Wild Women......You Are Beautiful!

Tonight was the last of my Art & Soul Expressive Art Therapy classes. Well, at least for this 8 weeks. If it was truly the last night it would have been so bittersweet.......you see, I have quickly grown to love these wild women of art & soul! I honor their strength, their beauty, their playful nature......their honesty and generosity......their vulnerabilities. We share similar stories. Jena has graciously agreed to guide us through another 8 weeks......a continuation of the journey we have begun. Together we will continue playing with and exploring all of the arts modalities to discover what is emerging in each of us. This is deep work. Soul work. It is uncomfortable at times. I have discovered parts of myself that have long been buried. Tonight I didn't feel like working on my self portrait or my mask. I wanted to sit back and observe...to take pictures of the studio, the artwork, the wild women. Jena asked if I would like her to take my photograph. The uncomfortableness set in. I am not ready. Oh, I do have such a longing to be photographed.....to have one observe me as I observe others. To document my process.....my growth....my art. I am still hiding...faceless...holding on to old messages of hurt and shame. The face on my self portrait remains blank...I am in the process of discovering who I am....redefining....reshaping....holding on to the good and trying so hard to let go of the negative things that hold me back. I purposefully left my self portrait at the studio. When our group gets together again in May I will revisit my painting......my hope is that through this process a little more of myself will be revealed. The very first class we had Jena read a poem by Sally Atkins. I thought the poem was beautiful then but it has so much more meaning for me now. I would like to share it with all of the wild women in my life....past present and future......

Tell Me, She Said

Tell me, she said:
What is the story you are telling?
What wild song is singing itself through you?

Listen:
In the silence between there is music;
In the spaces between there is story.

It is the song you are living now,
It is the story of the place where you are.
It contains the shapes of these old mountains,
The green of the rhododendron leaves.

It is happening right now in your breath,
In your heart beat still
Drumming the deeper rhythm
Beneath your cracking words.

It matters what you did this morning
And last Saturday night
And last year,

Not because you are important
But because you are in it
And it is still moving.
We are all in this story together.

Listen:
In the silence between there is music;
In the spaces between there is story.

Pay attention:
We are listening each other into being.