New SoulCollage® Workshop

Please join me on Friday, November 20 from 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. to celebrate the abundance of Fall by creating your own SoulCollage® cards.

Beginners and experienced collagers are welcome at this three-hour workshop. All supplies and instruction will be provided in a relaxed and fun atmosphere.

Workshop held at Soma Yoga in Crown Hill. Pre-registration cost is $35. ($40 - night of the event.) Space is limited, so register today. For questions or to sign up, please e-mail kayce@kaycehughlett.com.

Feel free to pass this information along to anyone who might be interested.

SoulCollage® is the process, developed by Seena B. Frost, of creating a deck of collaged cards from found images for the primary purpose of self-exploration and self-acceptance.

Some things I love about the SoulCollage® process include:

• the premise of everyone is an artist. We can all tear or cut images and apply a gluestick, right?
• a way to move beyond words and connect with ourselves in new and creative ways.
• you are in control of the process. Gentle guidelines are suggested, but do not become rules of engagement.
• no special skills or knowledge required (i.e. everyone can participate.)

You can visit the official SoulCollage® website here.

Invitation to Poetry

My senses overflowing - saturated, really - after almost two weeks in Ireland, followed by a retreat to honor the ancestors. I was grateful this morning for Christine's Invitation to Poetry. It is a welcome entry point to "step across the threshold" back into my blogging world. The invitation made easier since I have a poem already created from this past weekend. It came out of an intuitive process where we poets were asked to include a given word line by line in our poems. It never ceases to amaze me what pops out when I choose to get out of my own way.

Titled, Healing Women, this creation turned into a tribute to my mother and two grandmothers. Our history is not one where loving care is the first thing that always comes to mind. However, something shifted this weekend as I honored the women - the girls - they were. The pictured shrine came later in the weekend as more pieces fell into place. The young girl is my mother, Daisy Ernestine. The top photo, her mother, Myrtice; and my father, "the sailor", holds the arm of his mother, Anne.

Stepping over the threshold,
what story wants to be told?

Shafts of silver light illumine my world,
spreading bare the winter of my soul.

Anne, Myrtice, Daisy step into the dance
as we let go of the stone in our hearts.
Je t'aime, mes amis.

The breath of God has washed us clean &
Jubilation rings the bell
as we return Home together.

I hope you'll join in the fun and join this week's poetry party. To get you started, here are the 10 prompts used this weekend. Let me know when you create your own poem!

1. threshold
2. story
3. a color
4. winter
5. names of ancestor(s)
6. stone
7. a foreign phrase (perhaps from your country of origin)
8. breath
9. an emotion
10. home

Bon chance, mes amis!!

Wondering...

Returning home, I find myself walking between multiple worlds. The ancestral mind and time for intentionality and presence were abundant on my recent trip. Back in Seattle, on a 'thin day' where the space between heaven and earth almost disappears, I experience a sense of floating and being grounded all at the same time. My own words fail me and so I turn to words of another and images of my own.

Today, I continue a journey that started who knows when as I head to Hood Canal with my wonderful sister to a retreat called "Honoring the Ancestors." My heart is already overflowing and I wonder if it can hold anymore. Wondering leads my way both past and present...

I move among the ankles
of forest Elders, tread
their moist rugs of moss,
duff of their soft brown carpets.
Far above, their arms are held
open wide to each other, or waving--

what they know, what
perplexities and wisdoms they exchange,
unknown to me as were the thoughts
of grownups when in infancy I wandered
into a roofed clearing amidst
human feet and legs and the massive
carved legs of the table,

the minds of people, the minds of trees
equally remote, my attention then
filled with sensations, my attention now
caught by leaf and bark at eye level
and by thoughts of my own, but sometimes
drawn to upgazing -- up and up: to wonder
about what rises
so far above me into the light.

--- Denise Levertov

irish trees © lucy

Just a few things I Learned in Ireland...

Ireland has more colors of green than any box of crayons.

Hospitality and Ireland could share one definition in a dictionary.

The ancestors are alive and well.

The ground holds the presence of times gone past. If you listen closely, the wind will whisper secrets into your ears. If your heart is open, no words are necessary.

St. Brigid's fire burns as bright today as in her own lifetime.

The womb of the earth is safe and whole and dark and lovely.

The future guides us into the present. The past greets us and the three become the Holy now.

Holy cow - is there any doubt?

People are generous at heart.

Guinness is most satisfying by the 1/2 pint.

A sip of Irish cream makes a fine dessert.

There is NO potato famine in Ireland today.

Stone bridges do not yield. They are made for crossing and honking your horn doesn't mean someone will hear it.

There are portals between worlds: gates - pathways - doors come in all shapes and sizes. Stone, air, wood, water. And in all colors - forest green, stone gray, sea blue, red of fire, yellow, green, orange, blue, white and black.

The killeen are alive and well in the soil of St. Mary's Church.

There is a great orchestrator in the cosmos. Just listen and you will hear the next step.

"May the stars light your way and may you find the interior road forward." - traditional Irish farewell

photos © lucy
Glendolough
St. Brigid @ her well
Holy Cow - Dowdstown
St. Saviour Church window

Celtic Spirituality and the Wisdom of the Ancestors

"Pilgrims are poets who create by taking journeys." -- Richard R. Niebuhr

7:30 Morning Prayer and Breakfast

Newgrange, Hill of Tara

Midday Meal and Afternoon free to rest, contemplate, and explore

17:00 Noble Silence

18:00 Evening Meal followed by Evening Prayer and Pilgrimage
Closure Celebration

20:00 Celtic Music Celebration with Claire Roche - Harpist

Overnight: Dowdstown House Retreat Center, near the Hill of Tara