Summer is here! 6-21-08

Interesting how themes arise. I came in to this training holding the wondering if resilience can be taught. Then when I prepared my presentation on suffering I connected to the question, is a necessary ingredient in resilience a glimmer of hope? And that leading to the question, how helpful are the arts in creating a glimmer of hope?… And everywhere the idea of “a glimmer of hope” seems to be popping up. In my presentation on suffering and then in lectures, movies and conversations. Someone else even noticed it too, and they weren’t even carrying these questions… I muse if the conversation was always around and I didn’t notice it or do we attract the conversations that we long for?

I brought my thoughts on hope and resilience onto a light hike called the chapel walk. It is a path from Saas Fee down to the lower town, Saas Grund, about a 2 hour hike with a stop to eat my lunch. Along the walk are scenes depicted in little houses, maybe a little smaller than a garden shed, of the life of Jesus. Near the top of the walk (near Saas Fee) there is a small chapel where they hold mass and where you can light candles. As I hiked I mused about the Jesus story and how religion revolves around giving people hope, offering stories around creation, survival, and re-creation. I noticed the simple act of lighting a candle in the chapel was an act of looking for a glimmer of hope, that the prayer I offered when lighting it, would be answered.

I then started looking at 12 step meetings and how they too offer stories of survival and recreation. One of the gifts of expressive arts is that it reconnects us to a community where we can tell our stories through artmaking. We as people have been separated from the communities where we made art. Where we danced the days hunt, around the campfire. Where we wove our family story into the blanket for the winter. Where we painted our bodies and faces, the walls, the dirt. Where the stories of our ancestors were alive in the community.

Maybe that is why these blogs have gotten so popular. Because we, as human beings crave story. We are hungry for the inner workings of our friends, family and even strangers so that we know that we are not alone. And equally longing to tell our own story to someone who will listen and care for that story.

I don’t know where all this musing is going, but it is swirling in my heart and my head and it makes me feel alive and happy. Thank you for taking the time to listen to my stories. And thank you to those who have responded with your own stories. The dialogue is where the real satisfaction comes. Letting one story inspire another. The connection that is made between our hearts when we respond to each other. The listening to another and the listening to ourselves. If you feel brave enough, you can not just respond to me directly, but you can click the comment button just below each entry, and share your story with my small community. Don’t worry, this is not going out to the whole world.

Much love and thanks to you. Happy Summer!