Dear Friends,

You’re invited to my Red Thread Session, Entering the Labyrinth, on Saturday, March 7, here in southern Alberta:

ENTERING THE LABYRINTH

You can’t get lost!

(c) Cat Charissage, 2015

Saturday, March 7, 2015, 1:30 – 4:00 p.m.

Registration or questions:  catcharissage@gmail.com

   Am I willing to enter?

To steal James Joyce’s line,

“Yes I said yes I will yes!”

I want to go within.

I want visions, not illusions;

depth, not blather;

nourishment, not potato chips.

(Well, okay, maybe potato chips, too.)

We can trust the labyrinth because

WE CAN’T GET LOST.

One way in, no dead ends,

only life and more life

to find in the center,

my center:

Roses blooming

Mysteries unfolding

Iridescence flashing.

Open my eyes to see the blessings all around

so that after the journey, and the pause,

I can bring out the treasure to

share and share and share. . .

Will you enter the labyrinth to meet your Muse, the figure of your Inner Guidance?  Imagine what it would feel like to use Intentional Creativity as your tool for joyfully playing with image, color, and word to get to know this Muse within you!

What will happen when you allow both sides of your brain, the logical language side and the image filled, colorful side, to speak to yourself and to the world?  Explore the way of Intentional Creativity to access your inner wisdom of juicy color and possibility.

Join me in:

• Red Thread Circle
• Labyrinth teachings
• Labyrinth Creation and Meditation
• Writing a letter to your Muse, your Inner Guidance figure
• Written inquiry and invitation to write poetry
• Painting a first image of your Muse.

You will leave with images of 2 types of labyrinths, a prose poem, and an 11” x 15” outline painting full of luminous color.  No art experience necessary at all!

We will meet in the Red Thread Study in my home in Lethbridge.  All supplies are provided.  Since I work with microgroups (2-5 people) or individually, there will be plenty of time for individualized attention.

Your investment:  $150, or if two or more register at the same time, each will receive a 34% Discount, making your investment $99 each.

I am deeply committed to making this work accessible to those who want to participate; if finances are a barrier for your coming, contact me for work exchange or scholarship possibilities.  We can work something out.

Contact me at catcharissage@gmail.com for registration or questions.

Cat Charissage is an educator, mentor, and counsellor specializing in the exploration of life’s Depth Dimensions, helping people to articulate True Self and make meaning through the paradoxes and challenges that life hands us. She uses Intentional Creativity, writing, dreamwork, and art to help others to  grow spiritually and creatively and to recover from trauma, especially sexual violence.  A student of the wisdom traditions of the world, she has an M.Ed., 8 years’ study in theology, and 30+ years experience, including as counsellor and Executive Director of a sexual assault center.  She lives creatively with chronic pain and illness and engages actively in ongoing learning and reflection, most recently with Shiloh Sophia, visionary artist, and Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes (author of Women Who Run with the Wolves).

(c) Cat Charissage, 2014  “Tree of Life”

Dear Friends,

On this day before Valentine’s Day, where far too many of us are a little obsessed over who might or might not be giving us a card, or taking us out for dinner, . . . or for a coffee, I want to send this Love Letter.

This is a youtube recording of Emilie Zoey Baker performing her poem “Dear All the Women Who Ever Existed Over the Entire Span of Human History.”

Much love to you all,

Cat

— journal page, Cat Charissage, 2014

Dear Friends,

Join me today, on my Depth Dimension Day, in writing a bit about your own relationship with faith, God, and the religion you were born into (or if not born into one, about that).

In my last post I told you about going on retreat.  You may have noticed that I didn’t say anything about “God”.  Well, let me tell you a little about that. . .

It is my life’s greatest irony that as far as “God” is concerned, I “knew” a lot more about God 35 years ago than I do now!  As most of you know, I was raised in the Catholic church, and was deeply religious;  I was in the convent for 4 years (ages 19-23), and have my B.A. and 4 years of grad work in theology.  So I was VERY into that way of looking at life, and I clearly remember what it felt like to have a strong faith.  What happened is that as I learned more about the evils and suffering in the world, I fell into doubt and questioned how a good God could allow this to occur.  I’ve read all the reasons that humans have come up with about that problem, and, well, there is no clear answer to it.  Many have addressed this in their writing, but ultimately, we just don’t know why there is such suffering.  Or, at least, what reasons there are out there are not satisfying to me.

I also have a very scientific, rational, atheistic voice in my head that can belittle the language that people use to talk about spiritual ideas.  It has come from my desire to be as accurate, fair, and clear thinking as I’m capable of, as well as the desire to not deceive myself about difficult things.  I’ve heard more than my share of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens (some of the “new atheists”), and can give a rational, psychological “explanation” for just about any religious experience.  I wonder at times if prayer is just talking to ourselves, or worse yet, to an imaginary friend.  I don’t, I can’t, believe in God as I was originally taught, nor as how God is described in most religions.

Yet, . . .  yet.  The very ground of my life is working with its mysteries, with the “deep and real” things we human beings are always about.  I have consistent spiritual practices that allow me to find and create great meaning in life.  I’ve spent all of my adult life reading from the wisdom traditions of the world, and I feel my life’s vocation whenever I can help others live a little more deeply, a little more authentically —- a little more soulfully.  But the combination of knowing deeply some of the world’s injustices and my deconstructive, rationalist voice renders me almost silenced when it comes to talking about this area of life.

Well, it helps to keep me humble.  I guess.

It’s so frustrating and so ironic that it’s funny!  The ultimate trickster-ish nature of reality!

I look for other ways to talk about this area of life, other definitions of God.  I like Anne Lamott’s explanation of her use of the word “God” that she talks about in her book Stitches: as “shorthand for the Good, for the animating energy of love; for Life, for the light that radiates from within people and from above; in the energies of nature, even in our rough, messy selves.”  I use words like “D&R” (deep and real), “Depth Dimension”, “Great Mystery”, “the Holy, the Sacred”, “what/who you meet in your innermost self”, “that which is greater — the Magnitude”, “Presence”, but I’m not sure if I’m talking about a noun or a verb, or . . . . anything.  If anything, I’m referring to the ultimate ground of reality, the energy underlying all that is.  I hope that it’s personal, and loving — but as I said, I see things falling apart as well as coming together in this world.

Where I’ve come to is that science and the spiritual are different languages that speak about different human experiences, and we can’t expect them to be interchangeable; nor can we expect scientific language to be able to fully explain religious experience as much as it tries.  Mostly, I tell that scientific voice in my head to be quiet or go work on a problem it can solve (similar to the way we deal with the critical voice in creativity), and get on with my everyday dealing with the D&R.

I don’t have the faith that I had before, but I do know there is SOMETHING that we’re trying to describe when we talk about spiritual matters.  Whether that’s human or divine, or both at once, I think that religious language is metaphor for something real. I call that soul.  Our world has had many descriptions of this, and many, many stories about it.  At their best, these stories invite us to be compassion incarnate, soul enfleshed, flesh ensouled.

And THAT is what I want to be about.

Now, you: what do you say about these things?  Of course you don’t have to comment, but it would be no waste of time to think and write about these things for yourself.

With love,

Cat

(c) 2013, Cat Charissage “Magister Veriditas: Hildegard of Bingen”

Dear Friends,

I retreated last weekend.  Do you ever get away by yourself?  About every year, I try to have at least a weekend in silence, away from voices and conversations and the internet.  Last weekend I went to a “Deepening Centering Prayer” silent retreat at the local Catholic retreat center.  Centering Prayer is a type of meditation from the Christian tradition, continuing the teaching of the mystics that most of us do not get in everyday life unless we really look for it.  I’ve practiced this type of meditation for many years.  I’ve had far more times of “monkey mind” and dryness than insight or mystical experience, but I keep showing up.  That’s the point —- to keep showing up.

As per usual, I didn’t have any aha’s or experience any fireworks.  Silence doesn’t usually work that way.  Silence is palpable, though, a kind of black velvet to sink into — until the velvet turns to mirrors and there’s all my own self to witness, over and over and over again!  Not always fun, but I get to watch my mind do its jumping around, usually telling me scary stories about what might happen in the future.  Then I get to extend compassion, once again, over and over and over again, to myself, and then let go of that particular thought, that particular story.

Sometimes the black velvet, a comforting sense of connectedness with something (many would say “Someone”) beyond myself, stays a little while before speeding to the next crazy thought.  The difference between the black velvet and my everyday mind is like the difference between relaxing with a favorite beverage alongside a special someone, and being alone wrangling a tired, hungry, and cranky two year old in Walmart on Saturday afternoon.

Come on, isn’t your mind a tired, hungry, and cranky two year old sometimes?  Hint:  go home; don’t go to Walmart (or wherever you get overstimulated by environments trying hard to artificially create sudden “needs”, with too much fluorescent lighting and too hard of floors).

On the Saturday morning, after a week of unseasonably high temperatures, it got cold and snowed about 4 inches.  The morning started out foggy and mysterious, like looking across the water to Avalon, but then the sun burst out to reveal diamonds!  The wind flung the powdery snow into the air and the sunlight created not just crystals but rainbows!  Growing up in snowy Chicago, I know grey skies and wet slush; now Rocky Mountain blue skies and dry powder snow always make me smile.

On retreat, I quit fighting what is and let go into compassionate acceptance.  On retreat, I alternately close my eyes to look within, and open them to see the world in ways I don’t usually make the time to notice.

If you can’t go on a retreat for a weekend, how about an hour?  A small table in an out of the way spot in a big library is my favorite place to hide out in silence for awhile.  Close your eyes, breathe;  open your eyes, see.  Repeat until done.

With love,

Cat

(journal page, Cat Charissage, 2014) 

Dear One,

Last week when you wrote, arted, or thought about your longings, did a few themes come up?  Are there certain areas of life that are pulling at your attention?  Are there certain life opportunities or life commitments that need significant attention from you this year?

When I’m talking about this year, for me, I’m really talking about the next few months.  I’ve done yearly planning or yearly dreaming for a whole lot of years, but the reality is that I don’t think I’ve ever followed my January plans in December — life for me has never been quite that predictable.  Usually only a few months are visible in front of me.  YET, if I’m intentional about these next few weeks or even these next few months, I’ll find myself in situations where new possibilities arise that I never could have known about now.  So, I’m setting direction!  Join me?

My themes or focuses for this year are Hearth and Home Tending, Study, Painting, Blog and Teaching, Red Thread Sessions, Nurturing Liberty (in my son and in others), Silence, and then a later addition that screamed to be included, my Body.  Other years included very different themes, such as “Research Home Education”, “Explore and practice Freezer Cooking”, or “Study Joseph Campbell”.  One year the whole theme was basically “Survive Toddlerhood”.

Once you discern what your themes might be for the coming year (or next 3 months. . . . ), write down a few action steps to move you forward in each area.  For me, under “Silence”, I’ve included “poetry and journaling, daily”, and “weekly Depth Dimension Day”.  Under “Body” I’ve written “Really listen”, and “When I hurt, stop.”  As you can see, most of these actions are actually practices or habits, not exactly things you can check off as “done”.  But under “Red Thread Sessions”, I do have some check off the list items, such as “make art cards, make business cards.”

What are some of your next action steps?  What are some of the habits you’d like to cultivate?  Steven Covey reminded me many years ago to ask, “What is one thing, that if you did it repeatedly, would make the largest positive impact on your life?”

You, too!

With love,

Cat

Dear One,

On Fridays, I’m going to include an art journalling post, some ideas for arting, writing, or just pondering.  I had such a positive response to my 60 Days of Journalling that I wanted to continue in some way.  Hopefully, you may find that you have some time over the weekend to play and ponder with colors in your hands —- and create a visual memory of your life.  Join me!

At this time of planning for the new year, I always do some sort of overview or inventory of myself and my life.  I do a little looking in the nooks and crannies to make sure that there’s nothing sitting in some corner rotting away because of neglect.  (It was a sad day last month when I realized that 1/2 a piece of cheesecake — my most favorite treat that I so rarely indulge in, but when I do I enjoy every last mouthful — had totally dried up to nothingness because I had hidden it so well in the fridge that I’d entirely forgotten about about this “saved for a rainy day” piece of bliss!)

If you’re like me, you were taught at a young age to distrust your own longings, as if all desire led to sinful acts.  At least, that was the story. . . I more often now think that the overculture as currently structured does everything it can to distract us from ourselves, the better to control us, my dear!  That editorial comment aside, I do think that the best thing I, or you, can do, is to live this life with as much consciousness and fullness and exuberant joy as possible!  So here’s to at least KNOWING what our longings might be:

Think about how you want to BE, FEEL, or what you want to DO, in the three main areas of your life:  your own SELF, such as your health and fitness, your spirituality, whatever you would call YOUR “deep and real’s”, your learning and education this year, how you express your creativity, whether or where you want to travel, etc.;  your FAMILY, such as your “inner” family — those whom you live with, your “around” family — those friends and family you interact with on a regular basis, and your “extended” family — whether genetic or chosen family;  and your COMMUNITY, such as what activities outside the home you are engaged with, people or groups you influence, or any new groups you might want to be part of.

Remember, this is not a list of “shoulds” or “oughts”.  This is an inventory of what within you longs to be explored and expressed in some way.  For heaven’s sake, do not make this another list of things you have to get done!

Here are a few ideas of how you can put this on paper in colors:  you  can make a grid, with “Be, Feel, and Do” going up and down vertically on the left, and then with “Self, Family, and Community” going across the page at the top.  Draw the lines out to create some boxes, and fill them in point form.

Now if you’d rather be out of the box, you can draw and color in either three or nine large circles across your page(s).  In each of the circles, do a free write about how you want to BE in regard to your Self, Family, and Community.  Do the free write around the inside of the circle, making a spiral towards the center, moving your page around completely as you write.  You can always draw more circles if you run out of room.  Or, have one circle for how you want to Be in regard to just your Self — there you would fill nine circles.

Yet a third option would be something I learned from Heather Plett:  create a large (about 7 inch diameter) circle on your page, then outline your non-dominant hand within the circle.  Add colors as you want, then free write your longings along the outside of the outline of your hand.  No need here to cover every Be, Feel, or Do, with all the ways you show up in the world; just write from your heart poured out into your hands.

After you finish,  nurture the page(s) with a little more color.  Ask yourself if there is more to say right now, or if you were surprised by anything you wrote.  Is there anything that you thought might be there that isn’t?  All of this is information, information that helps you live your life with more intention and liberty.

Enjoy!  And with love,

Cat

(c) Cat Charissage, 2014

Dear Ones,

I’ve been so excited preparing for my Dream 2015 afternoon event next Saturday!  It’s going to be a pleasurable, rewarding, and spiritual experience. That day’s session is full, but I have space in my calendar to offer another session if any of you would like to book one —- join with a friend for a large deduction in your investment for the day.  Details below!

With love,

Cat

A Wise Woman’s Dream for 2015

An Afternoon for Envisioning the New Year

Saturday, January 17, 2015, 1:30 – 5:00 p.m.

Registration or questions:  catcharissage@gmail.com

Imagine what it would feel like to use Intentional Creativity as your tool for dreaming up your best year yet, consciously and joyfully.

What will happen when you allow both sides of your brain, the logical language based side and the image filled, colorful side, to speak to yourself and to the world?

Come, find out!

Join me in a microgroup (2-5 women) using circle, labyrinth, color, imagery and words to let go of 2014, access your longings, and intuitively plan how to make some dreams come true in 2015.

You will leave with several finished visual inquiries plus a poster envisioning the circle of the year 2015 interspersed with action steps to bring your dreams to life.

Join me in

• Red Thread Circle
• Labyrinth Meditation
• Appreciating and Releasing 2014
• Longings and Word for the new year
• Mysteries Unfolding graphic
• Moving from Intention to Action
• How to’s in the Circle of 2015

We will meet in the Red Thread Study for Depth Dimension Arts in my home in northside Lethbridge.  All supplies are provided.

Your investment:  $150, or if two or more women register at the same time, each will receive a 34% Discount, making your investment $99 each. This is an Introductory Pricing, as my half day workshops are usually $200-$250.

Because I work either individually or in microgroups, there is plenty of opportunity for individual customization, attention, and guidance.

I am deeply committed to making this work accessible to those who want to participate; if this investment is beyond your means at the moment contact me for work exchange or scholarship possibilities.

 Contact me at catcharissage@gmail.com for registration or questions.

Cat is an educator, mentor, and counsellor specializing in the exploration of life’s Depth Dimensions, helping people to articulate True Self and make meaning through the paradoxes and challenges that life hands us. She uses Intentional Creativity, writing, dreamwork, and art to help others to  grow spiritually and creatively and to recover from trauma, especially sexual violence.  A student of the wisdom traditions of the world, she has a Master’s degree in adult Education, a B.A. and 4 years of graduate study in theology, and 30+ years experience, including as counsellor and Executive Director of a sexual assault center.  She lives creatively with chronic pain and illness and engages actively in ongoing learning and reflection, most recently with Shiloh Sophia, Visionary Artist, and Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes (author of Women Who Run with the Wolves) in both her Mysterium and Original Voice series of intensive trainings.

mysteries unfolding (c) 2014 Cat Charissage

Dear Ones,

Blessings and love to you in this new year!  After 60 days of Journal Prompts (http://catcharissage.com/2014/10/29/announcing-sixty-days-of-visual-journalling-prompts/), are you continuing to art or write in your journal?

There are many New Year’s traditions that people follow, the most common being resolutions.  I like the tradition of picking a word for the year —- or rather, letting a word pick you.  For 2015, “Flow” has come to me, especially as described in this excerpt from Rilke’s poem:

“May what I do flow from me like a river,

No forcing, and no holding back.”

I keep this in mind during these early hectic days of the new year.  My son is back in classes at the college, which has necessitated many actions on my part, including deciphering tuition statements and traipsing from one office to another on campus, standing in many lines, in order to understand just what is needed, and why.  This may not sound too noteworthy, except that I get a migraine almost every time I’m in a car, and it’s difficult to either stand in lines or transport my walker through the snow and ice!  Flow —– flow. . . . .   It’s coming. . .

Are you living your 2015 in the ways that you want to?  If not, what stands in your way? Can I help you in some way to live a deeper and more meaningful life?

With love,

Cat

A Wise Woman’s Dream for 2015

An Afternoon for Envisioning the New Year

Saturday, January 17, 2015, 1:30 – 5:00 p.m.

Registration or questions:  catcharissage@gmail.com

c) Cat Charissage, 2014

Imagine what it would feel like to use Intentional Creativity as your tool for dreaming up your best year yet, consciously and joyfully.

What will happen when you allow both sides of your brain, the logical language based side and the image filled, colorful side, to speak to yourself and to the world?

Come, find out!

Join me in a microgroup (2-5 women) using circle, labyrinth, color, imagery and words to let go of 2014, access your longings, and intuitively plan how to make some dreams come true in 2015.

You will leave with several finished visual inquiries plus a poster envisioning the circle of the year 2015 interspersed with action steps to bring your dreams to life.

Join me in

• Red Thread Circle
• Labyrinth Meditation
• Appreciating and Releasing 2014
• Longings and Word for the new year
• Mysteries Unfolding graphic
• Moving from Intention to Action
• How to’s in the Circle of 2015

We will meet in the Red Thread Study for Depth Dimension Arts in my home in northside Lethbridge.  All supplies are provided.

Your investment:  $150, or if two or more women register at the same time, each will receive a 34% Discount, making your investment $99 each. This is an Introductory Pricing, as my half day workshops are usually $200-$250.

Because I work either individually or in microgroups, there is plenty of opportunity for individual customization, attention, and guidance.

I am deeply committed to making this work accessible to those who want to participate; if this investment is beyond your means at the moment contact me for work exchange or scholarship possibilities.

 Contact me at catcharissage@gmail.com for registration or questions.

Cat Charissage is an educator, mentor, and counsellor specializing in the exploration of life’s Depth Dimensions, helping people to articulate True Self and make meaning through the paradoxes and challenges that life hands us. She uses Intentional Creativity, writing, dreamwork, and art to help others to  grow spiritually and creatively and to recover from trauma, especially sexual violence.  A student of the wisdom traditions of the world, she has a Master’s degree in adult Education, a B.A. and 4 years of graduate study in theology, and 30+ years experience, including as counsellor and Executive Director of a sexual assault center.  She lives creatively with chronic pain and illness and engages actively in ongoing learning and reflection, most recently with Shiloh Sophia, Visionary Artist, and Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes (author of Women Who Run with the Wolves) in both her Mysterium and Original Voice series of intensive trainings.

Dear Friends,

Here on the last day of 2014 I am so grateful to all of you who have used these prompts as a starting point for your reflection on soul, and I want to shout out a thank you to my friend Susan Daniel for asking me to do these prompts.  My spirit said “YES” while my brain was still going “Uh, 60 days?  That sounds like a lot. . . . ”  Yet so many ideas came to me, and I have notes for dozens more!

In your journal today I invite you to get quiet, put on some great music, and slowly and meditatively draw an unfolding rose as you gently contemplate how you want to live in the coming year.  I’ve posted the steps to drawing a rose, but be sure not to get caught up in perfectionism.  Remember that perfectionism is the enemy of “Done!”

An unfolding rose is one of my juiciest symbols.  On the “About” page of the blog http://catcharissage.com/about/ I explain the concept of mystery, of how there’s always something new to see, notice, and understand.

As you draw the petals of the rose and ponder the coming year, you will most probably have ideas or images arise of things you would like to accomplish, or start, or places you want to go, or qualities of how you want to live.  Write those down in one or two words, each on one of the petals of the rose. If you come up with two or three, fine.  If you have 9 or 10, fine.  Draw your rose and write your words in a waterproof pen or marker, then meditatively watercolor your rose.  Sit with your rose and your aspirations for the coming year until you feel a sense of “yes, that’s it.”

The final part for today’s journalling is to pick up to 7 of your aspirations and list them along the bottom of your page.  Seven is a good number of items to allow into your life, and the brain can’t easily remember more than 7 things at a time.  (Telephone numbers have seven digits, right?)

As you move into your new year, with new calendars and the excitement of new beginnings, plan to incorporate these 7 or so aspirations into your daily activities.  There are all sorts of methods to help one move from intentions to actions, and I will write about those another day.

In the meantime, thank you again for accompanying me on this 61 day journey!  If you haven’t already, please subscribe to my blog so as to be notified of new posts.  My plan is to post once or twice a week.  I really want my words to be worth your while to read, and not be just another email cluttering your inbox.

I’m also planning to develop an online course this year, do more in-person sessions, and be available for consultation by phone or Skype.

If you live near southern Alberta, you may be interested in my “A Wise Woman’s Dream for 2015” on January 17.  I’ll include the information below.

Much love and many blessings to you, my wonderful people!

Cat

A Wise Woman’s Dream for 2015

An Afternoon for Envisioning the New Year

Saturday, January 17, 2015, 1:30 – 5:00 p.m.

Registration or questions:  catcharissage@gmail.com

c) Cat Charissage, 2014

Imagine what it would feel like to use Intentional Creativity as your tool for dreaming up your best year yet, consciously and joyfully.

What will happen when you allow both sides of your brain, the logical language based side and the image filled, colorful side, to speak to yourself and to the world?

Come, find out!

Join me in a microgroup (2-5 women) using circle, labyrinth, color, imagery and words to let go of 2014, access your longings, and intuitively plan how to make some dreams come true in 2015.

You will leave with several finished visual inquiries plus a poster envisioning the circle of the year 2015 interspersed with action steps to bring your dreams to life.

Join me in

• Red Thread Circle
• Labyrinth Meditation
• Appreciating and Releasing 2014
• Longings and Word for the new year
• Mysteries Unfolding graphic
• Moving from Intention to Action
• How to’s in the Circle of 2015

We will meet in the Red Thread Study for Depth Dimension Arts in my home in northside Lethbridge.  All supplies are provided.

Your investment:  $150, or if two or more women register at the same time, each will receive a 34% Discount, making your investment $99 each. This is an Introductory Pricing, as my half day workshops are usually $200-$250.

Because I work either individually or in microgroups, there is plenty of opportunity for individual customization, attention, and guidance.

I am deeply committed to making this work accessible to those who want to participate; if this investment is beyond your means at the moment contact me for work exchange or scholarship possibilities.

 Contact me at catcharissage@gmail.com for registration or questions.

Cat Charissage is an educator, mentor, and counsellor specializing in the exploration of life’s Depth Dimensions, helping people to articulate True Self and make meaning through the paradoxes and challenges that life hands us. She uses Intentional Creativity, writing, dreamwork, and art to help others to  grow spiritually and creatively and to recover from trauma, especially sexual violence.  A student of the wisdom traditions of the world, she has a Master’s degree in adult Education, a B.A. and 4 years of graduate study in theology, and 30+ years experience, including as counsellor and Executive Director of a sexual assault center.  She lives creatively with chronic pain and illness and engages actively in ongoing learning and reflection, most recently with Shiloh Sophia, Visionary Artist, and Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes (author of Women Who Run with the Wolves) in both her Mysterium and Original Voice series of intensive trainings.  To find out more, visit her blog at http://catcharissage.com.