We, all of us, arrive on day one with some sort of music within us. Circumstances either support that music in coming forward and being heard or conspire to make sure it remains silent. I don’t refer here to “outside” circumstances–after all, history offers countless examples of folks who just flat out refused to keep their bloom in the bud, no matter how unfavorable, prohibitive or even life-threatening the outside circumstances might be–Gandhi, Chagall, O’Keefe, Graham, Frankl, Kahlo, Seeger, Steinem, Close…
Your desire to communicate must be bigger than your relationship with the chaotic and unfair realities. ~Anna Deavere Smith in Letters To A Young Artist
The “inside” circumstances are the ones that fascinate me. The notion that our internal conditions–meaning the ways we think, manage our emotions, take care of our bodies–can either water and feed or shackle and silence the maker inside all of us. And that these conditions are within our control to degrees far greater than the more traditional arms of psychology and neuroscience could ever imagine. AND that approval for the establishment and maintenance of these conditions doesn’t go through a committee of 20 or even 12. It goes through a committee of one.
These are the notions that leave me giddy.
THE WELL WITHIN WORKSHOP 