I guarantee half of an LDS congregation will start laughing if you say, “I prayed I could be of service to the Lord!” John and I did this periodically and every time it wore us out with goodness. We had to grow into it. The first time seven opportunities presented themselves in two hour’s time!

I can recall a few. At the library while I shopped for good books John waited, and I wasn’t long, but by the time I was done he was gone! I found him in the parking lot with an middle aged woman because in spite of pattering his couture after the homeless the woman had approached him saying,’Would you break into my car?” She’d locked her keys in her car.  “Just by chance” John found we had an old wire coat hanger behind our car seat. We’d been in similar situations several times and even with a coat hanger it took a loong time to break in. But John caught hold of the inside lock mechanism, pulling it up in just a FEW moments.

We shook our heads laughing at the answer to our prayer and drove three blocks to Wall- Mart where we found a woman changing her tire in a dress! The woman was wearing the dress- not the tire, (although that might have been a bigger miracle.) So John asked to take over.

Half our congregation laughs because so many of them have also asked the Lord if they could be of help and found themselves worn out with goodness. nancymauerman.com

Scriptures

I drew this before I met John- his love has sewn all my parts together. John died two months ago but I ran into something he jotted down on a three by five card, “You need help to nail both hands to a cross.”

The picture below is drawn in Crayola crayon. Do you receive insights on it or on John’s ‘Johnatude’? Let me know.

nancymauerman.com

Cut Hand

I never have to explain what ‘disappearing women’ means to other women. The full title of this outsider art piece is “Disappearance of the Women and Her own Two Stone Children With Clouds on Wheels.” Many of us who have chosen the career of child raising feel we have become functions- cleaning functions and babysitting functions.

I caught that in myself but then remembered my Mom who was constantly learning, taking classes, and reading books.  After a few years she added teacher to the list. After school every day my brother Don and I opened the front door to be met with, “I’m reading this book on (the Plains Indians, American history, parenting, geology, art, and more) and this is what I learned….”

So I held my babies in one arm and painted with the other and read Shakespeare and other great books to my children as they ate and at bed time. We had a hand-made time line on the wall in the living room and added inventions, authors, pieces of history, art, composers and information we hadn’t know before, to it. We loved learning together although at the end of summer when I dreaded them going back to school they said THEY looked forward to it. They, “needed a break.”

Clouds on wheels, stone children, and ladders dripping from the sky are also symbols in this picture. These give me ideas but I find other people have strong and very different ideas. Let me know what YOU think. You can also find this picture framed on Fine Art America. nancymauerman.com

Disappearance of the Woman and Her Own Two Stone Children With Clouds On Wheels

I’m 65- I’ve come to terms with my hair- it’s okay. But, if salamanders grew from my head I could feed bugs to my hair every other day! It would be glorious when they all spotted a butterfly on a flower. They’d scramble, stretch- reach and pile on top of each other.  My head would tilting with their weight! Then of course at church I’d have to occasionally spray them with water, being an aqua- animal, and try not to mist the guy next to me.  nancymauerman.com

Salamander Hair