Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Access, Release, Transform!

 Soul Purpose


I was preparing for a session of Spiritual Direction with someone, and went to the book "Visual Journaling: Going Deeper than Words" by Barbara Ganim & Susan Fox to see if there was something I might need that day. I found "Discovering your Soul Purpose." I felt called to sit and see what would come up. This picture is what happened...there are several images that have come up over and over for me. The snail, the sun, the heart (double counting the one in the sun), and the mermaid. And then there's teeth on the heart and tail. The more I look at this image, the more I see. It leads me back to the poem I wrote many years ago called "Breathing Water." I found the second part of that poem. Contact me if you would like to read it! This picture represents a step in my own healing work that means I am breathing freely. The hurts and pains that I have carried around for years. I said to my own Spiritual Director the other day that my prayer life is whatever I am called to at the time. I am truly blessed that art is part of that! And that I can help share this with the world. It is beyond my wildest dreams! Thank you Lord! Thank you Mother! Thank you Jesus!

This beautiful piece was done by a 16 year old as her healing piece after learning how to Access, Release, & Transform.
In a spiritual direction session, to have such a beautiful piece come out for her, was exciting (for both of us)! I requested to take a picture to show on my blog. Isn't it amazing? Over and over, having shown people this work, I'm constantly amazed at the power of the healing work! This work is for the world!

About a month ago, I worked with a group of women at The Nest: Center for Women, Children, & Families, for their Relationship Recovery Workshop. There wasn't a lot of talk but I hope you agree with me, their art is powerful! There are issues of safety and sharing the work for them. Issues I hadn't thought of before. I am cautious about asking people to talk about their work, especially where trust is an issue. I hope to be able to go again! Thanks to Elizabeth Morton for bringing me in to work & meet them and to the women for allowing me to take a picture of their work!

   
I am busy sewing for my daughter's wedding in June, but after that, this fall I will be looking for places to bring more healing work.

I am so grateful to be able to share with you!

My prayer for this next period is one of my favorite prayers from the book "Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle" by Ted Loder. It's called

Loosen My Grip

O God, it is hard for me to let go,
most times,
and the squeeze I exert
garbles me and gnarls others.
So loosen my grip a bit
on the good times,
on the moments of sunlight and star shine and joy,
that the thousand graces they scatter as they pass
may nurture growth in me
rather than turn to brittle memories.

Loosen my grip
on those grudges and grievances
I hold so closely,
that I may risk exposing myself
to the spirit of forgiving and forgiveness
that changes things and resurrects dreams and courage.

Loosen my grip
on my fears
that I may be released a little into humility
and into an acceptance of my humanity.

Loosen my grip
on myself
that I may experience the freedom of a fool
who knows that to believe
is to see kingdoms, find power, sense glory;
to reach out
is to know myself held;
to laugh at myself
is to be in on the joke of your grace;
to attend to each moment
is to hear the faint melody of eternity;
to dare to love 
is to smell the wild flowers of heaven.

Loosen my grip
on my ways and words,
on my fears and frefulness
that letting go
into the depths of silence
and my own uncharted longings,
I may find myself held by you
and linked anew to all life
in this wild and wondrous world
you love so much,
so I may take to heart 
that you have taken me to heart.

Bless you Ted Loder! 

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Art and Healing with Tweens!

Quilling 1

What I truly love about working with Art and Healing is that you can work with it at any age! I use the same techniques regardless of whom I am working! I was asked to come to McKee, KY, to work with a youth group of girls in grades 6-8. And so I got everything prepared. The girls were very cooperative although they had lots of questions about whether they would be "allowed" to do their own thing or would I be telling them what they "have" to do. I was able to assure them that they would be making their own art.

I had them sit up straight with their hands on their laps. We did the sideways figure eights and then the breathing. They of course giggled when I asked them to make a noise! They had no problem with drawing with their non-dominant hand and got pretty quickly to putting on paper something that was bothering them. They really enjoyed tearing this up and burning the pieces. One girl brought a letter out and burned it at the same time. I didn't ask them to turn to each other and talk about how it felt. I was hesitant, because in a small group like that they may not have felt comfortable. I felt for the first time working with this that I wouldn't ask them to share anything. If I do this with this age again, I think I will have them write on the back of their paper how they felt after doing the Access and Release.

They were really ready to settle down and begin the Tranformation artwork and didn't have any problem searching among the bins provided to come up with their own artwork! Here is their finished work:



  
    






They had an easy time picking their colors for the background of their artwork. This time though one of the girls asked for black and I was able to speak about black as the absence of color and that for this artwork they should pick a color. They seemed okay with this idea. I hadn't thought about how a lot of young people now really resinate with black. I explained that when they used black on their release picture it meant that they had more to work on with this issue. To help heal that place inside of them they needed a color to begin with for their transformation.

As they worked they talked a lot about a movie they were all going to see called "The Hunger Games." And they were busy needling each other about being stalkers. There were a couple of sisters in the group. I encouraged them to take a square of color with them to keep in their pockets, since several of them would be leaving their artwork to dry. It would be fun to get the chance to work more with them and to have them try different mediums and to get a chance to talk about what they have done. We had an art showing with everyone.

I showed them how to quill paper and used it on my own artwork in the first image. This is an old form of art. According to Ann Martin, "Quilling, the coiling and shaping of narrow paper strips to create a design, has been around for years — hundreds, in fact. During the Renaissance, nuns and monks would roll gold-gilded paper remnants trimmed during the bookmaking process, and use them to decorate religious objects as an alternative to costly gold filigree. Quilling later became a pastime of 18th and 19th century young ladies in England, who would decorate tea caddies and pieces of furniture with paper filigree. The practice crossed the Atlantic with colonists, who added quilling to candle sconces and trays as home decorations."

One of the girls actually used some quilling on her picture! It is always nice to pass on something you love! Thanks to Rebekah Koury for inviting me to come share this work with this group of great young women!


Sunday, January 29, 2012

Retreating with Art and Healing

It has been too long since I last wrote for this blog, but in that time there has been Christmas holidays and I was relieved of my phone. So the pictures I was going to use are gone! It has been hard to get myself to write because I rely so much on photo art!

In November I lead a retreat for Westside Unitarian Universalist Church of Farragut, TN. This church gets together every year at Pickett State Park.

 Pickett State Park



I worked with a group of 13 of the campers, both adults and children. I taught them the stress releasing techniques that I have talked about in other blogs.

They were receptive and worked some beautiful artworks. One remarkable couple that came were both colorblind and legally blind. They had no problem with doing the artwork that released a negative emotion. I worked with the legally blind one by telling him that he doesn't have to know what colors he is using, but to go with what he is attracted to. I spread out his crayons in front of him and helped him find the center of his paper. I didn't know his partner was color blind until later! They were open to working how they could. I talked to them about the scientific evidence of the vibration of colors and that they might need someone to tell them what color they were working with but that they could do the work if they were open. Each color is assoicated with a point on the body which corresponds with the energy points (or chakras).  

The next day we worked on the transformative piece of artwork. I wish I had pictures to show you what they created! I lead my legally blind man to the modelling clay. He was delighted that he could connect with something that he remembered doing when he was younger. He fashioned a small blue travel trailer. I was honored that he would participate! What a wonderful witness! His wife didn't come back to the second part (we did one part in the morning and then the next in the afternoon.) I honor what each person's needs are. There are other ways to healing through voice, music, and movement. Art happens to be my own particular mode of healing!  Part of the weekend was a wonderful time of singing a Taize morning service. We moved and sang songs! It was also a healing time for me! What a wonderful group of people! They asked me if I would come join their church! I think 4 hours is a little difficult to do every week!












Later in November I visited Quest Farm in Georgetown, KY to do Art and Healing with the residents of the Farm! They are developmentally challenged adults who live together and work the farm. They sell ink pens and flowers which they grow themselves. The three pictures above were three that two of the residents did for me after we did our Art and Healing work.

We went through the breathing exercises as I always do when I begin. I asked them to find a place in their bodies that felt bad and to put it down on paper. We gave them each seven crayons: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and black. They each came up with a picture. I had them fold them up and tear them up (if they wanted to, some didn't). Then they chose their own color squares to do their healing pictures on. We did the breathing exercises again and when I asked them to do a noise this time they were louder! I asked them to go back to the same place inside of their bodies they went before and to ask for a picture or color that would heal this bad feeling. They were receptive and did some beautiful pictures that they were proud of! We hung them up so they would be able to see them every day. I heard that they were talking about what we did later in their houses.

Not every person participated but they all were into the pictures I took. I got many hugs that day too.
The above pictures were done after I showed them how to make turkeys from their hand prints! Ruth also did a picture of Quest Farm for me. It was a great afternoon!

The rest of my time was spent making dresses for my granddaughters. I find sewing soothing and healing for me. This is a smocked dress with frogs on ornaments. Mariel loved it and didn't want to take it off! I also made a red dress with Christmas flamingos for Lyla, but I didn't take a seperate picture of it to show you! If you have an outlet for your healing, I'd love to hear about it!  Blessings on the new year!