During January this year I was attending watercolor painting classes. Currently I’ve been compelled to create papier mache masks. I’d like to start the next sentence with “It all started with…” but in truth, I just don’t know how far back down memory lane to go in order to pick a starting point for my current phase.
I’ve made things all my life. When I was a latchkey kid in 4th grade, I’d come home to an empty home and decide to do a drawing or craft project. One time I made a 3D rainbow with rolled colored paper going into a bunch of cotton balls to represent a cloud. My father took it to work the next day and there it stayed. Ten years later when I visited his office, the rainbow mobile was still hanging from overhead cabinets. “Dad, you STILL have that?” I protested. Now I know how he felt. I still display the basket one of my children made in jr. high seven years ago.
Over the years I’ve done ceramic painting, advanced bead work, needlepoint, a homemade craft pillow, some consigned portraits, wall stencils, custom framing, photo retouching & printing on a wall plaque, ceramic tile design, silkscreening, paper making, and countless Christmas ornaments. I like to avoid idle hands, but I also delved deeply into meditation during my twenties. That doesn’t count for being idle, even though you’re not moving. You’re giving your brain a challenge during meditation.
Back to today. I have recently read the book Soulshaping: A Journey of Self-Creation by Jeff Brown. It is kind of like a self help book, but much more like a roadmap illustrating one man’s journey into healing old emotional wounds to attain higher levels of emotional freedom. It got me thinking about the masks all humans figuratively wear during different phases of our lives. For example, say you’re wearing the mask of bravado and don’t even realize it. If you stop acting the part of overconfidence and allow your vulnerability to show through, are you still you? Are you so attached to your mask that you identify your SELF with it?
I’ve decided to spend a week to actually create physical masks that illustrate this point. I made a nonedible bread mold of my face from an aluminum foil impression of my face. I varnished it after a week of drying time and can use it as a template to make a set of similar papier mache masks to paint in six to nine very different personalities. In case you haven’t heard of it, “papier mache” is a technique where you rip newspaper and dip it in a mixture of flour and water with the consistency of pancake batter. Lay the wet paper over the mold and let it dry. Repeat two to three times, let dry, then cut out eye holes and holes for elastic with an exacto knife. Then decorate with colored paints, sequins, feathers, yarn, raffia, or whatever you please. As you can see, this is a very labor intensive project I’ve taken on.
If I remove the mask from my face, I’m still there. Who am I, really? If I put on a mask that looks like the wounded child, perhaps it will allow me to access the deeply buried wounded child within me and heal some old emotional wounds. Of course, I could just do standard voice dialog and access my wounded child without the show/play/drama of using a prop, but I have a deep inner knowing that this particular prop would really accelerate my progress. What about you? Would wearing the mask of a particular part of you help you access memories you had previously buried?


Sad for No Reason ebook

From me, Jessica:
Depression is sometimes the result of unresolved anger. Anger can be tricky, because sometimes it manifests as constant crying, so you think you’re sad or depressed. This was the case for me, when I was in my teens and twenties. I thought I never got angry. However, I cried many times a month. Today I had a tiny breakthrough, and I want to share the general process with you, without the details.
The next morning I awoke and climbed the stairs to behold all the sugar on the floor I couldn’t see the night before. The sunbeams were pointing out the imperfections on the floor for me, so I could easily clean it up. (Allegory, anyone?)
Then, two months after launch of the application, users are demanding their own control panel so they can change details about themselves easily (just pretend this wasn’t written in the first place). Now the developers have to take code from another source and make it work with their own application. It increases the “bugginess” of the application because of some loopholes and perhaps not enough time built into the project for testing.
Most Americans consider the managed health care system that uses allopathic physicians (western doctors) as the only form of health care, but there are other methods of healing: chiropractic, alternative (or eastern medicine), massage and many varied forms of bodywork, just to name a few.
I saw James Arthur Ray in person at an event in Aurora, CO a couple of months ago. He really got the crowd fired up, and I could tell his mission was to attract people to buy tickets to his weekend workshop. All well and good to hustle a bit, but how’s his message?