Jackie Catterton, Watercolorist

Jackie’s Personal Appearances & Art Displays

My friend Jackie Catterton (who is also a Heartspoken Connection Messenger, because her art connects us with Nature and with God’s creation) will be displaying her beautiful watercolors and notecards at several upcoming events in the Shenandoah Valley and northern Virginia, and I’m posting her schedule below.

New pricing in time for holiday gift-giving and personal note-writing

Here are links to her notecards that you can buy in Heartspoken’s store. We’ve just slashed the pricing on these as well as the shipping (Set of 4 with matching envelopes now only $10), so stock up for personal note-writing that will make you happy every time you pull out one of these beautiful cards:

Bird and Landscape notecards

Floral notecards

Jackie's Bouquet

Change of Times

Special Occasion

Visit Jackie in person this fall:

Sept 17th Sat. Skyline Resort Applebutter Festival, 10-5 (Skyline Drive)

Sept 24th Sat. Brew/Blues Festival - Front Royal, 1-8 pm

Oct. 7-8-9    Waterford Homes Tour and Crafts Exhibit, Red Barn Art Mart- Waterford Va.

Oct. 8th  Sat. Festival of the Leaves- Front Royal, 9-6pm

These are all wonderful events with much to see and do. Get out and enjoy this beautiful part of the world. And if you see Jackie, tell her “Heartspoken sent me!”

“Is what you’re holding onto holding you back?”

Introducing Connection Messenger Debbie Bowie, Certified Professional Organizer®

It was my remarkable good fortune, while attending my 40th college reunion at Randolph College in Lynchburg, VA  (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College), to sit in on a lecture by fellow alumna Debbie Bowie entitled, “Using Feng Shui to Clear Your Clutter and Create Prosperity.”  The appeal of her topic was demonstrated by the packed room of both men and women. I imagine I was not the only person in the room who felt she was speaking directly to them.

The high points of her message — and the message in her excellent little book called Rock Scissors Paper: Understanding How Environment Affects Your Performance on a Daily Basis – were these:

• Everything has energy (chi), positive or negative.
• Energy talks to you.
• Everything is connected (so any small part of your life in disorder can disrupt other parts of your life).
• Like attracts like (so if you surround yourself with broken, ugly, or negative things, you’ll attract more of these into your life).
• You should surround yourself only with things that you love or that you use: “Love it, Use it, or Lose it!”
• Her definition of clutter is “chaos in physical form” and she suggests that it is a manifestation of stress – certainly it can cause stress.
• She quoted Barbara Hemphill who said, “Clutter is postponed decisions.”
• Feng Shui (Feng – “wind” and Shui = “water”), in its simplest form, is the practice of learning to balance energies of a space to assure the health and good fortune of those inhabiting that space.

Perhaps the most powerful testimony to the impact of Debbie’s presentation is what happened when I got home. I sat quietly in my home office — the space where I was finding myself more and more unhappy — yet a space I need to do my work. I thought for awhile about what was absolutely necessary or absolutely treasured in that space. Then, I went on a rampage. I proceeded to rearrange and purge, removing the things I had piled in front of the windows that blocked the light, getting rid of anything that wasn’t being used or enjoyed. I took boxes to our local thrift shop and my sweet husband hauled nine black lawn and leaf bags to the dump. I brought in plants that reminded me of special people and places and found that bringing Nature into my workspace brought me calm and joy. I removed an old, faded rug and brought in a smaller one with colors that I found energizing and appealing.

Now when I enter my office, I find it welcoming and attractive. I am more productive and inspired while I’m here. I no longer feel the need to drag my laptop to another part of the house to avoid the messiness of my old office. The result is that there is less of my work scattered throughout the house, and when I leave the office, I can relax more in other parts of the house, because I have left my work behind. I’ve got a whole new room without paying either a remodeler or a decorator!

I have been so impressed with the results of Debbie’s message that I’ve invited her to become a Heartspoken Connection Messenger, and she has graciously contributed a guest post this week. Her teaching offers ways to strengthen two essential life connections: Connection with Self and Connection with Nature. Implementing her ideas will be a productive excavation towards finding what most makes your heart sing. She espouses connecting with Nature as an important part of creating healthy, happy spaces.

As you’re doing your own decluttering, remember that clutter can be both physical and psychological. Make a clean sweep of those things that separate you from your best self — those things that block your creativity and your happiness. Please share your successes and tips that you learn along the way.

Happy housecleaning!

Debbie Bowie is a veteran speaker, Certified Professional Organizer®, feng shui practitioner and author of Rock Scissors Paper: Understanding How Environment Affects Your Performance on a Daily Basis. She is the owner of the Rock Scissors Paper Institute, formerly Simply Organized, a company she formed in 1998. Debbie practices feng shui organizing, an approach to organizing that combines organizing principles with the wisdom of feng shui to help clients clear a path to getting more of what they really want from life. I recommend buying her book and, if you live in the Richmond, Virginia, area, you can retain her for consulting or to speak at your next event. 

The following is a guest blog post by Connection Messenger Debbie Bowie, a professional organizer and feng shui practitioner whose lecture and book have helped me completely revamp my home office space from one I hated to enter into one that is warm, inviting, less cluttered, and productive. I’ve written in greater detail HERE about how the principles she teaches helped me strengthen my connection with both Nature and with my own best self.

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A simple formula for stress reduction is to add Nature and reduce paper. Spend more time outside, weather permitting, or bring more elements of nature into your home or work space, and you’ll feed yourself with positive energy. By ridding yourself of all paper except that which you absolutely need, and keeping the important papers stored for easy access and retrieval, you will eliminate a major source of stress in your life.

A friend of mine commented that she had not expected to find that I had so much stuff in my house. That really alarmed me, because I work very hard to keep my home clutter-free, organized and feeling good. As I usually do when I receive a negative comment, I checked out the space, trying to see it through the eyes of a guest. Upon inspection I realized because I live in a small space, it is easier to be more acutely aware of everything in the space. I also have many high energy things: live plants, silk plants, pictures of plants, rocks and shells, a bubbling fountain. Nature is everywhere! I had unconsciously created a garden, with all the busyness of a garden.  I didn’t set out to create a garden.  I just kept bringing in things that I loved, that felt right in the space.  I created a space that is a nurturing retreat, away from the stress of the rest of the world.

What you will also find in my home is that paper only resides in three locations:  the kitchen counter, my office and my husband’s office.  I keep the quantities of paper down to a minimum in all three areas with paper going out every day.  I know if I am pitching paper I am reducing stress and empowering myself.  I am winning the war against paper.

Reduce stress and empower yourself today by pitching as much paper as you can (don’t worry, they don’t put you in jail for not having a piece of paper you might need!), and either spending time in nature or bringing nature into your home.  By the way, if you can’t keep plants alive, photographs and prints of nature and silk plants work well too!

Debbie Bowie

About Debbie:

Is what you’re holding onto holding you back? That is the mantra of Debbie Bowie, veteran speaker, Certified Professional Organizer®, feng shui practitioner and author of Rock Scissors Paper: Understanding How Environment Affects Your Performance on a Daily Basis. She is the owner of the Rock Scissors Paper Institute, formerly Simply Organized, a company she formed in 1998. Debbie practices feng shui organizing, an approach to organizing that combines organizing principles with the wisdom of feng shui to help clients clear a path to getting more of what they really want from life.

Blog photo credit: “Calm and Relaxation 2″ by Jamie Brelsford via stock.xchng, Cheshire, United Kingdom (www.bannerprintingandroid.co.uk)

One glorious summer morning years ago I left my children with their grandparents in a small town in Iowa and went off to my first encounter with virgin tall-grass prairie. Armed with field guides and an indistinct map, I wandered down washboard gravel roads, not sure I’d recognize prairie when I found it.

I did know corn fields and soy beans and what I saw broke my heart. The corn and beans had been planted on time but heavy rains had swamped the fields and most of both crops had not survived the relentless flooding. Occasionally a vacant field caught my eye, rich in grass and a few wildflowers. Was this the prairie or just a field in some federal program?

I soon discovered the parallel between labor pains and prairie…if you have to ask, “Is this it”, it isn’t. I knew when I found that prairie! A quarter section that had never been plowed. Ever. I got there at the same time as a couple of other women. We compared field guides, jumped the ditch, climbed over the stile, and spread out, careful not to make a path for invasive plants to get a foothold. For hours we wandered over those 160 acres. “Oh look, rattlesnake plant” and “Hey, is this leadplant?” “Have you ever seen such vivid wild roses?”

Not once in our trek did we encounter mud or drowning plants. When I wriggled my fingers through the dried remains of last year’s growth, I couldn’t find bare ground, just further decomposed remains of plants long gone. Grasses, flowers of every plant family I could think of, and even small trees, grew in abundance.

Eventually I reached the fence separating this natural garden from the flooded corn field. I wondered if the farmer would even make enough to cover the cost of his seed, much less the fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, and fuel for his tractor. Yet on my side, there was no fertilizer, no chemicals, no labor at all. And there was life in abundance. Everything that grew there, died there. Everything that died there fed what grew there. Thus it had ever been, as it is in every natural environment.

I am not so naïve as to advocate a return to a hunter-gatherer society. Our progress and security depend on agriculture but there is so much we can do to close that circle of nature.

Nature replenishes itself at every step and it is man that breaks the cycle. Let’s learn to recognize the ways in which we can re-establish the cycle and work with nature instead of against her.

Photo credit: hougaardmalan, South Africa

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Today’s guest blogger − and Nature Connection Messenger − is Esther Miller, a Shenandoah Valley neighbor and fellow amateur radio operator (KK6AD). Esther has been a Virginia Master Gardener for over ten years. “I’ve been gardening since I was a kid,” she says, and her love of Nature is evident whenever you’re around her. She has traveled all over the United States and brings a wealth of experience and observance of Nature to her writing.

Born and raised in the midwest, Esther lived in California for over 30 years before moving to the Shenandoah Valley over 10 years ago with her husband, Larry.  ”I was an Occupational Therapist when I wasn’t being a fulltime homemaker and mother, working with children who had learning disabilities, physical disabilities, and autism.”  She has two children and two grandchildren and has been married almost 39 years.

Besides gardening, Esther is interested in genealogy and travel in the U.S.

SPRINGTIME…the very word evokes vivid images, sounds, and smells, especially for those of us who live in a part of the world where Spring is a distinct season. Spring is also laced with symbols of rebirth and hope after the darkness of winter. Every bulb that pushes its way through clods of dirt into its first breath of air and light is a metaphor for triumph over adversity.

Since about tree weeks ago, signs of spring have been popping out daily here in the Shenandoah Valley — flowering fruit trees, daffodils and maple trees are getting fuller and more colorful. The forsythia has been vibrant this year among the first spots of color in my yard. We’ll soon be seeing dogwood and redbud. The birds have been absolutely raucous! My Phoebe has returned to make her nest in the corner of our porch, and the Carolina Wren still amazes me with the amount of sound that comes out of such a small body. Earthworms are in big trouble — I see American Robins everywhere digging in the moist ground. The spring rain today has an entirely different smell from the winter rains — fresher and filled with the promise of things to come.

Don’t miss Connection Messenger April Moore’s post on Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) at her wonderful Nature website Earth Connection . She did some fascinating fact-finding that will enhance your knowledge and pleasure every time you hear the wonderful chorus of peeping that, to me, is one of the most conspicuous and early signs of spring, especially where I live down by the north fork of the Shenandoah River. I was particularly interested to learn that spring peepers don’t spend much time in trees and that they are nocturnal carnivores, primarily devouring insects and arachnoids. Who knew? The “crucifer” in its Latin name comes from the distinctive dark X pattern on its back. Don’t miss the link at the bottom of April Moore’s blog post to a 30-second video of a close-up view of a spring peeper peeping…amazing!

Photo by Joyce Gross (http://www.joycegross.com)

Photo by by Paul Tessier (http://www.tessierphotography.com)

Connecting with the natural world around you will enhance your pleasure, enjoyment, and gratitude for the wonders of Nature, and it all starts with just paying attention.

What are YOUR favorite signs of spring? Please share in the comments below.

Photo credits:

1) “Tulip about to Pop” by “Louchiere” Vickie Mathews (www.flickr.com/photos/louchiere79)

2) Spring peeper showing vocal sac by Joyce Gross (http://www.joycegross.com)

3) Spring peeper showing vocal sac by Paul Tessier (http://www.tessierphotography.com), North Dighton, MA, procured through iStockPhoto.com.

Permalink to this post: http://www.heartspoken.com/2011/04/signs-of-spring

“Forests are the lungs of our Planet!”

What an inspiration to learn about one young woman’s efforts to save the forests of our earth. Aparna Mulberry of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is on a mission. You’ll enjoy this short video that she created as an audition for a chance to go to Borneo as part of DeforestACTION’s Project Borneo. If you’re reading this before April 10, 2011, you can vote for her: http://gg.tigweb.org/tig/deforestaction/judge/. Click the checkbox next to her video — about halfway down that page — blonde girl in blue shirt.

Aparna’s commentary on rampant and irresponsible deforestation: “It’s a destruction of our Mother Earth for the purpose of Greed.”

Let’s join Aparna in embracing this commitment. Together we CAN make a difference:

“I want to protect the planet, I want to protect the future, and I’m ready to be part of the solution!”

Let us know in the Comments below how YOU are supporting the preservation of our forests. Support an organization today that is working to fight deforestation and let us know about other organizations who are doing a good job in this:

DeforestAction

Rainforest Action Network

Sierra Club

World Wildlife Fund

List of other organizations fighting deforestation

eHow article: “How to fight deforestation”

Permalink to this blog post: http://www.heartspoken.com/2011/04/save-our-forests-one-womans-crusade/

Introducing Nature Connection Messenger/Artist: Jackie Catteron

Jackie Catterton, Watercolorist

Sometimes you come across a work of art that is so full of light and warmth and beauty that you just wish you could meet the artist. That happened to me last year when I bought some beautiful notecards featuring birds and flowers and country scenes that just…well, they just made me happy!

When you’re a notewriting evangelist like I am, unique and quality stationery is important, so on a whim, I decided to contact the artist of these beautiful notes and see if she had any interest in letting me sell them on my Heartspoken website.

Jackie Catterton turned out to be as lovely a human being as she is a talented artist, and imagine my surprise and delight when we met for the first time and realized very quickly that we were kindred spirits too! Jackie is a deeply committed Christian, and she loves nothing more than sharing her faith and joy from life with others. In fact, she has spent much of her professional life serving others too, first as a teacher, then as a certified nursing assistant, and later as an Activities Director certified by the Virginia Association for Activities Professionals (VAAP).

Fortunately for us, Jackie felt inspired since her retirement in the Shenandoah Valley and decided to develop her natural artistic talent by capturing the beauty she sees in God’s creation all around her in her amazing watercolors. “If my work can bless someone in any way, then that is what motivates me,” says Jackie.

I consider Jackie a Connection Messenger for at least two reasons. By having the courage to connect with her own inner gifts and talents, Jackie inspires others to do the same. Age is irrelevant when it comes to letting your light shine! Jackie’s artwork also connects us to God’s creation and the beauty of Nature. I find myself noticing the way light plays on a flower or tree or bird and appreciating it all the more because of thinking how Jackie would capture it in one of her vibrant watercolors.

I am grateful not only for Jackie’s gift with light and color, but I am grateful for her kindness and friendship. Many times, she has sent me an encouraging email or a Scripture quote just when I needed it. Now that I appreciate Jackie’s inner beauty, I get even more pleasure out of using her beautiful cards. Here are two below,  but be sure to visit the Heartspoken Gifts pages to see more of Jackie’s creations.

Floral Bouquet and Specimen Notecards

Bird and Country Landscape Notecards

Forget Me Nots by Jackie Catterton

In His Light by Jackie Catterton

These were the words of my son, then three or four years old, when he first saw the Atlantic Ocean. He ran into the surf where the edge of the advancing water lapped his toes, threw his little arms out wide and uttered this cry, much to my delight and amazement. “Come, my beloved water!” Where had he learned such a thing? From our reading aloud, no doubt, but still it was a precious moment.

These words came to mind today when I read Andy Schmookler‘s beautiful post called “Rooting for Rain” on his wife April Moore’s Earth Connection Blog. In his years living in the Southwest, Andy became especially attuned to the need for–and the effects of–rain. Right now, we are desperate for rain here in the Shenandoah Valley, and Andy reminds us of water’s life-giving properties. “The earth, when it rains, breathes through a myriad of living things,” he says. “Come oh blessing. Come and nourish the earth and all its creatures.” Of course, when I read those words, my mind immediately took me back to that small child’s cry to the vast ocean: “Come, my beloved water!”

It’s no wonder water has become such a powerful symbol for cleansing and nourishment. I’m grateful for Andy’s vivid reminder of our connection with all other living things in this most elemental dependence on water. We dare not take this natural resource for granted.

Photo credit: Dorota Kaszczyszyn, Legnica, Poland (courtesy of stck.xchng)

Connection Messengers: Matthew Lyon and Christine Dickinson… “Earthpassage”

My friend Mimi Meredith sent me a beautiful gift last winter to thank me for being part of her blog community. It was a wonderful CD called “Quiet Paths: Journeys Through the Forest,” by Matthew Lyon and Christine Dickinson. As soon as I heard it, I was transported by their exquisite music into the peace, calm, and beauty of a forest, and I knew that I would one day invite these talented musicians to become “Connection Messengers” for Heartspoken.com, because their music is inspired by a deep spiritual connection with natural beauty.

Happily that day is here, and I am offering some of their CDs in the Heartspoken Gifts section of this site. I want to share a bit about these talented musicians from the words on their own website:

“Christine Dickinson’s music is born out of her unique heritage as a fourth-generation Montanan, a daughter of the mountains and plains of her beloved homeland. Raised in a household where classical music shared equal time with Methodist hymns, she learned to play the piano from her mother, a homesteader’s daughter.

“I learned early on that music was a way to bring the sacred into the everyday world, to find the hidden beauty waiting at the heart of the most ordinary experiences.” Click here for more information on Christine Dickinson.

“Multi-instrumentalist Matthew Lyon has been a composer since childhood, when he started teaching himself the wide array of instruments he plays today. Equally at home playing an Celtic harp or using a computer for sound-design, Lyon strives to bridge the worlds of art, technology and spirit.

“I try to bring a sense of the inner landscapes and emotions that linger in the memories of an experience. The studio itself becomes an instrument in this quest, a garden where we grow music from the seeds of our travels through this land…” Click here for more information about Matthew Lyon.

Click here to shop products by Earthpassage.

Music is a powerful connection tool, and its special gift transcends the boundaries of those who created it to resonate and enrich those who hear it.

Please share music that has connected you with something important: Nature, God, yourself, or others.

Nature Connection Messenger April Moore had a beautiful post on her blog today called “Awakening to Nature.” In it, she looks back to try to identify when it was that she caught the spark of her now-passionate love for Nature, and it got me thinking about my own long relationship with Nature.

I was one of those lucky ones who grew up on a farm. I was the oldest of five children, and after teaching us the basics of being safe outdoors, my parents allowed us to wander at will and for hours on end. Our farm was called Woodside, and in one particularly idyllic wooded area, there was a stream that fell in a long, beautiful, downhill cascade over rocks, tree trunks, and fallen trees, until it met the wider and deeper Goose Creek. We called it Woodside Water Wonderland, because it was enchanting any time of year. During the summer, the water reflected the light filtering through the overhead canopy of the hardwood forest. In the winter, the little waterfalls froze in wonderful ice formations.

Woodside Water Wonderland was almost a mile from the house, so it was not a place I visited alone until I was at least nine or ten, but to this day, just thinking of it takes me back to the feeling of quiet serenity, the distinctive smell of woods and water, the caress of a breeze through the trees, and the wonderful sounds of birdsong and babbling water as it falls over stones and logs.

There are so many aspects of modern society that result in far fewer children having this kind of formative experience. Parents are much more fearful of letting their children roam, and so many more children now are raised away from the country where the opportunity exists for this. With so many more families with two working parents, there is not as much free time to take children into the outdoors.

Fortunately, we have wonderful parks and arboretums that can, as they did for April Moore, inspire and instill a love, knowledge, and appreciation for the natural world that lasts a lifetime. Have you made friends with your nearby parks and arboretums? I know I have spent far too little time at the State Arboretum of Virginia which is only about 40 miles away. I’m setting myself a goal to get there again soon. Arboretums are particularly wonderful ways to learn the names of those trees you see every day in your yard.

Do you recall a particular time or place that awakened your own awareness or appreciation for the natural world? Please share it with us!

Nature Connection Tip:

Find out where the nearest arboretum is to your home. Sometimes they are associated with a local college or university. Explore  its website and plan a visit.

Share in the Comments below a moment when you awakened to Nature.