Healing Art to Mend the Shell Shock

We Baby Boomers grew up in a world facing the horror of having fought an enormous, again, world wide war AFTER the "war to end all wars."

Putting women in huge skirted dresses, and men in ticky-tacky boxed up jobs, and children in 'our places', only promoted a backlash of unbridled Love and Art, the "Me Generation', and more wars and depressions of dubious origins that we at least, finally, had the decency to stop naming "Great."

We are now living in a world of hurt and anxiety, not tremendously surprisingly. And so are our children, and theirs.

What will we do?

The Great War ended 99 years ago, this weekend, and we are still shell shocked.

We could turn and look the hurt straight in the eye. We could Listen. Sometimes when we are not well, the thing to do is honor what the pain is trying to tell us. Which can take courage.

May I offer my own personal favorite method of wholesomeness? Make art.

Art Heals.

Art Saves Lives.

Let's start with something simple. We can draw a Doodle Mandala. Give yourself this.

Put a dot in the center of a blank page.

Draw a little circle around it.

Make a series of a shapes on the outside of the circle; little circles, squares, or more dots, perhaps.

Draw another circle outside of the first. Draw more shapes, scallops, or even lines.

Add more circles and more shapes. Make simple or compound decorations. Don't try to be too perfect. Let this be easy.

Breathe.

Turn off the music, the news, the manifestations of other people's minds and listen to your own. 

Be kind to your own Dear Self. Be polite. Be compassionate. 

Be gentle. Our minds have a lot to tell us. Keep drawing. Step back from all of those thoughts going down the river. Just let them keep going on past you. Thank your brain for helping you to eat, and sleep, and brush your teeth. Keep drawing. All is well. Even if it sounds crazy. Especially when we sound fragile, or angry, or desperate, or scared, keep drawing. Scribbles and slashes can make a mandala too.

You might choose to draw a circle of hearts. Perfect. Love is our answer.

Heart Buddies

I am reading Noah St. John and being shaken up with challenge! He wants me to find "Loving Mirrors and Safe Havens". Who does he think he is??

Well, among other things a guy who can tell his story, inspire people and make a living. And all of that is on my bucket list too.

So, being a visual kind of gal I thought that I would make paper dolls to stand resolutely on the shelf above my desk and silently repeat the kind words that my friends say to me: encouragements, smiles, cowabungas and other such.

You are welcome to join in: copy and print the Heart Buddies above onto cardstock. Color them, and cut them out* NOTE to cut straight across the bottom of the feet - it will make the legs sturdier. Follow the directions on the paper to make the stand and fill in the speech bubble with quotes from your friends.

AND IF you leave me a comment telling me the general direction of encouragement you want to hear I will send you one.

I personally, while I am in the midst of writing three books at once - and having a ton of fun until I realize that I am going public here - would love to hear if you think I might just go ahead, have fun, and write two art-how-to books and one personal memoir.

Joyous, Abundant Thanksgiving

I am sitting at the dining room table writing a book which is turning out to be so much more fun than I thought it would be.

I mean I love writing, and I have had all of these books inside of me for, um, decades. I have wanted to be a writer since high school. So, I am here and writing. I had a lovely, colorful, playful idea for a book to celebrate the opening of my new website. I thought that the idea was so great that the writing would be fast and furious, but now that I am past the concept stage and into the writing process I remember how I love being changed myself as the idea morphs into words.

There are always surprises and, um, can I call it 'deepenings'? The magic of connecting symbolism, to passion, to a carefully chosen word. I love this.

So I am sitting in our dining room while my daughter takes on the WHOLE Thanksgiving dinner! (Wonderous Girl.) I am sitting next to my son who is attending to his cyber world while I attend to mine. We three regularly stop what we are doing to feed our bunny a morsel of kale or a bit of carrot and marvel at his adorability. The new pop album is blaring, yesterday's new snow is stunning. And I am writing.

Now how lucky am I? Very. Very.

I wish you all the life of your dreams.

New Classes: Hand-made Books & Felt Intention Cloths

My autumn classes at Five Towns Adult Education are open!

First, here is Felt Applique Intention Cloths: little art quilts for your wall and also to use as an object of focus and an opening into your inner wisdom. Set an intention (it could be about your new car, your wedding, what to do with that closet down the hall) and then as you sew, magic things happen in your brain. I will tell you all about it in class, but it works. Art makes us smart. I swear. And if you just want to come to learn the really pretty design technique, that would be fab too. xo

Sign up here:

http://fivetowns.maineadulted.org/courses/searchResults?search=robinsunne&area=04856&x=27&y=8

OR

You could come over to the High School and take the Handmade Books class which is geared specifically to parents and teachers. I teach you (and we play and have fun) and then you take these cool ideas home/to class and show them to your children. It is a great way to have time with one's kids, especially if you use it as a way to watch just how creative and smart they really are. All that color. All that folding, and handling, and experimenting with paper. What a way to brainstorm wonder.

Sign up here:

http://fivetowns.maineadulted.org/courses/searchResults?search=robinsunne&area=04856&x=27&y=8

Art Quilts

There is a lovely peace that comes with beading. A sweet rhythm of counting the beads: "One and two and three and oh! and umm." (The oh! being a slight intake of breath as my needle picks up the accent bead and the umm a gentle release as I add the last 'knot' bead to a line of beads that will hang down from the edges of the applique.

The meditation for this piece is about foundations. I hired a business coach. Now with so much new information to assimilate with what I have known for truth all these years, my head is busy and buzzing. Where do I belong? What is happening to me? Where have my feet gone? I wanted to know, and years of experience has taught me that my fingers will find the answers in my stitches.

So I stitch colors to colors and beads in lines to lead my eyes ... and at the end I always know.

I am teaching a version of these quilts at Adult Education this fall. I long to have your company. We will discover what is rich and wonderful in you - or you can just sew a little quilt. They are so pretty. Like jewels. If you are local to mid coast Maine click here to sign up - 4 Thursday evenings in October.

The Times That Are For Changing

Where once there were three there are now two.My brother died. I took my children to the beach for the healing. The air was soft and kind. The tide was full-ish.

I have been remembering my history with my brother and the times that were the best were the ones where we were around dirt and water and sand.
There were the roots of the tree near the front door that we dug up regularly to make roads for his matchbox cars.
There were the big rainstorms that poured thrilling cascades of water down our steep driveway to crash through our mud and leaf dams in the gutter.
There was the Connecticut beach that we shared with our cousins where we spent whole summers making exquisite drip castles.

I looked for striped Good Luck rocks. I said prayers for him. I have grown up in a world which assured me that the place hereafter can be trusted for its goodness and I choose to believe that.

Then I said prayers for the living: our family and especially, especially, his children.

May the Whole Universe convene to keep them well loved in this time.And I have been thinking about what I said yesterday to a friend: that our Treasure is in the place where grief, tenderness, yearning, anger and love all exist together. It is messy but this is the truth of my life: a somewhat chaotic gathering of emotions and thoughts. With all of these resources I will walk a rich journey and write a deep story. A steadfast adherance to only one, pristine beauty might be poetic, but then the adventure is over.

There is more.

My children, there, on the beach within arm's reach, had needs. I wanted a good cry and was being required elsewhere. I considered feeling frustrated but then laughed inside at how good a circumstance it is to have my teens trust that their well-being is safe in my hands. We turned around and picked a few more pebbles and photos.

My treasure won't go away.

I told my sister how the grief rolls in and out.

All of it is rolling in and out.

The Beauty and Power that is U.S.

A little over two weeks ago I set out on an adventure with my two children. I had signed up for a workshop/retreat with Christine Kane who is an entrepreneurial coach - no, as she puts it she is a "mentor to women who are changing the world".

Yes'M. That'd be me. (There are some things that I know about courage and I think that it is about time I let loose with the secret.)


So, because the retreat was in North Carolina, and because of 47 other reasons, one of which being some excellent homeschooling opportunities on the way, I packed up my teens and headed out.

ROAD TRIP!

Yes, we drove. One of the educational opportunities taken by my daughter was to learn to play Navigator. She learned to read directions (TripTiks are great, but not all at once. She learned to ply me with only certain, shorthand amounts of information at a time), make sense of maps (red roads, blue roads and the like), and even use her pinkie to estimate distances. She's been awesome since the day she was born. 12 days of car and hotel room proximity were further proof.