Cool Cards, New Year, Good Prayer

If you live anywhere near a Half Price Books, look for these amazing popup cards designed by  David A. Carter and published by Random House. The artist's website is at www.clarksonpotter.com. 

We used the cards as a little intro on the year at this last weekend's Artist Journal/Aritst Journey workshop at El Cielo. Six of us renewed, rejuved, reconnected with each other and our artist selves during the Friday to Sunday look at the past year, planning for the future, with journaling as a key tool for artist survival. 

We also watched a couple of TED Talks, first:  Brene Brown's about vulnerability

 We also watched The Three As of Awesome from Neil Pasricha’s blog 1000 Awesome Things. Neil savors life’s simple pleasures, from free refills to clean sheets. In this heartfelt talk from TEDxToronto, he reveals the 3 secrets (all starting with A) to leading a life that’s truly awesome. (Recorded at TEDxToronto, September 2010 in Toronto, Canada. Duration: 17:33)

And, also, thanks to a NWV faculty retreat that Linda attended that was facilitated by Parker Palmer, we read and absorbed some wonderful poems. Here is one by Ted Loder from one of his books of prayers (I've already ordered it to add to the collection that I draw from before our El Cielo communal meals):

Thanks for Those Things That Are Yet Possible

At the beginning of this new year

we give thanks for our time

and for those things that are yet possible

and precious in it:

daybreak and beginning again,

midnight and the reassurance of routine,

the taming of demons in the dance of dreams;

a word of forgiveness

and sometimes a song,

For our breathing...and out lives.

We give thanks

for the honesty that marks friends

and makes laughter;

for fierce gentleness

that dares to speak the truth in love

and tugs us to join in the long march toward peace:

for the sudden gust of grace

that rise unexpectedly in our wending from dawn to dawn:

for children unabashed,

wind rippling a rain puddle,

a mockingbird in the darkness,

a colleague and a cup of coffee:

for music and silence,

for wrens and Orion,

for everything that moves us to tears,

to touching

to dreams

to prayers.

We give thanks for work

that engages us in an internal debate

between reward and responsibility;

for our longings,

our callings,

our lives.

T. Loder, Guerrillas for Grace

Loder is a retired United Methodist minister, and,

true to the wonderful ways of the web, I found his blog -- though he appears s to have quit posting in

October of 2010..