I got asked to write a promotional blog entry to support the recruitment of new folks to the Residency I attended in the summer. I don't think I quite did it right. This is what I sent it but a ton of it was cut out. I suppose it is not a marketing strategy to share the struggle part that comes after transformational learning, even if its true. I suppose that is why I am not a grand marketer. I took out the name of the program here and took out the names of the faculty too.
Anyway, I share it here with you and this community.
Hugs,
Nicole
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“When you’re flying across the ocean, there ain’t no place to
land.”
David Fougere - Singer/Songwriter
https://soundcloud.com/user601324276/flying-by-david-fougere
On the very first day, they asked us to present our projects in
two minutes or less. When I heard my peers speak about their dreams I thought,
holy moly, these people are rockstars! My experience at the *** Residency started with a recognition that I was in a room of
cracker-jack change-makers. To be counted among their number helped me see
myself differently. If my dream work meant something to these people, maybe it
meant something to the world too.
I could tell you how passionate so and so is when she lectures about Jungian archetypes, or about so and so’s awkward grace
when he speaks about systems mapping. I could say that so and so’s leadership dojo
affected my intuition or that making a drum with so and so helped me centre myself. It
would then be important to mention that so and so's artistic workshops
validated my own creative practice, and that so and so’s gentle support made
anything seem possible.
But really, the true story here is not of what we did but what
it did to me.
One main focus of the residency was that if you want to change
the world, first you must change yourself. If you want to build resilience in
others, first you must build that resilience in yourself.
Do you know that part in the story The Grinch Who Stole Christmas when the Grinch’s heart grows three
sizes in one day? Well it felt like at this residency that my wingspan grew
three sizes all at once. I came back home and felt wider, stronger, and like
the structures of my old life didn’t fit me anymore.
Many of my friends from the residency had similar awkward
re-entries into their lives. I had the same conversation with several people.
It went something like this:
“But Nicole, at Banff I felt like my BEST self. I don’t know
how to be my best self in my regular life. Maybe it’s not possible.”
“Of course it’s possible,” I’d say reassuringly, like I knew
anything about it.
“But how?” they’d ask.
That’s the million-dollar question.
When I came home the personal change cycle that began at the Residency ricocheted to all aspects of my life: job change; home change; relationship
change. It was like my wingspan needed more space to stretch out and the
universe conspired to clear away anything in its way.
Now I feel I am in a place of more questions about my path than
answers, but as an artist I recognize that this is a very important part of a
creative process. “You are transforming,” my Dad said to me recently, and it is
true.
I can’t tell you the end of my story yet. Perhaps I will send
in a post someday that says, ta da, the project I began at Banff is launched and
successful. For today though, all I can say is that the *** Residency catalyzed a life change of volcanic proportions. I
am grateful for the opportunity to really feel my full wingspan. I don’t know
exactly where I’m flying to, and that’s scary, but I believe in the journey.
I am in motion.
Thanks for sharing your journey mid-flight, Nicole. Keep spreading your wings. Ellen
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