Sheila Atchley 10/8/22 Sheila Atchley 10/8/22

How Wonderful Could It All Be, Really?

One of my favorite songs EVER, is Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.

I can never hear it, but what my heart doesn’t beat faster, and I feel my nervous system uncoiling itself into joy.

Truly, this world is a wonderful world. My life is a wonderful, wonderful life. And all of it begs the question:

How wonderful could it be….really?

If my life equals the sum total of my thoughts about it, if my feelings about this life are equal to my opinion of God’s goodness towards me, how wonderful might it all become if I changed my mind?

How wonderful could my experience of my life be if:

I stop letting other people determine how far I believe I can go…

if I stop trying to fix myself, as though something is broken…

if I stop wishing for past events to be different…

if I stop thinking that my body is anything less than the miraculous marvelous home of a beautiful eternal soul?

How wonderful are we allowing God to be to us? What if we women could re-wild ourselves from rules to the riches of grace? What might our day be like, moving from martyrdom to true service, out of well meaning religion and into a well being that flows like rivers of living waters from our still-expectant bellies?

How wonderful, how abundant, is it all meant to be?

How wonderful does God want your marriage to be? How wonderful does He want your creative expression to feel? How wonderfully impactful could your small business be?

I’ve come to a place where I am convinced that my original design is far better than what “wellness” as a modern-day industry can ever offer me. My original design is beyond “body positivity” - it is more than simply loving myself even if I was overweight or unhealthy. My original design might include, but in its full expression is actually better than anything any book or functional medicine guru can teach me.

My life lived at the right hand of God, seated in heavenly places, hidden away in Christ, puts me out of reach of diet dogmas, extreme protocols, and even “food freedom”. Divine life is life at a whole, other level - a level in which my life force doesn’t have to be dissipated by chasing what most women chase.

When I am able to receive the life of God into my whole being, including my body, the profound good news of it lets my nervous system “un-grip” itself. Parts of me get to come out of hiding and into full acceptance.

Placing myself in integrated alignment with the goodness of God directly impacts my whole experience of life: my creativity, my abundance, my spirituality, my physicality, every last part gets to come into favor.

Unearned, and undeserved favor.

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14: 17)

This kingdom I am living in really is not about “food and drink”. It isn’t about wellness rules, religious rules, mental health rules, social media rules, or your unspoken rules pertaining to me. This kingdom has zero to do with cultural expectations. Rather, this kingdom really is about righteousness (being made as I ought always to have been, given to me as sheer gift) peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

{ ::voice lowers to a conspiratorial whisper:: “Hey queen. What would it look like for you to reign in life, not rein-in your life?”}

How wonderful could it all be….really?

Sheila Atchley 8/1/22 Sheila Atchley 8/1/22

My Next Online Art and Creativity Class Goes LIVE Soon!

I am pleased to gently remind you that my next online class, once again in collaboration with the Jeanne Oliver Creative Network is still open for registration, and will go live on August 19!

If you are on my mailing list, you’ve already received an email announcement. If you aren’t on my mailing list, just shoot me a quick email with your email address, and I will consider that as my permission to add you. I will be working hard in the months ahead to bring my email list the very best in soul-nourishing spiritual and creative encouragement - beyond even what you’ll find here on the blog. So thank you for signing up.

Here is a description of this upcoming class, titled “Middle Makers - A Blueprint For Late Bloomers”

"The Middle" is less an age-range, and more a state of being. The "middle" can feel like simply being scattered; you experience the pull, in all different directions, of this relatively new digital lifestyle. The middle can manifest as an unsettled feeling, a vague sense of dissatisfaction. There is often a degree of emotional pain, such as depression or anxiety. The result of these stresses common to midlife can be a whopping case of creative inertia.

The act of making physical things in the physical world is a powerful tool in your toolbox, for the care and maintenance of your midlife soul. After all, when your soul is well tended, you are better able to tend souls well. This world desperately needs women (and men!) in the middle, showing up in their full creative form, wielding their energy, sharing their wisdom, and revealing who they are and how they have been gifted.

We need you, as you, and with a flourishing soul!

Whatever your age, if you've encountered a little bit of "stuck-ness" in your middle, this course is for you. Through a series of spacious story-telling and doable art-making, Middle Makers will unfold a blueprint for blooming. This class is for the women who, for whatever the reason, may have put their creative lives on hold.

Until now.

Sheila Atchley is one who has known many of the deep challenges related to midlife. After a 20 year career in church ministry, home making, and education, she picked up a paintbrush for the very first time as a means of processing transition. The results have been breathtaking, in terms of the life and health that sprang up in her own soul. Her art is now found in every state in the United States, and most of the countries of the world! Teaching art has also carried her far and wide - as far away as Italy, and as wide as the coasts of the US.

She has had to overcome overwhelming inertia to be sharing her stories, and more than that, imparting a sense of luminous possibility to the other artists and creatives she encounters. Sheila is a firm believer in the fact that midlife women, after going through a seemingly isolated season of transition, can emerge as new, more creative than ever "Middle Makers"...

...and then we all somehow find one another.

So whether you are a stark beginner or a seasoned maker, this course, with its encouraging and informative writing, as well as the art techniques taught in it, can be a powerful blueprint for your blossoming as a creative "difference maker" in midlife.

One last time, here is the link:

https://jeanneoliver.com/middle-makers-with-sheila-atchley-registration-open/

I cannot wait to see YOU in class!