It is my belief that when you are truly passionate about something - no matter what it is - that if people feel your passion, they will buy in to whatever it is you are "selling". It is the passion that becomes the linkage between the thing and the person. Passion is the currency.
It is with passion that I presented before Douglas County Middle School Counselors on Day 8. I had not planned anything and I only had 25 minutes. So, I reached in my closet, grabbed my bag o tricks and set sail on my journey to Chestnut Log Middle School, which I later learned was on the news that night after a call to the Sheriff's department was intercepted by a local news agency (they were having a "slow day"). It was reported on the 11 o clock news that the Sheriff's department was dispatched to Chestnut Log Middle School - no details were given. Yesterday, I learned the details: A 14 year old girl brought a piece of broken glass to school and threatened to kill the Assistant Principal who happens to be the husband of a friend of mine. Meanwhile, all the would be helpers were with Me!!! We were playing and completely oblivious that there was a world outside of the double doors.
I first asked them what some of the hot topics were and they chimed in quickly with
"social media!"
"girls thinking that oral sex is not really sex"
"trending homosexuality - and then the other kids' response to it"
"Emo culture"
and of course
"bullying"
So, I taught them how to breathe. Nothing can proceed without the breath. For many of them it was their first lesson in diaphragm breathing. They had never before taken a breath that did not include raising their shoulders. Many felt the breath actually move through their bodies for the first time. While breathing we stretched and interestingly enough the stretching seemed to become quite sexualized. Naturally lots of laughter ensued... it was the joining in - matching their students' sexualization. I made light of it and said, "Y'all have been around kids too long". It was like setting the re-set button. They laughed heartily, and then returned back to the body. Laughter is always good, and I try to get participants laughing quickly, because it releases inhibitions, endorphins and sets the stage for what is to come.
We then did a little scribble drawing. Scribble drawing has become one of my favorite exercises as of late. In my ever so humble opinion, scribble drawing is, at its essence, about transformation. It is about holding on and letting go, it is about imagination, allowance, turning lemons into lemonade. Turning someone's trash into a treasure. It is also, in some ways, the artistic version of the game "Telephone" because what you send out is never what you get back. It is about vulnerability and shame. Hope. It is a gift when it is returned to you. Completely transformed. One of the participants said that it made her quite uncomfortable. I told her to "play with that". :) Explore what makes you feel uncomfortable. I always find it so interesting when people leave a therapeutic experience feeling uncomfortable. You are supposed to feel uncomfortable! (If you are working)
It is like getting a cut on your hand and then walking into the salt water of the beautiful ocean. It stings because it is healing.
After we scribbled and processed, I brought us back to some of our hot topics and surmised that it might be safe to say that "Identity" seems to encapsulate a lot of the angst that the children are experiencing. So, we did a human sculpt of identity.
They loved it!
By the end of the presentation they swarmed around me like a hive of honeybees. I really felt like the Phenomenal Woman that Maya Angelou speaks about in her poem of the same name.
A couple of them were charting my career course, trying to figure out how I can certify counselors in expressive therapy. I have no idea if that is even possible! They all want me at their respective Career Days - I have literally gotten like five invitations in the last two days. And one of them wants me to teach her counseling class at Clark Atlanta University.
Yes, Passion Play! It was a wonderful day!
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