My 5.5 years in the high security lock-up ward pitched me off the regular clock. Being in the ward made me privy to other dimensions in time. It wasn’t my first instance of being thrown out of the mainstream. The difference during the lock-up years was that I elected to have the experience. 

I made the decision

First; a group tour for those of us on The Art Studio advisory board.

Second; the dream that prompted me to turn the light on at 2 a.m. and sketch every room I could remember onto a yellow legal pad.

Third; returning. I parked my car and walked the slate sidewalks. I passed the quaint resident cottages (used by doctors and nurses on staff) surrounded by green lawns and shaded by ancient oaks. I noticed the large brick buildings in the furthest reaches of the 10 acre campus. They housed labs for mental health experiments including electric shock treatments and lobotomies.

I walk up to the main, now listed as an historic landmark, building. Glass entrance doors part. I approach the security desk on time for my arranged meeting with the facility manager.

Mr. Kind Manager comes toward me, hand extended, we reintroduce ourselves and he escorts me to the elevator: a gaping space designed to transport hospital beds. We make our way to the top/fourth floor. He listens to my idea as he conducts the second tour in as many days. To the right of the elevator doors, passing the caged rooftop porch, we walk through the plaster walls crumbling, water leaks and overall disturbing atmosphere of the west men’s wing.  

I am eager to move on so we loop back.

Passing the caged rooftop porch; to the left of the elevator we approach the over sized double doors of the women’s ward. A narrow window embedded with wire provides nurse-on-duty the ability to peer out before unlocking using the very special key attached to her waist fob. Key necessary for entrance and exit. Mr. Kind Manager now has the key. The heavy oak door opens, Mr. Kind Manager kicks the door stop into place with his spit shined shoe as he accompanies me into another world.

I don’t know where to look.
Without speaking we walk the length of this palpably disturbing space.

The mental hospital closed eight years ago. Renovations have taken place on the first and second floors. Offices are being occupied in those light filled contemporary interior spaces. The Art Studio has leased studio/ad min space on the second floor. The third and fourth floor have remained untouched. I am told that within 6 months work crews will be starting renovation. 

Here I stand. As many as 35 out-of-sync women were housed here in this space. This is the east wing, the high security wing. Beds are bolted to the walls and to heavy partitions that create a separation between. Heavy metal grates cover the large windows that stretch up to meet the 9′ high ceilings. Sunshine pours into room after room,  dark shadows echo off the smooth plaster painted orange and covered with large 70’s style yellow circle decals. Soap sits in wall mounted trays inside the shower stalls, a spray of dried blood spatters the wall around the towel rack. A graphically illustrated poster in the nurses station lists what to watch for after administering Thorazine. 

Mr. Kind Manager and I walk the length of this stunningly unsettling zone. We talk a bit of business and I ask to be left alone. I listen after the elevator grumbles its way to the lower floors. I stand still.

WHAT AM I THINKING?
AM I OUT OF MY MIND?

Slowly I begin to walk the 100′ hallway, my soft footfalls crunching a carpet of dead flies littering the river of linoleum. The buildings hilltop perch provides sweeping views of the tree tops in the surrounding neighborhood. I gaze out through the heavy metal grates and notice a name gouged into the wide thickly painted sill. The long hallway culminates in a cul-de-sac…a bay window shaped room…open and airy, albeit with heavy metal screens over glass, with views across the forest city to the great lake in the distance.

I am intrigued

The last patients left the psyche wards 8 years earlier. I feel compelled by the dream to have my art studio in this setting. In addition to the space itself, the geographic location of the hospital holds a deep personal significance. More on that in a future post. I feel that the high security lock-up ward will provide me with an odd and potent place of sanctuary.

I sign our agreement
Six months expands to 5.5 years

Prior to those lock-up years I had imagined how time ought to be. In solitary I was given the frame for how time could be.

The Story of Luna See

I found it compelling and exciting, important and sane to expand my reach during those lock-up years.

Shortly after moving in I opened the doors and invited the community. I developed workshops and intimate groups for recovery and discovery as Artist in residence of The Art Studio.

I also initiated five years of First Saturday ‘Creativity Salons’ inviting my artist peers to explore the power of creating in such an environment. Together we worked the space as a way of cultivating depth sanity and ultimate healing.

Today with the fast track that most of us keep ourselves on it’s hard to comprehend that a core group of 12 artists, men and women, met every month, consistently, for five years. Our Creativity Salon days began in the early morning. Seated on the floor in the Cul-du-sac room we engaged ‘winding the wheel’ for the days exploration.  Following our communal lunch we spread out throughout the space. We each claimed our private studio among the many available rooms…90 minutes before closing our day we came back together to ‘show n tell’.

We Were All Transformed

In the high security lock-up ward over our five years of monthly gatherings we discovered that Natural Time infuses regular clock time in a gentle and kind way. Together we witnessed, for one another, how time syncs in with a flow that is deep and wide and instantly available for creative investment.

Our Creativity Salons mined the push and pull of lunar cycles, the tides in our oceans, in our bloodstreams and in our ability to flow even when filled with fear. I value what we learned together in that extraordinary space making those exceptionally intimate connections. Since then my work has been about learning to continue to cultivate that depth of creative space. No hurry. No rush.

Are You Curious to Begin Your Relationship with Super Natural Time?

Moon by moon a rhythm is created providing a vivid connection to a ‘slow flow’. Think tidal rhythm. Think healthy blood circulating. Slow Flow becomes the antidote to pushing and prodding ourselves to ‘get it done’.

Slow Flow You = Flow*er

I invite you to consider what it would mean in your own life to press the pause button

As we approach the fall equinox on September 23 the prevailing energy shifts from primary masculine of spring and summer to the opening of the door to the feminine urge to nurture and contain during fall and winter (Northern Hemisphere). The spring and summer are naturally about outward, get going, make it happen, left brain analysis, solve the problem, drive, invent, progress, manifest: ACTION!!

Take a deep breath…

The fall and winter half of the Natural Time wheel of the year embraces the feminine: inward, conserve, protect, compassionate, calm, nurture, nourish, humanize, fierce, beauty, quality, watchfulness, intuitive, create, reverence, resilience, sensibility, right brain, playful, guardianship, love & joy: ~RECEIVE~

Masculine isn’t better than feminine or vice versa … we need both and we contain both. We support self, others and the world by discovering creative relationship with each of these sides of self flowing in and out in their appropriate rhythm. I find this to be THE most dynamic and sustained relationship of life. Inner masculine and feminine mutually supporting one another as a means of guiding us to the most fulfilled and creatively engaged experience expressed. 

The seasons give us the big masculine/feminine picture. Lunar cycles provide a cliff note version that brings time into three-day/8 phase packets. Once your rhythm is established, you instinctively make changes flowing with effortless ease into Natural Time and from there to your own relationship with SUPER-Natural Time.

Are you ready?

This way of relating to time as a flow*er puts the FUN back into being functional. First: create the image of your compelling vision. Second: plant the vision in your heart. Third: declare  out loud:

I AM A VISIONARY…I AM A FLOW * ER…I BLOSSOM

The decision to embark on a “slow-flow” relationship with Natural Time changes everything. I learned first hand the sanity in hushing the infernal/eternal/internal rush. I recognize that always being on and pushing ahead keeps me from savoring the beauty and wonder of each day.

Being in lock-up for 5.5 years brought that awareness home. No Kidding.

Bringing a ‘hush to the rush’ by experimenting with the ‘slow flow’ of lunar time naturally offers yet another opportunity to put up a white-gloved hand and blow the whistle while singing;

STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE!!

 This is a perfect time to dream your dream

Experiment with your deepest inclination and your wildest/widest interest. Consider the ways that you would be willing to ‘be a luna tic’ in order to put a hush to the rush by aligning with the slow flow. 

Imagine that you are walking in balance in fresh creative ways moon after moon; year after year.

 

 

I am a working Heartist with more than thirty years of practice in supporting the creative best in each of us to come forth and shine.
I invite you to connect with the uplift of ‘Luna See’ and Lifecycle; time management tools for aligning with natural creative rhythms.

Travel with me into a realm of calm and renewed heart-centered emphasis.Through our shared journey with my monthly newsletter‘Luna See’ and my creative consult ‘Lifecycle’ you will discover and expand your ability to experience,
express, create and contribute your deepest and wisest most authentic gifts to this unspeakably beautiful world.