In this Season of hope and possibility, I am thinking about new opportunities for creating space to breathe. As winter’s end drew near, I began thinking about new ways of opening, seeing and learning. And in the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about these hopes and possibilities in relationship to Circle. Capital-C Circle. A new way of knowing a small, simple word I have known all my life.
This new appreciation has come from a teaching offered to me one evening in early March. A teaching about relationship…
On March 5th, I had gathered with five people that we support at St.Amant, folks who had joined a new art Circle in our community. Each of the participants, soon to come to know themselves as artists, arrived that night with a co-creator, a support worker or a nurse by their side. I was attending as both a spiritual health practitioner, and as an artist-facilitator, a poet. And alongside me were four other community artists-facilitators, one also a Métis Elder and Knowledge Carrier. We had gathered for our 4th of eight weekly gatherings of our new art based spiritual care Circle. During weeks one, two and three, beautiful art had been created as we learned about the spiritual way of exploring and expressing through art.
Back up a couple months, to early January…
Before our participant group had created any art, we had met as a facilitator group a number of times to discuss our practices and to reflect on how our Circle would be. How would we ensure it was accessible, safe, nourishing and respectful for people of all abilities? We had an advisor from the participant group guide us in each of those early meetings. Much of our journey before we began supporting people to create art focused on process to make creation possible.
When accessibility and communication are barriers to people’s spiritual exploration and discovery, the qualities of our accompaniment become integral to the possibility of healing for the people we support. Our co-creation practices need to hold accompaniment with the deepest respect. We need to look, listen and feel for the subtle expression. We must create and protect intentional and patient spaces for choice. We must be consistent and reliable co-creators with people, to do ‘with’ not ‘for’ as historically been common. Quite simply, for the people we support to explore and share their stories in a personal, healing way, we must create a container for them to explore, discover and share their voice.
As I write this piece, now approaching our 8th and final night of our time together, it is with great hope in my heart that I can say that everyone in the Circle is indeed finding voice! Each is known more fully, has been heard more clearly, has expressed with more agency. Each person we are supporting is creating and co-creating art in beautiful new ways! Each is touching into their own story a little more deeply. And ourselves? The staff and artist-facilitators around them, their co-creators? We are feeling the goodness of the journey alongside.
Back to early March, and that 4th week together…
I had been writing notes of that evening of art practice. I was documenting our processes; what the group discovered, our strengths and opportunities. In reviewing those notes with the other facilitators, the Elder asked if I could pause a moment. She drew my attention to the word circle in my notes. She shared that in the context of ceremony, Circle is always be capitalized. I understood immediately.
A circle is a word that describes a shape. A Circle, is a container that holds space for people to gather and share their stories. Circle is sacred. It is a space in which we can be vulnerable and courageous, where we can share joys and fears, where we can open up to discover. Circle honors relationship as ceremonial. The Circle is healthcare.
So there it is! Capital C Circle. A Springtime teaching forever imprinted upon my way of thinking, writing, and being. If you plant the seed, tend to it in good ways, if you love it, love is returned to you. The beautiful Circle.
May Spring bring us into nourishment and hope, and may the warmth of the coming season support all our hearts to know some ease ©
St.Amant’s exploration of Art Based Spiritual Care is a collaboration with Arts for Equity, a research collective that explores the arts as a way of healing, disrupting, learning, and sharing for reconciliation and equity in healthcare. The work holds space for the arts to provide an alternative and inclusive language for expressing life’s experiences, engaging people’s hearts and minds, disrupting taken-for-granted assumptions, and facilitating changes of perspectives. The arts and storytelling are integral to Indigenous communities, and can foster dialogue between diverse groups of people who are on a path towards reconciliation.