Hold the Moments: a book is born with help from the non-dominant hand

This post was contributed by Lisa Brown, M.A., CJEA Instructor & Visioning® Coach. Lisa is also an artist and published author.

Hold the Moments: a book is born with help from the non-dominant hand

Lisa teaching a workshop

I am an art teacher working with all ages. I have been teaching children for over 35 years. Most of my students come after school during the school year and start studying with me at age 9. They often continue until high school. Because they return each year, I have gathered ideas for hundreds of art projects for working with children and youth and have constantly dreamed up new ones. Once in a while I discovered something that turned out to be spectacular, not for me but for what the children produced from their imagination.

I had taken pictures of student work along the way and, as I entered the Creative Journal Expressive Arts certification training, I realized one of my dreams was to create a book of the projects I had created. I began to see that parents and grandparents didn’t quite know how to entertain children without the use of a screen machine. I wanted to help them with easy to do, fun projects that would bring joy to grandparents, parents, and children.

Around the same time, one of my son’s friends came by and said she loved a book she had as a child in which she kept the names of her friends, of places she liked to go, etc. I then realized that this concept could be added to my art project ideas as a way to save those experiences that adults shared with their children and grandchildren. I was also thinking about those relatives who live far away and therefore don’t have many opportunities to be with children in their families. If they kept a journal, took pictures, or wrote in the journal about the experiences they did have together and with whom, they would have those memories forever. (I have to say the thought of keeping a journal certainly coincided with my CJEA training where we were trained in the practice of Creative Journaling.)

I was getting this all together when my life got rocked up-side-down due to my young son succumbing to drug addiction. This put the book project on hold and it was years of struggling for the whole family. We all struggled with his addiction and in the end, my son overdosed. After some time and deep grieving, I began to put the final draft together.

Each time I got stuck, the way I unblocked was to dialogue with both hands to find my answers. I never would have finished the book without Lucia’s methods for opening up creativity and her techniques for breaking through creative blocks. It was finally happening. Now, I just had to find a title. Once again, I looked inward to find the wisdom of my other hand and what do you know, here’s what she said. “Hold the Moments: Creative Experiences in Parenting.”

And that was perfect! Thank you Lucia!

Finally, my dream came true and I published the book.

Lisa Brown
Regional Coordinator for CJEA
art-as-therapy.com
gardens-of-hope.net
lisa@art-as-therapy.com
Hold the Moments: Creative Experiences in Parenting
Book information appears on the front page of art-as-therapy.com.

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Lucia

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