Drawn by a Star

After 12 years running creative retreats at healingartjourneys.com, then a sabbatical pause, the new  retreats have arrived as naturally as spring following winter. The Retreats will now be Art Adventures for groups of  up to 4. 3 Retreats will be for solo adventurers. Why the change? An Art Adventure Retreat is a sure way to break down limiting ideas and transform old patterns to find exciting new ways to develop your creative potential. The object of a retreat is usually to take time out to re-connect with our non busy self.  To get clarity about what matters most to us. To allow ourselves space and time to play with life changing ideas . A guided Art Adventure Retreat offers a wake up, shake up call to start being creative in a brand new way. Are you sick of being stuck in a rut? Tired of making the same kind of art, bored taking the same kind of photos, disheartened  by writing in the same 'style.' During an Art Adventure Retreat you will discover ne

Possibly more than any other book ever, Jewish  Grigoty Kanovich's story of his family in Jonova Lithuania - starting ten years before the outbreak of WW11 - is speaking to me so vividly, it's almost like being a fly on the wall in somebody's house.  Some of these people could actually be my relations.  Jonova, pronounced Yonova, is just 20 kms down the road from the farm where I’m staying for a week! Jonova house revisited in 2019. Shtlel Love Song is a book of 521 pages.  I'm now on page 449. The Russians have taken over the town. It's 1940. I can hardly bear to read what happens next. But I do. I came here to make a pilgrimage to honour my never  met Jewish ancestors. Then, when that felt complete, day by day as I learned of the countries relatively recent horrific history, I began to realise it was not just the Jews who’d suffered terribly. The stories I've heard were from priests, nuns, Jews living here and in Moscow an

Oh how can it be six months since I spoke to y'all ? Mil disculpas. A million apologies. After considerable dreaming researching asking and believing the summer would  be creative and  fabulous, I left Spain for Lithuania and Estonia on July 6th.  I had a half made plan. There were many loose ends.  But, I was truly ready to receive, and I did, far more than I could ever have imagined.  Of course there were many, many, many surprises. Christmas is now just six weeks away. 2020 is nearly here.   Madre mia !  How did four months pass so quickly? The old and new in Vilnius Lithuania. Lots of delicious food including burckwheat  quinoa and beetroot. Lots of fabulous bread. The most delicious rye bread ever. These summer months  have been all about up- rooting, re routing and reinventing my inner artist, and other bits of me too it seems. I didn't ask for this, but it happened. By the end of August I'