Category: Uncategorized

Arabesque dancer

Suspended over water

A Nietzsche Haiku

Vox Anima,

SDM

Art Credit:  Brooke Shaden

In A New Voice:  A Voice Workshop

with

Susan Davis Martin, M.A., M.F.T.

“Last year’s words belong to last year’s language

And next year’s words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning.”

                                                     T. S. Eliot

Voice work is for everybody.

    As the new year ripens into Spring,

You are invited to join us in this experiential workshop series,

where,

through basic exercises,

we will work and play to express our individual voices.

No experience is necessary–just a desire for discovery!

About Susan:

My experience began as child, singing and studying voice music–later evolving into Theatre Arts.  Years of Theatre Arts training focused on acting, voice, and movement for the theatre.  the theatrical emphasis on character study and development was a natural bridge to Psychology.  With 25 years of experience as a Psychotherapist, Consultant, and Educator, my work is a life’s synthesis of my origins in song, movement, art, poetry, and the theatre.

Dates:  March 19, April 16, May 21

Time:  Saturday 1o a.m. – 12 p.m.

Place:  Siskiyou Performing Arts Center  Yreka  CA

Fees:  $25 per workshop*

*Financial assistance is available — please contact Susan to apply.

Contact Susan to enroll:  530~262~7462     susan@stilldancing.com

Vox Anima,  SDM

May the New Year bring us all the appreciation of the Gift of Time.

Vox Anima,  SDM

Art Credit:  Brooke Shaden

Winter Stars

I went out at night alone;

The young blood flowing beyond the sea

Seemed to have drenched my spirit’s wings–

I bore my sorrow heavily.

But when I lifted up my head

From shadows shaken on the snow,

I saw Orion in the east

Burn steadily as long ago.

From windows in my father’s house,

Dreaming my dreams on winter nights,

I watched Orion as a girl

Above another city’s lights.

Years go, dreams go, and youth goes too,

The world’s heart breaks beneath its wars,

All things are changed, save in the east

The faithful beauty of the stars.

~Sara Teasdale from “Flame and Shadow” (1920)

In this solstice time, wishing you nights of star filled wonder…

Vox Anima, SDM

Confluence:  A place where two rivers, or streams join to become one.

Jung said:

“Archetypes are like riverbeds which dry up when the water deserts them,

but which it can find again at any time.

An archetype is like an old watercourse along which the water of life has flowed for centuries,

digging a deep channel for itself.

The longer it has flowed in this channel

the more likely it is that sooner or later the water will return to its old bed.”

…Reassuring words from The Wise Old Man.

I recently had the privilege to attend this conference–along with a reported 250 people…

The venue, at Pacifica Graduate Institute Ladera Campus is quite familiar to me.

I had my first experiences of Marion Woodman’s Intensives there.

Then, it was known as La Casa de Maria.

It was a homecoming, reunion, and the meeting of new life streams joining the flow of

The River.

 

 

 

“Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops — at all”

~Emily Dickinson

Vox Anima, SDM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music Credit:  David Darling

Photo Credit:  Tumblr

“In a time of destruction,

create something:

a poem,

a parade,

a community,

a school,

a vow,

a moral principle;

one peaceful movement.”

~Maxine Hong Kingston

Vox Anima, SDM

With thanks to Caroline LeBlanc

The tidying continues…

I find working with categories and sub-categories facilitates this process.

Taking on medicine cabinet stuff and bathroom miscellany.

Now why am I hanging onto little soaps, shampoos, and shower caps from hotel travels?

Excellent question, Susan.

And why am I hanging on to cosmetic samples and skin creams, sent to me unsolicited?

Again, good question.

And, and why am I retaining old, outdated medicines, cough syrups, prescriptions for the pain for the broken foot over 3 years ago?

Warning:  Transparency Ahead

The answer to the why I hold onto these kinds of things is FEAR.

As a child, growing up, I knew periods of feast and famine.

Chronic uncertainty that my basic needs would be provided for.

That explains things.

Remnants of childhood trauma.

Kiera Malone captures an essential aspect of the child within–

who I learned much more about in Marion Woodman Wellsprings Intensives.

I also found, along with her, in my shadow, much light, comfort, and solid goodness.

(The Sealskin Sealskin Selkie story remains very dear and close to my heart.)

Now certainly, I can approach the fear of the tiny soaps and medicine bottles with a little help from Mother?

I can hear her voice.

She can help me sort this from that.

As for Sparking Joy:

With a little bit of help, I think I can do it.

Vox Anima, SDM

Art Credit as Captioned; Pinterest

I don’t know about you, but Fall can bring out the “clean up and  clear out” instincts in me.

Perhaps it is the inward pull to go inside.

Prepare the cave for hibernation and put away summer.

I was feeling this impulse naturally, when a little book came across my path:

(Apparently, this is a popular item.

And, as is typical with me, I am late to the party on this one.)

I am on page 77.

I was slowed down by the idea of visualizing what my destination or goal is —

 the first step.

I am not a clutterer, per se.

But I am a keeper.

Hm.

I landed on the feeling sensation I wanted throughout my home and property.

(which we call The Shire, by the way)

We have been well on our way,

but Ms. Kondo helped to crystallize and bring coherence to our efforts.

The concept that sold me was Ms. Kondo’s notion of Spark Joy.

The next step in her method is Discarding.

Then, the consideration:

(A nonrational intuitive method!!

Yes!  Suits my intuitive type perfectly!!!)

One considers the item in one’s hand, or at hand, and asks the intuitive question.

Then await the intuitive answer.

I must admit I have been stuck with things that fall into the mementos category.

Great Grandma’s steam trunk with all the bits and treasures from the Depression era.

Great Grandma’s cedar chest, which we have renamed “The Time Capsule”,

as it contains every little thing the kids made,

photos, “rememberies”,

the ponytail of my hair cut after the first born…

(which was down to my waist–it still smells like the shampoo I used then)

Then there are the outbuildings, which have as much square space as the house.

There, upstairs, in the attic, Christmas, art supplies, old basketball shoes,

my son’s handmade windchimes made of leaves and bamboo,

his rock collection,

my daughter in law’s art materials…

It’s all been a little too much, and I could not find a thinking way to approach it.

All the usual Western notions of organization did not fit for me.

Ms. Kondo understands this.

She instructs to begin with the easier categories first.

Such as clothes.

I began.

Discarding.

The energy that it sparked was/is amazing!

What is equally amazing is that once the discarding was done.

The putting away and organizing came naturally and easily.

(I love the meditative aspect of folding clothes as per the method.

I would proudly show you my underwear drawer, but that’s a bit too much!)

I donated bags of stuff, and took a suitcase full to consignment.

The rest, was thrown away.

Next came Books and Media.

 As of today, over 15 garbage bags full have left the inside of my home!

A spaciousness and order is creeping in, and the settled peace is steadily growing.

Satisfying.

Perhaps most satisfying of all is that tidying is a dialogue with one’s self.

Ms. Kondo writes:

“While not exactly a meditative state, there are times when I am cleaning that I can quietly commune with myself.  The work of carefully considering each object I own to see whether it sparks joy inside me is like conversing with myself through the medium of my possessions.”

There is much more to the process, and as I said, I’m on page 77.

The success of my early efforts encourage me.

I am building on this to approach the harder, more soulful things like photographs.

A Psychic Momentum is happening, and I am grateful for that.

Vox Anima, SDM  (aka The Joyologist)

As of August 15, the little horse and buggy town I call home has officially declared:

“Summer is over!”

I can report this with the most certainty,

As I overheard at our friendly post office a snippet of conversation…

“How was your summer?”

Followed by the usual standard response…

“Yah it was good, toooooo short.”

(From me, the casual bystander in line a visceral reaction)

Now, I am trying to follow the logic of this.

Ok, the County Fair (highlight of the year in Siskiyou County) just ended.

School begins tomorrow.

Hm.  I could see why the Summer Post Mortems have begun…

In our local markets, pumpkin things and funny witch hats greet me as I enter the store for weekly provisions.

A sadness, a melancholy, slowly seeps in to my bones.

I am just about to buy myself a bouquet of flowers to console when…

The Farmer’s Almanac states that Autumn begins September 23 at precisely 4:21 a.m.!

It’s not time to say  goodbye!

Marion Woodman wrote about the way in which the modern pace of life turns the everyday into an abstraction.

I am here to say NO!

No to abstractions.

To be present in whatever season I am in.

But, to put Lovely Summer into her grave before her time?!

I say NO!

Recently, a teacher of mine commented that Summer is just now ripening.

She is–fullfilling her promise.

Her promise of beauty, warm sensuality, abundance in the garden,

and the necessary softness following Winter and Spring.

A time to exhale.

A time to inhale.

A time to put away woolens and dress lightly in linens.

A time to skinny dip.

A time to leave the cave and go outside.

And, I think, return to a (more or less) pre-conscious state of being.

So, instead of  flowers, I stopped by Juan’s Fruit Stand and purchased a watermelon.

Vox Anima, SDM

 

 

 

 

 

Music Credit:  David Brubeck & Louis Armstrong  “Summer Song”

Dear Readers,

While the Muse is away

(on very important business)

May I direct you to an article in the August 8 New York Times?

Titled:  I’m Too Old For This

by

Dominque Browning.

You can find this under the heading:  Fashion & Style / First Person

Happy reading!

(we would put in a link, but we haven’t figured out how to do that yet)

Let us know what you think of our stand-in’s offering.

Vox Anima, SDM