Empowered by Flowers: A Re-Write for Blodeuwedd

I've been struggling this week with the artistic design of the covers and marketing materials for my new Creative & Mindful Collection of Books, Cd's and Video Workshops, so in response, rather than stress over it, the best way to deal with my lack of design clarity, is to take myself completely away from the task in hand and do something else. Then hopefully, I will return afresh in a few days. That's the plan, anyway.

So, I decided to record a new story that came to me after a meeting with the lovely storyteller, Eleanor Shaw at Y Ffwrnes Theater, Llanelli where she is the Adopta Artsit and also runs her  business People Speak Up. I went to see her because I had a feeling that People Speak Up would be a perfect partner for collaboration with one of my creative projects, Sound Memories Dementia Friendly Radio Station ... anyway, I digress , as we chatted, we started talking about the ancient stories of the Mabinogion, and how they are not particularly woman friendly. In fact, women are mostly depicted as either devious, powerless, suffer some kind of abuse or come to a sticky end or become a nun. 

On the way home from our meeting, I started thinking about Blodeuwedd, The Woman made from Flowers, portrayed as an adulteress who beguiles her lover into killing her husband, but the plan goes horribly wrong and she ends her days as an owl, whilst her lover ends his as a standing stone.

But ... from the outset of the story, she was completely dis-empowered. For a start, she was made for Llew, and not for herself, from beautiful flowers ... then she was trapped up in his castle and forced to be his wife. Now, I ask you, what woman made from flowers would want to be stuck inside a castle all day, instead of dancing in the Summer fields? And besides, Llew doesn't come across in the story as a very nice person, in fact it sounds to me that he was a bit of a control freak. So, when he was away at battle for months at a time, it must have felt wonderful for our Blod, to be back out in the fields playing with butterflies, where she belonged. 

... And whilst there, she meets the hunky hunter. As soon as their eyes lock, it is the first time she has known love. Bless her, we've all been there, haven't we? When all sense goes out of the window and we listen to our sacral chakra.

Do you feel differently about her yet? Off course I am not condoning her behaviour. It is never acceptable to plan to kill one's husband. I'm sure my own partner will be very relieved to know that! But if this story is written from a different perspective, one of empowerment from the outset, rather than dis-empowerment, I began to wonder how it might pan out .. and this is the premise for my new story: Empowered by Flowers, a re-write of Blodeuwedd.

I have recorded the story on my phone to send to Eleanor to make her smile and meanwhile, as a break from my design indecision about covers for the new collection, I have amused myself by making some handmade bespoke books within which to hand write Empowered by Flowers.

It actually feels empowering to hand make these little tiny books and to write them by hand because women were not permitted or taught to write until much later than men. Hence, we have not had a hand in writing our own history. Sitting to hand write a story from a woman's perspective, about a woman empowered by flowers, feels somewhat empowering in itself. (I apologise for the emphatic use of the word empowered in that paragraph, but really, I felt empowered to use it, so I did, lots).

It has been a lovely way to spend my evenings. I don't need an excuse to write stories and make books. I LOVE doing it. I am hoping that this very hands on creativity will give my brain some inspiration, a vision for the cover design for my published books, so that  I can return to a more graphic design based creativity soon. 

Oh yes, by the way, if you would like me to make you your own bespoke collection of handmade books containing my re-write of Blodeuwedd, Empowered by Flowers, feel free to drop me a line on facebook. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, know that we are all flowers tied together in one very beautiful bunch.

Tree Blessings at St Ina's

Today was the first of my tree blessings. They are an extension of my love for talking sticks, which I make from the driftwood at Cei Bach, New Quay. 

This driftwood is gifted to the sea by the fallen trees lining the banks of the river as it meanders through Llanina Woods. It gave me such comfort collecting the driftwood last Summer, bringing it home and creating talking sticks, used in Native American Culture to make space for a speaker to be heard, to be listened to, giving a voice to the beholder.

At the end of last Summer, I promised to return this year to thank the trees with Om Blessings and woven wool, in gratitude to the Earth for the mutualism of our symbiotic relationship to trees.

It made perfect sense for this first blessing of the year to be with my dear friend Caroline. It was she that set me on my love affair with wool. In the depth of my despair, following my sudden deafness, she visited me at home, taught me to crochet, left me with wool and a hook ... the rest, as they say, is history. 

Llanina holds spiritual significance for both of us. We dressed the chosen tree in woven wool and a silver leaf Om and then went to St.Ina Chapel.

 We read passages from Mission Praise to each other, wherever our pages opened, replacing the word Lord with Universe to recognise the multi-faith nature of spirituality. It was beautifully quiet and serene.

And then we meandered down to the Quay for afternoon tea overlooking the sea ... what could be more beautiful than to spend such an afternoon with a friend?

PLEASE HELP TO KEEP MY MUSIC LIVE

The sun came out last week. Did you see it? We had 2 glorious days. I think it was the good weather that sparked a flurry of people putting out information on social media about their Summer Festivals and Events. I had a number of invitations to perform at castles and festivals and the like but sadly, because of my hearing loss and associated conditions of tinnitus and hyperacusis, I am not able to perform anymore. It's a sinking feeling.

I could sense my heart filling with sadness at the thought of being excluded from the very thing that gives me the most joy. My songs, written throughout a lifetime, would stay tucked away on Bandcamp instead of being out there, part of the music community that I love so dearly and that has been central to my whole life.

I meditated on this feeling of sadness, so as to hold it and move it on ... and in so doing, a wonderful idea came to me. Why not ask other musicians to put one of my songs into their set this Summer, so that even though I can not hear my tunes so well anymore, other people still will and I will know in my heart that part of me is out and about helping folk have a great time. I can still be included. It gives me a very warm glow to think of it. As my Nan would say, where there's a will, there's a way.

So, I am wondering, is this something YOU would like to get involved with?

I don't mind if you do a cover or  your version of my song, all I ask is, please record yourself and/or take pics ... I would love to share here on my blog all the lovely musicians that took part. and map where my songs have been this Summer. 

If you would like to help me keep my music live in this way, then follow the link below to my facebook group page, ask to join and you'll find out how you can peruse my back catalogue to choose one of my songs.

Thank you so much to everyone who has already signed up and is choosing a song right now as we speak. We're a lovely bunch, aren't we, us musicians ... but it's not just musicians, 2 dancers have expressed an interest in using my music for their projects, too ...  the possibilities are endless ... this feels so much more beautiful than being sad about it. 

All love to you, dear ones, 

Reaching Out for Creative Empaths

It's funny, you know, there have been some beautiful gifts that have come into my life since becoming deaf and living with tinnitus and hyperacusis. It can be hard to see them sometimes with this constant noise in my head and the distortion issues but this last few months, I have felt strong enough to start reaching out to the Universe in a meaningful and considered way, opening my heart and inviting her to bring the right people into my life. Creative people who are kind, understanding and caring and who might want to collaborate artistically to make beautiful things happen. I want to say creative people who are empaths but the definition of empath is a person with a paranormal ability to sense the emotions of others, so maybe I mean empathic, though to be honest, I think we all have the ability to be an empath if we learn to listen.

And that's the really funny thing, I can't hear what's in front of me, even with my hearing aids, face to face with someone, I miss certain words. The sound of rivers distorts in my head and either I can not hear the birds or there is one that kindly sings at the top of her voice into my tinnitus range and blows the speakers of my ears, triggering hyperacusis and yet, I can listen to my intuition more deeply than I ever have in my entire life.

This is manifesting in some very beautiful ways that I will discuss later as they are the premise of my new Creative & Mindful Business Venture that launches this Summer, so I don't want to ruin the surprise but today, a very interesting thing dawned on me.

I have written to a few people. People that, whilst I was in the depths of despair, I had much joy connecting with, via facebook. I have watched their creative journey and can see that perhaps, we would work well together, guessing from the type of work they do, that they would be understanding about my need for them to come to me, rather than me go to them. 

I would never have done this before. I would have just booked to go and see them. Everyday I was out and about travelling 3 or 4 hours a day, meeting everyone's needs, but now, my hearing in the car is blasted by a tone in my engine that we can't get rid of, even with sound proofing, so I try to base myself mostly at home or close by unless it is an engagement that I just can not afford to miss. Besides, the internet means I can be working at home and all over the world at the same time.

Now then, the response to these calls, has been very interesting and informed my gut instinct much about the person. For instance, some have said yes, they would like to meet up but they are very busy, so could I travel to them. This tells me a lot about how they would expect a future collaborative partnership to be structured. 

What I am open to is creative empaths who think ...WOW, that would exciting to go and visit Cheryl to talk creative possibilities. What a lovely invite, yes, thanks, I'd love to come' and not ... 'Er well, I'll try to squeeze you in if you compromise your hearing health and drive to me.'

I would never have even considered this before. I would have just arranged to visit them. Before my hearing disabilities came along, I did not for one minute think about my own needs and bent over backwards driving all over the country to accommodate but you can only bend over backwards for so long before you break ... I simply have no choice other than to invite the world to me and trust the right people will come.

What an incredible learning that is. It's almost a gift that has been handed to me ... it is absolutely fine for someone to be too busy to accommodate my hearing needs and it is absolutely fine for me to focus on welcoming those who do have the time.

So, if you are a Creative Empath and would like to arrange to pop by to chat possibilities over a cuppa, feel free to drop me a line on facebook ... 

All love to you. dear ones.