Hello, I would like to share a story with you about performing arts and healing. When I was in high school, it was a big deal when I overcame my self-consciousness about singing to try out for the show choir as a Junior. When I made that varsity group as a senior, that felt like I was arriving to a new social world. Then I went to college and focused on earning good grades so I could get into medical school.

Our medical system is flawed. I feel ill from my participation in it. And I’m standing here at an open mic rather than at a therapist’s office because of my grandiosity. I think this problem is bigger than me, and that I am a symptom, not the cause of the illness. That is a bold thing to think and say. What is the problem, and what can we do about it? Can I explain in 5 minutes?

I don’t think everyone has to be a performer, but I started reading Rick Rubin’s book “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” and I believe that the energies of the universe move through us and what we choose to express means something. There is creativity to finding an audience, and a creative process around finding resonance.

Sometimes, healing is blocked because the environment is wrong. It’s too much of the same patterns repeating themselves again and again. Going on vacation, to a retreat center or even a friend’s house can represent and opportunity for reset. What I’d like to do is reset myself and reorient towards a position facilitating a guest house for creative healing processes.

It is a Creative Healing Institute. And I am just in the brainstorming stages, but I write about the process on WordPress, and I am talking about it today. On Tuesday I am going to host a potluck and I want to welcome people who are interested in this project I’m describing, and maybe over the next few months, identify people who would like to be involved and who may even live here with me.

I will open up applications for people to suggest a creative healing project that they would like to work on at the house. Something is out of order. I get energy from imagining these steps in the future, when in reality there are obstructions right in front of me that I’m not dealing with very well. The dishes in the sink, ain’t going to do themselves. The yard is not being well-maintained. I am a human who has a story that I am failing. I am failing at home ownership. I am failing at healing medical clients through my work as a physician. I am failing to address my own healing. Until I put the words on a page. It is a step. It is a prelude to the first step. It is describing the situation now. And I am not afraid of the situation right now, but I do need to be clear about where we are so that I can move forward. 

Thanks for listening.