Spirited Woman Blogger Team

Spiritual Poetry

A sweet gift landed in my lap. Sheila Bender, a friend and former Spirited Woman blogger asked me to cover her poetry and spirituality class at Seattle University as she prepared for a conference. I said yes months ago and felt my stomach tighten increasingly with anxiety as the class approached. I did my best to ignore it.

The truth is, only part of me worried; the rest of me knew I would revel in this combination of my favorite things: learning, students, spirituality, and poetry. I was right to ignore the worry. The students, mostly creative writing majors, were adorable, the relaxed exploration of spirituality, life-giving, and the poetry, beautiful. Leaving that first day of class, I had to restrain myself from running through the fallen leaves on the campus kicking and waving my arms in joy.

I began the class asking students to share words that relate, describe, or define spirituality to them.  Some were creatively "out-there" like dog, bone, and Mia Farrow's clothes! They all inspired. I felt rich in good words after their sharing words like seeking, rest, connection, harmony, beauty, flow, awareness, rain, forgiveness, grace, infinite, mystery, zen, truth, justice, conflict, loss, growth, acceptance, imagination, listening, divine, genius, ocean, letting go, creativity. Spirited women, I bequeath these words to you.  I would love to see a poster with these words in colorful calligraphy.

Sheila's syllabus contained excerpts about poetry as the language that asks the unanswerable, that cries our grief, sings in the stun of beauty, and connects us to our voice, our depth, each other, our world, to the Mystery of it all and our very life.  Thomas Moore writes in his book Dark Night of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way through Life's Ordeals hat our truth is best expressed in the arts. He refers to Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, The Poet quoting Emerson saying the poet "stands one step nearer to things" and "turns the world to glass."  Our art makes life more readable. Moore goes on to say that "you have the capacity to be the poet to your experience." "You have to learn how to 'sum up' your experience in images that convey your personal truth." We are all poets with the voice of art. When we seek to express our experience through beauty and image, we have access to spirituality, the water of an abundant life.

The part of me that worried about subbing for Sheila I see now as an interior weed whereas I liken my "Yes!" and desire to dance after class to fields of golden wheat. I am reminded of Jesus' lessons on spiritual farming. He advised that we let weeds be for the time being lest we pull up the wheat. I ignored my fear, taught the classes in spirituality and poetry and reaped a harvest of joy. Here's to saying "yes" to our art that may show us our weeds but more importantly help us harvest the fruits of a spiritual life.

Sue Sutherland-Hanson
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What's Your Mona Lisa?

Recently I picked up a poster from the Seattle Art Museum made up of colorful and provocative questions like, "What is art and why does it matter? Does art need to be beautiful? Who makes art? What can art teach you? and What does art tell you about the world?"  I could not resist adding my own questions: What does your art tell you about yourself? and What is your Mona Lisa?

Let me explain that last question which formed while waiting for the 8:10 boat to ferry me across the Puget Sound after visiting the Seattle Art Museum. I was musing over an educational pamphlet about the exhibition, "Peru, Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon." The pamphlet included a lesson suggesting that each civilization has an iconic piece of art that represents its history, aesthetics, and cultural spirit.  For Peru, the author proposed a brilliantly gold forehead ornament with feline head and octopus tentacles as gleaming rays. For the Tlingit culture of the Pacific Northwest, the choice was the Box of Daylight Raven Hat made of maple, abalone, and feathers. The choice for Western civilization?  da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

As every culture is a collective of individuals, I wondered what might be the iconic Mona Lisa in my life.  Spirited women, what would you pick?  A few days later, I toured my house with this question in mind. I stood before the art on my walls, gazed at the jewelry I wear, and peered in my cupboards. Would I choose the red and gold poster of Mount Fuji connected to my days in Japan, the bent wood sculpture I made as an art student, the framed puzzle of dancing cranes from that winter we warmed by the fire, the shimmering salmon of fused glass bought at the Fisher Poets Gathering I attend in honor of my father, the silver labyrinth pendant I wear, or my mother's delicate bone china tea-cup? I could not pick, but I found my tour to be a poignant revisiting of my history, my sense of beauty, and my spirituality. 

In some ways this in-home walk-about is like bending over a family photo-album. Research offers evidence that the act of viewing old photos is good for our mental health. In addition to being happier, re-seeing the art you have chosen to look at, eat from, or wear may also make you grateful as you realize the value of your personal treasures are as priceless as the Mona Lisa.

Sue Sutherland-Hanson
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An Art Walk - A Perfect Event for a Spirited Woman

I step into Fredericks of Greenwood Hair Salon in my old neighborhood in Seattle. I am greeted with "welcome, would you like red or white wine?" Is this a grand opening or have I crashed a private party?  Better than either: this is art walk Friday called "Art Up."

Monthly art walks take place in practically every metropolis or small town across the nation. Retail shops and galleries invite the public to enjoy their space and a featured artist's work once a month. This is a trend worth celebrating because everybody wins. Combining utilitarian space with art in a welcoming atmosphere at no charge humanizes the space and the art not to mention the people present.

In the salon, I spy the artist, looking shy and appreciative as she joins the beauticians in greeting visitors.  She chats and watches as people look at her paintings hung on the walls above and around the sinks and work stations. The room fills with patrons of the arts and patrons of the salon; several of them are having their hair washed, cut, or permed in the midst of the hub-bub. From time to time, I see the artist put a red sticker on the title plates marking the work sold.  She looks happy.

Years (and years) ago, we bought our first house in this district - all 800 square feet of it. We brought our two newborns home to that house. We visited McDonald's and shopped at Safeway but never enjoyed art-walks. They were not a concept in action back then. This evening I believe in progress as I watched young adults, families, older folk, edgy artist types, and more mainstream artists all mingling around art, some of which appealed, and some didn't, but I loved that all the artists and the viewers were there, together...

I had great conversations with the artists at three venues (of over thirty possible!) we had energy to visit.  The young woman in the hair salon said in her artist statement that this collection of work was one she had “been building and hiding throughout her life.”  I loved that I could be part of her “coming-out” art show. In the Urban Light Studios across the street, I chatted with photographer, Cyrus Kanga, a gentle man who warmed my heart in his artist’s statement with these words:  “If these photographs have a purpose, it is this: they humanize.” Not surprisingly, I adored the relaxed faces from around the world gazing back at me from his portraits.

Spirited women that you are, I invite you to join me in an effort to intentionally humanize our life and our communities in this way:  let's agree to look up our town or city’s art walk dates, mark our calendars and join our community in front of art with the artists, our friends and family or go on a mini-pilgrimage alone. If spirituality and quality of life center around connection, here is one mighty fine way to do just that. 

Sue Sutherland-Hanson
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If You Don't Do Your Dance, Who Will?

When our children were little, we carried them wildly dipping, spinning, waltzing and skipping more often than not to the superior beat of the Beer Barrel Polka. I can still see their fine hair sweeping round their faces and feel their bellies laugh, mouths open, gasping in exultation. Our preschool grandchildren ask us to crank up the music, so they can dance with abandon. The kinesthetic geniuses among us may become ballerinas or hip-hop pros, but children intuitively know that dance is part of all of us - a natural birthright if you will. What else combines beat, motion, music, and breath, the components of our soul's language we use to pray, heal, and connect at profound levels.

My friend, Jayne Peterson, experienced that healing and connection through dance when she showed up at a community hall where a session of 5Rhythms Movement was taking place. Years ago in search of relief from old psychological pain from growing up in an alcoholic family, she found help in counseling and Al-Anon, but transformation in dance. Fifteen years later, she is still dancing; in fact, she is now studying to be an instructor of 5Rythms Movement.

Gabriella Roth, a musician and professional dancer founded 5Rhythms Dance, an approach to dance that involves series of movement without structure. She noted that energy's motion matches water's movement that may flow, chop in staccato, move chaotically, lyrically or be still. Thus the five rhythms are flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness. She authored the book, Sweat Your Prayers, wherein she reclaims the presence of God in the body and teaches about the energies we can engage through movement.

Jayne, a nurse, knows firsthand the healing properties of 5Rhythms and is now extending her exploration to the spiritual role of dance. In this she joins long Shamanic traditions from around the world as well as the Sufis who spin their meditation. Jayne noted that the body cannot lie, and that people feel joyful from body movement. Dance can support a mindfulness practice helping people check in and note what they are feeling. When I joined one of Jayne's classes, I felt a little silly for about two seconds and then loved letting go my inhibitions. I felt free, grateful and appreciative of my fellow-dancers. Many people comment that they feel more connected to themselves and others as well as the divine through dancing. "Isn't that connection the heart of spirituality?" Jayne asked me. I would say so.

Spirited women, whether you partner dance in a ball room, wedding, or whirling with children, whether you dance alone in ritual or private prayer, believe Gabrielle Roth when she asks, "If you don't do your dance, who will?" Dancing is indeed transformational because it moves you closer to your true self.

Sue Sutherland-Hanson
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Dancing to Freedom

Antsy middle-schoolers file in the auditorium for assembly. They high-five friends or coolly nod, giggle with heads together, or shuffle along sleepily. Today a visiting song and dance troupe called, Up With People perform around the theme of bullying. Charged by the dancing, befriended by the music, the students return to my daughter, Mariah's classroom amazingly transformed into a cohesive and cheerful group. That is the power of dance.

Despite their self-conscious age, they spontaneously form a dance circle including ALL of the students. They take turns dancing silly, wild, and free in the middle of the circle. Mariah, entertained and pleased, shouts end-of-class instructions as they continue dancing. She announces she will be absent the next day, and the students incorporate mock weeping into their dance moves.

Then a friendly student shouts, "Group hug Mrs. Ordonez!"  She cannot stop laughing as they rush her for an unprecedented all-class hug. Contrary and somber students before the assembly now participate with unrestrained playfulness.

Interestingly, the year before, an accomplished theater group performed a play about bullying during assembly, but the results were different. All of the students identified with the victims in the story, even the bullies of the school. No surprise. Research tells us that bullies were bullied. The youth came out of the assembly agitated and aggressive. More fights broke out after the play than any other day of the school year.  Whereas words and dialogue aggravated wounds and piqued passions in these adolescents, music and dance infused them with uplifting energy around the difficult topic of abuse.

I had a hard time completing this post because I kept getting up to dance and observe what was happening within me. I stood up in the middle of my sitting meditation this morning to dance the rest of my prayers outdoors. Fortunately, I have a private yard, so I could experiment freely. I liked spinning and seeing all of my surroundings, bending down and reaching up, flowing like the trees in the wind, bobbing like my curious chickens, stamping to feel the hard earth.  I became  more aware of my body and my environment. It became a relational dance with nature and the divine.

I felt energized and to be honest more aware of the complexity within me. In the midst of the good energy of dancing, I felt my heavy resistance to Monday morning, old messages of body shame, and perhaps the voices of what ought to be appropriate prayer forms. In the practice of welcome and integration, I invited these energies to dance too.  I ended my lively morning devotionals ready to write with a new focused calm. I felt a little more free.

Next week, I want to look into the variety of ways we, spirited women, can access dancing, but this week, I hope you honor your body with gratitude for that instinctual tapping toe. And why not gift yourself with a spontaneous spin, a twirl of your hands, and a sway of your hips claiming your freedom to dance, and notice how you dance to freedom.

Sue Sutherland-Hanson
Click here to read more of Sue's posts.

The Creative Paradox

Holding paradox gives root to authenticity and success of many kinds.  Prominent and creative people may have several paradoxical traits, but whether we create for business success, superior art, or meaningful living, there is a central creative paradox which is this: process trumps product. In other words, loving the process more than the product leads to a better product.

I recently read an article a friend sent me called 10 Paradoxical Traits of Creative People by Faisal Hoque, an entrepreneur.  He draws key points from business-psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihaly's book Creativity, The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People. The paradoxes noted are these:

1-Creative people have a great deal of physical energy and can also focus quietly for long hours.
2-They are smart and naive willing to consider unusual associations.
3-They combine play with discipline.
4-They move back and forth between fantasy and deeply-rooted reality.
5-Creative people exhibit both introvert and extrovert tendencies.
6-They can be both humble and proud.
7-Creative people can use tough strength and tenderness whether male or female often defying gender stereotypes.
8-They can be rebellious and at the same time established in societal norms.
9-They are passionate and objective about their work.
10-A sensitive openness exposes creative people to suffering and pain as well as enjoyment.

I admit that I was hoping I would have all of the paradoxes listed, but alas I did not. I feared I had been found out: wasn't really creative at all. Then I reminded myself that Mihaly focused on people who were creative and eminent,  which could mean outstanding in their mediums as well as successful in a business sense. I suspect the subjects had skill-sets that combined their creativity with business to become eminent. These may be skills to cultivate if we want to pursue a living through our creativity.

Clearly, not all of us aspire to prominence with our art or problem-solving abilities,  but as humans we want and need to bring our creativity into the world. It turns out that Mihaly observed another quality that he believed to be the most important and I believe relates to all of us. These eminent people consistently had the ability to enjoy the process of creation.

This is what I want for me and for you spirited women, the ability to enjoy creating regardless of the outcome.  I am drawn to the lines in my friend, Kim Beyer-Nelson's poem, A Cooler Morning,  "Allaha means both yes and no, light and dark, full and empty. Hard to take any stand on such paradox, better to just move as it does, fluid".

I define success as finding joy, so no matter the personal qualities or paradoxes we embody, we can live more fluid and resilient lives by loving our unique creative process.

Sue Sutherland-Hanson
Click here to read more of Sue's posts.

A String of Pearls

An imaginative birthday card, a continuation of a sweet joke, a celebratory suspension of the usual, a sports coach with boyish energy - these are big and little ways people live into their creativity and slip one glowing pearl beside the next. Here's a string to admire:

Luke, my brother-in-law, draws a picture of my mother-in-law, Gene, on a birthday card for her 88th birthday. They have had friction in their past, but that seems forgotten as Gene chuckles at Luke's drawing of her watching a football game with a beer in hand.  She is an avid sports fan especially since she has been housebound and widowed. She connects to the world  beyond her front door through sports.  She anticipates the games, enjoys them, but never drinks.

Gene's oldest daughter, Mary, has been living with her for the past two months.  Mary's husband recently died after an intense battle with brain cancer.  She has been re-acculturating to life in the United States after a forty-year career as a missionary in South America.  Football and beer are foreign to her.

Because Mary doesn't drive, my husband, her baby brother takes her grocery shopping. Gene tells Alan of Luke's card and Alan loves the merriment he sees in his mother's eyes.  He decides to prolong the joke and buys a beer to sneak into the grocery bag.

The Seattle Seahawks' televised game is at ten o'clock on Sunday morning. Ever since Gene's health has prevented her from leaving the house, she has listened to a church service at 10:00 Sunday morning...religiously.  This day, Mary and Gene decide to live it up. They opt to watch the football game and share the beer. Gene tells Alan she drank a tablespoon.

Al and I travel Sunday morning to the ocean and decide to call about the progress of the game. Mary reports that the Seahawks are down by one point in the fourth quarter against the North Carolina Panthers with the best defense in the nation. She tells us they are drinking the beer and sitting on the edge of their seats.  We call an hour later to hear the results: the Seahawks scored in the final minutes to win the game. Gene is napping after all of the excitement, and Mary is on the internet researching the coach, Pete Carroll.

Pete Carroll frantically chews gum, walks bouncy, and slaps players on the back like a thirteen-year-old boy.  He has his players meditate and work on community building. His team plays with resiliency and a fanatical fan-base.

Alan and I smile for many reasons the rest of the way to the ocean.

May you spirited women have reasons to smile, and may pearls of creativity in relationships and laughter adorn your lives. 

Sue Sutherland-Hanson
Click here to read more of Sue's posts. 

Creative Compassion

Once in a while, you a hear a story of a person's humanity, their courage, compassion, and calm presence in an untenable situation, and you do all a favor to repeat it. That is why Antoinette Tuff is the subject of this week's blog. My skin tingled when I heard her words on that 911 recording. I was glad to belong to the same race as this woman, my new hero.

I was driving when I heard Seattle's public radio station, KUOW replay a segment of the 911 tape on which we hear Antoinette, a school bookkeeper call to report a man with an AK 47 rifle inside this Georgia K-8th grade school. We hear her report that the man steps outside to exchange shots at the surrounding police as the students wait in the play fields.  The mentally ill man told her he was off his medication and he was there to kill as well to die. She talked with both him and the 911 operator for a long while.  When he said that nobody loved him, she told him she loved him.  She told him he could live if he would lay down his weapons and lay on the floor.  He did, and no one was hurt. She told him that she was proud of him. 

He believed her because she was telling the truth.

You might be wondering how a story like this relates to a blog on creativity. Well, consider definition #2 of the word "create" in the Encarta dictionary. It reads, "to give rise to something or make something happen." I love that Antoinette's compassion and presence overpowered this man's intent to harm. He entered the school to make death happen. She gave rise to protecting life. This man entered deranged and detached, yet her authentic kindness led him to trust her and lay down his arms. This is creativity flexing its heart with bulging muscles.

While I most often connect creativity to the arts, Microsoft Office Word lists the terms, "resourcefulness" and "vision" as synonyms to creativity. Antoinette says she prayed for the young man, and I am going to call that resourceful. No matter your belief system, the act of reaching out and reaching in to that mysterious greater force when we face the unimaginable may be the most resourceful thing a human ever does.  Antoinette's vision of this man saw him as a human worthy of her respect and compassion. I suspect he began to see himself differently through her eyes.

Who knows how any of us would react in such a situation. I am pretty sure my knees would be knocking so loudly no one would be able to hear anything, but we remember that creative compassion can happen in quiet scenarios as well as emergencies.  Spirited women, may you have the good fortune to face life's hard surprises with grace, celebrate the true heroines in this world, and offer powerful compassion to all that life brings you.

Sue Sutherland-Hanson
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Our Clothes, Our Art

It was 1990 in Kobe, Japan. I found myself with free tickets to a world-class fashion show. My then six-year old daughter and I watched models strut, stride, twirl, and spin in textiled masterpieces. An Orca whale inspired the design of my all-time favorite gown. The black collar, curved as an orca's tail, swept high  behind the model's head. She floated down the run-way with a gleaming white front panel set in elegant black silk. Other designs were more outrageous, playful, outlandish scuptures that could not possibly have been headed to a department store clothing line.

That show came to mind last week when my now twenty-eight year old daughter and I visited the Seattle Art Museum's exhibit, "Future Beauty-30 Years of Japanese Fashion." We saw mannequins wearing whimsical, futuristic, and sometimes disturbing designs like the ones with humps added in on hips or backs. We watched videos of the Parisian fashion shows where the pieces were first unveiled, and we heard the audience gasp. One blogger noted how those designers mixed art and fashion as well as challenged "the established notions of beauty."

Before that show in Kobe, I dismissed fashion design as high-brow and materialistic. Now I see it as textile art. However, I do think that wise women need to resist the seasonal fashions advertised to entice our spending and reduce our self esteem without their product. Women need to own their beauty inside and out regardless of the latest styles. There is a balance with our appearance when we do not obsess about our looks, but in that just-right space, enjoy dressing as artful self-expression.

Each day's look into the closet can be a quest to put together the artsy, classic, playful, sexy, sophisticated outfit that captures your mood. It might be jeans and a T-shirt for that day of freedom. For me, I love the cozy wrap of my bathrobe while writing into the afternoon.  Appreciating the expression of dress can add color to your outlook on a daily routine.

I remember an art professor commenting that women often have a more developed sense of aesthetics because of their experience of making decisions with colors, textures, and shapes as they dress. That comment inspired me to appreciate people's decisions with their clothes. My red-haired colleague, Barbara M. comes to mind. That woman glows in yellows, oranges, and greens with classic lines like no one I've ever met. She is not small, young, or rich. Her beauty is a lesson in the joys of artful dressing.

May you, spirited women, mine the creative veins in the act of getting dressed.  May your closet pique your creativity. Whether you dress down, dress up, or enjoy the pizzazz and color of another, may you experience clothes as an ally to your beauty and the freedom to be you.

Sue Sutherland-Hanson
Click here to read more of Sue's posts.

Your Art, Your Power to Heal

The nurse enters pre-op and notices a picture set on the cover of my friend, Lucy, lying in wait for the anesthesiologist The nurse comes closer and sees the crayon drawing of a knee with yellow light flowing around torn ligaments.  Lucy tells the nurse she drew it, and the nurse suggests Lucy take it with her into the operating room.  After the successful procedure, the surgeon tells Lucy that the picture inspired him.

Lucy wisely used her creativity to connect with people she needed to trust. By sharing what was in effect a visual prayer, she gave the medical team a chance to see her more fully, feel her anxiety, and grasp her prayer.  In this, Lucy played a role in the success of the operation.

Lucy's story is one of many that connect art to healing. Art, as a profoundly human endeavor humanizes us. Isn't becoming more human what healing means?  Humane and relational  healing brings to mind Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, a cancer specialist and clinical professor. I first learned of Dr. Remen's wisdom through her books, Kitchen Table Wisdom - Stories That Heal and My Grandfather's Blessing.

Later through a chat with an inspiring young couple in medical school, I learned of Dr. Remen's ground-breaking curriculum, "The Healers' Art".  In this course medical students study and practice the healing power of relationship.  Dr. Remen teaches that between doctor and patient, "It's a human relationship, not a relationship between an expert and a problem."  Lucy's art tapped into this truth.  Her picture helped establish her medical care in the context of relationship where healing occurs.

Lucy always sparkles with creativity as a professional musician and developing writer. In terms of creative expression, she is least experienced with the visual arts.  Nevertheless, she let her wisdom choose the medium that would touch into her power to heal - a simple drawing. I love how crayons can access layers of healing. Healing art is not about technical sophistication.

I expect Lucy to fully heal, but my friend, C. faces long-term health issues.  Life is tenuous for her.  Near sixty, she has lived ten years with a lung transplant and survived multiple cancers and lung infections. Indomitable, she welcomes a season of new energy after months of just surviving. Her hope?  First finish her book about her life as a hospice nurse in Alaska, then resume an old passion:  painting with water color.

C's body and soul knows that writing and  painting will humanize, energize, even heal her in the way that Dr. Remen defines it: "Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you- all of the expectations, all of the beliefs - and becoming who you are." 

Spirited women, what reveals who you are better than your art?  May you access your power to heal and practice preventive as well as responsive health-care by embracing your art.

Sue Sutherland-Hanson
Click here to read more of Sue's posts.