Marveling at our Wholeness through doll-making

It’s that time of transition into fall, when we can be particularly susceptible to impulsive actions and quick decisions. We might buy clothes we don’t need or say yes to activities we don’t want to do, all in an attempt to create order and a sense of certainty in our lives.  When the uncertainty of the season is compounded by disruptive events in our personal lives, whether illness, loss or job change, or even positive changes, we can forget to feel the ground under our feet.  Even though we know we can weather changes, a part of us can feel like we are going through an earthquake. Changes can make us feel like the skin of the earth is broken and what was once a layer deep beneath the surface of the earth is now exposed on the top, or turned to the side or upside down. It can be extremely disorienting.

Change, even though we know it’s a part of life, can be a shock

During change, whether slight tremors or cataclysmic earthquakes, we may see the people in our lives, including ourselves, in strange new ways. We might see the underside of ourselves, and others, upside down, arranged in ways that we hadn’t seen before, and they look completely unlike themselves. It can be a shock, a real shock. We can feel un-prepared, ill equipped. We can feel exposed. We can even feel broken or damaged during periods of major change.

We’re still here, we’re still whole

But we are still here, the earth is still here, we are still whole. Our basic natures haven’t changed. It’s just the arrangement of the various parts to each other that have shifted, revitalizing what’s on the surface, bringing new growth, in a way that might never have appeared if the earth hadn’t shifted. This is not in any way to diminish the times of such severe real pain and suffering, when just getting through the day is all that seems possible. But eventually, even then, there comes a time when we can begin to make meaning out of change.

Doll making from the Inside Out: Workshop at the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in DC (Saturdays, October 18 and 25, 10 am to 3 pm)

I’ve been working over the past month on a plan for my up-coming workshop at the Smith Center for Healing and Arts “Doll making from the Inside Out.” As I’ve been making preparations, I’ve become interested in that thread of connectivity that holds us together during times of change. And I’ve been marveling at how doll-making can provide a sense of connection. We slow down enough to connect to ourselves, to each other and with the soothing process of creation. The process of making a doll can provide a reflective mirror, showing us to ourselves.  Making dolls in community can be a way of marveling in our innate wholeness.

If you live in the DC area and think this might be something you want to take part in, please sign up at the Smith Center website. And if you don’t live in the area, stay tuned for an on-line class, possibly for the winter.

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