Art has been there to save me, time and time again, from the time I first took a camera out to the woods behind my house when I was about 12 years old, through all the years to today. It was those times when I detached myself from my art in attempts to be something I wasn't when I felt most empty and disconnected. Art saves the soul.
Beautiful, honesty, creative, powerful! Orphan love. Mmmm. Just read another awesome post about how trauma only gets nailed into the brain if we don't receive full empathy within 72 hours.
Hugs & Keep creating with your beautiful, wide open heart. Listen to your kdis' wisdom. My son used to tell me to "go be with your feelings so I can feel better." I would and then he did! <3 <3 xoxoxo
Yes! I recently learned this as well... that it's not about what happens to us, but what happens after what happened. If we are received and tended with empathy, the experience doesn't get stored in our cells as trauma. It's like when our kids hurt themselves when they're little and run to us crying. If we scoop them up and coo and kiss their boo-boos and fuss over them, pretty soon they're fine and run off to play again. No trauma stored in their little bodies... but if no one is there or they're told "it's nothing, you're fine" and they have to deal with their pain and fear alone, they might appear to be fine, but the trauma of the moment sticks because they couldn't complete the cycle.
Yes! This is exactly what I was thinking about...how many times did you experience real distress as a kid but if you were given empathy, moments later you were back to playing. I had an experience with my teeth recently that was excruciating, yet I received empathy WHILE it was happening, and it actually helped me undo some emotional trauma where the physical was kind of a proxy for the emotional pain. What are you thoughts on how we can create cultures of empathy?
Yes, learning by watching/ teaching by modeling is the best way for me to learn. Also, doing theater my whole life has let me practice becoming other people and seeing things from other perspectives. Some of the most compassionate and empathetic people I know are actors. 🎭 great question!
I don't know! I'm not big on shoulds! You could tune in and see if it's right for you! I love her ideas and I also think there is a divine will that we can surrender to and call in to embody beyond it being the ways she frames it, but I also love her focus is on creating with the energy of love and she describes as an actress just what you described in your theatre experience!
Creating, in whatever form calls to me at the time, has always kept me from completely fracturing in a million pieces. My soul sings and I feel like a person when I am creating art in some form. It's also the way I know I will create the life I am meant to live, as the person I am meant to be. Thank you for your open, honest writing here, Summer!
Summer, honored to have my prose poem "Tattoo" included in your essay, though it pales when placed in the shadow of your beautiful writing, which seems to make you the spiritual and literary daughter of Annie Dillard. The essay is an emotionally charged collage of wonderful natural descriptions, cool pictures and videos, and, more important, biting observations on human behavior. You're a pissed-off humanist/idealist in the best sense of that phrase. Bravo!
Ain''t motherhood the grandest calling on the earth?
Mine passed during Covid from pancreatic cancer treated by chemotherapy. She was a widow for 12 years, 86, believer in heaven and in her words not living just existing
Died peacefully asleep. We chief for ourselves without her
I’m really sorry to hear that, Steven. And I’m sorry that I’m just now seeing your comment! And yes, I agree motherhood is for me personally the most fulfilling and wonderful and impossible and hair whitening experience ever. I wish you healing. We’re never ready to lose our mothers. 💖
The pandemic took art away from me for a time. Being home with a young child to school and entertain, having no art shows to work toward and several other family members occupying my physical and mental space, crippled my art making. I have since returned to it with a vengeance and renewed purpose. It lights up my soul in a way other things can’t.
Art and my writing saves me time after time. The more I read your beautiful, profound, and acutely perceptive writing, the more you reveal to me what a wonderful writer, mother, woman you are and a magnificent human being. You inspire me. 🙏🙏
And yes, personally, art saves me every day I put my fingers to the keys or glue one thing to another or clean a 3d-printed object ready to be painted and added to a room of other small things.
Without it, I'm listless, I'm sad, I'm useless, I'm worthless, I'm lazy, I'm hopeless, I'm empty, I'm lost. Without it, I struggle, I am not nice to myself. Without it, I am not whole. Without it, my husband notices my decline, he worries, he offers suggestions of new projects or reminds me of abandoned ones, he tells me about beautiful things in nature to inspire me. Even he knows I am not myself without it.
But with it—with it, I am me. I am as healthy and happy as someone like me can be.
I thank you wholeheartedly while acknowledging how upsetting it is to know the feeling. Though it sounds almost easy to regain the whole self if you must "just create", one cannot always do it. So sometimes, we suffer. Sending you love for those moments or days or weeks or months or years. And cheering you on for the times when creativity flows so rapidly you can barely keep up. <3
Love that time! And so happy that's happening for you now <3 Yesterday 4 articles poured out of me within a two hour period. So, I'm guessing I'm on that new moon wavelength as well!
Art has been there to save me, time and time again, from the time I first took a camera out to the woods behind my house when I was about 12 years old, through all the years to today. It was those times when I detached myself from my art in attempts to be something I wasn't when I felt most empty and disconnected. Art saves the soul.
So true! Same, Jim!
Nice work Summer. Here’s a poem that relates:
Art and the Red Star
A loaf of borodinsky
A carafe of wine
Raw umber brushed on canvas
Burned down candles litter the small apartment
A second floor window frames a view on the square
The soldiers practice drill and ceremony below
An artist comfortable in this life
Pleased to create
Pleased to drift into slumber without hunger gnawing at the core
Paint and brushes and time
Boots march obedient on cobble and echo on the wind
The cries of the resistance have almost faded from memory
The occasional haunting seems a small price to pay
Linseed oil covers this latest creation
Another sip then a nap on the couch
While an empty canvas awaits
“Paint and brushes and time.” “The occasional haunting seems a small price to pay.” 🥇
I love it. 🙏 ❤️
It is our act of survival to heal means we must create...bravo!
Thank you, Sue!
Beautiful, honesty, creative, powerful! Orphan love. Mmmm. Just read another awesome post about how trauma only gets nailed into the brain if we don't receive full empathy within 72 hours.
Wow! So quick empathy can unlock it. Amazing. And yet, unsurprising…
EFT for PTSD...check out the evidence! Keep creating and being you! <3 <3 <3
Awesome will do. Thanks, Alicia!
Empathy is trending today...maybe because we all need it so much.
https://eftuniverse.com/community-resources/
Hugs & Keep creating with your beautiful, wide open heart. Listen to your kdis' wisdom. My son used to tell me to "go be with your feelings so I can feel better." I would and then he did! <3 <3 xoxoxo
https://eftuniverse.com/community-resources/
<3 Om Love
Yes! I recently learned this as well... that it's not about what happens to us, but what happens after what happened. If we are received and tended with empathy, the experience doesn't get stored in our cells as trauma. It's like when our kids hurt themselves when they're little and run to us crying. If we scoop them up and coo and kiss their boo-boos and fuss over them, pretty soon they're fine and run off to play again. No trauma stored in their little bodies... but if no one is there or they're told "it's nothing, you're fine" and they have to deal with their pain and fear alone, they might appear to be fine, but the trauma of the moment sticks because they couldn't complete the cycle.
Yes! This is exactly what I was thinking about...how many times did you experience real distress as a kid but if you were given empathy, moments later you were back to playing. I had an experience with my teeth recently that was excruciating, yet I received empathy WHILE it was happening, and it actually helped me undo some emotional trauma where the physical was kind of a proxy for the emotional pain. What are you thoughts on how we can create cultures of empathy?
Yes, learning by watching/ teaching by modeling is the best way for me to learn. Also, doing theater my whole life has let me practice becoming other people and seeing things from other perspectives. Some of the most compassionate and empathetic people I know are actors. 🎭 great question!
OMG - when you shared about theatre and empathy it made me think of Dee Wallace. Do you have her book Born?
No, should i?
I don't know! I'm not big on shoulds! You could tune in and see if it's right for you! I love her ideas and I also think there is a divine will that we can surrender to and call in to embody beyond it being the ways she frames it, but I also love her focus is on creating with the energy of love and she describes as an actress just what you described in your theatre experience!
I think we create them by embodying empathy. We do it for others who then experience the healing, then they have more capacity and can do the same.
So much YES! <3
Art saves me every damned day. Thanks for the reminder.
Every damned day! Thank you J. 💕
Creating, in whatever form calls to me at the time, has always kept me from completely fracturing in a million pieces. My soul sings and I feel like a person when I am creating art in some form. It's also the way I know I will create the life I am meant to live, as the person I am meant to be. Thank you for your open, honest writing here, Summer!
I love that, exactly. “Creating the life I am meant to live” ❤️
Summer, honored to have my prose poem "Tattoo" included in your essay, though it pales when placed in the shadow of your beautiful writing, which seems to make you the spiritual and literary daughter of Annie Dillard. The essay is an emotionally charged collage of wonderful natural descriptions, cool pictures and videos, and, more important, biting observations on human behavior. You're a pissed-off humanist/idealist in the best sense of that phrase. Bravo!
Wow! "spiritual and literary daughter of Annie Dillard," I'll take it! THANK YOU! lol!
Ain''t motherhood the grandest calling on the earth?
Mine passed during Covid from pancreatic cancer treated by chemotherapy. She was a widow for 12 years, 86, believer in heaven and in her words not living just existing
Died peacefully asleep. We chief for ourselves without her
I’m really sorry to hear that, Steven. And I’m sorry that I’m just now seeing your comment! And yes, I agree motherhood is for me personally the most fulfilling and wonderful and impossible and hair whitening experience ever. I wish you healing. We’re never ready to lose our mothers. 💖
Dear heart. You are loved
Thank you! Xo
The pandemic took art away from me for a time. Being home with a young child to school and entertain, having no art shows to work toward and several other family members occupying my physical and mental space, crippled my art making. I have since returned to it with a vengeance and renewed purpose. It lights up my soul in a way other things can’t.
Yes Barb! Same here! 🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
This saved me today, thank you. Really!
Best wishes to you and everyone who comments here🙏🏽
Awesome Mark. Glad it helped 💕
Art and my writing saves me time after time. The more I read your beautiful, profound, and acutely perceptive writing, the more you reveal to me what a wonderful writer, mother, woman you are and a magnificent human being. You inspire me. 🙏🙏
Linda thank you so much 💕 💕 💕
So beautiful, so evocative, so poignant! Thank you for sharing!
I have used writing since I was a child to help me process my emotions, my traumas and "man's inhumanity to man"
Want to wish you a Happy Electric Full Moon(Full Moon in Virgo and Xclass solar flares)
The moon asserts its pull on us whether we are aware of it our not.
The moon last night was amazing! Thank you, friend. Im glad you have found writing to help you through 🌝 🌚 🌙
I needed that - thank you
Thanks, Jason. Glad it helped <3
Beautiful as always, Summer <3
And yes, personally, art saves me every day I put my fingers to the keys or glue one thing to another or clean a 3d-printed object ready to be painted and added to a room of other small things.
Without it, I'm listless, I'm sad, I'm useless, I'm worthless, I'm lazy, I'm hopeless, I'm empty, I'm lost. Without it, I struggle, I am not nice to myself. Without it, I am not whole. Without it, my husband notices my decline, he worries, he offers suggestions of new projects or reminds me of abandoned ones, he tells me about beautiful things in nature to inspire me. Even he knows I am not myself without it.
But with it—with it, I am me. I am as healthy and happy as someone like me can be.
"Without it, I am not whole." But "with it, I am me." Precisely!
Elle, that just leveled me. I know. I know.
I thank you wholeheartedly while acknowledging how upsetting it is to know the feeling. Though it sounds almost easy to regain the whole self if you must "just create", one cannot always do it. So sometimes, we suffer. Sending you love for those moments or days or weeks or months or years. And cheering you on for the times when creativity flows so rapidly you can barely keep up. <3
And same wishes for you xoxo
Thank you <3
Haha its so true right? Sometimes were stunted. Other times we cant keep up! I find the latter happens during the full moon, ie now! 😝
Love that time! And so happy that's happening for you now <3 Yesterday 4 articles poured out of me within a two hour period. So, I'm guessing I'm on that new moon wavelength as well!
Awesome! 🌝
Yes x 3!!! And we're on something of a so to speak same page. Stay tuned for my new stack issue: Art and Soul.
Yes! I love that!