Hope Agency Dignity

Recently I read an article about how journalism had lost its way during the chaos and ignominy of the previous administration, resorting to more and more stories of anger and catastrophe.

The author suggested that for journalism to regain its social role it needs to tell stories of hope, agency, and dignity. 

The Mexican Lilies in my garden represent such a story. These lilies bloom for one day only, revealing that there is more to life than showing off.

HOPE

This bud reaching toward the sky exudes the hope of growth and renewal.

Here we see it beginning to unfold into a blossom.

This one looks as though it's yawning.
Do I really want to see what's around me?

Here we are in all our outrageous beauty!

AGENCY

Producing pollen for bees, butterflies, and significant others.

Moving on. As new lilies bloom, older ones are ready to let go of their youth. 

On the same stalk, one lily is ready to move on
while two buds prepare to bloom tomorrow.

DIGNITY

Blossoms closing; preparing for what comes next.

Stagers of release.

This mature plant had four blossoms.
Each blossom left behind a seed pod.
After the pods dry out, seeds will be released for new lilies to grow.  

WATCHING 

All the while Buddha and I are paying attention.

 COMING SOON

Where am I now that everything has changed? What comes next in life? How will I get there? When will I finally get to live the life I’ve always wanted for myself?

If you’re a woman facing retirement, an empty nest, loss of a life partner, or another dramatic life change, you may be asking yourself these questions. Losing your primary life purpose or identity and looking for a new start can be daunting, if not downright scary!

When author LiDoña Wagner faced the possibility of leaving a thirty-year career, she turned to Jungian psychology and dream analysis to help her find a new path in life. After her own transformation into the professional artist and writer she’d always wanted to be, she began leading workshops to help other retirement-age women use dream analysis to cope with change and make art to express and learn more about themselves. Now, this groundbreaking approach is accessible to all who need it.

 

In Reinvent Yourself with Dreaming & Artful Play, you will learn:

• how to break out of old patterns and discover a new direction for your life 
• how to free your boundless potential for growth and change
• how to heal old wounds, let go of pent-up anger, and find joy
• how to discover the real you hiding within your unconscious
• how to give yourself permission to be who you’ve always wanted to be

Reinvent Yourself is a unique workbook filled with dream exploration exercises and art projects proven to help women just like you unlock your unconscious and learn the truth about who you are. By following LiDoña’s process, you will become stronger and more focused as you take on the uncertainties that many mature women face. As you work through the chapters, you will examine your dreams to discover what they are telling you about your inner self, create art projects inspired by your dream exploration and the new you that is forming, and write reflective notes about what you learn to help you process your transformation.

After a lifetime of serving others, isn’t it your turn? Are you ready to make a fresh start or at least discover what fresh start is waiting for you when you are ready? You can find your purpose. You can be confident and powerful. You can be creative, joyful, and alive. It’s never too late to reinvent yourself!

One Step Kitchen Garden

Like me, you may have often heard mention of kitchen gardens. But it wasn't until we began our community garden last year that I began to ponder the convenience of being able to take one step out the door to clip veggies for my salads.  

Last year one member of the community garden
added this five-tiered plastic container for salad greens.

This year she put a raised bed right next to her patio.

She inspired me to give the one step kitchen garden a shot. Not wanting to encourage sales of plastic, I figured out how to use pots I already had to make a three-tiered veggie garden one step out my patio door.

Two weeks ago it was looking promising.

However, when I tried to share starts of the most prominent veggie, I discovered that what I had assumed was Russian Kale was really a prolific weed. After two community garden members told me "I don't think that's Russian Kale," I finally did my own research and learned that they were right. This embarrassing episode woke me to how disinformation can spread from a false assumption; in this case, my own.

Another community garden member's version of a patio veggie garden.

Spice garden outside the front door of a community 
garden member whose patio is in the shade.

Three-tiered garden today.

While the three-tiered garden looks a bit sad, there is real Sow Easy Kale growing in the right front corner, real cilantro, and seeds germinating for three kinds of Kale. And not all my experiments disclose my gardening ignorance. 

So far, my patio tomato plant seems to be doing okay.

Second year for patio Lemon Tree.

Last year I started Basil and a Lemon Tree on my patio. The Basil shriveled up and died but by late summer the Lemon Tree had five blossoms. One blossom fell off, but by fall there were four teeny baby lemons. When it started getting cold, I brought the tree inside and the lemons continued to grow. I harvested four lemons in the last two weeks just before returning the tree to the patio. Now that lends some authenticity to my fledgling One Step Kitchen Garden.

Miniature Tree Nursery

 After watching a presentation on a Japanese rapid reforestation method being used in India, I decided maybe I could have my own indigenous tree nursery for people here in Eugene who love planting trees.

Look closely at the black pot.
On Earth Day I rescued three tree starts
from the community garden.

Squirrels started an Oak tree by bringing an acorn
into this pot where I am regenerating a Hydrangea by 
taking a cutting from another one.  

This Maple is in its second year.

Four Pine trees and a Maple share this pot. 
The Pines are transplanted twice. First from between 
rocks in my yard and then from another pot that had 
too many baby trees.

If you look closely around the edges and in the center 
of this pot you will find four baby Maples.

Before I moved them, the four Pine starts 
 were in with the four Maples.
That's too many as they all start to grow.  

It will be a while before I know which trees will make it and why. But that's okey. Already I have over a dozen baby trees to nurture and learn about.

Yes, You Can

LiDoña Wagner Primordial Muck 2022  

I am totally plagiarizing Tom Baily, co-founder of The Jump campaign. Recently he put out a statement countering the idea that individuals cannot make a difference in addressing climate change. He listed six activities individuals can engage in to dramatically reduce carbon emissions.

 

1.     Eat a plant-based diet of healthy proteins and do

      not waste any food.

2.     Buy no more than three new items of clothing per

      year.

3.     Keep electrical products for at least seven years.

4.     Take no more than one short haul flight every

      three years and one long haul flight every eight 

      years.

5.     Get rid of personal motor vehicles if you can and

       if not, hold your existing vehicle longer.

6.     Make at least one life shift to nudge the system, 

      like moving to green energy, insulating your 

      home, or changing your pension supplier.

 

If everyone followed these six guidelines it would reduce by 25-27% emissions and keep global heating down to 1.5 centigrade. 

LiDoña Wagner Primordial Muck Detail 2022 

The push is for for each of us to make The Jump to assisting in caring for the Blue Marble. Let's do it!

HEARTS AND FLOWERS

Last week I finished a doll I began 

hand stitching seven years ago.

LiDoña Wagner Hearts & Flowers

I had created the body first; it was hard. Not knowing what to do next I put my doll and all the materials in a basket in the closet. After doll had rested a couple of years, I tried making the apron. It did not go well so once again I quit. Another couple of years passed before I decided to tackle the face. It was really hard and didn't turn out as I had hoped, but I did it. Still thinking about the apron, doll went back to the closet for another year. 

I am a sucker for symbols of transformation.

When I had figured out the apron and actually made it, my heart soared. Enthused, I started on the hair. But then I discovered that the ribbon I’d cut for the hair was too short. Once again I quit. Last week for some inexplicable reason, I got Hearts & Flowers out again. This time I pushed aside my inner critic, by saying, “Whose hairstyle is perfect? Let it be.” 

Anticipation of spring may have inspired finishing my doll.

HAPPINESS

During this whole journey, the heart-shaped head of Hearts & Flowers doll inspired me to make small heart-shaped love notes to myself that i post on a kitchen cabinet. One such note reads HAPPINESS Sleep, Gratitude, Helping Others. I can’t recall if this is a summary of one article I read or several that I summarized. What I do know is that it precipitated creation of an evening ritual. 

Perhaps it's anticipating Valentine's Day that got me off my duff. 

Each night before going to bed, I open my Gratitude Journal and record:

JOY = What brought joy into my life in the last 24 hours?

COMFORT = What gave me solace amid climate change and Covid’s ravages?

INSPIRED = What gave me hope or moved me to action?

GRATEFUL FOR = 3 or more as they come to mind – some nights it gets up to a dozen.

1.         2.           3.          4.           5.           6.         7.   

What creative project is waiting in your closet?

 

Year of the Tiger

Transformation to the 3rd Power

My gratitude overflows for the transformation that has occurred in my life since receiving Clarissa, my pacemaker. Intriguingly, during the week after Clarissa entered my life, I intuitively made a centering mandala with three butterflies. Now three months out, after a previous long period of sluggishly dragging myself from day to day, I have renewed energy, greater physical flexibility, and enhanced mental alertness. 

 

Why did this these symbols of transformation appear as i was integrating Clarissa into my life? They are not the endangered species of Monarchs I've been working for some time to protect. These butterflies emerged from inside me as a message from my psyche. I suspect the big one represents my health and well-being after Clarissa. 

Youthful Joy

But what about the other two? I remember feeling young and joyful when I put in the small pink, magenta and turquoise one. The new life she represents has not yet been revealed but might relate to publishing my third book, REINVENT YOURSELF with Dreaming & Artful Play, in the Year of the Tiger, 2022. 

Memories of the Monkey Dance

The brown, blue and white one reminds me of Indonesian batik cloth. Maybe it’s about pulling together spirit methods I have honed over many years into a Learning Lab in which participants create stories of personal change while going on a reinvention journey as they learn to guide dreamwork and artful play exercises.  

Signs of Life

I love my early morning exercise routine, done on a mat in front of the patio windows where I can witness nature’s changing rhythms. Noticing nanoseconds in Earth's long life pulls me out of self-absorption, reconnecting me to the source of life.

 

Human ignorance 

Endangering our mother

Mountain snow retreats

 

May your Year of the Tiger be filled with strength, courage, and ingenuity. Perhaps the simple act of drawing a circle and spontaneously putting something within will open a window into where your life wants to go next.