a need to make a list first; to research all her related craft books, go over all her many project ideas and inventory all her art supplies.  Becoming paralyzed by all these items and choices that she felt she should accomplish &lt;span style="font-style:italic;"&gt;before&lt;/span&gt; actually doing any creating! (read the full entry to know how she 'broke through' at last :-)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I can relate.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have many self-imposed 'shoulds' to do today - this blog entry being one of them.  Some of these shoulds are for work, some are for this adventure, Wanda and I have called, "Drawing Nearer" and some are to actually create artwork for an art show I'm in next week. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I dutifully made &lt;span style="font-style:italic;"&gt;my&lt;/span&gt; list and set forth to conquer all that needs to be accomplished before I can go to sleep again this evening. However, when I sit at the computer to get started, my attention is drawn to the scene out the window.  One of a very swollen and fast moving stream due to all the rain - its raining now - hard! I remember I need to put mail in the box at the end of our driveway, so I get the mail, slip on my outdoor shoes, grab an umbrella and venture outside in the rain, in my pajamas.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The driveway is long and covered with downed limbs and branches from all the wind.  I kick them to the stream side of the yard in a variety of fancy footing (this was fun!) I reach the end of the driveway and a steady flow of water cascades down the hill from around our neighbor's house across our driveway into leaves, sticks and undergrowth and eventually pours over the edge of the road into the stream below. This activity transfixes me and I pick up a stick to brush away some of the leaves and twigs which are creating little dams, pooling up the water, impeding its flow.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With umbrella repositioned, I crouch down and used a nearby stick to break-up some of the jams, instantly delighted by the reinvigorated flow of the water. Time stops - I'm not sure how long I was out there playing with the water, in the rain, in my pajamas, but it was totally satisfying! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was creating flow-paths, patterns, releasing energy and was 'lost' in the moment -  in essence, on my own spontaneous mini-retreat.  While walking back up the driveway, I realized how rejuvenated I felt.  My own inner-energies were flowing in a way that making a list didn't do - and really never will. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All this is to say - go ahead and play!  Do something silly or child like.  Break up those creative dams and jams.  Let your energies flow and see what becomes of it!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Peace, Suzanne&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-1209262469905249527?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/1209262469905249527/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-insights-on-play-and-creativity.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/1209262469905249527'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/1209262469905249527'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-insights-on-play-and-creativity.html' title='More Insights on Play and Creativity'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-1351202358347704072</id><published>2010-01-21T07:23:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-21T07:24:43.350-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='prayer'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='labyrinth'/><title type='text'>WORDLESS WEDNESDAY</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S1hxj_MMIzI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/awz1KLpoC60/s1600-h/ModifiedChartresSevenCircuit.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 262px; height: 261px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S1hxj_MMIzI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/awz1KLpoC60/s400/ModifiedChartresSevenCircuit.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429214213867053874" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-1351202358347704072?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/1351202358347704072/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/wordless-wednesday_21.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/1351202358347704072'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/1351202358347704072'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/wordless-wednesday_21.html' title='WORDLESS WEDNESDAY'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S1hxj_MMIzI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/awz1KLpoC60/s72-c/ModifiedChartresSevenCircuit.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-5844454481284674014</id><published>2010-01-17T17:25:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-17T17:27:20.572-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='prayer'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='walking'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='labyrinth'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='spirituality'/><title type='text'>Walking a Labyrinth</title><content type='html'>Just found a wonderful article on walking the Labyrinth as contemplative prayer.&lt;br /&gt;Check it out!&lt;br /&gt;Ancient labyrinths enjoying a resurgence&lt;br /&gt;Fans tout their spiritually calming influence&lt;br /&gt;By Electa Draper&lt;br /&gt;The Denver Post&lt;br /&gt;http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_14153212&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;W&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-5844454481284674014?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/5844454481284674014/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/walking-labyrinth.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/5844454481284674014'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/5844454481284674014'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/walking-labyrinth.html' title='Walking a Labyrinth'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-2398551339086736508</id><published>2010-01-16T16:26:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-17T13:26:48.356-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='play'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='odds-n-ends'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='craft supplies'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='lists'/><title type='text'>FROM LISTS TO PLAYTIME</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S1N-5WqMQ4I/AAAAAAAAAD4/yofBcnridlY/s1600-h/TN_pencils-07.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 117px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S1N-5WqMQ4I/AAAAAAAAAD4/yofBcnridlY/s320/TN_pencils-07.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427821499711767426" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I made a promise to myself today…no work, just creative play. But as I sat down for lunch I found myself making a list of artsy things I wanted to accomplish. A list… Really??? When I make a list, I drive myself to complete everything on it and feel guilty for the things I missed. Then fun becomes a chore. I don’t need the stress of making a list for playtime.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Then I thought about the wonderful craft and mixed-media books I’ve bought and browsed through. I’ve waded into them at some point and put them aside for when I have more time to work with them. Should I choose one of them? Which one? Where am I in the book and do I need to accomplish the next step before moving deeper between the book covers? But again I found myself wanting to follow its list, a list of things that someone else thinks I need to be doing. Fun things to experiment with, yes, but with the goal of working toward an end product or a certain technique the author wants me to try. As a writer I am aware that exercises are created with an end result in mind – what is it that I hope my reader will learn or take-away from the experience? When I’m the reader, there are times like this when I feel confined by the author’s parameters.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Instead, I want to play with no goal in mind like I did as a child. All I had to do was gaze at all the goodies and gadgets and what-not I’ve collected and mix them up until something felt right. I had a drawer full of yarn ends, a well-used paint box, Barbie shoes, clothes pins, beads, bells and buttons, tokens missing their game board, and various odds and ends. Remember your play days? What were the things you collected as a child?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today my drawer has morphed into an entire room with adult treasures: bubble wrap, cigar boxes, scrap papers, charms, a rainbow of pastels and paints, sculpy clay, bits of lace and metallic threads. The possibilities are endless!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So – what are we waiting for? The last one to the craft room is a hardened lump of glue!...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;W&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-2398551339086736508?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/2398551339086736508/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/from-lists-to-playtime.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/2398551339086736508'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/2398551339086736508'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/from-lists-to-playtime.html' title='FROM LISTS TO PLAYTIME'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S1N-5WqMQ4I/AAAAAAAAAD4/yofBcnridlY/s72-c/TN_pencils-07.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-6530743922057022676</id><published>2010-01-10T14:59:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-16T12:47:50.219-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='life journey'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='goals'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Mountain Top experience'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='New Year'/><title type='text'>Full Moon Rises; A New Year Begins</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S0pfGFZFdOI/AAAAAAAAADY/ZAP3l_W3SLE/s1600-h/ShellMtaincrop.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 298px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S0pfGFZFdOI/AAAAAAAAADY/ZAP3l_W3SLE/s400/ShellMtaincrop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425253259252430050" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;"&gt;Shell Mountain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"&gt;&lt;span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;"  &gt;A new year is here&lt;br /&gt;And goals I try&lt;br /&gt;To see if they are reach - able&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This blog is one&lt;br /&gt;Praying through Art another&lt;br /&gt;Especially when words fail me&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As the spiral rises&lt;br /&gt;The torch I carry&lt;br /&gt;Mountain top experience obtained&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But down on the ground&lt;br /&gt;Is where I am found&lt;br /&gt;Daily&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:lucida grande;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:100%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:lucida grande;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;Artwork &amp;amp; Poem by Suzanne&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-6530743922057022676?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/6530743922057022676/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/full-moon-rises-new-year-begins.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/6530743922057022676'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/6530743922057022676'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/full-moon-rises-new-year-begins.html' title='Full Moon Rises; A New Year Begins'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S0pfGFZFdOI/AAAAAAAAADY/ZAP3l_W3SLE/s72-c/ShellMtaincrop.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-2987646535548247500</id><published>2010-01-05T15:14:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-05T15:19:11.420-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='votives'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='prayer'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='candle'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='cross'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='stones'/><title type='text'>WORDLESS WEDNESDAY</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S0PIjzs_2SI/AAAAAAAAADI/YT8uPgGMJkk/s1600-h/SANY0002.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S0PIjzs_2SI/AAAAAAAAADI/YT8uPgGMJkk/s400/SANY0002.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423398893784127778" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-2987646535548247500?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/2987646535548247500/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/wordless-wednesday.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/2987646535548247500'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/2987646535548247500'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/wordless-wednesday.html' title='WORDLESS WEDNESDAY'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/S0PIjzs_2SI/AAAAAAAAADI/YT8uPgGMJkk/s72-c/SANY0002.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-5196385713484180544</id><published>2010-01-03T17:08:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-03T17:09:39.627-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Still Singing?</title><content type='html'>&lt;meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"&gt;&lt;meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"&gt;&lt;meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"&gt;&lt;meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"&gt;&lt;link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Ca%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"&gt;&lt;!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt;  &lt;w:worddocument&gt;   &lt;w:view&gt;Normal&lt;/w:View&gt;   &lt;w:zoom&gt;0&lt;/w:Zoom&gt;   &lt;w:punctuationkerning/&gt;   &lt;w:validateagainstschemas/&gt;   &lt;w:saveifxmlinvalid&gt;false&lt;/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid&gt;   &lt;w:ignoremixedcontent&gt;false&lt;/w:IgnoreMixedContent&gt;   &lt;w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext&gt;false&lt;/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText&gt;   &lt;w:compatibility&gt;    &lt;w:breakwrappedtables/&gt;    &lt;w:snaptogridincell/&gt;    &lt;w:wraptextwithpunct/&gt;    &lt;w:useasianbreakrules/&gt;    &lt;w:dontgrowautofit/&gt;   &lt;/w:Compatibility&gt;   &lt;w:browserlevel&gt;MicrosoftInternetExplorer4&lt;/w:BrowserLevel&gt;  &lt;/w:WordDocument&gt; &lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]--&gt;&lt;!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt;  &lt;w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"&gt;  &lt;/w:LatentStyles&gt; &lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]--&gt;&lt;style&gt; &lt;!--  /* Style Definitions */  p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal 	{mso-style-parent:""; 	margin:0in; 	margin-bottom:.0001pt; 	mso-pagination:widow-orphan; 	font-size:12.0pt; 	font-family:"Times New Roman"; 	mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 	{size:8.5in 11.0in; 	margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; 	mso-header-margin:.5in; 	mso-footer-margin:.5in; 	mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 	{page:Section1;} --&gt; &lt;/style&gt;&lt;!--[if gte mso 10]&gt; &lt;style&gt;  /* Style Definitions */  table.MsoNormalTable 	{mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; 	mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; 	mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; 	mso-style-noshow:yes; 	mso-style-parent:""; 	mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; 	mso-para-margin:0in; 	mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; 	mso-pagination:widow-orphan; 	font-size:10.0pt; 	font-family:"Times New Roman"; 	mso-ansi-language:#0400; 	mso-fareast-language:#0400; 	mso-bidi-language:#0400;} &lt;/style&gt; &lt;![endif]--&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;After hearing canned Christmas music in stores and restaurants since October, adnausium, most of us are sick and tired of it. The day after the big one, we race to pack away our CDs and decorations until next year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;In church, though, the four weeks leading up to the big birthday, we don’t sing the joyous hymns. We wait until the Eve to celebrate in full voice. I have found that because of this I don’t get tired of rejoicing so quickly.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Officially, according to the church calendar, the Christmas season is not officially over until Epiphany. This year that occurs on Jan 6. And that’s a good thing, because those beautiful hymns are still running through my brain.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;I forget who said it, but I love the quote, “One who sings prayers twice.” That is so true for me. I love the old hymns throughout the year because the melodies are haunting and the lyrics poetic. I was amazed growing up that as I learned new things in the Bible and new concepts of faith, I was often surprised to find them within the words we sang. And I love those melodies still.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;I wonder, if a church decides to favor contemporary praise music over those old hymns, will the lyrics be as moving? Will we still be praying as we sing? I’d like to believe many styles of music can lift our hearts to God no matter the genre.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;When did you pack away your holiday tunes?&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Are there lyrics that sink deep into your soul and draw you ever nearer to God?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;W&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-5196385713484180544?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/5196385713484180544/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/still-singing.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/5196385713484180544'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/5196385713484180544'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2010/01/still-singing.html' title='Still Singing?'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-6609660826448075403</id><published>2009-12-30T07:40:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-30T07:56:32.457-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='winter'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='trees'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='snow'/><title type='text'>Wordless Wednesdays</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/Szt35wvO7hI/AAAAAAAAADA/T5cHei4H_6E/s1600-h/A+Winters+Day+crop.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 323px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/Szt35wvO7hI/AAAAAAAAADA/T5cHei4H_6E/s400/A+Winters+Day+crop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421058410689785362" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-6609660826448075403?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/6609660826448075403/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/wordless-wednesdays.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/6609660826448075403'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/6609660826448075403'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/wordless-wednesdays.html' title='Wordless Wednesdays'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/Szt35wvO7hI/AAAAAAAAADA/T5cHei4H_6E/s72-c/A+Winters+Day+crop.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-8379493198548782692</id><published>2009-12-26T20:19:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-02-08T05:52:07.868-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='wonder'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='snow angels'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Christmas'/><title type='text'>The Day After</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"&gt;Do you feel let-down after Christmas?&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 51, 0);"&gt;  &lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"&gt;Do you feel relieved&lt;/span&gt;?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;Are you tired of seeing everything in &lt;span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"&gt;red&lt;/span&gt; and &lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"&gt;green&lt;/span&gt;?&lt;br /&gt;Do you wonder - what was this all about anyway?&lt;br /&gt;Well - you're not alone - I often feel perplexed and kind of disoriented the day after Christmas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"&gt;I just took a long walk in the snow, in the dark and cold; breathing in the crisp air and listening to the silence.  I began to sense "peace on earth" and as I saw something out of the corner of my eye - I  looked down at the ground by the sidewalk, I noticed the melting remains of a snow angel.  You know, the kind you make by laying down in the snow on your back and moving your arms and legs back and forth through the snow and then carefully get up to see the image you left behind.   I stood in wonder - who made it?  It was of a medium size, so it could have been an older child or a shorter adult.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"&gt;I just stood there and stared and started smiling and then giggled out loud and in that moment felt very close to my Creator.  It was as if I was meant to see this - a random walk at a random time and yet - the joy of making that snow angel was contagious and I suddenly felt a genuine hint of the joy the angels must of felt at the birth of Jesus - not to mention how God &amp;amp; the Spirit must have been feeling!  What an amazing moment in time - such joy, wonder, awe, excitement and love beyond all my comprehension.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;As I walked back inside to the room with family &amp;amp; friends, I was struck by the contrast between them &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;playing complicated virtual computer generated wii games - and the simple joy of making an angel&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 51, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt; in the snow - I smiled again at our desire as humans to be in community and to play together &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;and&lt;/span&gt; the times when making a personal image in the snow can bring you peace and joy.&lt;/span&gt;  &lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And so I say, &lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;MERRY&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"&gt;Christmas&lt;/span&gt;!  Peace on Earth &amp;amp; Goodwill to all of us!&lt;br /&gt;Suzanne&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-8379493198548782692?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/8379493198548782692/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/day-after.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/8379493198548782692'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/8379493198548782692'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/day-after.html' title='The Day After'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-4086826854489637012</id><published>2009-12-22T00:00:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-22T21:18:56.082-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Advent Wreath'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Christmas'/><title type='text'>WORDLESS WEDNESDAY</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SyU6hLNgk0I/AAAAAAAAAAs/BWLQ2TCYbNg/s1600-h/IMG_2304.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SyU6hLNgk0I/AAAAAAAAAAs/BWLQ2TCYbNg/s400/IMG_2304.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5414798468602434370" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-4086826854489637012?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/4086826854489637012/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/wordless-wednesday_22.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4086826854489637012'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4086826854489637012'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/wordless-wednesday_22.html' title='WORDLESS WEDNESDAY'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SyU6hLNgk0I/AAAAAAAAAAs/BWLQ2TCYbNg/s72-c/IMG_2304.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-3526355784449694812</id><published>2009-12-21T00:00:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-22T21:17:53.451-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='patience'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='shopping'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='fruits of the Spirit'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='holiday'/><title type='text'>HOLIDAY SHOPPING LIST</title><content type='html'>With Christmas shopping coming to a close, there are still some things I need to purchase. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm completely out of self-respect. I need to exchange the self-righteousness I picked up the other day for some humility which they say is less expensive and wears better. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I also want to look at some tolerance which is being used as wrapping this year. One store advertises a sale on "thank you". I think I need a big supply. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Someone also showed me some pretty samples of peace. We are all a little low on that and one can never have too much.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And I must try to match some patience to that which my neighbor wears. It is very becoming to her. I think it might look good on me too. I might try on the little garment of long-suffering they are displaying. I never thought I’d wanted to wear it, but I feel myself drawn to it. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, I must not forget to have my sense of appreciation mended and look around for some inexpensive everyday goodness. It is surprising how quickly one's stock of goodness is depleted.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do you need to go shopping with me?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-3526355784449694812?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/3526355784449694812/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/holiday-shopping-list.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/3526355784449694812'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/3526355784449694812'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/holiday-shopping-list.html' title='HOLIDAY SHOPPING LIST'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-7131154168338817000</id><published>2009-12-16T04:26:00.001-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-16T05:01:22.360-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='printmaking'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='blessings'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='art'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='block prints'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='angels'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Advent'/><title type='text'>Wordless Wednesday</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SyjWCH8GZUI/AAAAAAAAABs/bTVefLsdX50/s1600-h/visitation+blog.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 309px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SyjWCH8GZUI/AAAAAAAAABs/bTVefLsdX50/s400/visitation+blog.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415813883892229442" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-7131154168338817000?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/7131154168338817000/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/wordless-wednesday_16.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7131154168338817000'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7131154168338817000'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/wordless-wednesday_16.html' title='Wordless Wednesday'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SyjWCH8GZUI/AAAAAAAAABs/bTVefLsdX50/s72-c/visitation+blog.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-7024260102462883880</id><published>2009-12-14T19:58:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-23T19:06:08.308-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Images'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Jesus'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='creating'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Holy'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='window'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='longing'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='waiting'/><title type='text'>Waiting at Windows</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SycVjt5DxrI/AAAAAAAAABk/LIGVH_yJB7o/s1600-h/Christmas+angel.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 228px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SycVjt5DxrI/AAAAAAAAABk/LIGVH_yJB7o/s400/Christmas+angel.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415320780294833842" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SycVjnpgUoI/AAAAAAAAABc/Nby8Cfv1YWE/s1600-h/window+angel.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 375px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SycVjnpgUoI/AAAAAAAAABc/Nby8Cfv1YWE/s400/window+angel.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415320778618983042" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"&gt;What do you find yourself doing in times of waiting?  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;Waiting for the light to change, waiting for Christmas to come or the birth of your first child or grandchild - what do you find yourself doing? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"&gt;I have a few pictures of myself as a child waiting - looking out a window. I have this pensive expectant look on my face.  I remember at the age of ten, looking out my bedroom window, wanting and waiting for Jesus to appear and visit me. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;Much later, in my thirties, I did a series of drawings about looking out windows.  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;The images were of waiting and a deep longing - a longing that is so hard to put &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;into words and yet seemed to take over my whole being.  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"&gt;Expressing these longings in images of color, texture, patterns and light helped me to see &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"&gt;deeper into this longing  - this waiting - this need to be content in the knowledge that &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"&gt;the longing was of God - this special feeling, I believe, God places in each of us - an intense longing to be in relationship with the Holy.  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;I continue to come to this inward place through the Love that has created me.  By my contemplative creating into imagery these feelings, I am drawn nearer to myself, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;Spirit and those I love.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"&gt;How do you wait?  What is your deepest longing?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;Creatively Yours, Suzanne&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-7024260102462883880?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/7024260102462883880/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/waiting-at-windows.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7024260102462883880'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7024260102462883880'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/waiting-at-windows.html' title='Waiting at Windows'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SycVjt5DxrI/AAAAAAAAABk/LIGVH_yJB7o/s72-c/Christmas+angel.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-1549974124685002146</id><published>2009-12-09T14:04:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-09T14:07:14.479-08:00</updated><title type='text'>WORDLESS WEDNESDAY</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SyAfOwj7geI/AAAAAAAAAAk/sOQcUgrXQ-8/s1600-h/SANY0115.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="float:center; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SyAfOwj7geI/AAAAAAAAAAk/sOQcUgrXQ-8/s400/SANY0115.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413361090513568226" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-1549974124685002146?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/1549974124685002146/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/wordless-wednesday.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/1549974124685002146'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/1549974124685002146'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/wordless-wednesday.html' title='WORDLESS WEDNESDAY'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SyAfOwj7geI/AAAAAAAAAAk/sOQcUgrXQ-8/s72-c/SANY0115.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-4976421843355302930</id><published>2009-12-06T12:11:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-07T06:44:27.271-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='childhood'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='blessing'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='bedtime'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='prayer'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='grace'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='spiritual'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='God'/><title type='text'>Childhood Prayers</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SxwQqiDFflI/AAAAAAAAAAc/GBSpknzhVO4/s1600-h/Christ+with+girl.bmp"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 126px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SxwQqiDFflI/AAAAAAAAAAc/GBSpknzhVO4/s200/Christ+with+girl.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412219175072792146" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do you remember any of the prayers you were taught as a child? Perhaps you were taught a bedtime blessing like I was: &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now I lay me down to sleep. &lt;br /&gt;I pray the Lord my soul to keep. &lt;br /&gt;Angels watch me through the night &lt;br /&gt;and wake me with the morning light.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The grace for meals that is still with me is:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;God is great. God is good.&lt;br /&gt;Let us be thankful for our food.&lt;br /&gt;By God’s hand we all are fed.&lt;br /&gt;Give us, Lord, our daily bread.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are lots of versions out there and I’d love to hear yours if you were taught one. These are great when introducing a young person to pray, but, at least with me, they soon became rote. Deep inside I yearned for a deeper prayer life, a rich awareness and relationship with this God I addressed so casually every day. Who was “He?” Can He hear me? Can I recognize His voice and not confuse it with my own?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Have you ever asked yourself these questions? Those and others invited me to go deeper, to explore prayer forms and spiritual exercises to experience more of this God who felt so distant. What desires or questions invite you to go deeper, draw nearer to Creator? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let’s get the conversation started. I look forward to journeying with you in this spiritual quest! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;W&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-4976421843355302930?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/4976421843355302930/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/childhood-prayers.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4976421843355302930'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/4976421843355302930'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/12/childhood-prayers.html' title='Childhood Prayers'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SxwQqiDFflI/AAAAAAAAAAc/GBSpknzhVO4/s72-c/Christ+with+girl.bmp' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3851999568094917997.post-7482527661193810602</id><published>2009-11-20T11:13:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-23T19:02:17.192-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='art'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='creativity'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='oil pastel'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='God'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='childhood memories'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='meditation'/><title type='text'>How do you draw near?</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/Swbvbm7k7xI/AAAAAAAAAAU/66dQNn-mvWM/s1600/universal+love+-+c.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 258px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/Swbvbm7k7xI/AAAAAAAAAAU/66dQNn-mvWM/s320/universal+love+-+c.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406271660290797330" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102);"&gt;What are your earliest memories of God?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);"&gt;Some of my earliest memories are of making things and God being there, dancing, swimming, climbing trees and God; building sand castles, coloring, exploring nature and God; sharing, singing, listening… and God was there, waiting and wanting to be with me.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 153);"&gt;As time went on I realized not everyone had these experiences! How strange – or am I the strange one? Some people call this awareness of God - ‘flow,’ ‘in the zone,’ ‘meditation’ or ‘being present in the moment.” I know it as ‘drawing near.’ &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"&gt;And yes, for me drawing means crayons on paper as well as the movement of coming closer – intentionally.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(204, 153, 51);"&gt;I’d very much like to be in conversation with you about connecting with the Holy.  Let’s share our thoughts and feelings about how much God desires to be with each of us both individually and collectively. How are we drawn near to God comes through the endless creative ways with which God has gifted us!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;Art making, dancing, singing and “just being” are my direct line to God’s loving presence - what are some of your ways?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"&gt;Creatively Yours,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"&gt;Suzanne&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3851999568094917997-7482527661193810602?l=drawingnearercc.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/feeds/7482527661193810602/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-do-you-draw-near.html#comment-form' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7482527661193810602'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3851999568094917997/posts/default/7482527661193810602'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://drawingnearercc.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-do-you-draw-near.html' title='How do you draw near?'/><author><name>Drawing Nearer</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16861632447964930953</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/SzLS6b_hh-I/AAAAAAAAACI/aDWLnv3ATs8/S220/DN+Logo.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P7frKa_dbPA/Swbvbm7k7xI/AAAAAAAAAAU/66dQNn-mvWM/s72-c/universal+love+-+c.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry></feed>
