What Feeds My Soul/Spirit

As I write this I have the back door open to keep an eye on my boy who is digging in the dirt while the next door neighbors play basketball.  It is a beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the mid 60s.  If only it would stay this way.

Awhile back I sat in church and in my little journal wrote a list of all the things that feed my soul.  I keep this journal with me almost all the time to jot down everything from a to do list to quotes to words that strike me in some way.

Last week I set aside some time while in my office at work to take my feeds-my-soul-list and find miniatures and place them in my sand tray.  (Incidentally, this sand tray was a gift from a former student who had remembered that many semesters before I had mentioned in a play therapy class how much I was coveting Eliana Gil's sandtray in her family play therapy video.  So very grateful for this gift.)  The ironic thing about this activity is I had just come from teaching about socioemotional development in infants.  It was another beautiful day but the air conditioning wasn't working right in the classroom.  I was nauseous.  Perhaps I should have just gone home, but I was determined to do this tray.

What Feeds My Soul/Spirit

All things creative:

music, drama, books, visual art

young children for so very many reasons

being in nature:

the trees, flowers, and water

sitting by a roaring fire,

looking up at the sky,

walking along a bridge,

listening to a water fountain

the beach:

the sun, the sand, the waves

finding shells

making sand castles

the grace, the freedom, the nurturing of birds and butterflies

fresh, local, organic food

sipping tea with a friend while having a heart-to-heart talk

I need to find a little table for those tea cups

sitting.

be still.

meditating.

my meditative like figure just seemed too big
so Gumby came to the rescue

The other two items in the tray were a bottlecap that said "play" and a knobby, colorful ball.

What do these things all have in common?

Taking the time to be quiet

to listen

to reflect

to be grateful

to remember what is really important.

To know we are all connected.

Namaste!

An Autumn Kentucky "Poem Note"

I was introduced to the concept of a "poem note" by Liz Lamoreux during the Midwest Inner Excavation Retreat this past May.  Over the weekend I taught my Creative Play Therapy Interventions course in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, again.  (Four hours from home.  A beautiful drive to eastern Kentucky and listening to podcasts on my phone = not so bad.)  This was the first time I ever did this activity with a class, and I couldn't help but participate.  Using a shadow self-portrait I took while we went on a walking meditation and photo walk, I present you my little poem note.

A Must See Video about Gratitude

I believe the video speaks for itself.
I just love stuff like this.

Special thanks to Emelisa Mudle who posted it on her facebook page, Healing with Art.

Sometimes the Best Play is the Simplest

Sometimes the best play is the simplest.

A loaf of old bread.  A warm summer day.

A park.  Lots of geese.

And my boy.

Wonder what this one is thinking?

Vews from the Midwest Inner Excavation Retreat

I was gone for about 5 glorious days last week at Liz Lamoreux's Be Present Retreat in the Midwest (Culver IN) based on her book entitled Inner Excavation.  I've followed her blog for quite awhile and secretly harbored the wish to attend.  When I discovered that she was having a retreat within driving distance I just couldn't say no.  I'M SO GLAD I SAID YES!  The retreat was co-led by artist Kelly Barton.  Her shop has been a favorite of mine on Etsy for a very long time.  Heck, I gotta promote Liz's shop as well.  It is so amazing to finally get to meet these two very special people.

I can definitely say that it was one of the BEST experiences of my life.  I'm still processing it all.  For now I will share photos I took on the third day when we went on a photography walk along Lake Muxinkuckee on the campus of Culver Academies.

the lake

this one's my favorite. i may have to enlarge it and frame it as a reminder

a happy mistake

flowers

reminds me of part of my childhood in Utah

Can't ya just smell 'em?

More to come...

For the Love of iPhoneography & Lens on Life

I love playin around and taking pics with my iphone.  And my kids do too.  It's so easy.  No heavy dSLR camera to lug around.  No special settings to mess with.  If I share the photos with someone and say I took them with my iphone, then I'm less likely to worry about what a photog (that's someone who knows what they're doing with a camera) would think of them.  After all they were taken just with my iphone.

Then what's really fun is to use apps like instagram that have several filters that can change the look of the photo and then easily post it to twitter, facebook, flickr, posterous, or tumblr.  Later you can look at your feed in your app and see where others have "liked" your photo or left a comment.  (You can tell an instagram pic from a regular iphone pic by its square shape.)

Through twitter and other forms of social media and the web I have met the wonderful Stephanie Roberts and Jen Lemen.  What I'm really excited about is Stephanie and Jen's latest venture called Lens on Life.  (And I'm proud to say I am part of the Founders Circle.)  From the Lens on Life website: Lens on Life reveals and illuminates a visual voice for the unseen, particularly children living in impoverished conditions around the world. Lens on Life inspires creativity and cultivates photography skills with our students through the lens of connecting diverse people divided by cultural, socio-economic, and geographic boundaries.

Stephanie and Jen are currently in Kathmandu, Nepal working with a group of children at the Koseli school.  I've enjoyed seeing their instagram pics via twitter throughout the week.  I am definitely living vicariously through them.  My dream would be to join them one day and do play therapy with these kids.  Stephanie and Jen are Shutter Sisters who first went to Nepal for Picture Hope, their grand prize winning photography assignment the Name Your Dream Assignment global photography competition sponsored by Lenovo and Microsoft.  You can learn more in this video.



And to top it all off Stephanie has written a book, The Art of iPhoneography: A Guide to Mobile Creativity.  Love, love.  Happy, happy.

pink dogwood at Lindsey Wilson College
taken with you what and the instagram app

What Young Children Can Teach Us

the tulips that I had planted last fall

"A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement.

It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision,

that true instinct for what is beautiful,

is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood."

~~Rachel Carson

Young children can teach us

To slow down and

Notice the beauty of the world all around us.

So much to learn if we just stop

And allow ourselves to be curious.

It helps to have a 6-year-old that notices the little things like worms, slugs, and caterpillars.

Who gets excited when a bird builds a nest inside our uncovered grill.

Who could spend the entire day playing outside.

May I continue to be open to learning from him.

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

How I've missed you.  I feel a bit antsy when I don't have make time to be creative and play.  But I'm not gonna beat up on myself for that.  It's been a bit of a rough week...and that's life.  Allergies, a friend moved away, and a big project (rated proposals for the next APT conference).  I'm getting back on track.  And how nice it was to spend a day with my daughter last weekend!

Today I bought these tulips to bring some cheer into my world.
Hope you have some cheer too. ~smiles~

Fall = Play

What a fun time of year!

First, a trip to the roadside market.

Animals out of hay

Real animals

Tried so hard to get a good pumpking pic with the kids. The sun was in their eyes and Miles just wanted to play, naturally. "No pictures Mom!"

One more inside the market

A friend of ours has her birthday on Halloween. For the past 5+ years she and her husband have hosted a pumpkin party which seems to get bigger every year. It is a Fall highlight for me.

I love to see adults and children alike exercising their creativity!

Here are some of my favorites.

This carousel actually spun around.

Meredith made one with an Apple logo.

Of course, this purple one belongs to me.

 (With idea from Alisa Burke whose blog is so creative!)

My hubby was one of the judges. Judging takes a very long time because everyone gets an award and the judges develop creative names for the awards. Miles, in fact, who didn't want to decorate his pumpkin because he was too busy playing in these friends' lovely backyard, won the award for "Most Loved Pumpkin."

Something new this year: a magic show.

So fun to watch the kids' reactions to the tricks.

Guess how many pieces of candy are in the jar.

Miles really enjoyed the pinata.

Who are these two?

Here are all the beautiful children. An annual pic on the stairs. Miles is front row center, Meredith is directly above him in back row.

Here's another pic. Which one do you prefer?

We arrived home to find these fun Halloween figures made by my sister.

What a fun weekend! Just wait till next weekend...

Reflections on a Play Therapy Conference--Part 2

my favorites--love the guy kickin' back
and the 2 mother/baby nuturing figures

Here is why attending the Association for Play Therapy annual conference is like Christmas for me as I mentioned in my last post. I come home with new sandtray figures from exhibitors such as Kentucky's own Toys of the Trade as seen above.

Then there's new books from the fabulous Dee Dee of the Self Esteem Shop

and this fun new instrument made in Peru.

And because play therapy is so creative I often get to make things like...

puzzle piece where the prompt was to
make something important to you
(I was missing my kids when I made this.)

a healing pouch

and a

derby hat (We were in Louisville after all!)

I received this little affirmation in one of my workshops.

Since returning from the conference I've been decompressing through a trip to the park with two of my favorite people and playtime in the fall leaves.

Meredith Rose

Miles Nelson

Meredith with neighborhood friend

BEAUTIFUL!

One more thing. I gave Miles a magnet of a feelings chart I got at the conference. He immediately taped it up in his room beneath his calendar he made. Notice the feeling he marked. How cute is that?!

HAPPY