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About Host Emily Sue Allen:
Emily Sue Allen is the founder of the Kindred Mom blog and host of the Kindred Mom podcast. She also is an ongoing devotional contributor to Joyful Life Magazine, a member of Hope*Writers, and has contributed writing in a variety of online spaces. Living a deeply nourished life, and helping women find joy in the midst of their motherhood journey are among her greatest passions. She is a contemplative, creative soul who celebrates the beauty of humble things and deeply values the grace and truth of Jesus Christ and the riches found in the word of God. She lives with her husband and seven kids in the Pacific Northwest, and blogs at emilysueallen.com. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter, “The Work of Flourishing,” for personal stories about intentionally nourishing your spirit, mind, and body. Find Kindred Mom on Instagram(@kindred_mom) and Facebook, and say hello to Emily personally on Instagram(@emily_sue_allen).
Mentioned on this Episode
Watercolor Revival on Instagram – Artwork by Tami Leitz
Watercolor Revival on Facebook – Artwork by Tami Leitz
Glitter & Ink Facebook Group led by Tami Leitz
Tattoos on the Heart (affiliate link)
Guests on this Episode
Tami Leitz
From 14-32 years old art made me feel like a fraud. Intuitively I knew there was something more profound inside but I didn’t have words to describe it. Winning scholarships or creating something others found lovely was empty. Why make art if even when you win you losses? I spent the beginning of my adult life working for social justice through foster care and in the special needs community all the while wondering what is the purpose of art anyway? We need shelter, companionship, education… but do we need beauty? Artists wrestle within themselves, creating not because someone has asked for art but because they could not live fully without it. Art is not a competition or a commodity. It is a gift. Art draws from the deep well of humanity, offering form to the unseen. Those years without art were like living without a limb, one I willingly cut off. We were not created to simply survive. Creation is given the ability to create! Look at this extravagant world, every sunset a unique masterpiece. How many wonders are hidden under the ocean or beyond the starts? I couldn’t live out my identity as an artist until I understood that I am myself art. In this paradigm shift it makes perfect sense that I would love people our culture doesn’t. Things like disability and mental illness don’t fit into our prescribed arrangement. Why make people who loose? Because they aren’t loosing, we just don’t see it yet. That is why we need artists, to show us the beauty right here, inside and all around us.
Tami’s Website
Tami on Etsy
Tami on Instagram
Tami on Facebook
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Kindred Mom is a community dedicated to helping moms flourish in motherhood. Through honest and vulnerable real stories of motherhood, this community champions celebrating small victories and the beautiful things that happen when moms share both the triumphs and struggles of their journeys.
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Special thanks to Michael Patti for the original music featured on the Kindred Mom Podcast.
1 COMMENT
Jay Jones
3 years ago
“Walls of awful” didn’t make sense for me at first, but then when she explained that “every brick is a past failure or shame and those failures pile up, because we fall down more…” it hit me in such a powerful way. And this idea is a great way to look into other people, because we all have invisible challenges. We have things that we battle and places of shame that make us feel like failures. I also know about the fatal need to have others approve of us, even our family members and the challenge in not meeting up with expectations of loved ones. It’s so good–the reminder that weakness is an opportunity, either to be broken or to bow in humility before Jesus. The reminder that we can allow his power to carry us through to places at which we could never arrive without Him, whether artists, mamas of special needs, athletes, whatever. The lovely character shaped in the midst of all her hurdles comes through in this compelling discussion with Tami Leitz. Thank you for this!