First Harvest 2020

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First Harvest 2020

As we continue through this journey of liminal space in the pandemic, we find it so important to pause and mark the ways the wheel of the year is still turning. Inspired by Lughnasa and Lammas, we decided to spend some intentional time this past weekend journaling and collaging our first harvest. We invite you to take an arts break. It’s so important to shift gears and consciously look at what’s going well. What are our current assets and how have we been growing through the challenges? It’s not too late to join us!

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And Breathe....Self Care in Liminal Space

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And Breathe....Self Care in Liminal Space

So let’s talk about self care, shall we? Let’s go beyond what might immediately come to mind or how Instagram illustrated self care last year. What does self care really mean in 2020, and why is it so important?

We are in an altered reality. We are in the space between. We are in the liminal. We have let go of “normal” and there is a place we are hoping to get to, but no one knows when that will be, or how it will really look. What we know for sure, is that it won’t look like our old normal. And so … we are in the in-between. The threshold between what was … and what will be.

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Expressive Arts and Anti-Racism

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Expressive Arts and Anti-Racism

We at Yellowbird are committed to the work of anti-racism through education, self reflection, courageous conversations and using the arts to engage in an embodied dialogue with racism, privilege and colonialism in America. We are committed to using the arts to guide a new path toward an anti-racist society. Yellowbird is comprised of two white women who are personally and professionally committed to this intention. We stand with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Some key components of doing the work of anti-racism is to explore and get clear on how racism lives in you, how your privilege has impacted your life, how you feel and what you long for in an anti-racist society. It calls for a courageous look in the mirror. One way to approach this is by actively engaging with the images that speak to you, and make you FEEL something kinesthetically. We invite you to join us.

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Art in the Time of COVID-19

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Art in the Time of COVID-19

Last night, as I was preparing to go to sleep, I worried of what I might dream about. We had decided to give ourselves a “COVID Break” that day and we walked 3 miles, worked in the yard, did foot baths and watched an epic film on the power of knowing and telling our story, as well as the power of dreaming. It was the movie ‘Australia'. This blog is not about that movie, but it got me thinking about the pandemic from a different angle. How are we telling the story of this time through the arts? How will we tell it later? What are we dreaming of right now? What parts of ourselves must we sing back to us if we lose them along the way in all of this?

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Honoring Winter’s Midpoint

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Honoring Winter’s Midpoint

Hello Sunshine! We made it to the midpoint of winter. The growing light is a time to honor inspiration, illumination and warmth. It’s time, right? You can take all of these qualities and sprinkle them on whatever has been stuck or challenging this winter and allow the light to encourage a slow melt. Here are a few simple ways to do just that.

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Expressive Arts in a Business Setting

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Expressive Arts in a Business Setting

Imagine a ballroom full of tables, people seated in crescent rounds facing a projector and screen. They are in business attire, taking notes on tiny hotel notepads with tiny hotel pens. They sit listening to speaker after speaker and the occasional video. How do you feel when conjuring that image? Now, I love myself some work conferences. I think they can be great ways to inspire and share about new visions and collaborate with others. I also know that the environment described above can begin to numb me out after awhile. Now imagine the same room with everyone on their feet, small groups working together, balancing on different feet, jumping up and down, laughing and pondering whether it would be okay to completely drape themselves over the table and chairs or use the paper in their folders to make “keys on a piano”. How does that image make you feel? A bit different, no?

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Wonder Walks: Your Field Guide to Making Art in the Urban Wild

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Wonder Walks: Your Field Guide to Making Art in the Urban Wild

We’ve had a lot of moving pieces in our lives lately, how about you? The stress needle moving up the scale has encouraged us to return to practices that may have faded into the background. One of my favorite ways to do that is a Wonder Walk which immediately shifts my perspective. What is a Wonder Walk, you may ask? I am so excited to share with you! Here is how you take yourself on a Walk of Wonder:

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Connecting with Your Ancestors Through the Expressive Arts

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Connecting with Your Ancestors Through the Expressive Arts

We are in this special window of time during the year’s cycle where things are slowing down, we can feel the daylight shortening, and Summer is growing ever smaller in our rear view mirror. It’s a wonderful opportunity to savor the stillness and slowing down that Autumn can bring.

This time of year is also a wonderful opportunity to honor your ancestors; one of my favorite things to do! In light of the magical window of early Autumn and in gratitude for those who have come before us, I wanted to share a simple creative ritual to help anchor further into the season.

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Permission Slips for Pleasure: Working with Embodiment & Trauma

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Permission Slips for Pleasure: Working with Embodiment & Trauma

When an individual has experienced physical trauma and they have ensuing pain, the idea of dancing can seem challenging to say the least. However, in working through the expressive arts, we are taught to create space to work with what you have available in the moment. This means that whatever willingness, energy, curiosity, etc you have is ENOUGH.

Permission slips can be a great way to try something out with less pressure for it to look a specific way. What if you only explored movement in ways that felt good?

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Mother/Daughter Retreat: The Gift of Playback

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Mother/Daughter Retreat: The Gift of Playback

During our Mother/Daughter Retreat, we have a fun tradition of each family leading a creative project with the group. We take the entire afternoon and dive into whatever creative invitation is present. This year, we had unexpected themes of flowers and ancestors. Ah, such beauty!

Another meaningful way we explored our ancestors was through Playback Theatre, a form of improvisational theater where an audience member’s story is “played back” to them. This helped us take our sharing a level deeper. Click through to get all the details of our trip and story sharing.

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Mystic Woman’s Creative Source

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Mystic Woman’s Creative Source

I have been delighting in the Mystic Woman Online Circle over the last few weeks as we explore the seasonal wheel and its connection to our creative cycle. As I move through the cycle, I am noticing that what piques my curiosity most is what resides in the center of the cycle. In my imagination, I see it as the center axle of a wheel. I find myself asking, “what remains constant no matter what part of the cycle you are in?” In Mystic Woman, we call the center of the cycle, Creative Source. Creative Source is your creative lineage and is completely unique to you.

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Cultivating Awe

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Cultivating Awe

If you have been hanging around us lately, you might have been involved in a conversation about awe. It’s a quality I have been inviting into my life recently. There is so much going on in our lives - so much to navigate politically and personally. When we are called up to our personal and social/political change work in times like these it’s important to tend to our resilience, and ground ourselves in nourishment. This provides a strong foundation and a place to resource while doing the work. I have been expanding my gratitude practice with tuning my inner compass to several other qualities to deepen my resilience.

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Spring Growing Pains

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Spring Growing Pains

Once again the garden asks to be shared with you. As you may know, we have been working to bring seedlings to sprout and blossom. Oh my, have I been smitten with the image of wildly open and luscious petals of sherbet poppies. I mean, like really besotted.

Spring can seem all sexy and beautiful with flowers and color and possibility and renewal. It is all of those things, and there is more. A lot can go wrong along the way.

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Fertile Void

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Fertile Void

It’s official, Southern California has had its first days over 75 degrees in 2019, and we are ready to start spring seedlings. Perhaps it’s too early? It is January after all. It’s hard to tell, but after weeks of rain, the earth is soft enough to be worked with, which can be rare! I am holding visions of bouncy, vibrant spring flowers.  Fingers crossed!!

It’s only been a few days since we planted and we are already in that phase where you wake up every morning and rush to see if anything has happened overnight while whispering encouragement to the damp soil. Maybe that's just us? We are eagerly awaiting some kind of sign that the process is moving forward. I mean, it’s been 2 days!

As I write this, I can feel in my bones, that it’s such good practice to be in this process. We are feeling similar to these tiny pots of fertile soil these days.

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Taking Time to Be

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Taking Time to Be

Have you been hit with a rush of NEW YEAR, NEW YOU, RESOLUTIONS, WORD OF THE YEAR, SALE, SALE, SALE? We have! We are having to remind ourselves that even though we live in SoCal, and there are a hundred different signs pointing to how we need to take 2019 by the you-know-what and run with it, it's still winter.  With that in mind, maybe we don't need to have it all figured out just yet.  Maybe we can take some time to feel and breathe and tune our presence "up" after the rush of the holidays.

In honor of winter, we have decided to give ourselves time at the beginning of the year to press pause and allow ourselves to "go dark". 

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What I Learned from the Trees

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What I Learned from the Trees

This time of year is so full with wonderful ways to connect and celebrate. It’s a season wild with the dichotomy of strangers being extra nice in the post office and then crazy in the parking lots. I know I fall into both the naughty and nice categories. Sorry, Honda Civic, in the Sprouts parking lot!

This time of year can also be a time of stress, anxiety and overindulgence in all the things, you know what I mean? Do you find yourself on the brink of losing it, or so over-committed you can’t see straight? Or, perhaps you just want to make sure to carve out space to savor this special time of year. If you are in any of those boats, we feel you!

It’s times like these that I gain guidance from the natural environment.

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Nectar List 2018

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Nectar List 2018

Did you know that generating a sense of gratitude can build your resilience and help you more easily navigate all of life’s ups and downs? Practicing gratitude can actually make you a happier and more positive person. Sound hard to believe? We are all for it at Yellowbird! Co-creating our annual Nectar List is one of our favorite ways to practice gratitude. Care to join us?

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Red Thread with the Ancestors

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Red Thread with the Ancestors

While the veil is thin, like in many other cultures and spiritual traditions, we enjoy spending time honoring the ancestors and those who have come before. Tugging on the red thread that joins us to those whose shoulders on which we rest. We all have the opportunity to pull on the thread of our heritage at this time. Want to say yes to the invitation, too?

We wanted to gift you with a ritual “recipe” this season. Enjoy!

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Women's Work, Women's Artistry

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Women's Work, Women's Artistry

Some of my oldest memories are moments of making, of “women’s work”, of learning how to sew, cross-stitch, knit, and french knot from my mother, Nana T and Nana M. I remember it being a special thing I did with the women in my family. Even then, I knew I was learning skills that had been passed down from generation to generation and to hold the work with a kind of reverence. I remember heads bowed over a project, crowns almost touching as I learned whatever skill was being offered.

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