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Archive for October, 2008
I went to town on the weekend – to hear Bob Dylan at GM Place, and next day to the Vancouver Art Gallery.
It was a surreal experience to be sitting in a hockey arena with 1000′s of other people watching tiny stick figures make music down there on the stage…can’t remember when I did that last!
The energy was huge, the air thick with smoke (didn’t know you could do that), and the noise level about what I 
expected. (I wore ear plugs, good for 30 decibels. They helped; I justify the uncoolness of it with a tinnitus excuse). Although Dylan did almost all new stuff, the sound was very much his own brand, identifiable anywhere. He encored with Like a Rolling Stone. It was recognizable, but so re-arranged, not even close to the original in quality. Oh well!
The art show was called Wack: Art & the Feminist Revolution. and was about second wave feminism. There were about 125 contributors from all over the western world. It opened at The Museum of Contemporary Art in LA.
The art gallery was magnificent as usual, and the women’s art provacative. Such an incredible variety of 
viewpoints and mediums, hard to take it all in. My fav was the life size mannequin whose dress was made entirely from gloves! Her Miss America-style sash said Madame Bourgeouisie – 1955 on it. There was a video of a woman being raped and murdered while others watched. My daughter told me not to go into that room, so I didn’t.
I was bothered by the story board on a display of collages. It was an explanation of how female artists often cut and pasted and juxtaposed women’s body parts together, and mixed parts of bodies with depictions of women performing their social roles. This kind of art was attempting to demonstrate how we ourselves are fragmented by our gender roles so the true self is not allowed to emerge. It made me wonder, how much has changed today?
You can read other news about this art show by clicking on: Vancouver Sun article
and That Lady is Naked @ the VAG
I’m wiped after all that city energy, so I’m winding down now. Tomorrow I gear up again for the final leg of The Caregiver in MidLife, projected launch date to be November 30th!
During the past two months I have continued with my personal theme of connection. I still connect with 
nature through the birds and trees that are so meaningful to me. Last week three eagles flew in circles in front of my house, over the bluff.
I’m using intention more in my work with myself so that I’ll be clearer about what my desired outcome is in certain situations. And the work I do with myself naturally transfers to my work with clients. The clearer and freer my energy is, the more I can reflect things back to them. I’m beginning to understand in a non-intellectual way, that life is all about energy. Whatever happens is driven by the energy we allow in and the energy we put back out.
Most of us are moving and shifting in our lives now. Change is the order of the day. We can do it the easy way, or the hard way. (Or sometimes a bit of both). Change doesn’t feel easy, I know that very well. I think I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with it, with part of me initiating and embracing it, and another hanging on tenaciously to what was or might have been. Sort of a one step forward, then freeze approach!
But struggling against it makes things harder for us. We all do this sometimes. For example, we may hold on a bit too tightly to our grown child who has left home, or maybe we deny to ourself that our parent is deteriorating. Struggling against or denying change keeps us stuck in a painful place. Allowing the energy of change to flow through us, on the other hand, facilitates a positive shift.
This month I again hosted Judith Onley, a powerful healer who has been travelling through North America for close to two years. Judith brings a strong, grounded, yet also light and healing energy into my home when she stays with us. Our conversations and the healing energy she brings help to catalyze my change. Many of us are doing this for each other now. Sometimes I’m able to help my clients, friends and family in this way, as you probably do also.
When we set our intention and welcome change in, we own our power more. This applies to any aspect of our life; our relationship with our aging parent, our work, our writing or client sessions. From this place we can be of most help to others. When we hide our power, our potential is very diluted. As Marianne Williamson says:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It’s our Light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”
Announcements:
Coming this November:
The Caregiver in MidLife, Ellen’s offering to women caring for aging parents.
This is an e-book plus exercises to help you catalyze your change.
Contact Ellen to pre-order this book
Rejuvenate Yourself – Restore Body, Mind, Spirit
Women’s Retreat – Oct. 31st – Nov. 2nd 2008
Women’s Spirituality Retreat
Nov. 21st – 23rd, 2008
With Ellen Besso & Terri Scallon
For more information contact Ellen.
“As soon as you trust yourself you will know how to live.”
Goethe
We are living in difficult times right now. Yes, it’s true that we’re well off compared to people in many 
places like India and Africa. But it’s all relative.
Our fast-tracking, multi-tasking, 24/7 culture is frazzling us! We’re being asked to takon more and more in our jobs and our personal lives.
On top of this many people are very frightened by the economic troubles the US is currently having. Even if we’re not one of the unfortunates who have lost our houses, the outlook seems bleak. The deck of cards looks like it may be crashing down.
The media seems to prey on our fears in its need to bring fresh news to our doorsteps every day. And some experts say things are really bad, while some say don’t concern yourself overly, things will bounce back.
It’s hard not to buy into the feeding frenzy that’s going on. We can’t help but worry that our comfortable lifestyle may be disappearing.
This is a time when we need to ignore what’s going on out there, even to ignore our own surface anxiety, and go inside ourselves to a deeper place. Martha Beck calls it leaving the shallows.
Inside us lies a deeper, calmer place. This is the place where we can find self trust.
The good news is that it’s not difficult to get there.
All we need to do is breathe and be still.
We can do this in our office, in the forest, in our hot tub or shower, when we’re holding a baby, when we’re making love, in short anywhere.
We just need to take a moment or two, or more if we desire. Just breathe deeply, hold the breath briefly, then push it out through our mouth.
Once we access this place of peaceful stillness, we can return to it anytime we choose to.
Body Image continued
We saw an interesting movie the other night put on by the Sunshine Coast Film Society. It’s called What
About Me?, I was told that it was shown at the Vancouver Film Festival recently, but hasn’t been released into theaters here in Canada yet. The website for What About Me says it received Grammy nominations and has also been a TV series.
It’s hard to say what it was about as it covered such a huge variety of topics…but I’ll try. The film “aims to reveal how we are all connected through our creativity and beliefs, but most of all through our madness”. Music, from countries around the world, was not only the underpinning, but a prominent theme in it.
The writers emphasized how we’re all connected regardless of who we are or where we live. The emphasis was, appropriately, put on countries all around the world, as we in North American & other Western societies are such a small part of the world really (we just tend to think we’re the center of the universe).
Conditioning and the limitations we put on ourselves (or are put on us by society) was another theme. That resonated with me of course, as that’s what I harp on all the time with my emphasis on stressful, limiting, and negative beliefs.
The movie emphasized how limited and often uptight we are in our thinking about our bodies and our sexuality. We’re all heavily influenced by what goes on around us, and by advertising.
The best line in the movie for me was about women and beauty products. The speaker was a hispanic man, and his words were translated. He appeared to understand marketing and women’s issues very well. I’ll have to precise what he said as I can’t find my rough notes!:
I thought this was very well put…brilliant in fact. If we are separated from the inside of ourselves, then we’re only connected with the outside of ourselves!
Emphasis on the external is, of course, a benchmark of our society. We’re all products of our culture, and it takes a lot of thought, determination and conscious action to begin to step outside of this ‘indoctrination’.
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On another note, Susan Schachterle is launching her new book, The Bitch, The Crone and The Harlot: reclaiming the magical feminine at midlife on October 28th through www.Amazon.com. For that day only she is giving away many bonus gifts. Her own website is, The Bitch, The Crone & the Harlot.