Creative Energy - Donna Elftmann

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Creative Energy - Donna Elftmann

Welcome to Creative Energy. I offer Healing Touch Therapy (HTSM-CP) to compliment Spiritual Direction Listening.

I am also a Certified Aromatherapist using Essential Oils to promote healing.

15/02/2022

I recently wrote about Courage.
COURAGE
Courage is defined as the quality of mind or spirit to face problems or fear.

I was reminded of being courageous to start college at the ripe age of fifty. Each of my early classes were an act of courage – algebra at the beginning again – English composition to learn how to write for each of the next college classes.
Early in my college experience, I volunteered with ESL to assist with a class of pre-literate Sudanese women. We used pictures to help them understand this new language. I showed a suitcase and learned that they walked for miles with numerous clothing items piled on their body. I nearly collapsed bawling as the enormity of their courage struck me. Could I do that? The situation would have to be desperate to walk away from all that’s familiar and endure walking forever – day and night.
It took a lot of courage for me to continue with my Tending the Holy classes to become a Spiritual Director. This was after I had been forced to retire early under a new administration, treated as a disgruntled employee.
Fear can keep us from being able to draw upon the courage we need to move forward. What do I fear? The courage I need now is to open the door. I am far too in the habit of hiding in the shadow of my health issues blaming the Coronavirus Pandemic of my need to stay safely hidden, uninvolved.
Karen Hering advised us to recite the following to help us move beyond our fears: “I release you fear, I release you fear, I release you fear. I am not afraid to keep learning: Watercolor, Aromatherapy, Healing Touch, the FODMAP diet, French, or to meet asylum seekers trying to assimilate into Minnesota, United States of America.”
Joshua 1:9 (New International Reader's Version)
“Here is what I am commanding you to do. Be strong and brave. Do not be afraid. Do not lose hope. I am the LORD your God. I will be with you everywhere you go.”

Read a true story of courage: Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals about being one of nine black teenagers, chosen by the NAACP, to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School. It took all her faith and courage to endure the daily abuse by these white students and the white adults who did not want the ni***rs integrating their precious white school. Read Beals follow up book, I Will Not Fear, My Story of a Lifetime of Building Faith Under Fire.

12/07/2021

Now it is your turn. Think about each of your senses. Get creative in imagining beauty all around you every day. Be grateful for the beauty in your life. Let beauty draw you closer to God. Do not worry about posting it anywhere but in your own locked diary. Let the ideas and words flow.
Send me a short response of how the exercise worked for you.

09/07/2021

Movement can be beautiful. Dancing with abandon as if nobody is watching. A gentle breeze through my hair. Walking with a friend enjoying nature and conversation. Swinging in a swing, like a child. An exquisitely choreographed dance capturing the mood of the music. Lift my spirit.
Ecclesiastes 3:4 "a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance"
Psalm 149:3 "Let them praise his name with dancing
and make music to him with timbrel and harp."

07/07/2021

SATISFACTION
What is beautiful to my soul or my being? Experiencing nature at a local park. Minnesota's North Shore along Lake Superior and the Superior Hiking Trail. Beautiful music from the cello or violin. The laughter of friends. A good book that transports me to another place or time. Feels soul satisfying.
Psalm 63:1-5 "You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

05/07/2021

TASTE
The beauty of taste. Chocolate! Fresh bread warm from the oven with the butter melting as I spread it. Chai tea latte. Chocolate Chip cookie dough. The first caramel apple of the season. Caramel corn. Ice Cream. Fresh raspberries, blueberries, or Bing cherries. Rhubarb pie. These bring a sense of contentment.
Psalm 34:8 "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him."

02/07/2021

HEARING
What is the beauty I hear? Birds singing in the morning. Kids outside enjoying the park or their own imaginative play. The sound of a waterfalls rushing down the cliff. Friends greeting each other. My husband home after a business trip. Soft soothing music, especially the cello. A resonant bell. These all give me a sense of being loved.
Isaiah 30:21 "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
James 1:19 "My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

01/07/2021

TOUCH
How is touch beautiful? The hug of a friend (so missing during the pandemic). The feel of stroking a pet. Soft fabric against my skin warming me on a cold day. Feel the water in the lake or the ocean on a hot day. Makes me sigh and even giggle.
Matthew 9:21 "She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
Psalm 73:23 "Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand."

30/06/2021

SMELL
How does my nose smell beauty? Delicate flowers adorning my table. A meal cooking as I enter a home, or meat cooking on a grill outdoors. The smell of rain on a spring day. The fragrance of coffee brewing or cookies baking. Christmas Pine. I sense a joy rising in me.

2 Corinthians 2:14-15 "But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

29/06/2021

Recently, I participated in a writing workshop where the facilitator encouraged to focus on BEAUTY. We were to thinks about what is beautiful as a way to experience God in our life.
SIGHT
Psalm 90:4 "A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by..."
I Peter 3:4 "it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight."

How do my eyes sight beauty? The surprise of a bird or butterfly. The friendly dog and the smile of its owner as I walk the path. The snow drifted into a lovely design with the sun listening off it Fluffy clouds across a blue sky. It all brings a smile to my face. What do you see in your world?
I plan to post several thoughts on BEAUTY.
Share your thoughts with me.

10/02/2020

A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH?

Isaiah 51:6 (NIV)
Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
look at the earth beneath;
the heavens will vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment
and its inhabitants die like flies.
But my salvation will last forever,
my righteousness will never fail.

This scripture was from the Grafted Life devotional, "The Invitation". On this day we were invited to consider any signs we are noticing that might indicate the earth is wearing out. I had never considered that God had not planned for the Earth to last forever. How interesting to think that what is happening with global warming, drought fueling vast wild fires, warm ocean currents causing bigger and bigger storms, not to mention the growing violence around the globe pushing people to leave their homes; could this all be a part of God’s plan for the end of our Earth as we know it.
I admit I have been trying to go about daily life and trusting that somehow this devastation will right itself. Maybe I’ve stuck my head in the sand.
This devotional reminder helped me turn my eyes back to the Sovereign Lord. His salvation will last forever long after this Earth is long gone. His righteousness will never fail even in the face of governments that fail.
I will keep my hope in God and keep on living one day at a time trusting that God has a plan and he is working his plan. I will keep doing the work he has called me to do with his strength until he calls me home to eternity.

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