This is a tweaked version of artist Robert Indiana’s work of art. The original is red, white and blue. My version is sepia with sunshine.


How about if we start this decade, 2010, with some sunshine dawning?

But you may say, there is only gray in my day. Or you may not even know that the sun is out. You may be unaware, oblivious of the state of the sun, as you are buried in your room or yourself and some internal cloud cover.

Last evening, my sister called as she was arriving home from her work to excited tell me to go look at the moon, “It is so big”, she says. I go to my window to enjoy the “blue moon” with her across all the miles (she is in Kansas), and alas! it is overcast and cloudy here. No view of the moon for me. BUT! I got to see it through her eyes and her thoughtfulness to share it with me. I needed that moment. The moon was there for both of us.

So, how does that connect to HOPE? Where does HOPE come from? Can we get HOPE? How?

HOPE needs tending. You do have it. I know you do. Like seeing the moon with my sister, the dawn of that ray of sun can come back upon you.

Here are some ways that can clear away the clouds, and if you have some ways to share, please do! You deserve hope.

Rest, in weariness we lose ourself, we are unable to physiologically tend our needs. Rest comes in a good night’s sleep, finding a pace for our life, well-being. Learn calmness.

Nourish, feed yourself well. Feed yourself with real food. Feed your soul. Read. Listen to Music. Go outside! Go for a walk! Draw, paint, create, journal, write, move, meditate, relax, practice yoga.

Decide, to turn away from negativity. Clean up your life. Throw out the tattered, the smothering, the darkness! The tattered may be in your surroundings…clothing that makes you feel ugly; relationships that have become wearing thin and losing meaning…make room for HOPE! The smothering may be surroundings or relationships that are stifling to you…you may be smothering yourself by not digging out and moving on with your life…make room for HOPE! The darkness may be old ways of looking at yourself. Allow that your curtains be opened and allow HOPE’s rays to warm you and light your path.

So what if you have already done most of these and feel you are back under the clouds? That is life, it is ok. That does not mean there is not HOPE! HOPE is there. It is there just as surely as the moon behind the clouds. Let’s see it together.

A Carefully Crafted Quilt

In a caring and knowledgeable therapist’s hands one’s life can take on the beauty of a carefully and lovingly crafted quilt.
Gently acquiring the scraps of life, those pieces of personality, temperament, genetic materials, family history, experiences, and relationships and piecing them together is an art and science. In quilt-making, the science may be found in binding together fabrics that will support one another, not be too light or too firm adjoining one another, having a backer that too supports in its own appointed way, and fabrics that will not shrink with those that will. Tempering the shrinkable fabrics will aid in the cohesion need to make them work with fabrics that do not become altered when wet or heated. The art is then to arrange the design to enhance the finished quilt, adding color, embellishment, and stitching to create a satisfaction in the end of an accomplished piece of workmanship. The stitches can be many and measured with great precision; some are complicated and formulated, whereas some are simple and straightforward.
A well-made quilt will last a lifetime or more.
I have some handed down from great-grandmother Fanny, one is from the late 1800’s and is fragile and yet stunning in the browns of menswear fabrics of choice in its log cabin glory.

All of the many pieces forms a whole that was untold before the assembly of all of the many, many pieces.

The tender fabrics frayed from a long lived life.

The combinations of many fabrics, many patterns, many colors.

The other is early 1900’s and is feminine and embellished with embroidery and stitching on a beautiful lavendery, mauve fabric.

Both tell the story of a long-lived life from her early years to her late.

When our life is in pieces, or as most of us experience, our live come to us in pieces or lots or portions, we often are unaware of the process of life. We gather the remnants, we seek new portions, and these facets of ourselves become tattered or more textured. Sometimes we think that we need to discard or hide these pieces and bits, but in the hands of the artist they can become more than we ever would dream. We find that even the most insignificant or painful or gleeful can be combined to forms our very own personal design that though unique will be a carefully crafted quilt put together, if but submitted to a wise and steady hand.

As An Individual

As an individual we experience life in a variety of ways. We feel, we seek, we think. We have relationships, some close, some distant, some that nurture us, some that have the power to destroy our lives. We have a need to be understood, to have hope and to develop.

Situations that keep us from experiencing a happy and fulfilling life may look like sadness or depression; worry, fear or anxiety; poor functioning in our school, work or home life; problems in our relationships with others; health and well-being problems and dissatisfaction with ourselves or others.

What we as individuals can do to recreate our selves, reconstruct, renew, refresh, and strengthen ourselves for the journey of life is powerful, possible and amazing. Tools we need for our transformation: time, trust, hope, love, faith, perseverance, focus. As we journey we learn how to claim these treasures and shape our lives for the purpose for which we were conceived.