Healing Retreat

Each year we have had a Healing Retreat utilizing art as a vehicle to wholeness, seeking to address the many ways that lives are broken and fragmented in the culture in which we live. This year Donna Eder led us in our journey to wholeness through Eastern Arts which are based on a model of balance between opposites, and which naturally promote a state of centeredness though movement. We humans are body, mind and spirit/soul, and the workshop included art forms which focused on the unity of those dimensions of our being.

We began with some basic Tai Chi movements where there is a continual flow from right to left and from pushing to retreating. These principles became operative as we learned Chinese Calligraphy, which is experienced in the body as well, and captured in the movement of writing on rice paper. In addition to more familiar style of Chinese characters we explored a more fluid cursive style. And in both, mind and body are united.

We also learned Chinese bamboo painting, learning to use grey tones as well as black to incorporate bamboo stems in the painting. These simple forms offer an aesthetic which soothes and leads to that wholeness so different from the complexity of our daily lives.

At the core of all these disciplines is Spirit…the focusing and strengthening of chi—qi–or ki—a form of universal energy to bring about the sought wholeness of body, mind and soul. Thus, as participants chose to focus on such words as compassion and peace, the characters on the paper took on life and meaning for them.

And as each learned the flexibility of the brush, they learned that they each had their own unique calligraphy style as a means to individual wholeness and well-being and were encouraged to further explore that which resonated most with them.

Some were drawn to bamboo painting. Others were drawn to calligraphy, using symbols like heaven and sky to honor parents no longer with them or to focus on the more fluid cursive style, choosing symbols like dance or spirit. While our focus was on the practice of centering, many lovely paintings and calligraphy characters were made–some on display in the community room.

It has been said that in some ways, doing Calligraphy is an easier way to focus the mind than sitting meditation, as one is immediately reminded when the mind strays from the task the characters are not drawn as wished. (0ops! :>))

THANK YOU to Donna and her skillful presentation, patience, and encouragement, and her comments which have been incorporated in this article. Some have asked that this workshop be presented again. Those of us who participated would welcome another opportunity to practice and have others join in this interesting, different style of meditation. That might just happen. It is good for the body, mind, and soul!