As I approach ordination, I think back on the path that has led me from seeing myself primarily in the roles of mother and creative explorer to stepping into my ministry of healing arts. Though I believe that each person forms a ministry perfect for their own voice and reflective of their unique life experiences, it can be empowering to see how others have found their way to a place of deepening. I describe my process in the hope that you might be encouraged to consider what would provide the experiences that tell you that you’re in step with your calling.
My original idea was to use writing and art to inspire individuals in a group setting, allowing them to access their own intuitive paths to healing and wholeness. I offered a variety of workshops: from meditative writing, to discovering poetry through the serendipity of freely associated words, to collage, sculpture, visual journaling, Touch Drawing and finally intuitive painting. I later added a dreamwork series, the result of my ongoing work with a grieving group from a local spiritual community.
These activities have filled in the steps between a general sensing of the rightness of ministry for me when I started at ChI, to walking the earth as an interfaith minister. When I started, I felt some anxiety about developing an approach that would address the needs of the clients I was serving—whether an individual, couple or group. What if they presented problems and I wouldn’t know what to offer them, in terms of reframing, that would allow for hope and healing?
I’m grateful now for how through the months, I’ve learned to listen and observe deeply, allowing Spirit to speak through my mouth and see through my eyes. I’ve grown in being able to hold space for the divine perfection within each individual so that they can move toward their true essence. What I do isn’t anything that could have been pinned down in my early lesson plans or my efforts to research others’ methods. It’s something I feel inside, and I trust its healing light that shines through me.
So how did I move from my early questioning to the more centered place where I find myself now? I would say that it’s been a mixture of three things:
I.) Learning from my clients
II.) Integrating spiritual practices I learned in ChI modules
III.) Gaining my voice as a minister.
I.
What did I learn from clients? I learned from observing clients that the process of creativity holds its own power to heal. The written or crafted work carries within it a power akin to that of a guiding angel. My role is to provide a place of love and safety so that clients can dare to go deeply into their own sacred hearts to experience the peace that they find there. What they give form to in the creative process is a talisman of their journey that they can place on their altar at home, so that they can retrace their steps whenever they want to affirm their wholeness.
I realize that I am only part of a collective and sacred energy that is added to by everyone who participates in my workshops. People feel it even as they come in the door. There is a buoyancy and grace that lift whoever enters. I care for this energy, just in the way I sweep the floor and wash the paintbrushes at the end of workshops. I set intention at the beginning of every workshop, and I smudge to purify the space so that balance is maintained and honored. Most important, I empty myself of my own ego identity when I guide and reflect with clients, so that this beautiful, healing energy can flow through me.
Often, my clients give me new ideas for service. When some participants failed to show up for an all-day Touch Drawing workshop, I ended up working extensively with one married couple, who told me later that they went directly home and turned their master bedroom into an art studio. They declared that my workshop was the best relationship therapy they’d ever received. Their comments led me to do regular work with couples, which I’ve found to be exciting and rewarding.
Over the summer, I decided to encourage one regular participant to bring her son along with her to workshops. That has led me to offer weekly sessions for mothers with their children. I’ve loved observing the natural wisdom and insights of the children, as well as seeing how much they are able to teach the adults (including me!). This has also provided a beautiful means of communication between the generations.
II.
Another influence on my process has been integrating the practices learned at ChI into the way I present workshops. As mentioned before, I open sessions by inviting each participant to state intention for our time together. This serves as a perfect model of how to start each day with intention, as practiced in the Hebrew tradition. I often use guided meditations as a way of deepening each person’s focus, perhaps calling upon the Buddhist practice of Tonglen, or even using Rumi quotes or Hindu devotional song-poems.
For our shared reflection of each person’s creation, I use the Projective Dreamwork format that I learned at ChI. I advise each participant to claim his/her own projection by beginning their statement with, "If this were my writing/painting, I would notice ___." At the end, the artist claims his/her own Aha!’s. This ensures that our time together is not "about the art" or a piece’s artistic merit, but about deep learning and growth.
As in ChI modules, it is my practice to end with a circle in which we offer blessings to the group and gratitude for what we have learned. I often start a prayer and ask that each person add his own statement of gratitude for what has come to pass. There is a quiet presence that goes out the door with each person, as they leave with their freshly painted sheets of paper. I know that what has been seeded in my studio will continue to grow.
III.
Gaining my voice as a minister has come about gradually, almost as if I’ve been listening to a song I couldn’t quite make out in the beginning. Note by note, it has become more clear, and I realize that it is the voice of a creative shaman. Like shamans in indigenous cultures, I travel between worlds to retrieve lost souls. I provide the setting in which people’s feet leave the ground and they discover the truth that lies beyond words and logical knowing. I lead people in guided meditations to meet their spirit guides, and I drum so that energy can move through their bodies and onto the paper. I fly with them so that they can embrace the dark, unafraid of their ego’s surrender. Again and again, I urge them to go into their bodies so that they can sense what their storylines long ago silenced. I help them to grasp what they knew before they were born into this incarnation.
This is the direction my interfaith ministry takes me. I want to learn more about shamanic techniques for drumming, movement, and discernment. Since I’ve recently written a grant proposal to Susan Komen for a series of workshops for breast cancer patients, I look forward to focusing my ministry on arts and healing.
I know that the feminine divine will inform my journey, and that I will continue to be led toward the perfect expression of my shamanic nature.
May this be so.
