The Beautiful Thing

 

"Hope is a state of mind, not a state of the world. Hope is not a prognostication; it's an orientation of the spirit and the heart that transcends the world and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons." -- Vaclav Havel To say that 2021 has been a helluva year for me is the understatement of my life. Just in one area -- my health -- I've undergone two surgeries in five months for different issues, with a third to follow in a week or so. After picking the pieces of myself up off the floor from an "impossible" but possible diagnosis earlier, I pulled on all my physical, emotional, and spiritual resources to help me get through. I've upped my qigong practice, gathered my most grounded and compassionate friends around me, and read through the still rough but improved draft of my book, "The Beautiful Thing: A Write of Passage from Shattering Loss to Wholeness in a World that Needs to Hear Your Story." I'm presently revising Part I, "Translate Your Life into the Language of Story," specifically the section on "The Healing Storyteller." This teller doesn't necessarily tell stories with happy endings, although sometimes she does. But throughout, her tales radiate a life-giving spirit that shines with unconditional love for life, no matter what. This is the medicine that heals regardless of outcomes. In stories, the protagonist finds it just when everything seems lost. In life, it can be found in the darkest of places when we surrender completely to reality. Not submit as a victim; but surrender to reality as a potential creator. Call it hope, the miraculous, or the healing imagination. It doesn't require a specific vision or shape. For me, it's a pure spaciousness. I often envision the color yellow or gold, which introduces a kind of smiling and patient state of mind that embraces all of my life's experiences. In the wise stories to which I have devoted my life, it's called the Grail -- that which heals all wounds. For me, this state of mind fits better than optimism about a specific outcome. It's a connection to Great Mind, which holds the All is Well reality beyond my ego or the details of my personal life, and guides me to action that exists for no other reason than that it feels like the right thing to do. This deep love of life -- just as it is -- is truly a beautiful thing to experience, and in my story sanctuaries I try to impart this spirit, this heart, this embrace to my listeners. My wish for you as we approach this Solstice in our tormented world is entry into this place of peace. Art: Mountain top sunrise, Sharon Duguay

With gratitude, Juliet

A CAUTIOUS RETURN IN A NEW SURGE

 

THE COLORS OF SPIRIT: An in-person expressive workshop for New Yorkers

I'm offering a collage and free-writing session in mid-August. It looks like the rest of summer will be more challenging than usual this year due to the heat and uncertainty we're all feeling about our public health and political situations. This gathering will be very small, safe, and intimate, for fully vaccintated folks who want to stay creative and connected during a slow month. My entire office is immaculate, with a new air filtration system to keep us healthy. Kandinsky wrote, "Colours on the painter's palette evoke a double effect: a purely physical effect on the eye which is charmed by the beauty of colours, similar to the joyful impression when we eat a delicacy. This effect can be much deeper, however, causing a vibration of the soul or an "inner resonance" – a spiritual effect in which the colour touches the soul itself.” The date: Saturday, August 14, 1-3. In this 2-hour session, we'll be playing with abstract shapes and vibrantly colored onstruction paper, built on the theme and language of the colors of spirit. It will take place in my beautiful, calm, and cool new office at 119 W. 57th St., Suite 1100. $35. Supplies and refreshments included. This workshop is intended not only to keep our spirits high but also to point the way to an intentional and energetic fall, since we already know exactly what we need to move forward in the coming months. Not necessarily with our rational, left-brain intelligence, of course, that helps us get through our life every day. But with our intuitive, right-brain intelligence, which holds 97% of what we know but are unable to access through ordinary means. The right brain speaks in the language of metaphor; its voice is the imagination. In this session, we'll play with the language of color. Just as restorative as playing with words and visual images on the page is playing in small, supportive community, which my workshops always elicit. If you're interested, please write me at julietbrucephd@gmail.com. And by the way, what shape or relationship of shapes stands out for you in this abstract piece? Jot down the first words that come to mind and free-write for 10 minutes from there. Give it a title and go forth in joy! Art: Kandinsky, "Blue Rider."

Damien Elwes, "Imagining Matisse's Studio" COMING BACK FROM A ROUGH PATCH This is my first newsletter in several months, due to painfully witnessing a family member's advanced Alzheimers and death and my own emergency surgery. I'm very resilient, fully recovered from surgery, and eager to get back to work, while taking full precautions in the ongoing pandemic. I'm happy to announce the relaunch of Living Story/NYC. My practice supports grounded resilience and re-emergence through difficult change. Using the portals of poetry and mythical tales, I offer a path guided by soul and the healing imagination through improvisational writing, visual art, and sharing the deep story that wants to emerge in the moment. My new office is at 119 W. 57th St., Suite 1100. It's 2 blocks south of Central Park at 6th Avenue and accessible to all trains. I'll be available to see fully vaccinated clients (I'm considered high-risk) for private "Healing Memoir" and "Life through a Story Lens" sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays, and possibly Fridays starting in the next few weeks, for an introductory rate of $100, based on my online package of 3 sessions for $300. I'm continuing with all my on-line programs, of course. They're permanent! I've scheduled the official launch of my practice with an intimate in-person story sanctuary for Oct.16,1-3 pm, for 6-8 people. A light lunch, poetry of the threshold, and a welcoming collective ear await! $35. Please contact me directly if you're interested in attending or would like to schedule a complimentary half hour phone consultation. I'm at julietbrucephd@gmail.com.

WHITE SHADOWS

A Story Sanctuary for Healing the Legacy of White Violence Toward People of Color

April 25, 1-3

$20

Racism and violence against people of color are a white sickness. No one can heal this illness that has permeated white European culture from the beginnings, except white people. Institutional change is necessary, of course, but the ancestral and unconscious contemporary attitudes that are the foundation of prejudice sit in the shadows of our lives must be brought into the light, and detoxified through speaking about them honestly.

Storytelling, as I practice it, might offer a way to clear this poison from our lives and spirits so that all people can live in peace and thrive.

This Story Sanctuary is an experiment, an exploration of this area of our lives, where we as people of good will may prefer not to look, but have to if this terrible virus is to be eradicated.

Folowing my usual program of telling a story as a launchpad into our own hearts, time for private contemplation and writing, and then most important of all, sharing without fear of shame or correction, I am offering this session as a drop of hopefully meaningful medicine for greater healing. Perhaps we will together come up with a practice that we white people who fervently want to be a force for positive change can take into our families and communities.

If you would be interested in exploring this deep territory in your own ancestral and even personal past with me in a small and safe group setting on Zoom, please write me at julietbrucephd@gmail.com.