CONSTELLATIONS

Gatherings of family, community, & friends

I’d like to share with you some of the ways I’ve been enriched by community…

In the late eighties, I trained to become a Rebalancer bodyworker. There were fifty of us from all over the world in that Indian ashram; many lovely souls learning how to touch and be touched, but among them shone a particular beauty. We became friends despite our language challenges, and each year for four years Sulo returned from Italy and I from Canada to further our therapeutic and meditation trainings. Although after those magical years, our communication was sparse, we held a special place in our hearts for each other.

In 2014, for the first time in twenty-two years, we met face to face. When I hugged her I never wanted to let her go.

So I didn’t. Each year since then (with the exception of the first Covid years, of course) Sulo has either come to Canada or I have been to Italy or we’ve met in Spain. While I’ve relied on my bodywork practice and my writing, Sulo went on to become a practitioner in other healing arts. In 2014 and 2015, she brought Aura Soma—colour and fragrance therapy—to my clients here in Canada. In those same years, I travelled to Italy and met with Sulo after writing retreats.

Now, for the past two years, she has brought the near-magical process of Family Constellations work to share. This is a long introduction to what I want to share. Last Saturday, our friend, Esana hosted a day-long Family Constellations session.

Minds were blown. All I can say is that after an experiential investigation, there arises recognition of the sources of whatever has been holding us back from enjoying a life of light and ease. Shifts of consciousness happen like flowers opening. A quantum sort of expansion results in a brilliant sense of freedom. I will write more about my personal results but I’m still processing the great opening I experienced.

I invited Sulo to come at this time of year for another reason. This year my son, Ben, was Head Dancer at the Curve Lake First Nations annual traditional pow wow, and I wanted Sulo to experience this uniquely North American gathering. And to witness Ben dancing.

It was wonderful to experience this last pow wow of the season through her eyes, recalling the wonder and awe I felt when attending my first one in 1993.

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In other realms…

With each online workshop, the recognition deepens that writing together is the bomb. The ones who show up week after week slay me with the jaw-dropping writing they produce in five, twelve, fifteen, and twenty-minute spurts. Maybe it’s the gathering together, maybe it’s the knowledge that one’s freshly minted work will be heard and NEVER criticized, maybe it’s the freefall aspect of timed writing, maybe it’s the wide-open cool prompts I offer, and maybe it’s a combo of the above. But it works and I am ever grateful to Pat Schneider for developing this work, for Sue Reynolds for introducing me to it, and for AWA in general for its support as an organization.

Many of the writers I know find that the only time they are able to write is when we get together. I’ve been participating in Sue Reynolds’ Headway project which offers half-hour and twenty-minute writing times to give writers time to go deep into their project. So much gets written in that dedicated time. With this in mind, I’ve put together monthly day-long workshops, or you could say, mini-retreats. Visual prompts, poems, situations, but best of all—long stretches of writing, and meaningful feedback for each work that’s read aloud.

You can write an entire memoir, a chapbook, a novel, or a stack of poems so much sooner than if you are all alone in that room staring at a blank page.

What could be better?