SISTERS ON FIRE: IGNITING CREATIVITY THROUGH INTERPLAY

You are enough. What you create is enough. I have a mantra: “Not good. Not bad. Just is (Thank you Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones).” To the extent that you want to “play” we will be fanning the ember of your creativity in our time together today releasing all judgment of outcomes. –Ruth Schowalter, July 18^th, 2020

 

Women from around the world who attend our monthly Global SIS: InterPlay were offered this invitation to ignite their creative spark in a recent playshop. Each July, my collaborator and SIS co-founder, Canan Arikan and I have chosen to highlight CREATIVITY. Fanning the flames of our creative souls seemed even more important this July while all of us are managing our lives in the midst of a global pandemic.

 

Connecting with SISters from Around the World. 

We were on "creative fire" in July! Women from China, Brazil, India, Turkey, Argentina, Philippines, Iran, Israel, and the United States.

Making marks and doing that without fear is one of my persistent goals for many of my InterPlay playshops. Therefore, I generally ask everyone to “draw” something as they arrive in the Zoom room. An advantage of being in our individual Zoom “boxes” online allows a certain privacy where we sit at the tables in our individual homes with blank paper, pencils, markers, and pastels. No one need see what we are putting down on paper unless we want to share it!

Sharing Images and Stories
Breakout rooms allow SISters to share their creativity in small groups.
 

 

InterPlay forms and tools offer us a creative way to unlock the wisdom of our bodies, and I like adding the mode of visual art, which is one of my ways as a visual artist and certified InterPlay leader of communicating to the world. I value each of the different modalities we play with –movement, storytelling, vocalizing, shape and stillness— that allow us to express or “release” what we know in our bodies and souls, or “bodyspirits.” 

 

Each one of us is unique and special and has something to offer the world that no one else can provide. The sooner we understand how to surrender our inner critics and step into the flow of our individual creative fire, the better it is for everyone –especially ourselves!  Clarissa Pinkola Estes says that “Art is not meant to be created in stolen moments only.” I agree. Let each moment be honored with your creative spark!

 

During the two hours playing with the concept of “Sisters on Fire,” we laughed and shared all that we did. Some of our activities included making marks as we breathed in and out, long and slow, short and fast, to the sound of the words love, yum, and fire. We did short tellings. We walked, ran, and stop on paper with our markers and then used those markings as a road map for our movement.  

“Moving is a treasure map and you are the treasure.” –Cynthia Winton Henry 

 

Afterwards, our guest InterPlay facilitator, Bilha Birman Rivlin, led us in a dynamic leading and following chain dance. And, yes, we had the opportunity to rock out on the song “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys. We were SISters on Fire!

As we finished our time together, and after sharing our “noticings,” I asked everyone to savor their experience. We learn through practice that moving feels good and can bring us a feeling of satisfaction and joy. 

It is good to remember that our spirits are lifted through a sense of play. We find we are able to say YES...that there is an opening...What do you want to say yes to right now, what do you want to create?

Say Yes

Alice Teeter, When it Happens to You

 

Step off into this unknown

Into this marvelous and terrible Yes

Yes to unknowing, Yes

Fling your arms wide to Yes

Be light and say Yes

Say Yes softly in a whisper

Float on Yes

Carry Yes like a feather you find floating

That the wind will take away

Blow Yes like a dandelion seed

Scatter it to the winds

And me, I say Yes waiting for your Yes

Leaning in and watching for it floating down

A maple seed on the breeze spiraling

Wisps of white floating across my field of vision

My ears are listening for that whisper

You are standing on the sweet spot of the stage

Your voice will carry for eons and leagues

In your softest song say Yes to me

I hear you from thousand miles away

We Have the Power! 

Yes, we have the power to create!