My friend Olga Brouwer shared with me the amazing visual piece she created with one of my early June writing prompts, reminding me that these prompts are not strictly writing prompts.
Of course they aren’t strictly anything and what does “strict” mean anyway? I see strict coming my way and bolt. I avoid strict like the plague—usually, or maybe unless it is on my own terms (a fact I may have discovered today in Olga’s workshop). But this is not a post about coloring within the lines, or not.
Olga is a life and leadership coach who also has chosen to live on a small island in the middle of the North Atlantic. She is the friend with the gorgeous Dalmatian who loves me but does not love my mutt. If Olga and I want to chill together, we do so dog-free.
Today—dog-free—I attended a workshop Olga is leading at the lovely SÓ Atelier in Vila do Porto. One of my friend’s many talents (her baked goods are scrumptious and her crocheted mandalas, mind-blowing) is her certification in Neurographica, a creativity tool I hadn’t a clue about.
After registering for the workshop, I purposefully Googled nothing about it. I wanted to go in not with Beginner’s Mind, but Absolutely Basic Mind.
Give me a stool, a table, a glass of water, a sugar cookie, a piece of paper, a black marker, and a set of colored pencils.
Olga warmed us up with easy chat and directions. We let our tools go wherever our NOT MINDS led them. But easy chat, followed by a simple invitation, led to some surprisingly direct and deep revelations. Funny how when given permission, in a safe space created by artists, for artists, conversation can rapidly shift from surface to core.
What is shared in a Neurographica workshop stays in a Neurographica workshop, but I am looking forward to getting home and pulling out my amazing set of colored pencils to do more doodling… which is not… really… doodling at all. You let your hand drift not to dwell or devise, but maybe to dream, dare, and do. Play and be. See. Connections happen when we step back, stop forcing, allow ourselves to be called and led by color.
I don’t know.
Basic, Beginner, Not Knowing… this is a good place to be every now and then.