All the best stories in the world speak about two things; a journey and the visitor. The Hobbit has both, Cat In The Hat tells about a visitor and Harry Potter takes a journey. Throughout time and over the world, the visitor that changes a life and the journey to find treasure and self are the stories that last and interest us the most. I learned this from Timothy Spurgin in a set of The Great Courses lectures called The Art of reading.

In many old stories sub plots revolve around food, probably because it wasn’t easy to get and we’d die without it, finding a mate, and relationships with children, parents, siblings, and close friends, I’m thinking because we’d die without their help and we’d be miserable without their society.

So I wondered why the journey and the visitor are so important and I found, the Man Of Sorrows, a piece of art about Jesus Christ. I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and from that point of view comes this thought.  Let’s say we all lived with God before we were born into this world. We were EXTREMELY happy and were taught good from bad and we knew if we were totally good during our turn on earth, our JOURNEY, we could come back HOME.

We were excited to take our journey and find out how successful we’d be. That excitement is BORN IN US, and still there. But on our journey here, we make mistakes and are bad on purpose sometimes and therefore we disqualify ourselves to live with our Father again.

We’re so fortunate and excited because one of our favorite brothers will visit the earth and do two of the most important things we most desperately want. He clarifies the map, the map our journey should take in order to come back home. Also He somehow takes away the mistakes and the on purpose badness for each of us so we CAN come back home. This doesn’t just happen, we must discover the value of this VISITOR and put in the effort to ask for His help, and of course in doing so we build strength of goodness and character. We are BORN with this desperate need and excitement to find the correct visitor.

We’re BORN knowing our INDIVIDUAL JOURNEY is extremely important and we’re born with a LONGING FOR HOME which is the end of our journey. On our journey we have an INNER LONGING to find THAT SPECIAL VISITOR who will literally save us from failure to get back home. Any story that echos these inborn longings will trigger and burn inside us as familiar and desperately important.   nancymauerman.com

Man Of Sorrows I

I don’t want tulips in the middle of my lawn nor dandelions; so I put them in a pot.   nancymauerman.com

dandelion in a pot

Are we left overs or are we the cake? Amy says, she sometimes sees us as the left over stuff. After everything else blew away and anti matter and matter battled it out, then there was us.

Yea I say, but you can also think of us as cake. Stuff is mixed and and all the bowls are put in the sink, the extra eggs, flour and spices are put away in another place, then all is mixed well. Opposites step in as cool suddenly heated up and you get cake. Depending on the day, sometimes I feel like left overs but Father always thinks of me as cake.   nancymauerman.com

Morianenumer – Framed

Before us there was the BIG BANG.

John told me of an interview he’d heard with the author of, Cycles of Time. The scientist could not quote his own book because it hadn’t been reviewed yet by his peers. It hadn’t been approved of as being real. But this man’s findings showed, what HAPPENED before the before; or before the Big Bang.

His thinking is that before the Big Bang there was a moving temperature change. As if a shock wave proceeded before the before and within this wave of temperature change were spheres, like bubbles, of even different temperatures.  How fascinating.

So, we found this out, after we learned about the Big Band.  Also, John heard about this theory before it was made real by peer review but then he will hear about all this later if it is found to be real.

So, there was something here BEFORE there was something here, and we found about the beginning AFTER, we found out about the beginning (the before, the before), and John heard about it BEFORE he will really hear about it. How fascinating.

I’ll tell you about the picture below another time because it’s similar to conversation above. Just a hint; it may be about being yourself within yourself.  nancymauerman.com

Like Giving a Broken Radio To The Deaf Neighbors – Framed

This startled man is painted in a wooden drawer.  The shadow of a ladder falls from a cloud window and covers him in stripes.

This fellow reminds me of John this morning who’s was eyes bugged wide. He told me, “When I woke up I looked down and I saw I looked like SPIDER MAN.””What?” I said confused.

“Yea,” he said proudly, “I looked down and saw a big stomach and skinny arms and legs.”  “Boy did they get the movie wrong,” I said in reply then, “I always thought you looked like a movie star; I just didn’t know which one.”  nancymauerman.com

Attachment Deficeint World Pollution – Framed

John and I started for the V.A. hospital at 7:00A.M.; we left it at 7:00 P.M. for the short trip home. John received a chemo drug, new to him, so the drip was sloow. The V.A. nurses are great they watched for problems and after several visits have become almost like family.

For over an hour John was the only patient, but he can make confronting a disease with no cure entertaining. He looked at the drip device and said, “I have drippy water faucets at home faster then this.”

The picture below show a woman in white, a good guy color for many cultures. She has a bone face as she holds a baby. A woman behind the white lady and hugs and supports her but this second lady wears black, a bad guy color. First appearances are not always correct. I’m reading The Idylls Of The King by Tennyson where each person in the story, and also I, hear conflicting claims and rumors of Arthur’s qualifications to be king.  I chose by seeing “the fruits of his labor.”  nancymauerman.com

Madonna Annodam – Framed

This figure is painted on a wooden kitchen drawer, its handle is at the top and the small spots are formed by carving out small chinks of wood. The top panel is still the original pale blue but both sides, bottom and back are  covered in painted figures also. The poor fellow below is having a bad hair day, on the other hand, I hear this thought recently, “If your body is a temple, it moves around you as a force field of joy.” Nice. nancymauerman.com

The Non-Erring Line is a Papercut – Drawer

He has given me bugs for Mother’s Day. My husband called, “Come and see this bug,” or this year he said, “Is this flowers or a toilet plunger?” Once I did receive flowers just to be different but other years it’s been three pineapples or a toilet plunger because my washer is too small to wash my hand made quilts. A quilt in the tub, water and a plunger does a nice job. This year John brought me a handful of tiny bananas.This is one side of a two sided quilt with as many surprises as John’s gift giving.   nancymauerman.com

Black Ballerinas And Bugs In Dresses

This person is half alligator half duck but I don’t know why yet. I do know why she’s dancing. It’s for cookies. I laugh when John brings home a new big bag of cat food. Tesla and Formica sing and prance and rub all over it.

I laugh until I realize if John brought me home a bag of my favorite cookies four times taller than me, let’s say sixteen feet tall, I’d sing a long song too! And my cats are even luckier than that; we wouldn’t be able to get my bag of cookies in the front door.

I love my indoor plumbing too as expressed in the brass pipes on the frame of this painting; I love my life.  nancymauerman.com

Midnight Cookies – Framed