Sing a New Song

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Hi Everyone,

I come from a musical family, and Psalm 96:1 is one of my favorite scriptures. Given the growing interest in Bible Journaling, I decided to feature a scripture in my 2018 Earth Day design:

I started blogging sporadically in 2012, but it wasn’t until April 22, 2014 that I made a commitment to share my spiritual and creative journey on a weekly basis. In the first of the weekly Zenspirations® blog posts, I also wrote about Earth Day. Zenspirations is the song of my heart… and each blog post I write is my way of  singing a new song. Over the past four years I’ve shared my ‘song’ and evolving interests– from lettering, patterning and Dangling to Coloring, Bible & Prayer Journaling– with the Zenspirations community.

The image above is a color version of the one of the designs in the layout section of the Complete Guide to Bible Journaling (page 50), where I showed several different ways to visually interpret the same text. Some of you might not be aware that I started a Bible Journaling Jumpstart Facebook Group, to help people who enjoy Bible Journaling connect. Just like the Zenspirations® Create, Color, Pattern, Play Facebook group, it’s become a worldwide forum where people share their work and their hearts and support and encourage each other both artistically and personally.

One of the biggest blessings of being part of the Zenspirations® community are the many friends and Cyber-friends I’ve made. One of my cyber-friends, Gerard Doherty, an Irishman who touched the hearts of many members of the Zenspirations community would have been turning 62 today. Regular blog followers know that Gerard died unexpectedly last month. Last year on his birthday, I made him a time-lapse video card:

Since this is the last week of the month, which is when I post the Zenspirations Word of the Month page for the following month, I decided to design the May page in Gerard’s honor, and set off to find his response to the questions I asked in Transformative Journey, the last blog post of 2017.

  1. Of the words which have been suggested this year–

    awareness, commitment, cooperation, emerge, goodwill, Holy, humility, kindness, love, pray, purpose, transformative, transformation– which one gets your vote for the Zenspirations 2018 Word of the Year?

  2. Are there specific words you would like to see included in our 12 words of the month?

Here’s the design that Gerard’s choice inspired:

Click the link below to download your FREE copy of the

 Zenspirations®_by_Joanne_Fink_BlogMay_Word_of_the_Month_Kindness  

I was moved that Gerard also requested that we include the word Forgiveness, and so I created a piece I think he would have liked:

There are many people struggling to forgive someone who has hurt them; feel free to share this piece with anyone you think it could help.

I had been planning to share details about the 4th ‘Blog-versary’ Celebration Webstore Sale tonight, but have decided to postpone the sale until next month because I have not gotten the new Spellbinders dies yet, and know that lots of you are going to want to order them during the sale. Right now I’m thinking of holding the sale May 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th, and will confirm that next week.

Stay Zenspired,

Joanne

 

 

8 thoughts on “Sing a New Song”

  1. Oh Joanne thanks for thinking of and honoring Gerard with your beautiful designs and words. Kindness and forgiveness are great words.and he showed his kindness in so many ways. I sure do miss him, but he is in a better place with our God and he suffers no more.
    I am going to share the forgiveness design for especially for my two friends that have broken their friendship by some hurtful words and we hope and pray it can be resolved before it is too late. Hope this helps. We never know when the Lord will call us home, so we should make amends now with the people we especially love and care for.
    Thinking of you always,
    Love,
    Gail

  2. EMERGE
    PURPOSE

    are two words which stand out to me today.

    Thank you, Joanne, for always making me grateful and “purposeful” after reading your blog.

    Remembering Gerard together with you!

  3. Joanne, So nice of a tribute to Gerard. I hope you don’t mind that I had shared the art you made when he died, I just had to do something in remembrance of him. Every time we spoke, he was kind, supportive & funny!
    I also wanted to tell you how much I Love your words on Forgiveness.
    I have had to learn to forgive someone that is supposed to be very close to me, even though he continues to do nothing but hurt me. The abandonment part was the hardest to forgive.. The crap that comes out of his mouth now, I have myself a little cry, and remember it isn’t coming from a good person, so I forgive & forget pretty quick. And it is Not for him! It is because I refuse to let someone keep me feeling like I’m worthless, & that Everything I do is wrong. I Know that isn’t true & he only does it because it makes him feel better. I don’t get why people do that. I so wish there was more peace in this world. Too many people are suffering enough, we should at the very least be able to be kind to one another!
    Sorry for the rant, and thank you again for your words. It’s actually a conversation I just had with someone that I am definitely going to share it with. Printed & framed!
    Sending Love,
    Jamie

  4. Beautiful post. I also miss Gerard’s inspirational posts. Can’t wait for your sale and new items.

  5. Hi Joanne,
    I loved all the art you shared today. I love seeing our beautiful blue planel celebrated in art. This earth day, I was really moved to try to get rid of using plastic as much as I can, so we can keep those oceans blue. I loved your remembrance of Gerard, he was a dear person. The Forgiveness piece was my favorite. I have been trying to think how to share it. The person I know who would benefit the most , is very prickly, and I am afraid would take it as a criticism of their lack of forgiveness. Hopefully I will be inspired with the best approach soon. Thank you for sharing it, I think it is perfect and I am getting a lot out of it too.

  6. This is so lovely Joanne and Gerard would have been so moved by it! I think it is very telling that kindness and forgiveness were at the top of his list. Gerard truly was a kindred spirit and I miss our chats so much. I think it’s harder to process a loss when you don’t see them in person.

    Thank you for always having the perfect words to express what is in our hearts. I LOVE the word of the month and the design you created to go with it! I think it would mean so much to Gerard that you created it with him in mind.
    Love you bunches!
    Mary Anne

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