My colleague, Ellen, and I are in the midst of our summer creative expression camp and today we did a really neat project.  Many times when we are reflecting on our lives we tend to journal/write down those thoughts and ideas.  Ellen had the idea of pushing the words out and getting us to think about important questions using visual media rather than written media.  She posed the following four questions:
1)  What have you always wanted to do but were to afraid to do or try?
2) What is the worst thing that could happen if you did it?
3) What is the best thing that could happen if you did it?
4)  What would you try/do if you knew that you couldn't fail?

We offered a wide range of materials and asked the participants to create their answer visually.  It was amazing to see what they came up with.  I wonder what kind of insight you might gain if next time you were reflecting on something, you chose to create with images, color, shape and texture rather than words...I know I was surprised where it took me...very powerful!  I'll post pictures tomorrow so you can see the great responses!
 
Beauty 06/23/2010
 
Once a year when I walk into Trader Joe's I find bunches of Peonies...the world's most beautiful flower....in my opinion.  Every year I buy two bunches, place them with love and joy in a vase and place them in my entry way.  the aroma fills my entire house, a fragrance of sweet sunshine and smiles.  They are so delicate and frilled with layer upon layer of beauty.  As you know, everything I know I've learned from nature (mostly) and here again the Peony reminds me to look deep for beauty, to celebrate the gifts of the season and to slow down enough to take in the beauty of this brief moment that comes every year.  I truly love these flowers.
I just remembered a sweet story about a gift of peonies...one year when I was taking classes for my MFT at SDSU one of my classmates had to take a trip to the midwest.  Upon return, he showed up at my door with a bundle of peonies in his arms.  He knew that I LOVED this flower and while in the midwest, a place where peonies grow like weeds, he picked up a bunch and carried them home to me on the plane.  I'm not sure a sweeter thing has been done for me.  Isn't it wonderful to pay attention to the things that those around us love and try to shower them with them.  It really is the simple things that matter most!
 
 
It is a neat thing to walk out into the garden and find a spider web.  It is a really neat thing for the web to be in such a perfect shape and to have the spider sitting in the center of it.  Spider is a powerful teacher for all of us.  She is known in some native traditions as "Grandmother Spider" and she is the weaver of stories.  She reminds us that we are all connected and that the best place for us to be is in the "center".  I remember that once I had a dream with Grandmother Spider.  I walked onto her web and sat in the center with her as she told me a story.  She taught me with this story that while there may be a windstorm swirling through the perimeter of the web, lots of drama and lots of distraction, if I stay in the center then all will be well.  It is so easy to get caught up in tangled messes that happen all around us.  We have a choice when this stuff unfolds; do we want to join in the 'drama' of it all or do we want to remember to stay grounded in our center.  I love that spider showed up yesterday.  It was the perfect day for it.  Her arrival reminded me of all of this and proved to be excellent guidance at a time of much drama swirling around me.  So, I hang on to what is true for me now and I stay grounded in the center of that truth.  Great lesson!

To see the photographs more easily, just click on the first one and it will enla