Your community and website focus on spirituality and crafting a belief system that nurtures YOU, just special you. Why is it so important to form such a belief system as an artist?

Curious? Click here to read my answer.

Thanks for being here today.

Much Warmth,

Rachelle
*your magpie girl

A Hybrid Patchwork
by Marjorie Gray

Spirit balloons me, fires my passion and compassion. I’m a child, exuberant at dawn, playful throughout the day, smiling in sleep. Books, faces, trees, the sky, lakes, streams, birds, flowers and leaves call to me. Eagerly, I read, watch, explore, discover, listen and respond. I’m also a spirited grandmother, growing daily in my capacity to drink in wisdom from all ages, from group spiritual directors, prophets, visionaries and sages. My roots are deep and growing deeper, even as new shoots sprout on old and new branches.

Sound like too much hunky-dory gobbledy-gook? Yet as I write it, just as when I write in my journal multiple times a day, someone I call Great or Holy Spirit lets me know it’s actual as well as factual. Granted it’s harder to write the sadness and anger for public view. Even in the journal, gratitude dominates (my alter-ego, clown name is JOYO). But Spirit often actively engages me through tears, rants, and hurting heart cries for HELLP (that’s how I spell it in silent yells and yelps). Yet I am certain that Holy Love blesses and guides me in marriage, family, church and community. In her wondrous, patient peace my jumbled, paradoxical dance finds joyful balance on the arc of hope.

Timely, beyond time, Spirit’s infusions are momentous and daily. Monday, on my way to a used bookstore in Baltimore, she drew me to sit on a ledge beside a woman asking for spare change. Would that I had stayed for conversation instead of only to get directions and give her a dollar. Wednesday she infiltrated our newly forming Resilience Circle at church. Thursday her vibrancy invigorated my body-soul on a trash and recycling pickup walk round Greenbelt Lake. Always available in abundance, Holy Breath comes alive in my awareness of desire, in solitude and silence, in appreciation of children and of the child in each of us.

So my spirituality is a hybrid homegrown patchwork. Seniors and kids and others who ride with me see this sign on the dashboard: 2001 Prius owned by Jesus, operated by Sister Marjorie in his service. I love driving almost as much as walking. When I’m alone in the car, the sign and the wide skies above remind me Great Spirit is human too. I’m neither female nor male then, but pure spirit powerfully embodied.

What about you Magpie? How is it your right-fit spiritual hybrid and how did you discover it?

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Thanks.Giving. Here at Magpie Girl, we say “thank-you” to our generous guest posters by making donation in their honor. Marjorie has chosen to direct her donation to Dayspring Retreat Center.

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Marjorie majored in Art and English at Calvin College, and taught both subjects in elementary and middle schools. She has a Masters in Recreation from the University of Maryland and has worked in various settings with senior adults. She is the author of Mulled Words: A Word a Week from God’s Word and Mulled Psalms: Moving from I to We. She blogs at Mullstream and lives in Greenbelt Maryland.

Have you met Andi Johnson? No, she’s not one of the women pictured here. :-) But she’s carrying on their tradition — knitting! Today at Behind the Mic, Andi is telling us how knitting is her right fit spiritual practice. Andi, step right up…

The Heart & Soul of Knitting
by Andi Johnson

Knitting is an art and a craft. You need some mathematical ability. You need to have some dexterity. You need to have good eyesight. And, if you don’t knit, please, as you read this, substitute the word “crochet”, “weaving”, “woodworking”, or whatever other craft you do.

Knitting keeps me sane. As one who is ADD, I bring my knitting everywhere. It helps me focus and concentrate on the speakers and conversations. And, I suppose I knit for sanity, for stress-relief. Can you be upset when you knit, while you knit? Stressed out about events happening around you? Think about that. How connected do you feel when you knit? With your past, connecting to your present, connecting to your future. When you are thinking the stitches involved in an intricate pattern, turning a heel, or purling & knitting when you should be knitting and purling, how can you be stressed?

Last spring I read The Knitting Way by Janice MacDaniels. When I received the book, I allowed it to take me on its journey through the patterns, deepening my understanding of knitting as a spiritual practice. The spiral is on the cover of the book. I’m drawn to spirals, eternity, the circular pattern of the spiral. I had to knit the spiral. The book explains, “This spiral is a reminder that we are on a journey. As your hands work this pattern, reflect upon where you are along the
journey and be content with your progress.”

After many years’ hiatus, I picked up the needles when I became a caseworker. I brought my knitting into peoples’ homes while I sat and talked with them. If I happened to finish a hat while there, I’d hand it over to the mom, saying, “You need to take better care of yourself, and this is a start.”

A few years later, one of the women in our church began a Shawl Group. It began as a spiritual group, beginning in silence and meditation, with a reading, and just knitting for a while. The shawls would be given to parishioners who had lost someone, who needed just that bit of comfort in their lives during a tough time. And, so we continue with our shawls. Not in silence, and not always together after the service– sometimes in our homes, out in public, and usually in church. I think the connections we make in church through our knitting, whether we knit in a group, or in our homes, make us stronger, and build a better community through sharing skills, patterns and yarns.

We recognize the need for someone to take care of themselves with the finished project as we pass it on. In that way, we connect our spirituality in the work we do.

The colors and textures can be luscious. I’m reminded of sunrises, sunsets, mountains, rocks, flower gardens, oceans…I love perusing yarn shops. When I pick up a skein of yarn, I am awed that I can turn this beautiful yarn into something wearable, something usable, and something beautiful. My heart flutters a little.

When I mentioned to someone about writing about knitting, they said to be sure to tell you that mistakes are okay. We learn from them. They can be corrected, but they don’t always need to be corrected. They can make our finished pieces interesting and creative. And, isn’t that the way life is. Is there anyone here who does not make mistakes?

When you knit, you pick up from the last stitch you knit, connecting the yarn, row to row. And, on and on it goes. You connect the loops. Stories are told, occasions are celebrated and recognized. You are carrying on a tradition that is hundreds of years old. It is a craft passed down from generation to generation, within families, among friends. Connections: yarns to yarns. Connections: women to women, and, even between the sexes. Connections: community.

What about you Magpie? How is it you connect your heart and soul to community?

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Thanks.Giving. Here at Magpie Girl, we say “thank-you” to our generous guest posters by making donation in their honor. Andi has chosen to direct her donation to Lumunos, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people find their calling. If this article was helpful to you, please click here to make a donation. (Thanks, you.)

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Andi Johnson is the Community Manager and Administrative Assistant for Lumunos.  (www.lumunos.org)  She has previously
worked in human services and hospital financial accounting and patient accounts.  She is active in politics, her Unitarian Universalist Church (www.kuuc.org), and sings with Animaterra Women’s Chorus. (www.animaterrasings.org)  She lives in Marlborough, NH with her 2 cats and a large stash of yarns.

Have you met Jesica Davis of SurfPrayLove? Jes and I met at Blogher ’11 in the Faith Blogger’s forum. In the group of about 20 women, we were the only bloggers who weren’t involved in institutionalized forms of faith. Jes has a bright smile and an open demeanor, and I think there was something more about her spirit that made every woman in there not only want to talk to her, but to touch her. I watched as person after person approached her and put a hand on her shoulder, or touched a finger tip to her arm. I’m pleased as punch that such an appealing spirit is with us today. Jes is getting behind the mic to talk to us about one of her right-fit spiritual practices: surfing. Jess, step right up….

Surfing as Spiritual Practice
with Jesica Davis of Surf Pray Love

My introduction to formal spiritual practice came when, almost twenty five years ago, a friend introduced me to Buddhist chanting. Raised in an open-minded but non-religious family, I was intrigued and (somewhat) disciplined about it, but I was a freshman in college and other pursuits soon took its place.

Nevertheless, the spiritual path continued to call and, in the ensuing decades, I delved into a variety of traditions. I practiced contemplative reading, meditation, Afro-Cuban dance and yoga. I prayed in Native American sweat lodges, did extensive dream work and experienced shamanic journeys.   I also spent over a decade applying (and helping others to apply) the principles of personal transformation as taught by Landmark Education.

And through it all, I was drawn to the ocean.

Almost a year and a half ago I was at a spiritual crossroads. I was about to complete coaching a workshop at Landmark Education and Lawrie, my beloved dreaming and shamanism mentor, was moving to Pennsylvania.  Still an avid yoga practitioner and an irregular meditator, the question that most concerned me was: what’s next? When Lawrie recommended that I let spirit be my guide, I knew what I had to do.  I had been dreaming about surfing and surfers for a year, so I went with it.

I bought a board and a wetsuit.

With only a few lessons under my belt and only the occasional buddy to point me in the right direction, I began to surf. I’d listened to the wisdom and experience of others for years, but this time around, I had a strong feeling that the ocean would be my teacher – and I have not been disappointed.

So what have I learned through my experiences surfing and why is surfing the right spiritual practice for me now?

• Surfing is a confrontation with unquestionable truths. A wave is a wave. The water is the water. I fall down. I stand up. I fall down again. My opinion does not matter. What’s so is so, regardless of how I feel about it. There’s no room for argument. My teacher is always right.

• Surfing takes me outside the mind and aligns my physical actions with something larger than myself. Meditation is powerful, but can easily become an escape for someone like me who is naturally drawn inwards. Surfing forces me to direct my attention to the interface between my body and the world.  It brings me down to earth.

• Like the I-Ching, the ocean is a book of change. Whether it is stormy and grey-green, or calm and crystalline, it remains true to itself.  I may get mad at my children or my husband for being inconsistent, but the ocean teaches that I am responsible for my own expectations. I cannot expect the water, or my family, or the world, to be a certain way.  I can only be responsible for my response to how it is.
• Though surfing is not easy, it’s fun. Even if I catch nothing – and many times this has been the case – I have a good time. That’s what keeps me coming back to the beach. In this way I’ve learned that passion and joy are the gifts we are given to fuel us when pursuing lives of purpose.

Ultimately, through surfing I have discovered that I am a different self when I am in the water – a self that my ego/identity, aka my “dry land self,” cannot comprehend. Week after week, my “dry land self” would just as rather not surf, thank you very much because, out in the water, it’s not running the show.

There was a time when I was afraid to be at the beach too long because I feared that I would mellow out too much and lose my drive and ambition.  Then one day I realized that maybe what I really feared was happiness. It was then that I began to risk the possibility of letting go of old dreams in favor of something which did not yet exist and which I could not identify.

In taking on surfing as my spiritual practice, that “something” has begun to shape my life in a far deeper, more satisfying way than drive and ambition ever did.

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Jesica Davis is a graduate of The University of Chicago Divinity School, a tarot card reader and the mother of two. A year of intensive dream work and her studies at Landmark Education resulted in her exploration of surfing as the ideal spiritual and transformational practice for her. You can read more of her observations and insights regarding surfing, spirituality and family life at SurfPrayLove.

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Thanks.Giving. Here at Magpie Girl, we say “thank-you” to our brilliant guest posters by making donation in their honor. Jes has chosen to direct her donation to the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting our oceans. If this article was helpful to you, please click here. (Thanks, you.)

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What about you Magpie? Have you adopted a new spiritual practice lately? How did you find it? (Or how did it find you?) What are you learning? (Do tell!)

Nude: Profile © Sarah Marie Lacy, 2011. 12″x16″ oil on canvas. Used with permission.

Buying a piece of original art is an amazing feeling. And thought artists rarely “make” money on their work — considering the time and preparation that goes into each piece — it can still be out of most people’s price range to purchase a painting.

Enter Sarah Marie Lacy. Sarah is a very talented painter, who shares her art and her process on line. After surviving the acute stages of an ongoing chronic illness, Sarah is in a place of strength and productivity and has been invited to study painting in Paris. As part of her fundraising efforts, she’s offering us her original works of art on a Pay-What-You-Can basis.

 Click here to see her generous offerings through 3/20/11.

Today at Behind the Mic, Sarah tells about her brave experiment, and lets us in on what it feels like to send one of her babies off to a new home.  Sarah, step right up… 

Tell us about this opportunity in France and how you are funding it?

I am honored to have been accepted into Studio Escalier’s summer program, which is a 3 month intensive classical figure painting and drawing course. They only accept 12 students each time, so I’m still pinching myself.

I’ve been doing a variety of things to fund this trip – up until now, mostly selling paintings & prints, and subscriptions to my private email list, “Sketches from the Road”, where every week I’ll send out an email sharing my photos, tales and paintings as well as a little video post.

This weekend though, I’m doing something a little different – I’m running an experimental “Pay What You Can” event for my artwork. Basically, people can make me an offer on my artwork, and if it’s fair and I feel comfortable with it, they get it!

What makes you nervous about a pay-what-you-can project?

I think what made me most nervous was worrying about getting offers of $10 for a big painting and having to turn people down. I’m a people pleaser, so it would have been a challenge for me to say no, especially if it was someone that I liked a lot and if I knew they loved the painting.

What energizes you about this experiment?

Funnily enough, it’s the experimental quality of this project that excites me. I like trying something different and new, especiallywhen it comes to marketing art. I had no expectations, but I’d seen a lot of internet marketing folks doing it, so I thought – how would this work with art? Would it work at all? Would people bite or not? It’s been fun seeing people’s reactions – everything from total shock to excitement.

How does it feel when you send off a much-loved piece of work to a new home?

It’s actually the most wonderful feeling. I get really excited about sending my work to new places. I create my work forpeople to experience and enjoy. No matter how much I love a painting, unless I’ve painted it for myself, I feel like the circle isn’t complete until someone else is enjoying it. I believe that for every painting, there is the perfect owner, so when that owner shows up, it’s a really beautiful feeling.

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Sarah Marie Lacy writes wisely and eloquently about thriving in the creative life on her blog.   She also help artists, writers, and other creatives get a website set up in a weekend! Click here to get on the early bird list for the next class. Don’t forget the Pay What You Can experiment is only available through 3/20/2011 and I already bought “Strawberries,” so you better get on it! :-)

• Can we take care of ourselves (and our families, and our jobs) and have enough (emotion, money, time) to give away?
• Can we bring hope to dark places without burning out?
• Can we afford to fall in love with a cause?
• Can we use art to serve our world?

Yes. Yes, we can.

To that end, Magpie Girl is proud to feature new projects where Art walks hand-in-hand with Service. (They make a nice couple, don’t you think?) Each of these projects will be funded through donations made to Kickstarter, an excellent site dedicated to helping artful start-ups micro-source the funding they need. (You know, so they can do Big Things without burning out.) Here’s a great project to give a dime to this month…

The Round: Bringing Art Back to the Community

When a little church in Seattlegave up its space so the neighborhood could have an arts center, they had no idea a Tuesday night mash-up of artists, poets, and painters would become a sold-out sensation. Under the care of Nathan Marion and his band of happy art enthusiasts, Fremont Abbey has become a household name for community, music, and creativity; and the monthly Tuesday night special, The Round, has a become a cornerstone of Seattle’s music scene. 

The Round features musicians, poets, painters who collaborate to create live in front of an audience. Proceeds from the night get funneled back into art, music and dance programs benefiting the local community. Now, Mezzanine Floor Studios –a local record producing company — is putting together an album of the music that has been featured during performances.  Half money raised from the sales of these albums will help to fund the Youth Fund at the Fremont Abbey. We interviewed Jonas G, the producer of the album to learn more about the projects inspiration.

1. How did you become passionate about your subject/project? 

I realized how amazing, and rare, it is to see musicians collaborating while an audience really listens.  A friend of mine was recording the show, so I got involved in the mixing and podcasting process, and now we’re taking it to the next level and making an album.

2. How do you feel your art helps care for the communities you are focusing on?  

One, we pay the artists and musicians who perform at The Round, so that helps to sustain art in Seattle. Two, the arts are the focus and many are represented at once, so it’s great for community building and collaboration. Three, lots of inspiration is happening at The Round, and everyone leaves felling so refreshed and ready to go home and make more art.

3. How does your passion for world-care nourish you?

 I love sharing experiences, and helping others achieve, which is why I work for The Round.  I make sure it sounds good, and that the podcast is good quality. Working on this project is mainly inspired by the thought of sharing the experience of The Round in a lasting way so everyone can enjoy and be inspired by it.

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• Did you know? Our last Kickstarter feature was fully funded! A big Magpie Girl “Mwah!” to everyone who pitched in!
• To help fund The Round Album Project click here.
• To read all Magpie Girl’s interviews in the Behind the Mic series, click here.  
• I’d like to give a special shout-out to Jenn Renee Pekol of Freelance Unconvential Nun for all her help on these Kickstarter interviews. Thanks Jenn! We’ll see y’all next month with another project where soulcare and worldcare meet. Thank you for being here today.

• Can we take care of ourselves (and our families, and our jobs) and have enough (emotion, money, time) to give away?
• Can we bring hope to dark places without burning out?  
• Can we afford to fall in love with a cause?

Yes. Yes, we can.

To that end, Magpie Girl is proud to feature new projects where Art walks hand-in-hand with Service.  (They make a nice couple, don’t you think?) Each of these projects will be funded through donations made to Kickstarter, an excellent site dedicated to helping artful start-ups micro-source the funding they need.

“Reteaching Gender and Sexuality is about helping young people to do more than just survive their teens; we want them thriving.”      -Sid Jordan, Co-Director, Put this on the Map

This month our pledge goes to Put This on the Map– a group of young people who are ready to reteaching gender and sexuality in mind-blowing, creative ways.  Their video blew my mind. In under 3 minutes, they introduced me to at least three paradigm-shifting concepts. And their stories, passion, and confidence made me cry. This group of youth are ready to SCHOOL you, (and Lord knows, we could all use some consciousness raising ’round here on this topic!)

Reteaching Gender and Sexuality from PUT THIS ON THE MAP on Vimeo.

Look, it’s true, it does get better…but do you the next generation to suffer until then? I didn’t think so.  Together, we can  click a button and help these folks create, not just a safe place, but a liberating space for youth. But we have to do so by Sunday, January 23rd, when all the Kickstarter pledges are due in. It would be swell if you could pledge today.

To learn more about this passionate project, Co-Director/Producer  Sid Jordan  is getting behind the mic to tell you more about this empowering film-and-teaching project. Sid, step right up!

1.     How did you become passionate about your subject/project?

Reteaching Gender and Sexuality is a new approach to pervasive problems experienced by many queer and transgender people. As an adolescent, family conflict about my gender expression and sexuality resulted in me eventually leaving home before graduating high school. Now, after almost a decade of working with youth in the human services sector, I have witnessed so many young people who fall outside prescriptive norms of gender and sexuality in the unnecessary struggle for equal opportunity of success. My personal experiences and the experiences of those around me inspired me to create PUT THIS ON THE {MAP}; a documentary featuring the stories of 26 queer/trans youth in the suburbs of Seattle. I worked with my long-time colleague and friend Megan Kennedy, a licensed therapist and artist, to create a film that would represent a diversity of voices within a small region. In 2011, we have an amazing team of youth educations who will be taking on the road with us. The energy of the team is contagious and I can’t wait to see what we can do together!

2.     How do you feel the film and tour helps care for the communities you are focusing on?

In 2010, the national media spotlighted a series of tragic LGBT youth suicides. The culprit was named “bullying”; and the answers varied from anti-bullying prevention programming, to “it gets better”, to “make it better”. These campaigns drew attention to a pre-existing problem of the high rates of suicides among queer/trans youth. Reteaching Gender and Sexuality is about helping young people to do more than just survive their teens; we want them to be thriving. We know we need to look deeper than bullying in order to address educational and health disparities among LGBTQ youth, as well as disproportionate incarceration rates, homelessness, and underemployment. . Reteaching Gender and Sexuality tour is a platform for queer/trans young people to speak out and be advocates for change that will help them thrive. It’s a campaign that goes to the heart of the matter.

3.    How does your passion for world-care nourish you?

World-care and self-care are closely aligned in our work. Reteaching Gender and Sexuality views community’s health and wellness as a principal goal; our team’s personal nourishment or wellness is necessarily interrelated to that goal. Many of us have survived harassment or violence, family conflict, and housing insecurity; many of us have seen liberation work and creative/cultural production as key in our personal and community healing.

4.   What else would like us to know about your project?

Our kickstarter campaign will create the base of funding we need to launch the Reteaching Gender and Sexuality tour this February – May 2011. Contributions go to support leadership development of our team, as well as equipment, travel, and stipends for our team of young educators. Readers can contact info@putthisonthemap.org to invite us to their communities!

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To help fund Put This on the Map click here. To read all Magpie Girl’s interviews in the Behind the Mic series, click here.  I’d like to give a special shout-out to Jenn Renee Pekol of Freelance Unconvential Nun  for all her help on these Kickstarter interviews. Thanks Jenn! We’ll see y’all next month with another project where soulcare and worldcare meet. Thanks for being here today.

And somehow…it’s not enough.

When my children were infants and toddlers, motherhood didn’t come easy to me. I struggled. And P.S. I had a chronic migraines. All the save-the-world energy of my youth seemed to dry up. It was all  I could do to keep my head above water. I started offering  soulcare at Magpie Girl because I need soulcare. As a former mentor of mine used to say “You only preach the sermons you need to hear.”

Now that the kids are older (10, 12) and my migraines are in remission (huzzah!) I’m feel a new sermon comin’ on. It’s called “Where Soulcare and Worldcare Meet.”  I was ruminating on it when my fellow-coach, Jen Louden wrote this here:

“For a long time, I’ve been part of a sub-culture that believes if you raise your consciousness and do good stuff like buy quinoa in bulk and shine light to others during hard times, that will be enough to change the world.

 I say that’s crucial, that’s glorious,

and that’s not enough”.

To this I say “Amen.”

We are enough. and  We can offer more.

We have to take care of yourselves. and  We must work for the behalf of others.

We struggle. and We are abundantly blessed.

“Where soulcare and worldcare meet.” I’m not sure what this turn of phrase will mean for my work, or my world. But I know it has captured my heart. To that end I’m turning to other wise souls — women I trust and who are asking the same sort of questions. This week Heather Plett of Sophia Leadership steps Behind the Mic to talk about where she finds guidance to balance soulcare and worldcare in her life. Heather, step right up…

Where Soulcare and Worldcare Meet
with Heather Plett

Q: We all want and need to take care of ourselves. And we can all see the needs of the larger world around us. What are your tips for making space for both soulcare and worldcare in our lives?

A:t was in a hospital bed that I learned my greatest lesson in making space for both soulcare and worldcare.

I was at “the top of my game” in the Fall of 2000. I had risen through the ranks in my career to a director position in the federal government. I had a young and talented team working for me and we had just entered the busiest time of the year. I was thriving on the demands of a busy, productive life.

I was looking after everyone’s else’s needs, and I was doing it well. Not only did I have a team looking to me for direction, but I had two small children and was pregnant with our third. I knew that I was needed and it felt good. I was a master in worldcare. The fact that I was nearing burnout barely registered as I competently juggled all the balls I had to keep in the air.

Suddenly, though, a routine ultrasound showed problems with my pregnancy and my world (and worldcare) came to a grounding halt. After failed surgery, I landed in a hospital bed and was told “If you want this baby to survive, you will move as little as possible for the next few months.”

That was not good news. How could my daughters survive without Mom in the house? How could my team make it through the most hectic season of the year without their leader?

For the first few days, I fought to stay in control. I tried to manage my team from my hospital bed, and gave direction about what should happen for my daughters in my absence. I wasn’t ready to let go.

Gradually, though, I had to let control slip from my fingers. My mom took my daughters to the farm where they thrived under her nurturing, my team rallied and started making decisions without me, stuff got done, and life moved on.

For me, though, stuck in that hospital bed, it felt like some giant hand had reached down into my life and hit the pause button. I could do none of the things I was so competent at, and I was left with only two choices.  I could resist it and sit there in misery, or accept it and find the value in a break from my life.

I chose the latter – for my baby’s sake and for my own. Gradually, I turned that hospital room into my own personal retreat centre. I hung cards and my daughters’ artwork on the wall, I borrowed a friend’s stereo and listened to peaceful music, I invited a massage therapist friend in to give me a massage, I wrote endlessly in my journal, and I spent long hours in rejuvenating conversations with dear friends and family.

As I look back on it now, that three week period in the hospital was one of the most transformative times of my life. My spirituality deepened, I learned what it meant to approach live with greater mindfulness, I deepened my relationship with my husband, friends, and family, and I began a rather faltering meditation practice. Though I had no idea how much I needed it, retreating from my life quite possibly saved my life.

When my son Matthew died, at the end of those three weeks, I was spiritually prepared to let him go. It was excruciatingly painful, but I was at peace. His short life inside my womb had transformed me in such profound ways, I couldn’t imagine how he could have impacted me more had he lived.

Now, ten years later, my son continues to serve as my spiritual director. I’ve gotten much better at realizing when I need to step away from worldcare to focus on soulcare, and when that need arises, one of my first destinations is to Matthew’s grave. I retreat once again from the world, I sit in silence in the graveyard, and I invite the Sacred to replenish my soul.

When I emerge from my retreat – whether it’s the same day or a week later – I am once again ready to offer whatever acts of service the world requires of me.

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How do you balance soulcare and worldcare? Does one feed the other in your life? How have you made room for both? We’d love to hear your comments, because “there ain’t nowhere to go but together.”

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Heather Plett is a writer, speaker, and leadership consultant. She can be found at here . Lately, she has been exploring the question “what could happen for the world if we all learned to trust our feminine wisdom more?” She blogs on this subject at Sophia Leadership, and will soon be releasing a unique e-book in which she has invited people from all over the world to explore the question with her.

To read all Magpie Girl’s interviews in the Behind the Mic series, click here. Thanks for being here today.

Today at Magpie Girl we get to hear from my fellow seminarian, Katie Bagby. Katy is a Nia instructor, and is getting behind the mic today to talk to us about movement as a spiritual practice. Katie, step right up…

Dancing my Devotion
by Katie Bagby

When I was a girl, my family spent hours and hours in church…and in Christian prayer meetings…and in bible studies and potlucks with people from church and prayer meetings. When I was three, my dad had “found Jesus,” and man, did he run with it, dragging a family of 7 in tow. I wasn’t necessarily opposed to all of it – I was a very adaptable kid – but it wasn’t all comfortable for me either. Sitting in church, my attention wandered. Sometimes I found it hard to breathe. My coping strategy? I played with my hands. I would turn them over and over, look at them on all sides, explore how they were put together, what they felt like. My hands felt real, part of me, not something “out there.” They were part of, what we call in Nia, my “now body.”

I’m a recovering community sociologist and incurable do-gooder. Decades of study, research, and trying to save the world and make every one happy in the process left me feeling depleted,  “out there,” and disconnected from my body. Sure, I was very physical. I grew up in a household of older brothers with lots of rough and tumble. I was an athlete. I knew how to do things with my body, like it was a vehicle I could steer to run, play ball, garden, dance salsa, hike mountains, etc. But I didn’t know how to be in my body, how to really inhabit her and know her as essential to who I am. 

In 2004, I started practicing The Nia Technique. Nia is a sensory-based fitness and movement form that playfully blends dance, martial arts, and healing arts, including yoga.  It is practiced in bare feet to soul-stirring music, connecting us to sensation in the feet – “the hands that touch the earth” – up through the energy centers of the body’s core, and out through expressive arms and hands. Comfort and pleasure are the guiding principles – what could be better? For me, it’s been an incredible joy-centered journey to healing and connection with my body, and to a much healthier relationship with my mind, emotions, and spirit. Most importantly, it’s a whole lot of fun.

The last few years, I’ve come to know my body as my most trustworthy, wise, and loving companion. She sends me signals when I’m moving toward or away from my delight and purpose in life. She invites my heart and mind to hold hands, helping me to express my true self in the world. Expressive movement – and for me, Nia specifically – has also become one of my most effective tools for stimulating creative flow in my life.

 There’s a phrase in Nia called “Dynamic Ease.” It’s my favorite. It’s a powerful alchemy of dynamic energy and the sensation of relaxation, the in-breath and the out-breath. I love playing with the sensation of Dynamic Ease when I dance and move. To me it’s the secret ingredient of grace, that sacred blend of oil and light that makes everything easier. Remember when you learned to swim? If you were like me, at first it was all struggle and splashing. But then I learned to trust the pause that allowed me to take a breath, and I found I could move with greater efficiency, blending power and ease to swim a lot farther. That’s how I want to live my life. That’s how I want to share my gifts with the family of earth. And gradually, as I practice Dynamic Ease in movement, I find I’m practicing it in life.

For instance, when I practice martial arts blocks, not only am I strengthening my muscles and heart, but I am also embodying the practice of creating boundaries and saying “No.” To an inveterate world saver and people pleaser, it’s really quite delicious! And I notice that when I move my forearm to block in one direction, I open my chest and heart-space in another. I like that – saying “no” to one thing so I can make room for another. In life, I’m finding it much easier to stand in my own power and make choices that nourish me and the people around me.

Most mornings I start my day with a movement prayer I’ve created that blends the Unity Prayer with Nia-inspired movements.  (Some days I’m not comfortable with the word “God,” so I change the words to Goddess, or spirit. Choose the muse that you want to invite into your day. Perhaps “Creativity.”) I’ve added a line to the end of the prayer: “The Spirit of God moves within me with…” As I say this line, I move expressively and say words like Grace, Dynamic Ease, Balance, Joy, Kindness, Creativity – whatever muse I want to embody that day.

And you know what I find? When I teach that Nia class, or facilitate a group visioning session, or write an article, or have that difficult conversation, those muses show up, right here in me! They move through me, from the inside out. Through the practice of movement, they have become familiar to the cells of my body. Dancing my devotion has changed the way I move through the world, no question. Like all things, Nia is a practice. I still get cranky, or uptight, or creatively blocked sometimes, but now I know how to come back to what I know is real, just like I did as that 10 year old girl, quietly playing with her hands during Mass.

 Suggestions for creating sacred connection with your body:

• Create your own movement prayer or blessing. What do you want to embody in your life? Experiment and create patterns of movements to express it. Practice it every day for a week. How does it feel?
• Check out a Nia class and dance! If you can’t find a class near you, order a DVD and practice at home. I did for years.
• Put on some music with sounds, silences, or lyrics that inspire you, and free dance for 5 minutes. Trust your body to guide you. Let comfort and pleasure be your guides. Play with trying something new. No one’s watching.
• Got something big going on? Maybe a challenging relationship or a big idea you want to manifest? Put on some music and dance for it, embodying your intention. Recently, I needed to heal a relationship. Before I could trust my mouth to speak honestly, but with compassion, I danced for us. And you know what? It helped.
• When your mind’s busy Gremlins just will not stop chattering, come back to your body. You can trust her. Breathe, touch your hands, wiggle your toes, dance, go for a walk, lie down in the grass. Bringing my awareness back to physical sensation always brings me back to the present moment. It’s a good place to be.

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Katie Bagbyis a writer, editor, and nonprofit consultant working with diverse communities to make life more just, healthy, and sustainable. Her latest passion is teaching The Nia Technique and inviting people into joyful relationship with their bodies and life! She loves her rural community in the mountains of Northern California, where she lives with her sweetheart, Ron. You can find Katie at https://www.nianow.com/katiebagby.

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I love interviewing coaches and artists who resonate with soul. Find all our Magpie Girl interviews at  Behind the Mic. Thank you for being here today!

Today we take a brief break from 30Stories so that you can tap into your own story. I completely admire my neighbor to the north, photographer Vivienne McMaster. This woman really knows how to capture the true beautiful of herself and others — regardless of age, style, or body shape. And huzzzah for you! Because now Vivienne is offering a class all about self-portraiture:  You are Your Own Muse. To help us tap into the way self-portraits can shape and improve us, Vivienne is here today to get behind the mic and answer our 1Q:

Q: “What’s so powerful about self portraits? And can i do it if I feel shy about my looks?”  

Often when other people take photos of me it makes me nervous.  Will they capture me in a way that I feel comfortable with?  Will I look silly?

Despite being a portrait photographer, I totally get this question.  It is a big part of why I like to take pictures of other people, to help them feel seen. But it is a vulnerable thing.

To some people the idea of taking self-portraits is even scarier.  That is the exact place I was at when I started to turn the camera on myself.

The powerful thing about self-portraits is the way that it can shift the way that we see ourselves, the way that we allow ourselves to feel seen.

I’ve been on this self-portrait journey for the last few years and my biggest discovery has to do with that word Power.  Ever since I was a teenager it has felt like the power I had to see myself as beautiful was being stolen. Daily.  I feel like we are always being told what to look like, who we should be, what we should strive for.  We are being told that we are not enough, right here, right now.

This troubles me.  Why can’t we be enough, be seen as beautiful, exactly as we are right now?  The truth is that we absolutely are beautiful, with our curves to dance with, our big strong arms to hug with, or our scars that tell our stories. These things make us beautiful.

So I took that camera into my hands, placed it on the ground, set the timer and created a space where I allow myself to be as silly, as quirky, as uniquely me as I want to.  Often the images that come out are much like the photos that I don’t like when other people take photos of me.  The thing is, I have learned I can smile at that girl kindly and then delete them.  Then one photo will pop out that I feel is so me.  Maybe it is the way my skirt twirls or the fact that I’m jumping in the air.  Maybe it is the way I really look in the camera and smile, or my awkward moments or the laugh that comes after them. 

Through taking self-portraits we have the opportunity to find our own beauty again, on our own terms.

We can take the power away from outside sources of what our beauty should be and connect with t he beauty that we already are.  That power is in our own hands and the tool to find it is that camera we hold in those hands. Realizing that a camera can be a tool to re-connect with my beauty, with my identity and with telling the story of my life. 

It is powerful.

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What about you? When you think about photos of yourself, how do you feel? What might self-portraiture open up in you? Do tell! Because there aint nowhere to go but together.

I love interviewing coaches and artists who resonate with soul. Find all our Magpie Girl interviews at  Behind the Mic.  To find out more about photographer Vivienne McMaster read her work, browse through her photos, or register for her  course. Thank you for being here!

One of my not-so-secret community building goals here at Magpie Girl is to gather up all the most helpful tools and resources and pass the word along to Y.O.U. I take pride in recommending trustworthy products and people who give you the biggest bang for you buck and don’t waste your time.

Today at Magpie Girl I’d like to introduce you to one of those folks: Kirsty M. Hall,  visual artist and professional Hand-Holder. Kirsty specializes in helping artists and other creatives get throughthe moat of emotional and technical muck that keeps them from getting thier work up on line. It’s her thing. And guess what? Kirsty is offering Magpie Girl readers a discount on her already affordable Internet Hand-Holding Sessions. (Click here, use the code magpiegirl, thru October 10th.)

“I am not a web designer or a code monkey, I’m an artist. However, I have picked up a fair smattering of tech knowledge and I can do the majority of things on my own WordPress site. So I can certainly tell you about things like plugins; blogs; setting up newsletter forms on your site and moving things around on the sidebar. And if you need heavy technical information, I’ll refer you to someone with more experience and refund your money.

Internet Hand-holding is not just a practical ‘ah, you need to do this technical thing’ experience, there often a lot of emotional work involved too. For example, you may think you’re putting off getting a website because it’s too expensive when in truth, you’re secretly afraid that your images or ideas will be stolen online. I’m skilled at getting people unstuck because I’m good at identifying the real problem and then finding solutions.

Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle with you.”

To let you learn a little more about what she does, let’s get her Behind the Mic. Kirsty, step right up…

Q: What prompted you to offer these Hand Holding sessions?

 I had a couple of consulting sessions with Catherine Caine from Be Awesome Online and she strongly encouraged me to do it.

For the last three years I’ve been writing blog posts about how artists can use the Internet and I felt I had enough expertise to start charging for my knowledge. I was constantly answering people’s questions via email or on Twitter so it seemed like the next logical step. I’d been thinking about writing e-books but offering consulting was something I could act on very quickly, so I decided to do that first. The e-books are on the way though.

I’m very passionate about getting other artists online and I’m motivated by a strong desire to help people get past their blocks. I think all artists should be using the internetbecause it’s like being part of a constant exhibition. My website gets between 2,000 and 3,000 visitors a month from all around the world and those numbers are steadily growing all the time. That’s pretty fantastic for someone like me who still hasn’t had an exhibition abroad.

Q: What are some of the “sticking points” you can help people get past?

Often artists and creative people find the web so overwhelming that they procrastinate for years about establishing a web presence. They know they ‘ought’ to have a website but it feels like way too much work, so they just don’t do it.

If you’re inexperienced with the Internet, I can help you devise a concrete plan to get you started. That might include a plan for starting a website but if that feels impossible, I can encourage people to make a start with smaller steps.

It’s a form of guidance and there’s a large emotional component. I have a talent not only for practical problem-solving but also for identifying what the real problem is. Often the root of the problem is quite different to what the person thinks it is. For example, they might think they’re stuck because they don’t have the money for a website when actually they don’t feel ready to expose their work to strangers yet. I help people get to the bottom of what’s really stopping them and then together we find a way to climb out of the hole. Or sometimes I just give them permission not to do something, which can be an enormous relief for people.

I can also help people who are more established but who feel a bit stuck. Maybe they’re not getting the results they want from their website or they need to evolvea social media strategy but don’t know where to begin. I’m very good at visually analysing sites & telling clients where they’re confusing visitors. I recently worked with Diane Gilleland from Craftypod. She’s done a fantastic job implementing the changes I suggested and it’s already resulted in improved sales and better visitor movement around her site.

During the consulting session, we talk through your specific problems and then work out a strategy that’s right for where you are at this precise moment. So it’s a bespoke service tailored to your exact needs. Then it’s up to you to make the suggested changes – I won’t do the work for you but I will point you in the right direction and tell you what to do first, which can really unblock people. Often when we’re procrastinating on something it’s not because we’re lazy, it’s because we don’t know which step we need to take first. Everything feels daunting, so we stay in a place of mental safety by doing nothing.

Q: How has being on line informed your artwork, sales and/or your artistic process?

Hugely. I’m a real net native, having been online since 1995 and I have a deep abiding love of the internet. Promoting my work online doesn’t feel like ‘marketing’ to me, it mostly feels like fun. As a result, I’ve found it far easier to establish influence online than offline.

There are other very practical reasons to concentrate my marketing efforts online. I have a chronic illness that really limits my offline activities so traditional art networking events like attending private views or taking part in conferences are tough and exhausting for me. Being online allows me to be proactive about my career whilst still protecting my health because I can work at my own pace.

I also feel more in control and less at the mercy of others: I’m out there making my own luck instead of desperately hoping to be noticed by curators.

It is still a lot of work, as any marketing always is, but it pays huge dividends. These days, the vast majority of my opportunities come from my online activities – mostly from my blog or Twitter or a combination of the two. I’ve had sales, work opportunities, interviews & exhibitions, plus I’ve made lots of useful contacts with cool and interesting people. Hardly a day goes by without something exciting happening because of my online presence.

Kirsty M Hall  is an artist & purveyor of mad obsessive projects. She blogs about art & chickens and helps other artists get on line with her affordable Hand-Holding Sessions. Magpie Girl readers half-price on their first session thru October 10th — £35 ($55 US). Click here, and use the code magpiegirl at the check-out. (Thanks Kirsty. You’re so nice!)

Got some time on your hands? Check out all our Behind the Mic interviews, of find more reliable Tools of the Trade.

Click here to read more Behind the Mic interviews, including our current on-going series Chronically Creative, featuring artists who manage to continue their work in spite of chronic pain or other physical and mental challenges.

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Want to train with Magpie Girl? Join me in my upcoming course: Power Stories: tips and tales for standing in your own power. Stories, lesson, and practical application from Magpie Girl and friends. Click here for more information. Course starts September 13th.

I want to preface this piece by thanking Rachelle for two things: First, for her patience, because it’s taken me a long time to get to these, which leads to Second, for asking me to do this, because it opened something up inside of me and has led to new levels of understanding of myself, my life, and my writing. 

When I got the questions and had a fuller understanding of what Rachelle was doing with these interviews, I felt really challenged and called to become more open and honest about myself than I have ever been. I realized that I wanted and needed to start exposing my life in new ways so that people could see that the struggle that comes with mental conditions is difficult but worth it. I also want to help remove the stigma of these labels (even though I am a bit anti-label and don’t care to use them — they can still be helpful as a lens and to show us that we aren’t alone).

My label is Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and you can read more about it here. If this seems to be you or someone you love, I highly recommend the work of Judith Herman, MD, and Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD, both of whom are true trailblazers. And now…on with the questions!

Q: How has dancing helped you break free from mental and emotional conditions that have hindered you?

One of the really difficult aspects of Complex-PTSD is emotional flashbacks. Our brains in these moments cannot differentiate between past and present. We are simply IN the past.  We are feeling it all again as if for the first time.

Dancing (or any challenging physical work) does not allow for anything but the present. When you are fully in your body, you are fully in your life and in the now. Period. So dancing can act as an anchor for me and as a reminder of who I really am — that I am not my injury (the preferred term for Complex PTSD).

Dancing also gets out the “goo,” as Marcy and I call it. It releases toxins and emotional residue from the physical body. The better I feel physically, the more I am able to deal with the mental stuff. When I am not dancing for a couple of days, I start to feel unreal and disconnected.

Q: When you aren’t feeling well, how do you approach dancing?

I do it anyway. Or I don’t and then I pay the price. So mostly, I do it anyway. And each time, if I am feeling especially bad, it feels like this brand new miracle, because that’s another symptom of Complex PTSD — an amnesia about people and things in our lives that are good and trustworthy. We can literally forget what is good for us. (There are physiological/neurological reasons for this that are too complicated for me to explain, but the brain is damaged by the chronic fear-inducing trauma — under-grown here, over-grown there.)

If I am having an extra hard time, I tell Marcy or even twitter (ha!) that I am going to dance so that I have outside accountability. It can be so bad that reaching to turn on the music feels like the most impossible task ever given to any single human being on this planet. Really. I know it sounds dramatic, but this is life with trauma.

I have danced enough now to know that no matter what I think in the moment, this is going to work. I have my “witness mind” evolved enough that I can at least see that. So I turn on the music and I stand there, slumped, thinking, “No F-ing way can I even lift my arm much less feel the joy that dance brings…”  I stand and I breathe and within moments I am flying and smiling and I am well into the healing process.

Q: As someone who returned to dance “late in the game” how do you talk to yourself about your body and you abilities? What do you do when the “compare game” raises it’s ugly head?

Though I still have a fair distance to go in my own mind when it comes to my body and my abilities, I am the most fit I have ever been in my life and that is just a fact that my perfectionist internal-nazi cannot avoid. In terms of the physical aspects of my dance, I am a creature of confidence. Which is strange (or not) because I do not have real confidence about anything else about myself BUT dance.

The place I get into trouble, though, is thinking about what could have been, so I just snap myself out of it by reminding myself that I believe very strongly that everything happens for a reason. SO there is a REASON that I left dance when I did and a reason that I came back to it when I did. I’m not completely clear on the reasons but I know they exist and this is one of those places where I try very hard to have a little faith and just keep moving forward.

That’s really super hard for me, though, don’t think otherwise.

Bonus Q: What are you up to these days and how do we find you? 

Marcy and I are going to spend more time writing about how we deal with this as a couple. There is not a lot out there for the partner’s of people with Complex-PTSD, specifically, and there is very little about how the couple can create mutual coping mechanisms. So we’ll try to stay really transparent about our process. That doesn’t mean Blisschick is turning into a Complex-PTSD site, per say, but it will be deeply embedded in my writing because that is how I work toward my bliss — by working through all of this.

There is lots and lots of great resource material available for free download on the Trauma Center’s site (this Center is where Bessel Van Der Kolk is located).

I am currently reading Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, and I recommend that along with Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy by Pat Ogden, an amazing work.

Finally, just a little personal note, I think that Kundalini Yoga, in particular out of all yoga (many, many forms of which I have studied for 15 years) is a truly powerful tool for working with Complex PTSD. I recommend any DVD done by Ana Brett and Ravi Singh (and to start, their older DVD, Kundalini Yoga – A Journey through the Chakras, is a great overview).

To read all the posts in this series click here. Stay tuned next week for another addition of Chronically Creative. Thanks for being here.

My Strange New Looking Bed and Nailed to the Wall Picture
David Sandum, 2001. Used by permission of the artist.

It was there I started to draw - in my room, alone and confused. Many therapists at the time asked if I took drugs, had an alcohol problem or any other addictions, saying that people with such strong anxiety and depression most often had them. They were always surprised to hear me answer no, but I just drew and painted, even if I didn’t see it clearly then. Yet now I realize I did something constructive with the depressive. Instead of a needle or a bottle, I picked up a pen and eventually the brush. So I am completely self-taught. Art has consumed me since this time, not just because I love art, but as I’ve literally have painted to stay alive, and in it, have found empathy. It’s as simple as that. People could never tell me in words what I went through. But I could see and understand it through Van Gogh’s and Munch’s expressive paintings. It was as if they said: “I know everything around you is chaos. But look at this, I felt the same way.” I have written about this extensively in my memoir  (in English). It took me ten years to complete and I hope to get it published someday.

Q: As a colorist, do you notice a shift in tones and color as your depression ebbs or intensifies? Are there particular works of yours that you think illustrate that for us?

I think it’s a myth that depressed artists always paint black or in earth tones, though that can certainly be the case. Just look at Van Gogh’s vibrant yellow and stars, Degas inspiring ballerinas, or Matisse’s decorative color schemes. They were all depressed major portions of their life, but I see their work mainly as uplifting, even though Van Gogh’s early period for example was dark and his portrayals and subject matters often conveyed troubled times. But their colors and subject matters were vibrant. They focused on the energy inside. This is my main philosophy in art, like Matisse said: “I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.” 

Depression Prayer
David Sandum, 2000 Used by permission.

I have certainly painted darker though, and my first few years I painted so dark people often said they wouldn’t be able to have my art on their wall. But now I wonder if that wasn’t just mental: that I just didn’t quite know how to paint yet and to keep my brush clean. Any true artist will know what I mean. But two of my very first paintings were expressive and colorful, and they will always be key to me.

The Law of the Jungle
David Sandum, 2000.

This vibrant and expressive painting was created late one winter’s night in the year 2000. One of my very first paintings, I painted by impulse. I had no idea what would evolve. But soon Darwin’s theory of natural selection came to mind: How the strong survive and the weak eventually become extinct–contemplating that the world is run by people who pressure others to destruction for their own gain (displayed by the evil man in profile to the left, about to crush and grab me with his claw). The “claw man” is trying to stab me; and in many aspects he represented the world as a whole.

Ironically, this painting now hangs in a law office. The lawyer who purchased it has told me it’s his dream to see it in a courtroom. 

Q: You recently spent some time in the deserts of the American southwest. People have long gone to the deserts for a cure – for asthma, rheumatism, etc. Did you experiencing a healing energy in the desert — in regards to depression, or in more general terms? How did this change in atmosphere effect your moods and your work?

I don’t think I have found the answer to this just yet (I returned home from the US last night), as I’m not the kind of artist who works entirely on site. Things need to linger in my mind, sometimes for months, and suddenly one day in my studio things will come together. But the strong impressions were definitely there throughout my trip to the deserts of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico: the peace, the silence, the beauty of the landscape. No cell phones or computers, just me and the earth. Navajo country, Bryce Canyon in Utah, Sedona in Arizona, and Ghost Ranch New Mexico, were all places of healing. I locked my door to my studio two months ago tired and weak, but have returned filled with thoughts, places, and colors etched in my head. I love the desert and I always will.

To read all the posts in this series click here. Stay tuned next week for another addition of Chronically Creative. Thanks for being here.

Living with Art and Bipolar Disorder with Abby

Q: Not to be all “Suzie Sunshine,” but sometimes a chronic condition can drive us into new working patterns that end up being positive for us. I think of this as turning something typically seen as a weakness into a superpower.  Is there any way in which having Bipolar Disorder has become a superpower for you creatively? Does it in anyway empower or enhance your creative self?

I’m (slowly for me) learning how to use my moods, emotions, energy levels, mind sets to allow me to get the most done. I know when I’m in the middle of the higher part of a cycle, I can accomplish a tremendous amount of creative work – most of my artwork and design is the result of me tapping into the energy of the high points. However, I’ve also learned that I can accomplish a lot of nothing too, which leaves me feeling uninspired and extra depressed when that up phase ends and the lower part of the cycle kicks in, because I feel like I’ve accomplished nothing. (Which is kinda true.) Right now,  I’m working on recognizing up and down phases and then getting to work on what I know I can best accomplish during each phase that I can’t during the other. For example, I can come up with one or two web site designs in a day when in the middle of an up phase, but if I even try and sit down to code basic CSS or XHTML when up, I will have to fight with myself to focus. However, during a down phase, I actually benefit from “getting lost” in the hundreds of little steps involved in taking an image to the web. Like making sure I spelled “background-image” correctly.

It’s feels a bit like I’m a firehose for creative energy – some days I’m on full blast and other days you shake the hose and wonder if there’s a kink in it somewhere. Knowing where I am in that cycle allows me to focus on getting what I CAN get done, done. So I guess in some ways, it’s as if I was given this superpower that I am just learning to tap into, but that tends to fire off on it’s own. I have to learn how to control it when it fires off on it’s own, and slowly learn how to tap into it the rest of the time. I figure with time and practice, it will be more at will and less at random. ;)

Q: What tips and tricks have your figured out for working with your creative + Bipolar cycles? Do you have things you say to yourself at different stages? What helps you survive and even thrive creatively with Bipolar challenges on your plate?

To pay attention to myself! I ask myself almost constantly “Why do I feel this way?” Am I just having a really good day? Did something happen that has me feeling down? Or is this less situational and more cycle related? I give myself permission over and over and over to feel whatever it is I’m feeling, as long as I’m going to work out WHY I feel that way sooner than later. It’s important to me to know and understand what is going on inside my head and heart so I know when there is a real issue to work through and when I just need to find my headphones and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist. At least until this phase passes.

Knowing what is going on inside also gives me some measure of control over a disorder I don’t have much control over. I may not be able to control how my brain and nervous system reacts tothe  day to day and to normal brain chemicals, but I can control how much I express those feelings. There is also a very real comfort in knowing that hey, I am NOT crazy, this just happens. It enables me to rise above it as much as I can, and keep going. So I guess I just ask WHY of myself a LOT, and then do my best to answer, as my primary way of surviving the constant changing of my emotional tides.

 What enables me to thrive is being able to view this disorder as not just a challenge, but a gift and tool. I have learned so much from having it, and am a much stronger person because of it. It also augments my love of art and helps me break outside of the box – something many people with Bipolar Disorder (and many mental disorders, actually) have an easier time doing. I apply that to my art in all of it’s forms, and also with how I deal with others. (Or I TRY at least!) For whatever reason, years of not being able to figure out what I was feeling helped me strongly identify and empathize with others. THAT is a gift I’d not trade for the world.

Q: What would you say to someone who has just been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder? What little nugget of info might carry them through the initial stages of learning to live with this particular chronic sidekick?

Journal, write, and give yourself permission to really feel and express how you feel during that time. And no censoring! (That’s important!) If you are angry, BE angry. Write angry. If you are soaring among the stars, then feel it, and write it. No one else has to read it, so it doesn’t matter how it reads. The important part is just that you get down what you are going through at the time, and what made you feel that way, if anything. Over time, you’ll start to see patterns, triggers, cycles, timing. And THAT is the best tool you can have in dealing with this disorder, after your medications (whatever they may be) and a good counselor. Actually, knowing your cycles and patterns will help your counseling/therapy progress. Knowing your patterns and triggers helps you maintain control over your life, even if you can’t control your disorder, or your mind set, intially. You’ll know what signs to look for that signal mania or depression, and you’ll know what to avoid to keep stable and when you are going to need a little help from friends and family.

Don’t let the disorder own or control your life – it doesn’t have to. And it does get easier. Like GI Joe says… knowing is half the battle. The better you know yourself, the easier living with Bipolar Disorder gets. Use the tools at your disposal, because that is what they are – tools.

Bonus Question: What have you got going on right now and how can we find you?

Oh my gosh, what DON’T I have going on? I’m in the middle of a minor identity crisis, so I’m playing with almost anything that comes my way, while learning to live productively and positively with this disorder. Even though I can remember feeling these cycles as a child, when you begin treatment and take control of your disorder, everything changes, including your sense of self. It’s incredibly freeing, but is it ever terrifying to not know who you are! So, I’m just going one day at a time trying to figure out who on earth I really am! And taking my own advice, I write about it a LOT at Life at the Poles. . And tweet about it almost just as much; I’m OririDraco on twitter. (I talk a lot though, you’ve been warned! ;)

Behind the Mic: Are you working with a chronic condition? How are you managing to live creatively with both your work and your illness? Please add to our Giant Pool Of Wisdom by commenting below. To read all the posts in this series click here; and stay tuned next week for another addition of Chronically Creative.

 Art Practicalities with Sarah Marie Lacy

 Q: How does art serve you in times of poor health? Does it inspire? Comfort? Companion?

Art definitely inspires me when I’m relapsing or ill. If I’m in a bad relapse, I’m usually too sick to make any art, and of course that’s frustrating. But it gives me something to focus on. It acts as a lifeline, something to hold onto when the seas get rough. It gives me something to look forward to – “When I get better, I can do this and this and this!” I can paint in my head, I can plan paintings, or I can ponder new directions I want to take and new skills I want to learn.

When the pain or the exhaustion is really bad, it allows me to look forward, into a future that’s much more pleasant.

I think art is literally how I stay sane. It gives my life purpose, and it gives my pain expression. I think that’s why my art isn’t necessarily about rainbows and sunshine. It’s about pain and hope, at the same time. For me, it’s about expressing the hurt, but it’s also about finding the light. What can I say? I’m a paradox. 

Q: How do you manage the ebb and flow of productive times, and rest/healing-up periods? How do you talk to yourself about success during these periods?

I actually find this the most difficult part of managing a chronic illness. My creativity is very cyclical. I’m learning to respect that, while slowly trying to change it.

My current creative rhythm is to be intensely creative for a month, and then have a month or two off. I’m working to steady that out, as it takes a lot out of me. I’d much rather have a few hours a day where I’m creative and then take time off, rather than be intensely creative for 6 hours a day, but then after a month, be completely brain dead and unable to even face my easel.

I’m also incredibly hard on myself, so in my down periods I’m not very good at talking to myself about success at all. I have a tendency to beat up on myself and compare myself to others who are creating more steadily.

I’m learning to cut myself some slack, but that’s a process too.

And sometimes your body just vetoes everything that you want to do, and you just gotta take a nap. Some days I’m okay with it, others it drives me nuts. Again, it’s something I’m learning to make peace with.

This part of my life is such a process. I’m a Type A personality, and having to stop and do nothing is always where my struggle lies.

Q.  It can be hard from someone with a chronic condition to 1) work enough to meet their monetary needs (ie pay the bills) and 2) rest enough to not have chronic-pain flare ups, and 3) do their creative work. How do you manage this challenge?

I actually have to give myself some credit here – I’ve managed to work this out really well for myself, but don’t ask me how. I think Lady Fortune was just smiling on me.

I currently manage 2 jobs on top of my art, but I don’t work more than 55 hours a month for other people. The rest of the month is my time. I do some freelance social media marketing for an arts company out of Texas and some freelance web development for a web designer in Colorado.

What I also did was move to one of the cheapest (and prettiest) places to live in Canada, so my basic expenses are really low. I’m also quite frugal – we don’t have a car, or cable or a cell phone. We also live in the downtown so we can walk to everything that we need.

So with the money I make, I can pay for all of the rent and bills, and my boyfriend pays for the groceries (he’s a student, so he isn’t making tons of money and we don’t want to run up unnecessary debt.)

What all this means is that most of my energy and most of my day is mine. It also means that all of my work can be done from my bed – I can be pretty sick, and still be able to make money to support us.

Like I said, I’m not sure how I got into this situation, but it works beautifully and allows for lots of nap time if I need it!

More importantly, none of the work takes creative energy from me, so I can dedicate it all to my art. I couldn’t ask for anything better. 

Behind the Mic: You can find Sarah’ work on her website, where you can sign up for her newsletter and find out when her new collection of notecards will be available. Live in PEI? Visit her work  in person at the Pilar Shephard Gallery in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. She’s also good company on Twitter , and has a backlog of live paintings recorded here at Ustream.  

Are you working with a chronic condition? How are you managing to live creatively with both your work and your illness? Please add to our Giant Pool Of  Wisdom by commenting below. Stay tuned next week for another addition of Chronically Creative. Thank you for being here today.

The Art Of Illness
by Kirsty M. Hall

Originally posted March 31, 2009. Re-posted by permission.

Since I’m currently in the midst of a Chronic Fatigue relapse, I thought I’d do a post about how to continue making art whilst managing an illness. I know it won’t apply to all of you but hopefully it will be useful to some.

Be Realistic
Firstly, it’s important to recognise that ALL artists have challenges in their life. Although it may seem incredibly unfair that you’re limited by your illness or disability, in reality ‘normal’ artists may be struggling just as much to make their art.

It’s easy to look at healthy people and feel jealous but try to remember that NO ONE has unlimited time, energy or money. Many artists need to work part or full time jobs to pay the bills, which drastically reduces the amount of time and energy available for art. Children or other family commitments can also be a serious limitation. Artists working on large, expensive projects may face endless frustrating delays while they scrabble around for funding. No one ‘has it easy’.

Identify Strategies
Don’t make yourself more sick by carrying on doing something that is clearly too much. If you are finding it hard to walk or you’re in a lot of pain, then a very active practice that involves shimmying up and down ladders or hours of gruelling physical work may be impossible. Instead, tailor your practice to what you can do and find creative ways to continue to make art.

If you want to carry on making physically demanding things, then maybe you need someone to do a lot of the prep work for you. When Eva Hesse became ill with a brain tumour she employed assistants to make sculptures to her specifications. I employ The Wonderful Zoë two mornings a month to help me with things like admin, framing, organising and anything that involves heavy physical work.

You may need to change the scale on which you work or employ different materials or new techniques. When her almost constant migraines kept her bedbound for months and she could only paint for small stretches of time, Sarah Raphael divided her canvases up like strip cartoons and painted in tiny daily chunks. She also had to switch from oils to acrylics because the smell of the oils was a constant trigger.

When his eyesight started to fail due to cataracts, Monet loosened up his style and began working on his famous waterlily paintings.

I’ve found that having a small, manageable, daily practice like my current ‘Objects For March’ project or The Diary Project is helpful – ‘little but often’ apparently works well for me. I’ve also annexed an old spare laptop and I’ve written most of this in bed over the space of several days: right now it’s making the difference between being able to blog and not.

Don’t Compare
It’s easy to feel jealous when your peers can accept exciting opportunities that are impossible for you but try not to compare yourself to others too much: it just leads to despair.

I’ve found that it’s more useful… to look to people like Frida Kahlo for inspiration – she carried on painting despite being in shocking amounts of pain. Or I look at my college class and realise that even though I am not making art as fast as I want to, I’m still unusual in that I’m consistently making work and showing professionally.

Acknowledge Success
Give yourself props for what you ARE doing instead of mentally punishing yourself for what you’re not.

I have a terrible habit of berating myself for ‘not working’ when what I really mean is that I’m simply not doing as much in the studio as I’d like. I tend to discount anything that isn’t physical making as Not Art even though experience has shown that things like reading, writing, research, thinking, documentation and admin are all vital parts of my art practice.

If you’re not strong enough to make art, take a break and if you’re able, do something connected to your art instead. When I’m ill, I often use the time to catch up on my reading and documenting.

Allow Yourself To Stop
Art is a higher brain function and creating any sort of art takes a surprising amount of energy. Unfortunately when you are very ill, sometimes you have no choice but to put your art practice down completely for a little while. This can be difficult for artists since many of us are very driven by our art but it’s sometimes necessary. Concentrate on getting well and promise yourself that you’ll find a way to pick it up again as soon as you can. I tend to use my art as a ‘canary down a mine’ – when the thought of doing anything art-related makes me want to cry then I know I’m ‘crashing’ and need to recuperate. If I don’t try to force things and make the relapse worse, then the art comes back on its own as my health comes back into balance.

Pace and Plan
Find your own rhythms and what works for you. I no longer apply for things that require me to make new work for a deadline because it’s too stressful and it never ends well. Instead I only apply for exhibitions with work that already exists. I don’t apply for residencies either because I can’t guarantee that I’ll be well enough. It can be very frustrating but knowing and (mostly!) accepting my limitations allows me to make more art in the long run.

If you’re exhibiting, do as much as possible well ahead of time. Pace yourself and schedule some downtime for after the show. Ideally you’d schedule some days off beforehand as well but in my experience, that’s rarely possible. Often opportunities seem to come in clumps but try to space things whenever you can. Know your limits and your body and how long it takes you to recover from a show.

Find Support
Depending on your condition there may be specific grants and/or opportunities available. While you may not be comfortable with the ‘disabled’ tag, there’s no harm in seeing what help may exist. Online forms and support groups for your specific condition can also provide valuable information and resources.

It’s also vital to support yourself by pacing, eating healthily and getting enough sleep, especially when you’re experiencing a relapse or if you know that you’re going to be under extra stress. Easier said than done, I know! Accept that you might have to let some things slide. While delicious fresh homecooked meals might be the ideal, remember that getting your vegetables in tinned soup or out of the freezer is better than no vegetables at all!

Finally, do whatever it takes to get yourself through a bad patch, even if that means the house isn’t as clean as it could be, your email doesn’t get answered promptly or you don’t go to all the private views you’d like. Accept that to conserve energy for your art, you may have to let some other things go.

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Are you working with a chronic condition? How are you managing to live creatively with both your work and your illness? Please add to our Giant Pool Of  Wisdom by commenting below. Stay tuned next week for another addition of Chronically Creative. Thank you for being here today.

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Behind the Mic: Kirsty’s mediums include drawing, installation pieces, and sewing sequins on aprons.  A self-described ‘artist & purveyor of mad obsessive projects’, Kirsty blogs about art and chickens at Up all Night. She is passionate about the internet and has created a free resouce page to support other artists, and is now offering 30 minute Hand Holding Sessions to help you get your art up on line.

The Anarchist Reverend

in the circus of old we were told
to put our bodies on display for the masses
so they could laugh at us
but some of us took the name of freak
and instead of it making us weak used it as strength
we hold up our bodies as scarred and beautiful
hold up our lives as more than just something to live through

and the anarchist reverend
speaks of crucifixion and resurrection
like a freak show barker
he calls you to harken
listen to tales of transformation
listen to the gospel written in blood and flesh
listen to the life that follows death
listen to the reinvention of the old story
told by someone the world calls a freak
but turned the tables
and called himself beautiful

I write about the reinvention of my body, like the sideshow freak at the circus who claims the title as a matter of pride.  I turn the old gospel story into something new that honors bodies the world has called freakish, but that we claim as beautiful.

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Q: So what IS an Anarchist Reverend and what does he do amongst the circus-y edge dwellers?

I am a part-time theologian, part-time poet and full time book nerd. I also happen to be a transgender man. I decided I was tired of queer theology that apologized for the existence of queer folks and decided to do something different. Instead of defending my right to exist biblically, I decide to look at the ways in which the transgender experience is reflected in the biblical stories as well as the ways in which the trans experience speaks to people who are cisgender (a word meaning not-transgender). At the moment I’m writing through the passion narrative (the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection) and talking about how it applies to the trans experience. But it’s about more than doing trans theology; it’s about trying to give people permission to own the scriptures and to see their lives reflected in the pages in a new way.

So often the Bible is used as a weapon against people. I am tired of hearing scripture used as tool to shut people down instead of as a collection of stories that people can go to for comfort and to see their own journeys reflected. Once I was able to read my own story into the Bible I stopped allowing people to use the Bible as a weapon against me. I want other people to have the courage to read the Bible that way as well.

Q: Will you tell us about one challenge you’ve faced as an outlier that you’ve turned into a superpower?

After spending so much time being told that I couldn’t be in ministry (first because I was a woman, and then because I was queer) I’ve realized that no one has a monopoly on the call of God.  Once I realized that, I took the fear of failure, of making other people happy or trying to convince them of my Christianity  and turned it into power. No one has the power to tell me that I don’t belong in the church or that I can’t do theology. In a way, all of the struggle that I’ve gone through to be okay with my faith and to be okay with my body has made me fearless (most of the time!).  I think getting rid of fear is a superpower!!

Q: If he was with the circus folk, WWJD?

He would totally be one of the clowns, using his humor and nonviolence to shake things up and get things done.  He would be consistently taking people’s perceptions and turning them upside down and helping them to see things in a new way.

I think also, that as people follow Jesus they get banded into this weird little family, much like a circus. People who live on the edges and fringes of society, who refuse to conform to what the world tells them is important. People who follow their bliss and challenge the status quo.

Bonus Q: Tell us how to find you and do your best circus barker impression for your services… (Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Step right up…) Come one, come all and check out the anarchist reverend!  He’s a freak, he’s a mystery, he’s a….theologian? You can find him at:

Blog: anarchistreverend.com,
Twitter: @anarchistrev
Facebook: Facebook.com/anarchistreverend.

What is your circus persona? To get your backstage pass and choose from a mysterious cast of characters, just join my mailing list. (Top o’ the page, stage right.) Email me a picture of your backstage pass, and get featured as a Circus Cast member. (Link love included!) To see our entire cast to date, click here. On with the show!

Then I discovered Lisa Congdon, a visual artist from San Francisco. When I read this article at Apartment Therapy on how she and her partner, Clay, have merged simplistic modernist styling with collecting, I felt a sigh of relief. It can be done!

I’ve been following Lisa online for awhile now. I get shored-up and sharpened by her stunning artwork. (I’m saving my pennies for this one.) I also gobble up the eye candy on her A Collection a Day site.  I love what she has to say here about how photographing her collections revealed to her surprising reasons for why she’s drawn to certain things. (It made me realize I love my collection of fortune cookie slips because they represent magic and mystery to me.) 

Today, Lisa has kindly offered to get Behind the Mic and talk to us about collecting. Lisa, step right up…  

Lisa in her S.F. studio. Photo by Martha McQuade.

Q: As a collector, when you notice that frisson of energy that draws you to an item, do you have an internal dialogue about whether you should buy it/pick it up/keep it or not? How do you decide?

L: Definitely. I have been collecting for so long that I have a fairly honed sense of what I am looking for and whether it’s something that will complement my existing collections. And I think like most people who collect and who have been collecting for a long time, I’ve become discerning, both about each object (will this fit into my larger collection of X?) and about whether it’s priced fairly. So for most items, the internal dialogue is short and I am pretty good at moving on if my gut tells me it’s not the right thing or it’s too expensive. But, then there are always those items which leave me thinking, or paying slightly more than I’m comfortable with.

Q: Do you and your partner, Clay, agree about how much “stuff” should be in your living space? What are your tips for making your collection work in a shared home?

L: I lived alone for many years until a year ago. Before my partner moved in I didn’t have to think too much about my stuff and how much of it was in my living space versus my studio (I actually keep most of my collections in my studio). She’s much more of a “minimalist” and really abhors clutter, so we had to negotiate what could stay (and where it could stay) and what had to go when she moved in with me. That said, I have always kept a pretty clean and neat space, despite arrangements of collections throughout the house. When she moved in, it was a good opportunity to purge (we had a big garage sale) and for me to really think about how much “stuff” I wanted and where I wanted to keep it. Stuff really is just stuff at the end of the day. I had to assess which stuff was sentimental or important or had value and what was just filling up space. When you live with a non-collector, I think it’s important to try to understand their perspective. Ultimately your living space is for mutual enjoyment, relaxing, sleeping, entertaining, cooking. We had lots of discussions and ended up doing a lot of shifting things around and inexpensive redecorating in the end to make the space feel good for both of us. 

What are the things you collect doing for you? Are they feeding you or are you feeding them? Have you got any new ideas or inspirations from Lisa’s experience do tell!

Find all our Behind the Mic interviews here. To read the full interview with Lisa, join us at Flock, our online soulcare community. See you next week when I interview artist/author Keri Smith.

 Throw off your robes and grasp the barbell if you are…

The Strong Man:Well-trained and confident, the Strong Man is unafraid of his personal strengths. Steadily, he hones his skills, besting his less focused competitors. The strong man offers consisent stability (with a side of pride) to those who travel with him. Likes: red meat, sweat, admirers. Dislikes: people who don’t commit, California cuisine, narrow slacks.   

Magpie Circus Cast Member: Tony Vowles of The Astrology  Blog

Tony arrived on our radar when I announced a circus casting call to the Magpie Girl mailing list. Much to my surprise, he eschewed the ”obvious” role of Forutne Teller and auditioned instead as Strong Man. (I do love people who eschew the obvious!) Now this strapping fellow is ready to dazzle and delight. Tony, take it away…

Q: The Magpies are pretty interested in the intersection between Art + Spirituality. Will you talk to us a little bit about how astrology and poetry connect for you?

Well, they are both languages of the spheres in a way – art connects us to the bigger pictures and the smaller pictures in life – it is a reflection of the unknown, the imaginative, the ‘canvas to the paint’ – and we are painters – as Astrologers, as Poets – in anything we do.  Art connects to life in such a profound way.  For instance, it is fascinating to watch the media, newspapers and such like and see reflections of Astrological transits happening.  As some of the planets hover around Aquarius/Pisces/Aries at present we see the Tate Modern Art Gallery here in London showing exhibitions called ‘Voyeur, Surveillance and Camera’ and Picasso ‘Peace and Freedom’– all very Piscean themes.  There is also a bit of Aries thrown in with the exhibition ‘Rude Britannia’.  The movie Avatar might be another example of the ‘zeitgeist’ movement being expressed through art. 

Poetry is another example, and being quite a literary person, I love imaginative use of language that conveys wider subjects – from the works of Lao Tzu to Rumi to John Milton.  They all, in varying degrees captured an essence of the universe through words – and it is this that interests me – this understanding of the nature of the time.  Astrology is the tool I use to understand and express these patterns and I spill my understanding upon the page – in the same way that the great Poets did.  The poem ‘To Charles Diodati’ by John Milton was a fine example of a Capricorn Man falling in love with a Sagittarian woman – and Milton himself was a Sagittarius Sun with Moon, Mercury, Venus and Saturn all in Capricorn.  Art does indeed mirror life.

Q: Tell us why you chose the Strong Man as your circus character. What draws you to this sideshow performer?

Haha! Well, actually when I first looked at it the words conveyed _STRO _AN.  I put an A and an M in front to make Astro Man!  Plus, the ’Strong Man’ had a star on his arm!

Q: How would you characterize your approach to the astrological arts? What’s your unique style?

Astrology is such a rich subject and there are many people that do many different things with the art.  Some are predictive, some are counselors/therapists, some study politics and the cycles of history etc.  My own approach lends itself towards the spiritual/therapeutic side – I’m less interested in prediction – more interested in how I can help people on their journeys through life, to express their own unique selves – to find what ‘makes their hearts sing’ and connects them to their own cycles and patterns.  I am intuitively strong and this aids me, along with many years of practice in Astrology and energy arts.  A business background in IT helps me ground and produce (hopefully) a professional presentation to the work that I do.   This art makes my heart sing and I seek to help others discover their own ways – and they are myriad and all fascinating to engage with. 

You can find Tony at The Astrology Blog where he writes about the current astrological transits.  He can also be found on Twitter (@TonyVowles) and Facebook. Tony’s writing an Astrological Poetry book. And he’ll be offering a range of services – reports, consultations etc.  – so tune into the blog for further details. Tell him Magpie Girl sent you!

What is your circus persona? To get your backstage pass and choose from a mysterious cast of characters, just join my mailing list. (Top o’ the page, stage right.) Email me a picture of your backstage pass, and get featured as a Circus Cast member. (Link love included!)  To see our entire cast to date, click here. On with the show!