superstition

sugar skull - oil pastel

Its Halloween today, which is causing me to reflect on the theme of Superstition, also a song by Stevie Wonder.

I am not superstitious, so this is a list of things I don't 'believe (in)':

• 'everything happens for a reason' and the variation:
• 'this was meant to be/this wasn't meant to be'
• star signs/horoscopes - not a good basis for parenting wisdom or other relationships, in my opinion
• feng shui - likewise for interior design
• not mentioning certain words (and thereby giving them magical properties): death and cancer spring to mind, plus the name of your ex.
• halloween
• oh, and religion

the last one has surprised a few people, but as I have never believed in religion, I am equally surprised by the fact that other people do. 

perhaps I should add 'qantas' to that list. I cannot help thinking they are being very 'un-Australian' at the moment.

The sugar skull was fun to do. The first new drawing I have posted for some time...Teaching period is over, now we are in marking/exam period, and did someone mention organising a conference?

more later

whats going on?

What's going on? Clearly not much here, but elsewhere...things have been busy busy busy.

Been sooo busy I have been having one or two serious work malfunctions, which feels like incompetence but is actually overload. Small example: leaving camera at work (so no new artwork). Big example: getting client appointment time wrong. Even my laptop started malfunctioning (does anyone know the purpose of the scroll key?...it somehow got activated, and numbers appeared when I typed letters). Shut down was the only solution. Unfortunately I have to keep going, for another month. Then its time for my holiday in New Zealand.

Meanwhile there is an art therapy conference to organise, and a pile of final marking for the end of semester. 

I have decided to extend my Motown titles through November (Motember?) since I just missed two weeks of October (and its nearly over).

However I did have time to pause and reflect on the difference two weeks can make: 

1. Gadafi - gone
2. Offshore processing of refugees, aka the Malaysia solution - gone (we can thank the Coalition for this one)
3. Carbon Tax - on its way to being legislated
4. Same sex civil unions - introduced into Queensland State Parliament
5. And around the world, the curiously enigmatic Occupy Wall Street; Occupy London; Occupy (insert your city here) movement...

more later

Don't leave me this way/never can say goodbye

Art therapy and social action - logo

Love this logo! After trying to convince students about the importance of cultural competency in our tute last night, this makes me feel validated! Hey guys, 'assimilation' is really not such a great concept...working in London, in the 1980's, it seemed much clearer, (and we all happily did Racism Awareness Training as it was called then) perhaps because some ethnic minorities were very vocal and visible (and grossly over-represented in mental health services). Here we have this wishy-washy 'tolerance' of multiculturalism, which assumes we just all want to be homogenous Australians, but perhaps with more interesting recipes.

On a similar issue, I will always associate the song Don't leave me this way sung by Jimmy Somerville of the Communards, and Sarah Jane Morris, with the demise of 'Red' Ken Livingstone's Greater London Council in the 1980's.

My ex-personal trainer, who broke up with me last week (for personal reasons), had a goodbye breakfast on Sunday. She told us she was not allowed back in the gym after she gave in her notice. This seems to be common management practice. What about valuing the relationships? Saying goodbye is hard already, don't make it impossible please! Someone who has seen me at my worst, sweaty and grumpy, and wanting to give up, and still has been encouraging and positive. Thanks Jess!  Here is Jimmy again singing Never can say Goodbye.

Listening to Motown on my I-Pod whilst running this month. No shortage of inspiration for blog post titles there - not enough days in the month (or time to write).

Looking forward to starting Six Degrees of Creativity, an e-course, which might get me back into some art practice. The next few weeks are looking pretty rough, work wise.

More later.

Standing in the shadows of love

 

The Four Tops song Standing in the shadows of love was also (almost) the title of a great  film about the support band for the Motown hit factory of the 1960's and 70's, the Funk Brothers. These 'unsung musical heroes' were not famous or well known like the singing stars they supported. But Motown would not have been Motown without them. And in relationships, our partners are often our unsung heroes as well. Mine is.

Which leads me to the question, what is the shadow side of love? Is it hate, or is it indifference? Or perhaps just grumpiness...its so easy to become that grumpy person you don't want to be when living with another human being at close quarters. I have to keep remembering to be the person I want him to be...

I heard an interesting discussion about human sexuality on the radio this week. It was about the book sex at dawn, which argues that monogamy is not 'natural' as it was 'only' introduced into human behaviour at around the same time as the development of agriculture. Well, growing food in the ground has also proved pretty popular since then. Pretty much all human behavour is socially constructed, I agree. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

On the same topic, I saw Crazy, Stupid Love this Friday night with S, I had a few ethical issues with the film (excessive and deliberate use of alcohol to manipulate and give 'Dutch courage', implied non use of condoms, endorsement of porn for a minor), but would still recommend it. Just don't take it too seriously. The plot is pretty implausible too...but fun.

My personal trainer broke up with me (and the rest of her Fernwood clients) last week. We are going out for an all you can eat breakfast this morning at the Stamford Plaza, to say goodbye...irony there somewhere too. I have missed a couple of my regular Saturday and Monday night gym sessions recently due to the ACT conference, and supervision, mainly. It was so good to be back yesterday, and guess what - I slept so much better last night!!

More later.

War (what is it good for?)

photo of Melbourne graffiti from  made into Peace Poster with I-Phone app.

War, by Edwin Starr, was released in 1969, as a protest song against the Vietnam War. Two of my good friends were talking on Saturday night about both being present at the anti-war demonstration in London in 1969, when the gates of the US embassy were broken down and the police used tear gas to control the crowds. I was still at primary school.

Last week I spent two days in a pre-conference workshop (before the ACT conference) which were facilitated by trauma workshop by Robyn Walser, who works on the Coming Home project, at the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) research in San Francisco. Robyn works with war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Vietnam. I believe the US does trauma therapy well, but then, they have a lot of veterans who need trauma therapy.

In another workshop, John Forsyth, from the University of Albany, SUNY, spoke about kindness and compassion, and he showed this very hard-hitting Miniature Earth slide show - and this is another version with music by John Lennon. He also talked about sowing seeds of kindness and compassion, which is a cool idea. I think this could involve real seeds...perhaps a new version of Horticultural Therapy?

Both John and Robyn facilitated exercises which involved looking into the eyes of another human being, without talking, for some minutes. In John's case this was an exercise to practice the Buddhist concept of tonglen, which is to 'breathe in another's suffering'. I am slightly ashamed to admit I bailed on this one.

More later.

nowhere to run, (nowhere to hide)...

a coping strategy...

Did I mention having Tamla Motown song titles for my blog posts this month? Well this seemed the perfect one for today. 

I was due to present 'creative ACTivities for mindful therapists' at the ACT conference this afternoon at 3.45pm, the final session after 5 days of workshops and conferences. I was sitting with my anxiety today (and last night) and looking forward to it all being over. Usually the anxiety is worse before I start, and this was the case today as well. It is certainly out of proportion to the risk, and it felt pretty uncomfortable before I got started. I was conscious of going too fast, as I had only just over an hour. Of course, it is now over, and I am so glad I did it, in spite of my abject fear. I think it went pretty well...

hearts out on the grass

This picture captures some of the sense of having myself spilled out all over the show when I do a workshop...what if they tread on my feelings? (they didn't, they were mostly kind psychologists)...

the art shed

And then there was this article in the Guardian, about Kim Noble, who is an artist with Dissociative Identity Disorder, who has over 100 personalities. Thought provoking.

more later.