grateful # 7 & 8

In which I continue my gratitude journal as part of my Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course.

Monday

1. My last nocturnal mural painting session with the marvellous Gordon Hookey and the Kangaroo Crew at FDS (placement). Supported by pizza and damper, and some curious kangaroos, waiting outside in the car park for us, who clearly knew Gordon was there...

 

2. If I could choose a totem animal, today it would be a hedgehog. Just saying.

3. Almost there, just 8 minutes to go (which won't happen for another 10 days...). Then I will be able to graduate. Yay.

4. An extra one, because the house exterior got cleaned today. Even better, not by me. By professionals.

Tuesday

1. Interesting how busy I got, once I stopped working at my placement. How did that happen? So good to have time to reflect, in MBSR group tonight. 

2. My QUT grocery bag - 21 months later, it is all still a bit surreal!

3. Speaking of groceries, my youngest got his first job today, and is following in his older brother's footsteps, by becoming a fresh food person. He is apparently having more success than either of his parents at getting work at the moment...ha ha

more later...

BWF!

Brisbane Writers' Festival was on this week, as part of the Brisbane Festival. This year, I made sure I actually went to a couple of events, instead of my usual practice of thinking about it and then not going.

I went to a talk chaired by the inspirational Chris Sarra, former principal of Cherbourg School, author of Good Morning Mr Sarra, and now CEO of the Stronger Smarter Institute, which assists Indigenous students to gain better access to education.

The main speakers were youth fiction writer Dave Hartley, also deputy principal at Woodridge High School, and Gordon Hookey, Indigenous visual artist, (and Indigenous artist at my social work placement) and author of the children's story The Sacred Hill, talking about writing Indigenous Stories to inspire children and young people. Gordon's story is featured in the children's area of GOMA, which has been taken over by the Kangaroo crew.

We went back the same evening to hear Seaman Dan, aged 84, from Torres Strait, singing in the tent to a small audience. My impression is that Saturday events were not that well attended, perhaps because the federal election was also happening?

I tried to get to Chris Sarra's Sunday talk as well, but accidentally walked into the wrong room, and ended up staying there to hear a talk on the changing face of journalism, with Trent Dalton, Matthew Condon and Amanda Gearing, which was also interesting and topical. Sorry, Mr Sarra!

There was a hint of anger in the air, at untrustworthy journos, a lack of balance, and the Murdoch press, which, unsurprisingly, is the employer of all three of the journos in question.

We also have a new Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, and the Australian Labor Party probably only has itself to blame...

more later

being human: accepting an imperfect world (and being inspired)

 Exhibition: Metaphor and Metamorphosis 

at Percolator Gallery, Paddington (ends today!)

This exhibition, by our second ever group of UQ Masters of Mental Health - Art Therapy graduates - school of 2008 - provided me, as always, with a big dose of pride, inspiration, and admiration, for their ongoing commitment to art and art therapy: what a wonderful way to end the week. In particular, one room focused on the work being done at Milpera high school, which provides intensive English language  support to new migrants and a whole lot more, including the amazing Heal program.

Their next campaign is to try to get art and music therapists in more high schools, which would be fantastic.

Meanwhile I am continuing with my social work placement, and still being inspired by Aboriginal artist Gordon Hookey. Latest project, drawing animals, and anything else, as you see them, and not necessarily how they objectively appear.  An example of a dog, from Monte Lupo gallery:

 noticing art - on a mozzie coil holder

 '50 shades of blue' - on placement

Being on placement is hard, however. I am missing the autonomy, the pay, and the status (to be honest) of being an employee, rather than a student. I am missing my day job! This is probably a good thing, in the long run, as I will be going back there once I complete my placement hours...meanwhile I am observing, and absorbing, but not, compared to usual, achieving a whole lot - apart from a Masters of Social Work degree, of course. Which will lead to other doors opening, so, I am trying to practice acceptance, as much as possible.

 'opening up' - pen drawing

I drew this after hearing some stuff from unhappy people - the proverbial can of worms. It was fun to draw, and more than a little influenced by Zentangles, which I wrote about in my last post.

I now have two Zentangles work books (Yoga for your brain, by Sandy Bartholomew, who like some real yoga teachers I may have mentioned before, says slightly odd things, like your brain is a muscle that needs exercising; and the just published Zentangle untangled workbook, by Kass Hall, who is Australian), to give me some ideas. Once I started drawing patterns, I noticed patterns everywhere. This one is from Buddha's head.

coils

I have also bought some Copic pens, and am enjoying playing with them. I now have a basket of art materials (expanded from a shoe box) to be as accessible and portable as possible, and hopefully inspire more art-making.

Further inspiration here from Austin Kleon's Steal like an artist, found in Title book and record shop yesterday. This link is to a TED talk, in which Kleon describes creating artists' family trees of influence - very cool!

Meanwhile, the mindfulness group I am attending at UQ is proving really helpful, I am trying to do a 30 minute body scan meditation every day, and finding this really great for returning to the body when the mind is too busy, overwhelmed, or just tired (been overusing that brain muscle, even!)...bliss!

Saw the movie Frances Ha last night, which is a poetic exploration of failure. Four stars.

No doubt I should write here more often, to avoid overload. I hope this also inspires some of you.

more later.