Meandering Mind - Eva Dillner [39]
My friends with the gemstone passion held Open Houses every month. It became a Sunday afternoon gathering place for many of us and we did learn much about gemstones and became good customers. If what you are selling is new and different and takes more than a thirty-second sound bite to sell (that covers most of us) an Open House is a good way to go. Out of this group the Life Mission and Spa Healing Temple projects were formed. One thing leads to another, but you have to start somewhere.
My involvement with various committees at the Swedish Cultural Center all came out of meeting another member the same age as me and with the same passion for putting life into organizations. We started talking and generating ideas and set up a meeting with the Board to present our thoughts. Before we knew it we were involved in planning events, redesigning the nominations process and getting more volunteers involved than ever before. The power of one plus one, is not two, as in simple arithmetic, it is more like ten.
Another group grew out of a shared interest in creative dance. There had been a leader and teacher, but she moved away to another city. We decided to continue the group, without a leader. Doing a leaderless group works well if the group is small, you all know each other and have gone through “basic training” so to speak. In the beginning we would decide on a theme for the next gathering. Each one would bring music, exercises and ideas on that theme. We would start with a sharing, then talk about how we wanted the music and theme to flow, and get going. In time the group became so in tune that we simply let intuition guide us from week to week. The work was spread out among us, one would bring the stereo, another kept track of the key and rent money and so on. There was also the opportunity for us to lead a whole session and experiment, when the spirit moved us to do so. We met for two hours every week.
The last few years I've been a part of a painting group. Everyone in the group has taken the basic instruction in Vedic Art, a process where you paint intuitively from within. We meet one weekend a month to paint and socialize. Sometimes we play music to enhance our process, or use silence, meditation or intention to lead our work. Other times we simply paint for the joy of painting. We have jointly purchased paints and other supplies. Continuing to work in a group after you have taken a basic course is a very good way to deepen your knowledge of the process. It's something I highly recommend.
If I were to do any teaching again, it's this very concept I would like to seed. Teach you the basics and then have you continue working with each other. It would be a great way to do therapy training, because you would learn tools for life, which you could use with each other. A vision for the future?
Play with Possibilities
For some time I had wished for a group where we could combine dancing, painting, toning, philosophizing and meditating in a free and flowing manner. I had tried to enthuse my painting group, but they really wanted to focus on painting. Then I went to a get together of the Vedic artists in another town. As part of the program we danced. Yes, how exciting. So in the course of things I mentioned my dream of a combination group. I felt that so many of us had explored separate processes and now it was time to weave them together. One of the people there became so enthralled with the idea she went out and found a space for us to meet in, which would be ideal for this kind of group. She didn't feel like organizing the actual pulling together for the group, but I did.
An invitation to explore was included in my next email newsletter. I knew from experience to nail down some parameters for people to get hold of:
Group for dancing-painting-singing etc?
For a long time I have dreamt of having a self steering group where we get together to dance, paint, tone, meditate, philosophize etc.