Sisters and Sounds

Just a quick update here as I am getting ready to go to Newburyport for this evening's Healing Sound Journey. The picture above is the sweet little harbour in Rockport, Massachusetts where I have spent the last three days with my sisters Jenny and Miranda. Unfortunately the only picture I have of the fabulous threesome is of us lying on the grass with our heads at our mother's gravestone trying not to laugh and it just doesn't feel quite like the perfect portrait to post on my blog- although maybe it is!

Looking down from the entrance to Green Acre, the Baha'i school and retreat where I did a sound journey a few nights ago.

It was a beautiful ride on a perfect day and the sound journey went well and was very well received. I recorded it with my iPhone as I always do. I've listened to the sound journey several times since and have been enjoying it which somehow surprises me- not that I enjoy it, because of course I love what I do! That's why I do it- but I must admit to being surprised that I want to listen to it over and over.

The weather in Rockport has gone from perfect and sunny to perfect and foggy and remains consistently beautiful with the sounds of surf, birds and insects and very little else other than the chatter of three sisters- a different sort of sound journey! We had a good rain this morning which has let up. I'm hoping there won't be any more until after I'm all done with tonight's sound journey so I won't have to unload instruments in the pouring rain!

I have had the great good fortune of receiving several new shipments of Himalayan singing bowls recently which I think have really added to the powerful dynamic of the sound journey. I brought some bowls with me to Green Acre that I had never used before and they were quite amazing. I continue lately to be happily surprised at the effect of the sound journey, finding it so calming and restorative.

Carolyn Cruikshank, her daughter Anne and I at Green Acre after the Sound Journey at Green Acre.

A Perfect Embrace

This Sunday I am leaving for Green Acre Baha'i School and Conference Center in Eliot, Maine. I have been invited to give a talk in the afternoon and do a Healing Sound Journey for the Oneness of Humanity in the evening. Expected audience: 225 people from all over the world!

I can't say much about this. Only that I have loved Abdul-Baha since I was first introduced to him- I don't even know what that means. When I lived in Florida I used to sometimes play during the devotionals at the Baha'i Center in St. Pete and always loved the community and the energy there.

Most of all I loved the huge picture of Abdul-Baha. I would often walk over to it while I was playing my flute and just stand in front it and play while he looked at me with those loving eyes. I always felt that he was playing through me, inspiring and loving me while I held the flute up to my lips.

All I can say is that I am honored and excited. My tendency is to say/think that I am a bit nervous but as I sit with myself, I don't think that's true. The truth is that I feel that all the events and connections in my life have led me to this and it feels absolutely perfect. I know that I will be in an environment where I will be totally loved and embraced and I do not need to fear not being good enough, making a mistake or whatever things I could dream up about being less than perfect. It is all already perfect and therefore so am I.

And my kindergarten teacher and dear friend Carolyn Cruikshank, who is a Baha'i will be there and whom I am so excited to see again! 

I am feeling embraced.

Left: Summer camp at High Rise (then called North Hollow) in Rochester, VT (visiting Fort Ticonderoga on this particular day) with my former kindergarten teacher Carolyn Cruikshank. Circa 1963?

And... 50 years later, together again at High Rise, summer 2013.

Oh, yes. I forgot to mention how I have been completely immersed in the sound of Himalayan singing bowls for days! At the suggestion of my son Nicolas I got out all my bowls- my personal collection and all the ones I have for sale and put them all together in my living room. It has been incredible. Over 100 bowls and every time I went near them I would pick out a few and play them, sampling them (sort of like a box of chocolates!) and trying different combinations. It has done something wonderful to my mind and my emotional body. I had been in some turmoil due to a bad experience I had with a friend recently and the bowls completely relaxed my psyche. It was quite extraordinary and beautiful.

Streaming Sound

Last night's Sound Journey in Framingham for the World Citizens' Cafe at the Amazing Things Art Center was a great success- such a lovely group of warm, receptive, responsive and communicative souls. Really a wonderful experience.

Tomorrow night The Cedars, a nursing home in Cranston, RI, with the nicest vibe of any nursing home I have ever been in, is hosting a sound journey at their facility for residents, caregivers and the public. Not only that, they will be live streaming it via Twitter! Here is the link: http://www.periscope.tv/thecedarsri.

Sound Therapy for Oncology Patients

Very excited that my son just found this video online. Providence Journal was supposed to publish an article today on sound therapy at Women & Infants Hospital but it wasn't in the paper. Turns out, however, that this video was posted on their website on December 24! I had no idea.
Healing Sound Journey at Women & Infants Hospital, Providence, RI.

Grabbing The Muse By the Balls

I just read this statement by Seth Godin.

SUSDAT

Abbey Ryan has painted a new painting every day for 8 years.
Isaac Asimov published 400 books, by typing every day.
This is post #6000 on this blog.
Writer's block is a myth, a recent invention, a cultural malady.
More important than the output, though, is the act itself. The act of doing it every day. When you commit to a practice, you will certainly have days when you don't feel like it, when you believe it's not your best work, when the muse deserts you. But, when you keep your commitment, the muse returns. When you keep your commitment, the work happens.
It doesn't matter if anyone reads it, buys it, sponsors it or shares it. It matters that you show up.
Show up, sit down and type. (Or paint). 

I loved it when I did Your Turn Challenge and was blogging every day. The muse hasn't left but it certainly feels like time has been slipping away. So I am grabbing it back in this moment.

I have in fact updated my website in the last few days which you can see if you go to the Upcoming Events and Workshops. Also the "Sound Therapy Program" at Women & Infants Hospital (which, quite simply, is me) is going to be featured next week in the Providence Journal. They are coming to the hospital on Monday to take pictures of me doing a Healing Sound Journey and interview me and one or two of the patients. I am quite excited about this!

I'm also going to be doing a wonderful solstice event on Monday evening with a pretty amazing woman I met recently- Erica Nunnally. I am really looking forward to it. I loved her relaxed groundedness and openness when I met her- someone who seems to be very comfortable in her own skin as well as being a person with intention, integrity and focus- a great combination!
Check it out here: Lumina: A Celebration of Winter Solstice

I have been staying up too late every night for the past few weeks but somehow not getting done many of the things I would like. In this moment I am taking the time to show up and do something that is important to me- getting back on top of my blog.

My mother at her writing desk, probably in the early fifties. I wonder what she was writing.

Installment 4- The Road to Tallahassee

Aidan discovers a new way of playing the singing bowls!

St. Pete... visiting my closest friends, walking in Selby Gardens, walks on the beach, a great motorcycle ride with my friend Brian, sound journeys, healing sessions... an invitation to Tallahassee- which of course I accepted! Really? You guys can pull off a sound journey with less than a weeks notice? Okay! I'll be there!

What a great 5 days that was! Arrived in Tallahassee on Monday, August 10. The Sound Journey was scheduled for that evening. My alternator went just as I got off the highway and pulled up to Ryan's house where I was to stay with his wife, Arielle and their awesome six year-old son, Aidan. I had met Ryan about ten years earlier when I taught a class at Bhakti Academe of Intuitive Massage and Healing, where I had gone myself. Apparently it had a huge impact on Ryan and he dove into the field of sound healing after that. When he heard I was coming to Florida he immediately signed up for the workshop and let several other people from Tallahassee know and they all made the trip to St. Pete.

We transferred my instruments to Ryan's vehicle, dropped my car off at his father's auto repair shop (just another tiny miracle) and went over to the Abundance Wellness Center to set up for the Sound Journey. Ryan let me use his room to do sessions which was absolutely beautiful and full of wonderful instruments from around the world!

That little group of four from Tallahassee was a powerhouse! I had never been to Tallahassee and my life and didn't know a soul there other than those who had come to my workshop. When I arrived a week later they had a full house for the sound journey and sessions booked with me for the next three days.

Here are some pictures from that leg of the trip.

Session with Himalayan singing bowls

After the session...

Healing Sound Journey at Abundance Wellness Center

Notice new element added to Sound Journey instruments

Flower arrangement made for the event- so beautiful!

Aidan chilling...

Revisiting the Road, 2nd Installment- A Lesson in Abundance!

Koi pond at Lynn Carol and George Henderson's house

Lynn Carol's art studio

My week in St. Pete was wonderfully full. Every time I've gone back in the last few years I have had so much to do- teaching workshops, closing up the center, moving stuff out of the house I lived in for 13+ years with my ex-boyfriend- and spending time with him because he still one of my dearest friends- that I was not able to find the time to see so many of the other people I was so close to when I was down there. This time I made sure that I took the time to visit everyone that I wanted to see- some of whom it was brief or I saw at one of my sound journeys, others I was able to hang out, walk with or share a meal. It was so wonderful to take that time and be sure that I saw all my old friends.

I stayed with my dear friends Lynn Carol and George Henderson, whose house is definitely my idea of heaven on earth!

Healing Sound Journey at Temple of the Living God

On August 6 I did a Healing Sound Journey at the Temple of the Living God. There was some kind of weird poverty consciousness going on before I got there. They asked me to lower my minimum which I had already discounted 70%! I decided that I was not going to join in their consciousness of lack so I said to my good friend Carol Mitchell who had arranged the gig for me, "Okay, here's what we are going to do- I am not going to charge a minimum. Instead, let's join our minds in this moment and set the intention that there will be at least 40 people at the Sound Journey." She heartily agreed. We set the intention and the night of the event, slowly but surely, the place filled up- 46 people for the Sound Journey! So many of them were dear old friends and people who had come to so many events at my sound healing center when I lived there. It really was the loveliest reunion- and I made what I would normally charge for my minimum rather than the heavily discounted price I had originally given them! The ladies at the church who were taking the money were stunned and delighted. Apparently they rarely get such a good turn out for their events. I would have to say that I was not as surprised as they were, but I was definitely very pleased!

A walk on the beach with my good friend, Brian Ransom               

Expectant journeyers!

Selby Gardens with my old friend Linda Romero

Happy day with my new friends Ilona and Agnieszka, who I met last year in the Bahamas and discovered they live in Sarasota and that we have a whole circle of very close friends in common!

Expanding the Vision

Beautiful flower arrangement made as a gift for Healing Sound Journey in Tallahassee

I have been on an amazing journey since I left RI on August 29th to drive down to Florida. The plan was one weekend workshop and a Healing Sound Journey. So far I have done 3 sound journeys which have all been incredibly well attended and am going to The Farm in Summertown, TN next week to do one and possibly two sound journeys there. I have given many sessions as well and have been so incredibly welcomed and well-received. It has been a trip beyond my imagination- seeing so many dear old friends and making many new friends on the way. Feeling so full of joy and gratitude today.

Right now I am in Tallahassee where I have found a whole new community of new friends, all due to one person, Ryan Sullivan, who I met years ago when I taught at Bhakti Academe of Intuitive Massage and Healing. He loved his experience and immediately signed up for the workshop when he saw I was going to be in St. Pete. Along with him, he brought his wife and invited another friend of his who then invited one of her closest friends who I connected with pretty much instantaneously. They all loved the workshop so much that they invited me to Tallahassee, made a gorgeous flyer, started telling their friends and clients and pulled together a packed house for a sound journey in less than a week's time!

I am pretty knocked out by the success of this trip on all levels. It has raised the bar in terms of what to ask for and to expect in terms of both attendance and income for my work and that has been very affirming for me as well.

Today I am happy and grateful that have I have held to my vision of what I want and what is possible. If things had gone according to my plan I would now be on my way home. Instead I am still riding the wave. Tomorrow North Carolina, next week Tennessee. Loving life!

Healing Sound Journey, Temple of the Living God, St. Petersburg, FL

Healing session with Himalayan bowls

Healing Sound Journey, Abundance Wellness Center, Tallahassee, FL

Healing Sound Journey, Yoga4All, Seminole FL

Ryan, after his session

Confirmation

Sweet!

46 people in attendance at tonight's Healing Sound Journey!

A Sonic Wonder

Well, I fell behind on my daily blogging with so much going on in my life. One was a problem with the internet for a couple of days and then a big glitch getting the Event Registration page working properly which took a lot of time. However it IS working now and you can click here to check it out! It needs a bit more tweaking just to get it really looking right but at least it is all working well and people can now sign up with relative ease.

So, I am committed to Being Back! Tonight is more of a brief check-in as I have to get on Facebook and create an Event for the Florida workshop, as well as making some final touches on the Registration Page for it. As of about an hour ago I am also contemplating setting up a series of Healing Sound Journeys for August and turning my ride back from Florida into a bit more of a road trip.

I did discover this very awesome project which is going on in Rangely, Colorado. A huge abandoned and unused oil tank was discovered by "sound artist and sonic thinker" (I love that description!) Bruce Odland back in 1976. When he entered it, he discovered it had extraordinary sonic properties. Ever since then, a small group of musicians have been playing and recording in it. As it says on the website, "The Tank is a sonic wonder of the world, with a shifting, swirling reverberation longer and richer than the Taj Majal or the Great Pyramid." In 2013 a project began to raise money to turn the tank into a Sonic Art Center which is now coming into being.

Guess what my newest obsession is? I can't wait to go out to Colorado and visit this place! I want to do a Sound Journey there. Please be sure to click here and visit the website (http://tanksounds.org/the-tank). It is just to cool to miss- and be sure to watch one or two or more of the videos. They are all so fascinating. They are on the top menu of their website under "Media" or just click here.

Beyond Relaxation... (Would That Be Dead?)

I missed a day. I was falling asleep at the computer last night!

Great turnout and a very warm and positive response for the Sound Journey at the Yoga Center of Newburyport on Saturday night. No one signed up for Sunday's workshop so I had a day off and a chance to visit with a dear family friend who was also very close with my mother and that was lovely.

Sunday afternoon, because I was free, I was able to go to Newport and hear my brother play for a while at the Wharf Deli and then have dinner with him and his girlfriend at the Black Pearl. So everything worked out beautifully.

When I finally got home yesterday I was so beat that I didn't even unload my car. I was going to do it today but was procrastinating- all for the good as it turned out! This evening I received a call asking if I would be available tomorrow morning to do an hour long sound meditation for a group of businessmen who are in Newport for a yoga retreat. Actually they are combining work and retreat- apparently meditation and sailing in the morning followed by an afternoon of business meetings! So... the morning sound meditation will serve them very well- and I am so happy that I hadn't already unloaded the car only to have to pack it back up again!

Yesterday morning I woke up around 6 a.m. at Marnie's house in Ipswich and decided to listen to the Sound Journey that I had recorded from the night before. I have recorded many sound journeys on my iPhone and am always astounded at the quality of the sound- yesterday was no different. I turned on the recording and lay in bed and went into a deeply relaxed meditative state and eventually into dreaming. I only remember the last part of the dream- I was with another person and suddenly realized that I could not breathe. I was struggling to get a breath or to let the other person know that I couldn't breathe but I couldn't make a sound. In my mind I said, "Shit. Shit. Oh shit," and then woke myself up with a startling snoring gasp for air! I had gotten so relaxed from the sound journey that I had actually stopped breathing! I'm not sure if that goes beyond therapeutic relaxation but when I did wake up I felt fantastic. Fortunately when I do Sound Journeys for others they have me to guide them back into their bodies!

Personal Sound Journey

This afternoon I lay down on the sofa in the living room at Paul and Jane's house in Hoogland and played one of the sound journeys I had recorded during the weekend workshop- actually the last sound journey from the end of the day on Sunday.

I had recorded it on my iPhone, so I lay down, turned it on and placed my iPhone on my chest. And then I went OUT! I didn't hear much of it because I was totally gone. At some point it ended and I woke up- I think it was about 39 minutes long. I couldn't move for the longest time. They are lucky when I play for them because they have me to bring them back- to remind them to come back to their breath- to breathe themselves back into their body, to begin to move and to stretch and to rub their hands briskly together warming up the palms and then rubbing them over their face, their eyes, their head, their neck and their heart. I didn't have anyone to tell me that- I knew what I needed to do but that wasn't enough... So I lay there, glued to the sofa for probably another 20 minutes before I began to revive.

Well, now I know even better why they like it so much! 

View from the sofa- I took it when I woke up. :-)

Irresistible

Today's workshop...

Before the chakra balancing sound journey with Tibetan bowls...

The line up... 7 bowls for 7 chakras and one dolphin bowl:

Me, about to start playing...

Afterward- who can resist those sounds? 

Who can resist that smile? 

Zoom Zoom Zoom

Well, I thought for a minute I could upload my pictures from Dropbox but when I copy them on to this page they are gigantic and there is no way to make them smaller. So here I am again in the Land of Frustration! I have so many wonderful pictures of Holland- including a whole wall of hang pans that I so want to post. 

Oh well... I have been having many great sound experiences here, mostly of my own making. Shipping this weekend by teaching a two day workshop. It looks like we will have a reasonable turnout for it and I am looking forward to it. I have had two very nice three hour workshops that began and ended with Expressive Art Therapy and had a sound journey in the middle. 

Expressive Art Therapy is a three step process- Access, Release, Transform:

Access an image that expresses the feeling sensation on the body as it responds to a significant event or situation- possibly painful, but not neccessarily.

Release the image through an art form- visual, movement or sound 

Transform the image/experience with a new image that represents a calmer, less stressful response to the situation.

In the workshops I am teaching, the original trigger or challenging situation is released through the Healing Sound Journey which is followed by a visual art piece which represents the transformation of the event. I love the combination. It really feels like sort of a missing link to me. 

I gave someone a session today who had an extremely positive response to one of the workshops and wanted to follow up with a session to help anchor the experience. 

The time is flying by so fast- I can't believe I am leaving in a week and a half. Suddenly three weeks seems like no time at all.

Eating My Humble Pie

I love being able to use musical analogies whenever possible- so here's one for you.

Today I had to face the music and accept responsibility for offending some very lovely ladies.  My bad, for sure... I said something in a previous post in reference to Woonsocket, RI that came across as disparaging so I really must apologize for that. It was all said in jest but who would know that unless they knew me? The truth is I know absolutely nothing about Woonsocket other than having had a very wonderful experience there last Friday night! I went there once about 30 years ago and sat in the car while my best friend ran into her dad's office on some kind of errand and we left. Seriously, that was the extent of my experience there. We left and probably got something to eat in Providence because there was nowhere to eat.

Probably the worst part of it is that I had an awareness that my reference to Woonsocket in aforementioned post (I'm not going to quote because now I am really quite embarrassed- one blunder was enough) might have sounded a little snarky but in some pitiful way I thought I was being cute and funny. Not.

Dear ladies from the dojo- please forgive me. Seriously. I had such a wonderful time doing the sound journey and meeting you all. It was my pleasure as much as yours and then to have caused displeasure afterwards because some of you were nice enough and interested enough to check out my blog? Ugh. I am truly sorry.

That was the longest time I have spent in Woonsocket- I arrived at about 3:30, spent 2 hours setting up my instruments, an hour doing the sound journey, a good while afterward chatting with some of you and hearing of some of your experiences and another hour packing up... And every minute of it was a pleasure!!! That is the truth. I loved the space. I loved you all. Lisa Votta is awesome! Christina Rondeau is clearly awesome because she has this incredibly cool space in which she allows fabulous things to happen and I do hope you will invite me back. Because seriously? I would come back any day of the week! And if this kind of cool stuff is happening in Woonsocket- well, it must be a pretty cool place.

Okay, so that's done. But there is more for the rest of you who are reading this by way of some other avenue- maybe you are one of my Your Turn Challenge friends, a personal friend or someone who came across this because you are interested in sound healing. Well, I'm going to do a little rave here.

As soon as Lisa Votta, owner of Ananta Jyoti Yoga, contacted me I knew this was going to be a great connection and a really fun event. I love what I do but Lisa's energy, her interest, her openness, her curiosity and her enthusiasm got me even more excited than I already am when I have an event coming up. That feeling continued and expanded when we actually met on the day of the Sound Journey. I know that she worked hard to pull a good group together and make it worth my time and effort and that means a lot. I could see how devoted she is to her group of ladies there and I have no doubt that she is also a really great teacher because all of those qualities that I mentioned are what it takes to connect with a group of students and keep them coming back.

She also did a lot to make the space so beautiful!!! I couldn't get over it. All four walls are mirrored in the martial arts studio which was really cool, but then Lisa brought in a ton of flameless candles and the space just seemed infinite- it really was magical. Yes, there was still some equipment in the room but it did not matter at all or detract from the overall feeling in any way.

So- it was a beautiful night. Maybe tonight while I'm going to sleep I'll listen to the recording and see how it sounded on the receiving end.