It’s been a while since the last update but I do  have a legitimate distraction…. I started studying just as the first lockdown started and have regular assignments to complete. A bit of a backstory to the area that I’m studying in first….

At High School I did Art and my art  teacher was very understanding, letting me hide out in the art room when I should have been in a Japanese or French class. I’m sure they were also aware of home issues at the time and just let me find a space, but that’s another story. End of Year 12, results in and I was offered a place in the highly coveted Art and Design course at the Institute of Technology. Parental influence prevailed – because it would be a waste of time “because I would only get married and have children” – so off to the workforce. At the start of this year, a chance email came in offering  a chance to enrol in a Diploma of Art Therapy, just at the time I was tossing up whether to take on a training course.

Allowing my intuition to guide me (a novel idea) I signed up for the Art Therapy course and have to say I am loving it. It is as much for me and allows me to have a second chance at what I set aside all those years ago. The distraction is not about the the course content as such. Each unit requires a portfolio activity with an image/art work to be completed as practice for becoming an art therapist.

Regardless of the assignments, each New Moon I record something in my vision journal. The New Moon in May coincided with an assignment to go beyond vision boarding but to create a ‘Scene Map’  of something as if it had already happened.

Just a few days after creating this image, I received a phone call from a rescue service that I have been registered with for over 4 years… “we have a dog… we know you were looking for a male dog…but…..” .. A meeting was set up and we met with Lucy. An interesting background and when we arrived for the initial “meet and greet” with the foster family- there she was looking out of the window as we arrived.

So….. just a few weeks on ….. here’s Lucy! Just 2 years old – a teenager in dog years and a very affectionate nature. Before second lockdown, we were able to take her up to the retreat where she really enjoyed the wide open spaces to run and do “zoomies”.  In the city and in second lockdown she gets to go for twice daily walks. The two occasions she got to meet with grandchildren, she was overjoyed to be around little people and was exceptionally well behaved.  There are moments…. when she gets over enthusiastic about my socks or shoes that we are not in sync with each other but as we get to know each other our respective boundaries will be observed.