Heartfelt Dolls
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    • About me
    • I Am A Dollmaker: crafter's statement
    • Beware when you honor an artist
    • Heartfelt Dolls: Fool's Errand or Heroine's Journey
    • Doll making as a spiritual journey
    • Igniting creativity with Heartfelt dolls
    • Heartfelt doll-making: a healing experience
    • Heartfelt Dolls: the memory keepers
    • Heartfelt Dolls on life and death
    • Heartfelt Dolls: aesthetic meditation
    • Heartfelt Dolls: using textile crafts in contemporary art
    • Heartfelt Dolls: seeking a definition
    • Heartfelt Dolls: A Political Voice?
    • Heartfelt Dolls: Face On/Face Off
    • Heartfelt Dolls jammin' with JAMTV
    • Heartfelt Dolls @The Open Studios Project Blog
    • Heartfelt Dolls @ ArtsMad Rotorua
    • Heartfelt Isolation
    • Exhibitions old and new
    • Heartfelt Inspiration: a blog of that which inspires me
    • Testimonials
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    • News
  • Dolls
    • Heartfelt Dolls: companions for the journey
    • The Quotidian Doll: an introduction >
      • The Quotidian Doll Blog: introducing a Heartfelt-doll-a-day
    • Diaspora: the 101 dolls project
    • Heartfelt Dolls willing to leave home (for sale) >
      • Matariki
      • Through A Glass Darkly
      • Stitch Yourself a Boyfriend
      • Pink Walkers
      • Steampunk Dolls
      • Selfies
      • The Heroine's Journey
      • An English Country Garden
      • Hobo Chic
      • The Fisherman
      • I Shall Wear Purple
      • Enraged Woman Riding a Black and White Dog Writing Wrongs
      • Salute to the Sun
      • Old Woman in a Shoe
      • Soul Sisters
      • The Smiles Project
      • BFF
      • Blue Belles
      • Shades of Gray
      • Angels with attitude
      • Angels of gold
      • Angels
      • 'Ladies a plate'
      • Cosy up with a bit of skirt
      • Ice Palace
      • Troupe de verde
      • Animal Antics
      • Male dolls
      • Carnivale: stiltwalking dolls
      • Calendar Girls
      • Dammit dolls
      • Oh Cliche
      • Heartfelt Graffiti
      • Double Trouble
      • Lilliputians
      • Kiwi Icons
      • Faeries
    • Heartfelt Fundraisers >
      • Volunteer Fire Fighters
      • Memory keepers
      • Shades of Gray >
        • Shades of Gray Duets
        • Shades of Gray Men
      • Calendar Girls
      • Pink Walkers
      • Bandanna Chic
      • Selfies
    • Heartfelt Companions: sharing my journey with you >
      • One-of-a-kind heartfelt dolls >
        • Julie Has Flown North For The Summer
        • Hot Flash!
        • Whoops!
        • Medusa
        • The Bag Lady
        • Purple people eater
        • Social Climber
        • Place
        • Fertility Fairy
        • Smile
        • Blue Baths Belle
        • An Artist's Book
        • Pink Lady
        • Beloved
      • Heartfelt dolls in a series >
        • The Rainbow Connection
        • What's in a cup?
        • The Apple
        • Hi-Cut Internet Dolls
        • Godde Dolls
        • Shrines
        • The Rites of Autumn
        • Bibliophile
        • Seeing the world through different eyes
        • Akuba: encouraging change
        • It takes a village
        • Umbrella and Umbrage
        • A cautionary tale ...
    • Heartfelt Process, Heartfelt Transformation >
      • Matron Saints
      • Creative Guardians
      • The Nest
      • Freeing the caged heart: the poets and the dollmaker
      • The Unemployment Blues
      • The Bare Necessities
      • The Heroine's Journey
      • The Alchemy of Change
      • Sticks and stones
      • Stitch yourself a boyfriend
      • Inner Child
      • Salute to the Sun
      • Bindings
      • Euphrosyne: reclaiming joy >
        • Freeing the caged heart: poetry to lift your spirits
        • The Smiles Project
        • Dancing Feet
        • Irrepressible
        • Greening: a lenten journey
        • Wild Women Like to Dance
        • I Am Woman
        • Harakeke flowers
        • Circle of friends, vessel of hope
        • Dance
        • Spirit seekers, spirit guides
      • The Great Divide: one woman's experience of divorce >
        • Numb
        • Bound
        • Burlap and lace
        • Naked
        • Reclaim
        • Bitch
        • The Devil on my back
        • Burdened
        • God alone is enough
        • Simple heart
        • Broken dreams
        • Will the real me please stand up?
        • The Classifieds
        • Sing-a-song
        • Dark nights >
          • You are dying ...
          • Beast of burden
          • Wounded healer, broken heart
          • A moment of conversion
          • Unbuilding
          • Peace
          • Transform me
          • A clean heart
          • Unwrapped
          • Doormat
          • The weight of expectation
          • Promise
          • A new me
          • The fabric of my life
          • Struggle
          • Hanging
        • Dance me To The End of Love
      • Black Dog: one woman's experience with depression >
        • The Anti-depressants
        • Some days
        • What I wish you knew about depression
    • Heartfeltfelt Emotion >
      • Gold Angels: coping with tragedy
      • Emotions: a challenge
      • Lamentation
      • Heartfelt Anger >
        • Anger Management with Dammit Dolls
        • Dammit!
    • Heartfelt Celebration! >
      • I Shall Wear Purple!
      • Birthday dolls
      • Birthday cards
      • Julie's 21st
      • Celebrate my femininity!
      • Troupe de verde
    • Heartfelt Graffiti
    • Heartfelt Care >
      • Ageing >
        • I Shall Wear Purple
        • The Seven Ages Of Woman
      • For the children
      • Living with dementia
      • Say 'NO' to family violence >
        • You don't have to take it like I did
        • Are you the one?
      • Heartfelt Conservation >
        • Seduced By The Wild
        • Feathers Over Hamurana
        • Birds
      • Living with cancer
      • Breast Cancer Awareness >
        • Hello Dollies: an article
        • Pink Walkers
        • Primal scream
        • Flat Out
        • Paradox
        • Just Checkin'
        • I Love you, Mum
        • Mammogram Slam
        • Friends for the journey
        • Hair Today
        • Domestic Goddess
        • Deconstruct Reconstruct
        • Sewphie the stitcher
        • Nana and Gran
        • Procrastinating Polly
        • Colour blind
        • BRAve New World
        • Unzipped
        • Lord, to whom shall we go?
        • Knitting Nellie
        • The nay-sayers
        • Vessels of hope
        • Dancing Woman Labyrinth
        • Breast Labyrinth
    • Time Capsule series
  • Heartfelt Creativity
    • Heartfelt Fun
    • Heartfelt Comfort >
      • Girl Reclining on a Sofa
      • Cotton-soft boas
      • Wild Women Like to Hang About
    • Heartfelt Stitch >
      • Mother's Little Helper
      • Needlewomen
      • Old Woman in a Shoe
      • Delight in a cup
      • Heartfelt Companion
    • Heartfelt Wrapping >
      • Colour Blind
      • Spirit dolls
      • Bound
      • Aspects of Self
      • Wrapping as an art form
      • Wild Women Like To Dance
    • Heartfelt vestis >
      • What a wonderful world!
      • A thanksgiving vest
      • Dalmatics
      • In Praise
    • Labyrinth >
      • Shell labyrinth
      • Breast Labyrinth
      • Labyrinth scroll
      • Stitched labyrinth
      • Dancing Woman Labyrinth
      • Hopi labyrinth
      • Bead labyrinth
      • Journey
    • ANZAC: a tribute >
      • ANZAC Quilt
      • Rawene Boys
      • ANZAC jacket
  • Heartfelt prayer
    • Heartfelt crocheted rosaries
    • Heartfelt Retreat >
      • An Advent Retreat in Daily Life
      • Our daily medicine: a 28 day reflection on living and dying
      • Hidden in Plain View: a retreat in daily life
      • 24 hours: a retreat reflecting on the passion of Jesus
      • Stations of the light
    • Heartfelt waiting: reflections on the season of Advent >
      • Matron Saints of Un-named Women
      • Advent is a vessel
      • Advent is a pilgrimage
      • Advent remembers we are all related.
      • Advent is creative
      • Advent is a ritualised experience
      • Advent is expectant
      • Advent names God
      • Advent is a door
      • Advent: a sacred space
    • Stations of the Cross >
      • Christchurch Stations of the Cross
      • 24 Hours
      • Stations with haiku
      • John Badcock "Stations of the Cross"
    • Heartfelt Season: reflecting on the season of Lent >
      • A Lenten Walk
      • Lenten Prayer Flags
    • Heartfelt Hallelujah: reflections on the season of Easter >
      • Voices on the Via Lucis
    • Prayers from the Ark >
      • The Mouse
      • The Spider
      • The Dog
      • The Elephant
      • The Lizard
      • The Lamb
      • The Peacock
      • The Giraffe
      • The Toad
      • The Parrot
      • The Mother Hen
      • The Goldfish
      • The Cat
      • The Lion
    • Heartfelt Belief
    • Heartfelt Reflection >
      • These Parables Blow Me Apart!
      • A Single Thread
      • Every moment is gift
      • Harvest Wheat
      • Stepping out in faith
      • Harvest Heart
      • Dream catcher
      • The Sewing Basket
    • Sacred Story >
      • The Road to Emmaus
      • The Loaves and the Fishes
    • Listening To Winter
    • Genesis
    • Heartfelt Writing >
      • Joy on a String
      • Changing Landscapes
      • Rites of Passage
      • Sowing and Reaping
      • Hidden In Plain View
      • An Emmaus Journey
      • God and Dog
      • Dear Julie
      • An Intentional Walk
      • The Widow's Might
      • Does God Exist?
      • The Sewing Basket
      • Advent: A Sacred Space
      • A Secular Liturgy
      • Your Call
      • Dance me To The End Of Love
  • "100 day" projects
  • Prayer flag project
    • Blessings on the wind: a year of blessings >
      • April blessings
      • March blessings
      • February blessings
      • January blessings
      • December blessings
      • November blessings
      • October blessings
      • September blessings
      • August blessings
      • July blessings
      • June blessings
      • May Blessings
      • April Blessings
      • March Blessings
    • Prayer flag blog
  • Gratitude Flowers

I SHALL WEAR PURPLE

Picture

 I created a series of dolls called 'I Shall Wear Purple' -
fun, reflective, honouring.
I realised we are each a human being,
reflecting the image of a loving deity,
with an inherent dignity.

We are called to honour this dignity,
and share in its wisdom and vitality.

INVESTMENT OF WORTH

Terri L. Jewell

You value the earthen vase -
                each crack applauded
                for authenticity,
      a slave's Freedom Quilt -
                hand-pulled stitchery
                a rare tale relinquished,
      Victorian silver hair pins
              with filigreed flowers
              delicate as unconscious.
A collector of ancients
             quite proud of your tastes
             but scornful of
                                      curled brown leaves
                                      slight grey webs
                                      parched desert soil
             of a woman
             turned and tuned to her ripening,
                                      whose life is dear
                                      as a signed first edition,
                                      whose death as costly
                                      as a polished oak bed.

BECOMING SIXTY
Ruth Harriet Jacobs

There were terror and anger
at coming into sixty.
Would I give birth
only to my old age?

Now near sixty-one
I count the gifts
that sixty gave.

A book flowed from my life
to those who needed it
and love flowed back to me.

In a yard that seemed full
space for another garden appeared.
I took my aloneness to Quaker meeting
and my outstretched palms were filled.

I walked further along the beach
swam longer in more sacred places
danced the spiral dance
reclaimed the daisies for women
in my ritual for a precious friend
and received poet's wine
from a new friend who came
in the evening of my need.

LIFE'S RAINBOW
Shelia Banani

Beginnings are lacquer red
fired hard in the kiln
of hot hope;

Middles, copper yellow
in sunshine,
sometimes oxidise green
with tears; but

Endings are always indigo
before we step
on the other shore.

Picture
Picture
BAG LADIES

Ruth Harriet Jacobs

We are all bag ladies
or becoming so.
Nothing lasts
not love
or the beloved
or hope
even mountains crumble
only the ocean waits
to catch our tears

Bags of memories
tell us who we were
before we were wise

The bags burden us.
Carrying about
our losses,
we stumble
clutching our unfreedom
against all threats
or promises
it being all we have
it being all we know
it being all we are.

OLD WOMEN
Barbara Lau

Old women
wrap scarves around their necks
to hide their wrinkles,and flatter their bosoms
with bold beads and brooches.
In dresses buttered with flowers,
in voices light as Baby's breath,
how they bloom in the corner
of the cafeteria, billowing
over pictures of grandchildren
passed round and round like hor d'oeuvres
like jewels they plant on each hand
to occupy the spaces once held
and warmed by husbands.

Now twined around each other
arm in arm down the sidewalk,
defying the dark grave
with their colours and perfume,
old women
tending time more fragile than youth:
poinsettias in the snow.


FOR MY MOTHER
Michele Wolf

I sharpen more and more to your
Likeness every year, your mirror
In height, autonomous
Flying cloud of hair,
In torso, curve of the leg,
In high-arched, prim, meticulous
Feet. I watch my ageing face,
In a speeding time lapse,
become yours. Notice the eyes,
Their heavy inherited sadness,
The inertia that sags the cheeks,
The sense of limits that sets
The grooves along the mouth.
Grip my hand.
Let me show you the way
to revolt against what
We are born to,
To bash through the walls,
To burn a warning torch
In the darkness,
To leave home.

Dear God,

We struggle, we grow weary, we grow tired. We are exhausted, we are distressed, we despair. we give up, we fall down, we let go. We cry. We are empty, we grow calm, we are ready. we wait quietly.

A small, shy truth arrives. Arrives from without and within. Arrives and is born. Simple, steady, clear. Like a mirror, like a bell, like a flame. Like rain in summer. A precious truth arrives and is born within us. Within our emptiness.

We accept it, we observe it, we absorb it. We surrender to our bare truth. we are nourished, we are changed. We are blessed. We rise up.

For this we give thanks.
AMEN.

Michael Leunig

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