AMMONITE NAUTILOID PRACTICE: Celebrating Flux and Embodying Love through Dance

AMMONITE DANCE. Let's dance to integrate our past, present, and approaching future. Although the ammonite, an extinct marine mollusc, is more closely related to an octopus or squid, it reminds us of the chambered nautilus and serves wonderfully to illustrate our human experience. Here, I dance with the ammonite, symbol of continuity and survival when all is FLUX. (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

"Our ability to find something to love, and to love again for the first time, depends greatly on how we resolve and integrate where we've been before. A great model for us exists in the chambered nautilus, an exquisite shell create that lives along the ocean floor." --Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening


Hallelujah for resiliency! That human ability to manage disruptions, constant change of addition and reduction! To rise and fall with FLUX. In Mark Nepo's description of the nautilus, he explains how the animal lives in its most recent chamber and uses the other to stay afloat.

You might ask why I am writing about resiliency at a time of holiday celebration. Like many, I am challenged by the winter holiday season. I am especially challenged when my darling Chiboogamoo travels to the Bahamas to teach his Emory course on Modern and Ancient Environments and is absent for New Year's celebrations. I must welcome 2016 without him.

Last night, we quietly and privately acknowledged 2016's beginning by viewing the most recent Star Wars movie and eating take out Chinese. We read our fortune cookies and kissed. 

To address the challenge of FLUX and my emotional rising and fallings, I have stretched myself in the past year in some of the following ways:

The Daily Creative Practice: Having a practice allows me to know what actions to take to maintain my physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual equilibrium. I may miss a day here and there, but I know how to return to a structure that keeps me afloat. Thank you members of the Daily Creative Practice.

InterPlay: This improvisational system buoys me. I feel so fortunate to have acquired certification in such a playful but wise way of experiencing my life. Yes to InterPlay buoyancy! Thank you Phil Porter and Cynthia Winton-Henry.

Forgiving: Even though my "forgiveness practice" is in its infancy, I KNOW that the act of forgiving oneself and others is POWERFUL. BIBO is part of this practice. Breathe in. Breathe out. Thank you Soyinka Rahim!

Love: It may sound funny to say this--I'm still exploring what love is. Being loving is challenging for me. I struggle with loving as well. What is love? I know right now, I feel exhausted and in need of renewal around love. Not the kind I have for my husband Chiboogamoo. Not that kind. 

But the BIG LOVE. Self love. Love for family, community, all of humanity. Witnessing so much violence in American culture and in the world haunts me. Even the new Star Wars movie and the previews that accompanied it were filled with communities at war and massive extensive killings.

Two years ago, I wrote this in a blog using ammonites as a metaphor for survival:

"Today, yesterday, tomorrow, before, and again in the future, I will return to this symbolic value of the ammonite: SURVIVAL. Now, at my wise age of 55, I am imbuing my ammonites' totemic power of "survival" with a playful, joyful dance. 

As each one of us gathers our years and deepens our wisdom, we experience the ebb and flow of life's gifts. We bid some friends good-bye. We change jobs. We face new environments. At each turn of the spiral we meet challenges, loss, growth, and new opportunities to survive with the exquisite appreciation of life's force. Life has heft and weight to it. 

Let's dance the ammonite spiral. Let's celebrate our survival from one day to the next with joy and love in our hearts!" 
--Hallelujah Truth, from "Ammonite Celebration" (see link below)

After I publish this blog post today, I commit to dancing the "Ammonite Spiral." During the next ten days, as I bring in 2016 without my darling husband, I will continue to return to this ammonite nautiloid dance. I will be dancing on behalf of LOVE. Love for myself. Love for you. Love for us all.

AMMONITE DANCE #2. (Collaboration: Art by Hallelujah Truth and Photo manipulations by Trish Weaver, then altered again by HT)

That's Coffee with Hallelujah. Soul Blog with me and tell me about your experience with the ammonite dance. Let's all dance together joyfully and with ease.

Other Hallelujah Truth related blog posts: 

ICHTHYOSAUR EYES AND AMMONITES: Fall is a time for introspection and pondering survival from mass extinctions

AMMONITE CELEBRATION: Dancing with the fossils as totems of survival and thriving existences

DANCE. THEN DANCE AGAIN! (Art by HT and TW)

 

GLORY: We are invited to be REBORN in community witnessing "Black Nativity"

FLYING WHOLENESS. Subtle shifts in our way of being occur when we are least expecting them. In December, contemplating the "new moon" on December 11th, I rededicated myself to Renewal, Resurrection, Rebirth. One week later, on my 11th wedding anniversary (and with the moon having waxed some), my Chiboogamoo and I attended "Black Nativity" in Savannah, Georgia, and witnessing the celebration of Jesus' birth in the black community touched me deeply, profoundly. Something positive shifted for me. I felt expanded and could breathe more easily. (Art by Hallelujah Truth 2015)

GLORY! GLORY! GLORY! The actor embodying a Reverend in Langston Hughes' play, "Black Nativity," during Act II shouted and sang out to the audience to join him in voicing appreciation for the FREEDOM that we have been given through the birth of Jesus.

BLACK NATIVITY, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, 2015. The 35-member cast gathered at the front of the stage as Act I concluded with the birth of Jesus. The Performing Arts Collective has been producing this Langston Hughes' version of the Christmas story for 6 years now, and it was a terrific experience to witness the energy both on stage with the actors and off stage as an audience member. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

"HALLELUJAH," the word with which I begin most every blog post, is a similar word expressing immense celebration of life and it riches.  In fact, don't we often hear the two words together? GLORY HALLELUJAH? 

GlORY HALLELUJAH for the FREEDOM we have during our lives on this beautiful EARTH. GLORY HALLELUJAH for the opportunity to be REBORN during this season of renewal and rebirth while celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Minutes into this highly energetic and uplifting performance of "Black Nativity," I suddenly realized the performers weren't just "acting" and the audience members weren't just being entertained. The "Amens," "That's the WORD!," and "That's right!" being voiced behind my husband and me (we were sitting in the front row) were evidence of a wholehearted participation in the meaning and content of this gospel Christmas performance. It felt like we were in church!

JESUS IS BORN. Seeing a "real" black child celebrated as the baby Jesus in "Black Nativity," healed me in some inexplicable way. I experienced a shift in spirit. ALL of us are precious and unique. I am precious! You are too! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

And, although I am a Spiritual Art Pilgrim, I am not a Christian and church going is not a regular practice in my life. So, for a brief moment, I felt like the awkwardness of being SOMETHING OTHER. I was not one of the TRUE Christian believers celebrating the birth of Jesus and the freedom of grace he brought them. As I take one step away from belief and entertain Christ's birth as a symbol of renewal, was I violating something sacred to these performers and audience members ? 

BIBO (Breathe in, Breathe out). My recovery came quickly. "WE ARE ALL CONNECTED," is one of my mottos. I am Hallelujah Truth and I believe in LIVING the MYSTERY, both SOLO and in COMMUNITY.

GLORY GLORY GLORY. Act II of "Black Nativity" has modern music and is open to interpretations by the community producing it. At the far right, you can see the actor who played the Reverend (or is he really a Reverend?) calling out "Glory, glory, glory" and got the whole audience proclaiming it. After some investigations, I see that my own city of Atlanta produces "Black Nativity." Next year, my Chiboogamoo and I will go see it. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

GLORY HALLELUJAH! I support Birth, Rebirth, Resurrection, Redemption, Forgiveness, Love, and perpetual Renewal. As we have just experienced the longest night of darkness in 2015, I celebrate the LIGHT and HOPE that comes as the world turns on its axis and rotates around the sun. As the daylight hours lengthen after the Winter Solstice, I too, celebrate. As Christians celebrate the birth of baby Jesus, I celebrate this birth too.

GLORY. GLORY. GLORY. I say GLORY HALLELUJAH! Wishing everyone this experience of feeling WHOLENESS and being LOVED and NURTURED. Renewal is ours to claim. It is FREE. (Close up from FLYING WHOLENESS (above).

GLORY HALLELUJAH for Baby Jesus and renewal of our all SOULS. 

Here's to another year!

As my husband, Chiboogamoo, and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary, we marveled about our opportunity each year to see our marriage within this cyclical celebration of rebirth. Our anniversary falls one week before Christmas and two weeks before New Years. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our hearts to yours!

Acknowledgments: Thank you to the Performing Arts Collective, who opened our eyes to the presence of the "Black Nativity," a Christmas story of the black experience by Langston Hughes. We were surprised by being the only white members in the audience. This experience is important for all people. We will be sure to expand our experience next year by seeing the Atlanta performance of "Black Nativity." Gratitude to Ann and Andrew Hartzell for being our Savannah hosts who bring us so much joy.

DELIBERATING ON RUNNELS: The shortest day of 2015 celebrated and recorded

SUNRISE ON DECEMBER 21, 2015. A first for me—to greet the shortest day of the year with such optimism. My life’s journey has taken me once again to Shell Hammock on Sapelo Island, Georgia, a wonderful place to be DELIBERATE. I am deliberating the end of this year, the start of 2016, NATURE as expressed here on this spectacular barrier island, and my own life’s work. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for NATURE and moments to CELEBRATE it and ourselves in relationship. On this shortest day of 2015, my Chiboogamoo and I spent almost the entire day outside along one of Georgia’s most precious natural resources and barrier islands, Sapelo, deliberating on runnels and relict marshes.

Housed at the University of Georgia Marine Institute on the south end of the island in an area near the marsh called “Shell Hammock,” we were up at dawn to witness the sunrise. Then we worked (writer’s retreat) on the sun porch of our marsh cottage surrounded by ancient live oaks and embraced by the golden carpet of winter spartina. Soft light washed over us and we felt as though we were outdoors.

At low tide (late morning), we headed in our field station vehicle, a white jeep Cherokee, to Cabretta Beach on the north end of the island to visit the relict marsh. Chiboogamoo’s writing project, “Sapelo Island: A Sense of Place and Time,” in collaboration with Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, has us reinvestigating places we know well but are viewing again in order for Chiboogamoo to develop explanations and take additional photos. My role? I am his proud field assistant documenting his work!

Arriving at Cabretta Beach, we had such a visual feast displayed before us! After 15 minutes of winding our way through the maritime forest and back dune meadows, where we tracked raccoon and deer, we came upon a vast expanse of beach which is clearly in transition from being a sandy beach. Behind low coastal sand dunes is a “ponding” area, environmentally rich in sediment forming a microbial mat with the assistance of emerging Spartina.

There my Chiboogamoo, my brilliant ichnologist, grew happily energized! We studied and photographed the tracks imprinted by shore birds such as plovers and sanderlings, punctuated with the larger heron footprints. We saw raccoon and deer sign in these thick microbial layers comprised of filamentous algae and encrusted with sand baked by wind and sun.

Expanding out to the north was a terrifically long and deep runnel. Curiosity drew us along its ridges in the opposite direction of the relict marsh (which we studied later after lunch). Ichnology continued to be the focus of our examinations until mine wandered wildly into the visual as I took one photograph after another.

Today, for economy of time, I will share three of the visual feasts I embodied in the photographs I took during this field investigation conducted on the shortest day of the year, December 21^st, 2015. And an added bonus to my images? The ichnologist I cohabit with will provide the scientific explanations.

RUNNEL, EDGE LINED WITH SPARTINA. The water to the left is filling a runnel, which is a temporary channel scoured on a beach by the tides. Next to the runnel are algal mats that trap and bind the sand next to the runnel. Above the mat is dead plant matter, all Spartina, which was washed out of salt marshes and left there by the receding tide. Above the Spartina is the highest edge of the runnel, where shore birds foraged for clams, snails, and other food that was left behind the tide. (photo by Hallelujah Truth, caption by Chiboogamoo, aka Tony Martin)

RUNNEL BANK, RUNNEL WATER. The viewer is looking down on the edge of a runnel with an angled cut through the layers of sand forming the lines. Ghost shrimp burrows breaking up their symmetry interrupt these lines. The water shows the lowest extent left by tide and overlies rippled sand. (photo by Hallelujah Truth, caption by Chiboogamoo, aka Tony Martin)

A SNAIL GRAZED ALGAL MAT. An algal mat along the edge of a runnel provided much nutrition for grazing snails. Their trails meander and crisscross the surface. Then later were filled with white wind blown sand forming a macaroni-like pattern. The bigger filled holes are more than likely eroded fiddler crab burrows. (photo by Hallelujah Truth, caption by Chiboogamoo, aka Tony Martin)

That’s Coffee with Hallelujah! The relict marsh must be explored in another blog post, another day. SOUL BLOG with me and share your meanderings on the shortest day of 2015. What did you do?

 

SUNSET, WINTER SOLSTICE 2015. The blues of this photo capturing the marsh at sunset resonates with the drawing, “Wholeness,” that I posted yesterday as part of my 2016 Manifesto. Funny, how I “efforted” to capture the subtle reds of the sunset and what emerged were these subtle soft blues. One of my goals as the new year ushers in is to EMBRACE what is. And aren’t these BLUES something deserving of a hug? (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Acknowledgements: Thanks to my darling ichnologist and boon companion for his knowledge, patience, collaboration, and joy that he perpetually brings me. Thank you to UGAMI for such an amazing facility—especially the bikes! Gratitude to MOTHER NATURE and the awesome world that surrounds us!

BICYCLING AT SUNSET. Melancholia was absent on this bike ride made as the sun set on the shortest day of the year! Exhilaration replaced any fear as the longest night of darkness approached and Chiboogamoo and I on our two-wheeled cruisers sped to Nanny Goat beach. UGAMI’s sturdy bicycles insured our speedy ride through the marsh to the rising moon and tides at the beach. (photo by Chiboogamoo, aka Tony Martin)

REVERB15 (Day 21) 2016 MANIFESTO: Celebrating wholeness and igniting it perpetually

MANIFESTING WHOLENESS. In my daily creative practice, I draw each day. If there is time for coffee, there is time to create. Here I am drawing my cast of characters but with a subtle difference. In 2016, I plan on manifesting WHOLENESS. Read on to find out more. (Photo by Tony Martin at Sweet Cottage Savannah)

Hallelujah to MANIFESTING! Hallelujah to bidding one year (2015) good-bye with love and welcoming another (2016) in with vision and grace!

Here is Kat McNally's last prompt for REVERB15! (Day 21): 

"Your last challenge for Reverb15 is to write your manifesto for 2016. 

 
If you’re not sure where to start, I'd highly recommend checking out Alexandrea Franzen's 5 ways to write a blow-your-mind manifesto! For bonus points, make it into a work of art." (see the complete prompt at the end of this blog post)

   

2016 MANIFESTO for HALLELUJAH TRUTH

(A Work in Progress)

I, Hallelujah Truth (aka Ruth Schowalter), pledge to experience my WHOLENESS in body, mind, heart, and spirit. “I AM ENOUGH,” is my 2016 Manifesting Motto (thank you Carolyn Renee).

WHOLENESS. This image resulted from the dream I had December 18^th, 2015, after celebrating my 11^th wedding anniversary by attending the performance of Langston Hughes’ “Black Nativity.” During the performance, I felt my “bodyspirit” shift. When Mary and Joseph were turned away from the refuge they were seeking at the Inn, Joseph was thrown to the ground. Pregnant Mary looked on helplessly. Present in my mind were the Syrians who are likewise seeking life-sustaining refuge. My heart hurt. Then it opened. What can I do to love more? To nurture? To help those in need?

This heart-opening shift towards others in needed impacted me psychologically. That night, I dreamed of “crossing the waters” to return something to a young man, a former student of mine from Saudi Arabia. My “crossing the waters” successfully depended on his assistance. Without his help, I would have fallen in.

This young man is glad to see me because he wanted to ask me about our father and grandfather. Although he was “foreign born, we shared the same lineage! Embracing him, I massaged his heart. Upon waking, I feel my animus to be more developed and multi-dimensional.

This image reflects this heart-opening shift in the animus depicted in my drawings. (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

My 2016 Manifesting Practice is to perpetually EMBODY my experience or “bodyspirit”—to move, to speak, to shape, and to be still—with ease and joy.

In relation to my community, I pledge to witness your experience with love, patience, acceptance, and forgiveness. I will continue to practice applauding your journey and to know how precious it is that we are all connected.

HEART-OPENING ANIMUS SHIFT. Marriage offers me the opportunity to cultivate BALANCE. I love being married to my Chiboogamoo and am so grateful for the opportunity to be present in this lifelong partnership. My sweet husband has impacted my perception of men and what that masculine force might be enacted in my psyche. I believe if we were all cultivating LOVE, KINDNESS, and ACCEPTANCE for ourselves, we would have the PRACTICE of offering that unconditional love to the OTHER. (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

As I continue my SOJOURN into the UNKNOWN MYSTERIES in 2016, I promise to say YES to you, and everyone else, and opportunities that affirm me and the skills I have to offer the World.

And YES to ABUDANCE. Abundant health, friends, travels, discoveries, and wealth!

YES to perpetually igniting CREATIVITY in myself and others!

COMFORT. Part of my trilogy is the Wallaby. This warm furry animal offers the power of unconditional love. (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

That’s Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and tell me about your 2016 Manifesto (or see the alternative prompt at the bottom of the page)! And, I always welcome LOVE and APPLAUSE for my proclamations. Thank you!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Others I would like to thank include: Kat McNally for hosting #REVERB15 and the theme of alchemy. The prompts were thought provoking and nurturing. Gratitude to the Hartzell’s for hosting my Chiboogamoo and me in Savannah. Without Lesly Fredman and Matt Huffman, we could not leave our beloved felines, Tao and Sapelo, to make our travels. My REVERB posts were written in Dectaur, Georgia (my home); Auburn, Alabama (my mother’s home); Gainesville, Florida (my aunt’s home); Savannah, Georgia (Hartzell’s home); and Sapelo Island (writer’s retreat).  And  Big Love to my husband, who supports my Wholeness with unconditional love and lot of laughter.

Alternative prompt from Kat McNally for REVERB15 (Day #21) 

"If you're still stuck you could always follow the model of the past two Reverbs i.e. complete the following sentences as fast and furious as you can:
In 2016, I am open to...  

In 2016, I want to feel... 

In 2016, I will say no to...  

In 2016, I will know I am on the right track when… 

But when I find myself veering off course, I will gently but firmly… 

In December 2016, I want to look back and say...."

REVERB15 (Day 19): Flaming the fire to make the soup

SUNRISE GEORGIA COAST, December 20th, 2015. Thinking about light and heat and cooking things up in my life. Focusing on "light" on this cold December day along the Georgia coast on one of the shortest days of the year amuses me and motivates me. (Photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for the soupy mix of our lives and for turning up the heat to make it hot! One day late, here is my response to Kat McNally's December 19th writing prompt that made me think about light and heat.

REVERB15 (Day 19) Prompt: “Today I am wondering what would happen if I allowed a little more out-of-control-ness in my life. So I invite you to consider: where could you (like me) consider turning it up a few notches in the new year?”—Kat McNally

FLAMING THE FIRE

What a lovely invitation this REVERB (Day 19) prompt is! To increase the intensity of something in my life that is ready to manifest! What FIRE needs to be stoked? How bright does the light need to be?

INTO THE SOUP

On the stove and in the “soup pot,” I see preparing the ingredients and cooking up a three-month program to ignite and guide myself and others on a creative path using the tools and principles of InterPlay. 

In fact, as I write this blog post,  I’m in the kitchen cooking! Sitting at a table of my writer’s retreat to design this course, with a view of the Sapelo marsh, I’m observing the fire of the setting sun glow golden on and above the Spartina and below the blue sky. Something is heating up for sure ! Turn up the dial and increase the temperature! Intensify the light!

GOLDEN MARSH GLOW. The alchemy of light, fire, heat! This view from my writing table at Sapelo. I am working alongside my husband. During the day, I am his field assistant and by night, a writer, creator, artist, and InterPlayer. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Other items I want to throw into the soupy mix of my life and add fuel to the flame and light of my life are the following:

InterPlay Art & Soul Creativity Coaching. Continue to articulate the service I offer as a creativity coach, using play to support authenticity and develop confidence and joy. Attract new clients.

ARTiculate my ART. Motivated by a fellow artist, to begin speaking up for my art, I am making 2016 a year for speaking my truth as well as making images to express it. Whenever given the opportunity, I pledge to stand up and speak out.

Receive and Celebrate Abundance. In 2016, I envision working and connecting with others meaningfully whether it is through my InterPlaying, Creativity Coaching, Art Making or Teaching American English Fluency. I see me being paid well for this rewarding work.

Health. Now is the time for me to really commit to a healthy regimen of diet and exercise to complement my creative work.

SAPELO SUNSET. I am happy and do not feel the nostalgia that generally accompanies the setting of the sun. Instead, I feel imbued with the light I gathered today while I roamed the natural wonders of this Georgia coast island. (Photo by Hallelujah Truth)

That’s Coffee with Hallelujah! Soul Blog with me and tell me what FIRES you plan to FLAME. What SOUPY MIX of LIFE are you cooking?

REVERB15 (Day 18) : Accessing new worlds through creative portals

PORTALS, PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE.  I see you! Do you see me? Do you see yourself? Are you at a threshold? (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for DOORWAYS, OPENINGS, or PORTALS that become passageways for transformation. Hallelujah for knowing when to cross the threshold or to acknowledge that you have indeed stepped into another world! 

Hallelujah for NEW WORLDS being accessed! Today's REVERB15 prompt comes from C. Streetlights and celebrates the ALCHEMY of gateways!

REVERB15  (Day 18) Prompt: Haven’t you ever been caught in a moment, a magnetic swirl of a moment, when you knew – just knew – that something magical was taking place? You might feel as if a portal into Something has opened at your heart to release a sort of energy into your own private universe, telling you, “Remember your magic…” 
Think of three important portal points – one in the past, the present, and one you hope to have in the future – and join them together into one powerful and personal gateway into 2015. Where will walking through this gateway lead you in this upcoming new year?

DANCING THROUGH PORTALS.

People have always provided important passageways for me. As an educator, I used to repeat to my students: 

"Remember, it is the people that you meet in your life that matter and will transform it. You never know who it is going to be, so keep your eyes and heart open! You will do the same for others." 

In my life, there have been many significant human beings discovered in books, movies, travel, on the bus, in the park, at the gym, in a lecture, at a dance, around the corner, and on the Internet. I cannot name them all here.

Instead, I will concentrate on how they have appeared in my life through structured CREATIVE PORTALS (yes, created by women) that have significantly impacted who I am as the SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM, Hallelujah Truth. 

This pink photo of me stepping into the UNKNOWN was taken by my boon companion and husband, Chiboogamoo at the children's section of the Jepson Museum in Savannah, Georgia, while I was playing around with clothing with symbols on November 17, 2015.  Symbolic play is one way to step through DOORWAYS.

PAST CREATIVITY PORTALS
My experience as the founder and leader of "Spiritual Art Pilgrims," which lasted three years, was the culmination from engagement with the resources or past creativity PORTALS listed here. Explaining how they helped me cultivate my creative practice is a lengthy discussion, perhaps a book to be written or a course to be taken with me. 

Writing Down the Bones (1986), Natalie Goldberg

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (1992), Julia Cameron

Artist Conference Network, founded by Beverly Cassell in 1983)

It was empowering to hunger for and create the "Spiritual Art Pilgrims," a group founded for three years as a way to explore creativity through different modalities. This important PORTAL creation was also influenced by Shaun McNiff and his book, Art as Medicine.

PRESENT CREATIVITY PORTALS
These present PORTALS are the creative engines driving the dance of my life currently and forging new ones:
 

Coffee with Hallelujah
Begun in 2009, this blog is my PORTAL to the world community in my search for like-minded SOULS. When one's surrounding community doesn't seem big enough to find creative companionship, look farther outside its perimeter, I tell myself. 

My GOALS? While developing my voice through image, word, and persona, I connect with other CREATIVE SOULS. If you have fifteen minutes for a cup of coffee, then you have time to create! I've been successful in sharing my daily creativity with others through this blog.

The Daily Creative Practice
Understanding that my blog, Coffee with Hallelujah, was like an isolated island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean unbeknownst to anyone, I knew that I needed to go to New York City (Facebook) and invite CREATIVE SOULS back to my island. Thus in 2013, I gave birth to the PORTAL, The Daily Creative Practice on Facebook, which now has more than a 1,000 members. 

In addition to connecting my blog island to a big city on FB, I have also succeeded in creating a warm online community, one in which there is support for each other's unique offerings and everyone receives a "hurray"!

Women's Caucus for Arts Georgia (WCAGA)
What a delight to discover this PORTAL in my own metro-Atlanta community in 2009! The members comprising WCAGA are compassionate caring creatives who are feminists deeply engaged in their own work while connecting with others and fostering social justice.

InterPlay 
Hurray for my beloved InterPlay and its co-founders Phil Porter and Cynthia Winton-Henry! This improvisational system has transformed my life, by allowing me to integrate my body, mind, heart, and spirit all together in what is expressed by the word "bodyspirit"!

My BODYSPIRIT is comprised of infinite DOORWAYS that can be accessed through movement, voice, story, and stillness, alone or in community with others.

FUTURE CREATIVITY PORTALS
So! FUTURE PORTALS are opening, incorporating all that I have learned from the past and present PORTALS. 

In 2016, I see my creativity coaching business, InterPlay Art & Soul Creativity Coaching, expanding to online coaching and group play. 

Also using the deep and rewarding improvisational system of InterPlay, I will forge a CREATIVE SOJOURN which will be a quarterly journey inspired by my deep experience with the Artist's Way and Artist Conference Network. 

And, yes, I will launch my website, that has three PORTALS through which others can reach me.

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me about where you intersected with me, which portal you came through and what we have created together. Or tell me about your own portals!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Gracias to my beloved Chiboogamoo, who makes so much magic possible in my life. Today, we are celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary. Kisses!  And without Lesly Fredman, friend and creativity coach, I would probably not have named myself Hallelujah Truth and started this blog. 

PERUVIAN HONEYMOON 2004. Happy 11th Wedding Anniversary Darling!