We’re finally getting the rain we’ve needed all summer which keeps me from my usual slow withdrawal from the outdoors as I return to Pittsburgh from the piney woods of east Texas. The fall women’s retreat was later than usual this year, and I needed it more than usual. But, what’s usual these days? Wisdom comes from what’s worked in the past, but I tell myself we’re in a different climate now, more unpredictable, requiring different creative practices. Sleeping in one’s own bed is still rewarding after a 3-hour drive to the airport followed by a 3-hour wait in the Admiral’s Club (a special treat now that I have my own frequent flyer membership card) followed by a 3-hour plane flight and, after my husband picks me up, a half hour car ride home.
In retrospect, the 3 days in the woods are always different, yet overwhelmingly the same for me since 1991. It’s always uncertain, who will show up, who will get to come. We call the names of those departed from this life, and those housebound or struggling in particular situations. We remind one another of other times, other years when we switched places on what native American’s call the Medicine Wheel and what I think of as the grief spiral. This time we included especially our country, and the larger world impacted by our country’s past, recent and future actions. We meditated on what is ours to do, in the long list of what needs to be done to continue serving life. One certainty–being in the Women’s Circle is always worth all the trouble and inconvenience it is to get there and back. And for a while, maybe a long while, I am different, always aware that I am because we are.
Invitation – I couldn’t take you to the woods with me, but this Sunday November 24th from 4 to 5:30 pm eastern time I’d love to have you join me and several other InterPlay artists as we meet on the Let’s Reimagine online platform. We’ll be exploring themes from my recent book, The Art of Grieving: How Art and Art-making Help Us Grieve and Life Our Best Lives.
Here’s the link to register:
https://letsreimagine.org/76768/the-art-of-grieving-how-art-art-making-help-us-grieve
