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Singing as the Darkness Lifts, 18 09 2023 (#SingingAsTheDarknessLifts 3)

Singing as the darkness lifts, 18 09 2023:

A vague hint of horse chestnut on the air this morning, but the rosemary has faded. Birds sing and call from different corners and I sense a slowness in me as I listen.

Last week I was feeling excited and nervous about engaging with my new learning on the coaching course with ‘In Good Company’. By Thursday I was enjoying feeling satisfaction and pride in having successfully completed the first part. It was good for me to remember how tiring learning new things is for me and how I love the way that this is balanced with a wonderful sense of achievement. Note taking along the way is helping me to reflect on my development and being reflective is something I really enjoy. I had some in-depth internal conversations with myself at the end of Wednesday and love the way coaching allows this to bring clarity to thoughts and feelings. I am glad to be in the cohort.

I also had a meeting with Annick Yerem from Sidhe Press along with members of her team to discuss working together on an anthology of poetry. Although we may know each other from social media interactions it was so good to be in the Zoom room together and engage in real conversation.

This week involves putting the finishing touches to my paintings in readiness for my ‘Meet the Maker’ event next weekend. It will be interesting to see which things people like and to have the space and time for this. I have laughed to myself whilst rediscovering how I like to ‘be’ when I am creating because there were moments when I was frustrated by an apparent need to complete things when actually my joy comes from the process. I am learning to slow again when the paints are unlidded.

There may be a sharing of a poem called ‘There’s a Doll Thumping in my Chest’ in the future. The title came from a workshop and my diction whilst reading a line from a poem to the group (‘the dull beating in my chest...’) It is now like having a free gift of a poem which is asking to be written and I love that feeling. The poem is shaping up pretty well and I think it might well also be influenced by the funnelling of thoughts from the week.

Meet the Maker!


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