Stillness practice in InterPlay and Life

Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose.

Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there
patiently, until the song that is your life falls into your own cupped
hands and you recognize and greet it.

Only then will you know how to give yourself to this world so worthy of
rescue.
-------Martha Postelwaite

 Soulprint Players rest after playing together

The four components of InterPlay are often described as “movement, story, song and stillness.” During a typical InterPlay class we move our bodies, share information about our lives, and play with our voices with simple songs or tones. But what about stillness?

This winter InterPlay Leader-in-Training and Buddhist nun, Sr. Jewel and I led an InterPlay session incorporating InterPlay and mindfulness. The invitation to be still was present throughout. We began and ended in stillness; we encouraged space between our words; we took lots of deep breaths. Participants noticed an increased depth in the information that they shared with each other.

Stillness is always an option in an InterPlay class, but we don’t always choose it. In walk, stop, and run, we can stop. In sharing our noticings we can honor the times when a few words suffice or times when we don’t need to speak at all. There are times when we need to talk, express, leap and make ourselves known! That is healthy and good!, but the counterpart to that is the silence. That is good too!

Sr. Jewel and I at the Atlanta Shambhala Center

I notice the depth stillness brings forth in my daily life. When I want to discern what next steps to take in my life or where simply to put my energy each day the practice of moving my body and then being still usually evokes the truer thing. My mind might spin around in “to-do’s” and “shoulds,” but when I can move my body and then rest a deeper truth appears. I move about my day with more grace.

I trust the stillness. Sometimes that’s found in taking a few deep breaths. Sometimes that means my body is dancing but my mind is still. Sometimes it’s silently sitting. On Friday, February 27th, Debra Hiers, and I will begin a regular "Fourth Friday" InterPlay session at the Atlanta Shambhala Center. Debra will lead a short sitting meditation and then we will play. Let's explore what emerges from the stillness together!

A Glimpse of InterPlay at Lee Arrendale State Prison

By Jennifer Denning

"I look forward to this class every week. I always feel better after being here."

"For the two minutes of that (solo witnessed) dance I felt like I wasn't in prison."

Yesterday, after a sixteen week session of InterPlay in collaboration with Reforming Arts, women at Lee Arrendale State Prison shared an InterPlay performance with other women at the prison for the first time. The theme they choose to perform on was “Creative Self-Expression.”

As often goes at the prison, our day did not start as planned. We had planned 45 minutes of warming up with our ensemble. Instead there was coming and going, news of some women being sick or in “lock down,” and, most significantly, awareness in the group that just that day the date of execution for a woman in their midst had been set.

A blue sky day at Lee Arrendale State Prison

The moment called for stillness and listening. The words of Body Wisdom board president, Sheila Collins, came to mind: “We have to make art out of what happens to us.” I shared these words with the women, took a deep breath and trusted the forms of InterPlay and the time we had spent together to do the work.

It did.

There are many stories I could share with you from my time sharing InterPlay at LASP. Here is one: a woman who joined our group for the first time a few weeks ago jumped in to perform with us. She shared a bit of her personal story with us. She was married young and went from “sleeping with my sister to sleeping with my husband.” Her husband was an abuser, and she ended up in prison for injuring him in self defense. At age 70+ she told us, “I am learning how to be autonomous.” Yesterday she surprised us all when she jumped up to do a side-by-side solo dance on the theme of “passion.” She danced with an infectious freedom and joy. After the performance she said, “I didn’t think I was creative at all. InterPlay allows me to access that part of myself.”

Our work that began with playshops in 2013, expanded this year to include this performance work; soon-to-be certified InterPlay leader and Licensed Master Social Worker, Christine Gautreux, has become a teaching partner, and we are awaiting approval for a new series of workshops in the spring.

Yesterday our performance ended with performers and audience members joining together in a hand-to-hand dance in celebration of creative self-expression while one of our ensemble members played the drum. There was joy there. There was freedom there. There was something present that transcended those four walls.

A New Playshop Series: InterPlay Alchemy: The Creative Magic of the Embodied Soul

REACHING IN THE WARM UP STRETCH. On Sunday, January 25th, 2015, I completed my final requirement to become a certified InterPlay leader by getting filmed leading InterPlay so that my mentor, Phil Porter, co-founder of InterPlay, can observe me teaching. That's me, Ruth Schowalter, second from the left. (photo by my husband, Tony Martin)

written by Ruth Schowalter, InterPlay-Leader-in-Training

Hurray for mile markers--those events in life that "mark" a significant change in one's life. Yesterday, was one of those moments for me. For almost two years I have been living and breathing InterPlay ever since I discovered it while doing research on using improvisation as tool in the English as a Second Language classroom. At Soulprint Players, our Atlanta InterPlay performance troupe's rehearsal, I completed my last requirement for becoming a certified InterPlay leader by having 30 minutes of my teaching recorded! Yay!

Of course, there are a few more formalities before I can hang my shingle as a certified InterPlay leader. For instance, Phil Porter, co-founder of InterPlay, needs to see the recording of my teaching and have a discussion with me. He is currently in Australia with InterPlayers there and then returns to California, and the Body Wisdom office only to begin a workshop with the other co-founder of InterPlay, Cynthia Winton-Henry, at the beginning of February. So we are not having the celebratory party yet!


Meanwhile, at the encouragement and support of InterPlay Atlanta regional director, Jennifer Denning, I have created my first InterPlay class! I am so excited to be offering it in my community of Decatur within walking distance of where I live! I am "reaching" out with my flaps up ready for discovery!
 

REACHING FOR THE HIGHER SELF. As I offer a new playshop series in the Metro-Atlanta area, I am practicing keeping my "flaps up."  "Flaps Up" is a phrase used in InterPlay to express reaching up to the "big self" as opposed to the "little self." Both big and small selves are equally valid and treasured but different. Perhaps it is our ability to navigate between these selves that is the challenge. At this mile marker for me as I step into being an InterPlay Leader, I am practicing loving and holding space for both my smaller, finite self that dwells in the specifics of every day life and the higher self that mingles in the great infinite mystery. (Image by me, Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter, titled "Baptism at Sweetwater Creek")

Here is the flyer I created to announce my playshop series, "InterPlay Alchemy: The Creative Magic of the Embodied Soul":

InterPlay Alchemy: The Creative Magic of the Embodied Soul

Facilitated by Ruth Schowalter

“Learn how to walk in the sweetness of the possession of your own soul.”  -D.H. Lawrence

What is it you alone know and want to express? Are you being called to speak from your soul? Each one of us has a private way of speaking that yearns for support and to be heard in community.

InterPlay allows us to speak to one another in the marvelous flexible languages of movement, voice, story telling, and stillness. But what is InterPlay and how is it alchemical?

InterPlay is an improvisational system that is an active creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body. Devoted to fun, InterPlay integrates body, mind, heart, and spirit in a “sneaky deep” way. It also teaches the language and ethic of play in a powerful way. If you would like to be a “recovering serious person,” InterPlay might be for you. For more information about InterPlay, visit http://www.interplay.org/.

In this eight-week series of Tuesday playshops, “InterPlay Alchemy: The Creative Magic of the Embodied Soul,” we will play around with themes related to the meaning of life--thresholds, “flyingtime,” the little self and higher self, grace, joy, wholeness, health, and more.

InterPlay invites us to create from where we are, and not where we think we should be. At the same time, creating from our embodied souls can transform us in ways that feel magical!

This course is open to both experienced and new InterPlay participants.

Tuesdays 10am to noon

February 3^rd-24^th and

March 3^rd  to 31^st.  

*(March 10th, no class)

Fee 8 classes:  $120.00

Decatur First Christian Church, 601 West Ponce De Leon Ave., Decatur, Georgia, 30030

Contact Ruth Schowalter for further information and for signing up at: RuthTruth@mindspring.com  or   404-580-2392

For more about InterPlay in Atlanta see:

http://atlantainterplay.blogspot.com/

Ruth Schowalter. photo by Lisa Alexander Streib

https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaInterPlay

For more about me, see my blog,

http://coffeewithhallelujah.blogspot.com/

Ahhhh...I am experiencing the sense of wonder at taking my ideas--ones that I have been dancing, singing, drawing, painting, and speaking into the world. My love of celebrating each and every individual's uniquities including my own has manifested into InterPlay Alchemy!

I believe in living vibrant meaningful lives shared in community! How awesome to be able to celebrate this vibrancy through the marvelous languages of movement, voice, story telling and stillness in InterPlay playshops! 

This is a "flaps up" moment for me! Hallelujah!

FLAPS UP ON FACEBOOK! Experiencing my higher self, expanding into the world of friends and new possible friends using the social media of Facebook. This image accompanied my announcement of InterPlay Alchemy on the Facebook page of InterPlay Atlanta.

That's Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and share your moments of transition with me! What do you know about your big and little self?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Thanks to InterPlay co-founders, Cynthia Winton-Henry and Phil Porter for giving us what the body wants and ways to access having it all by reuniting the body, mind, heart and soul--at last! Thanks to our ever expanding InterPlay Atlanta community, especially InterPlay Atlanta director Jennifer Denning and soon to be certified InterPlay leader Christine Gautreaux. I am also so grateful to the members of the InterPlay Atlanta performance troupe, whose soulful playing so inspires me. And gratitude to the Reverend James L. Brewer-Calvert, the senior pastor at Decatur First Christian Church, who opened the doors of his church for me to teach my first series of InterPlay play sessions. What an awesome community to be a part of! I also want to acknowledge Callahan Pope McDonough, Lesly Fredman, and Lynn Hesse for helping me shape this new class in words and place.

Sneaky Deep Transitioning into 2015: January Second Saturday

HELLO 2015! InterPlay Atlanta gathered together for Second Saturday. (photo by Callahan Pope McDonough)

written by Ruth Schowalter, InterPlay Leader-in-Training

InterPlay Atlanta members began 2015 meaningfully and playfully! Nineteen of us gathered on January 10 for our first Second Saturday of the New Year. Our numbers of InterPlayers are growing!

I'm so thankful for the structure that Jennifer Denning provides for our InterPlay Atlanta community. 2014 was rich with opportunities. In addition to our Second Saturdays, we had deep play gatherings, performance workshops, the Life Practice Program, Leader Training, and the formation of Soulprint Players, an InterPlay performance group.

For our first Second Saturday of 2015, we spent our 90-minute play period together moving, vocalizing, telling stories, witnessing, and noticing using TRANSITION as the theme thanks to the facilitation by Jennifer Denning.

WARMING UP. (photos by Ruth Schowalter)

What a great word, TRANSITION, is! And InterPlay provides so many different ways to "dance" with this word, going deeper into its meaning. Babbling, moving, and vocalizing about times of change in our lives in our InterPlay community illuminated our own lives and that of other InterPlayers!

WAITING FOR WHAT COMES NEXT.

Telling my own stories about times of change--the recent death of a friend; the year 1976 when I went to California for my freshman year of college; and the moment when I "discovered" InterPlay while doing research on improvisation--created a foundation for me to stand upon for 2015. Recognizing and honoring the changes in my life seems similar to preparing the winter soil for planting a spring garden.

Listening to other InterPlayers' stories of TRANSITIONS in either pairs or small groups added layers and dimensionality to my stories of change. In some magical way, it is as if other people's TRANSITION stories become my experience too. My life feels enlarged, and I feel connected to these story tellers in an unexpected warm way. InterPlay is indeed what some describe as "sneaky deep."

FIND A SHAPE. I love the invitation to become aware of another person's shape in the room and to take on that shape. And to do it again. And again. How affirming to see myself mirrored in another person's body. How warming it is to reflect another person's shape. Oh yes, this simple form gives the opportunity to connect and experience empathy. Sneaky deep!

 

What TRANSITIONS are you going through as we begin 2015? Come join us on Second Saturdays and share your stories. Find out for yourself what "sneaky deep" means!

NC InterPlay Untensive: Bringing in 2015 by Walking in the Darkness and the Light

Written by Ruth Schowalter, InterPlay Leader-in-Training

Happy New Year everyone! How are you? How did you begin 2015?

As one who loves InterPlay, I had the good fortune to travel from Atlanta to Browns Summit, North Carolina, to bring in the new year with about 40 other InterPlayers at an Untensive Retreat!

Yes! You are asking what an “untensive retreat” is! Here is the brief definition:

GATHERING AND SHARING. NC Untensive Retreat, 2014-2015 (photos by Ruth Schowalter)

At an “Untensive” retreat, you get to relax, connect, play, laugh, be moved and you get to learn helpful ideas and tools that can create more ease, fullness, purpose and satisfaction in your life. (For an expanded definition, go here.)

Ginny Going and Tom Henderson

Facilitated by deeply loved and seasoned InterPlay leaders Tom Henderson and Ginny Going, the Untensive summoned people from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Iowa, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Virginia, many who have made this InterPlay retreat an annual pilgrimage.

And I can see why! Our time together was rich with play, connection, relaxation, and meaningfulness. 

“Walking in the darkness and the light,” was the theme that Ginny and Tom gave us to contemplate during our four days together.  Then they provided us the opportunity to “ritualize” our walk in darkness together in community.

WALKING THE CANDLE LABYRINTH

On Wednesday night, New Year’s Eve, we did a “Bless and Release” ritual, taking a stone to hold our thoughts and switching on a “candle” to carry us through our meditation. On Friday night, we were invited to walk in the darkness in a labyrinth made of candles (Thank you Roger Adkins and Brian Herring), remembering what we had released earlier in the week and contemplating what it is we would like to invite into our lives in 2015.

FIRST DAY HIKE 2015

Of course, the “Walking in the light” part of our time together seemed so very well fulfilled! We began January 1^st with play and an afternoon hike, joining others around the United States in an annual hike in a state park. Oh we had a glorious walk in the North Carolina piedmont at Haw River State Park, the location of our Untensive Retreat!  The winter sun shone brightly, causing the lake to sparkle and illuminating to gold, the brown leaves on our path.

Other daylight hours included, playing communally with InterPlay forms, resting in our rooms, sitting in the lobby by the fire, attending a vocal workshop with Kenneth Miller and a following-leading one with Kerstin Haug.

THE INTERPLAY WARM UP!

Yes! We walked the walk in both the light and the dark. What a “deep” metaphor to take into 2015.

Oh we did so much more during our time at Haw River State Park! But you may want to find out for yourself by attending one of Tom and Ginny’s Untensive Retreats there!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM NORTH CAROLINA, 2015.

So for now, I will leave you with a wish for a meaningful and playful 2015. What will you “bless and release” as you enter this new year? What would you like more or less of? 

COLLECTING GEMS FROM INTERPLAYERS. I have so much fun asking questions of other InterPlayers about their InterPlay origins, experience, and wisdom. Here I am collecting some information from Brian Herring, an InterPlay leader from the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina region. Robin Poer, another NC InterPlayer rests nearby. (photo by my amazing husband, Tony Martin)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Gratitude to Tom Henderson and Ginny Going for their outstanding leadership and BIG LOVE. What a blessing you are to the InterPlay community. Thanks to Ken Miller and Kerstin Haug for their incrementally planned workshops. Appreciation to Park Ranger Kelly for her supportive presence and meeting our needs related to food and shelter! And finally, I want to applaud my amazing husband, Tony Martin, who supported my simultaneous love of him and InterPlay by accompanying me on this Untensive Retreat. I had such a grand time with you at my side. Thank you!

Here is a slide show of our NC Untensive:

THE POWER OF STORY: Notes of a performance workshop with Tom Henderson and Ginny Going

GESTURE CHOIR. Ginny Going leads a gesture choir at the InterPlay Atlanta performance workshop, "The Power of Story." In this particular form, members of the gesture choir, each took a turn leading and telling a story on the same theme. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

written by Ruth Schowalter, Leader-in-Training

On Friday, December 5, 2014, InterPlay Atlanta received a special treat--a performance workshop, "The Power of Story," with Ginny Going and Tom Henderson, national InterPlayers visiting from Raleigh, North Carolina.

Here's the description that Ginny and Tom gave InterPlay Atlanta to advertise the performance workshop:  

What makes a story interesting? 

Answer: Almost anything. The details of our lives are interesting because they connect to the universal themes of our human condition. We know this from the experience of babbling (performing for each other). What about a story in performance? Same answer, and the techniques are not so different. The most important thing is this -- be excited about telling your story! Even seemingly mundane stories can be entertaining if you're excited about telling it. If you're not excited, your audience won't be either. We'll play with ideas and tools for bringing fullness to your story telling thus generating engagement with your audience.

InterPlay performance is about stepping into our fullness said Ginny Going in her introduction at the beginning of the workshop. It's all about intensity. We step into our big body out of our ordinary body. We make shifts and create contrasts. She referenced our workshop, "Give Performance a Hug" with Phil Porter and how we worked with expanding our range from fast to slow, loud to soft, and big and small. Ask yourself, "How can I build contrast in dynamics?"

After warming up InterPlay fashion, Tom Henderson led us in a series of story telling exercises using 3 different techniques:

1. DISCARDING CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
First, we got practice discarding chronological order. We were given instructions to start our stories some where else other than the beginning. I stated my story in the middle of a July morning in the badlands of Montana out fossil hunting just when the 40 mile winds started blowing us down the hillside and across the rock encrusted terrain. What liberation to forgo details and jump into where the action starts! I could have started at the end when all the fossil hunters sat cloistered in a trailer huddling over their computers waiting for the hostile winds to settle down.

TEACHING BY DOING. Here Tom Henderson teaches the power story telling by telling his own story. Tom and Ginny brought 20 years of InterPlay experience to the InterPlay Atlanta performance workshop. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

2. THE GOOFY POINT
Then we had a chance to find a point in our stories where we could become inarticulate and speak in gibberish or a made up language. Tom demonstrated with a story of his own about the presence of a dangerous chemical in his work environment. The gibberish can express frustation, confusion, or anything that just fails to be expressed adequately using words.

3. THE LEFT TURN
This story telling technique allows story tellers to digress from the main plot of the narrative, to follow a topic that comes up in the story but is not central to it. The story teller can return to the main storyline or continue to follow the "left turn." 

Whenever telling these stories, we have been given permission by Tom and Ginny to leave the audience "hanging." In a performance, we do not have to complete the whole story. Often, InterPlay performers want to tell a bigger story than is necessary, they told us. Finding the end to a performance is a skill and finishing a story sooner is better than finishing it later. Leaving the audience wanting more from your performance is preferred to the reverse.

FINDING A UNIVERSAL THEME

UNIVERSAL THEMES. We were asked, "How do our stories connect with universal themes?" Tom records our theme words as Ginny supervises and supports. What a team! (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

Next, was identifying universal themes. Unfurling a roll of brown paper across the performance floor, Tom and Ginny asked InterPlay Atlanta workshop participants to name the first universal themes that came to our minds. We wrote down themes such as danger, love, adventure, change, chaos, loss, beginnings and endings.

Then they asked us, "How do our stories connect with these universal themes?"

What ensued was fun, stimulating, and just plain interesting. In pairs, we told one of our own stories connecting it to a universal theme. We had three minutes  to tell a full-body story playing around with contrasts using any of the previous techniques we had just practiced. I spoke on the universal theme of adventure and talked about my time in Australia, when I was searching for dinosaur tracks on the Victoria coast and had to scale down a cliff to Knowledge Creek fitting my feet into a wallaby trackway and holding on to shrubs!

Then half of us workshop participants were asked to stand up and to share our stories with all of the participants but condensing our three-minute stories into one minute!

After that, if we had had enough time, we would have completed this universally themed story telling exercise by reducing its telling to 3 sentences! Only!

As the workshop hours dwindled, we played with three more InterPlay forms: DT3's (dance talk, dance talk, dance talk), Side by Side Stories, and Gesture Choir.

SIDE BY SIDE STORY TELLING. Al, Jennifer, and Christine told Side by Side stories about high school. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

Key teaching points from these InterPlay forms included:

We can move our bodies to tell our stories.

A story exists in more than just a box in our heads.

When moving, a storyteller gets a fuller sense of the story at a cellular level.

GESTURE CHOIR. Getting a fuller sense of the story at a cellular level and so much more. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

Timing is important in a performance.

When working together with other performers, "sacrifice" for the good ending.

Let movement be movement.

Let the story emerge from the body.

Part of letting go is releasing the need to tell a continuous, linear story.

When telling a Side by Side Story, move around, do not stay in the same lane; interrupting is good, picking up words or phrases from other story tellers is good; keeping your visual focus on the audience and not other players is desirable.

THE POWER OF STORY WORKSHOP HAS CONCLUDED.  Participants thoroughly enjoyed Ginny and Tom's workshop and were sorry to see it come to an end. There was so much more fun to be had. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

Our two-and-half hours with Tom and Ginny was rich! We felt the fullness of our own stories and each others. Wahoo! Thank you! 

Blogs about other Performance Workshops InterPlay Atlanta has received:

Ecstatic Following with Sheila Collins 

Saying Yes and Finding the Thing with Sheila Collins

Creating a Container and Creating the Thing with Sheila Collins

Foundation and Decoration with Sheila Collins

Give Performance a Hug with Phil Porter

The Power of Story with Ginny Going and Tom Henderson

NOTE TAKING.  That's me, Ruth Schowalter, center, taking notes about what Ginny Going is saying in "The Power of Story" workshop. (photo by Callahan Pope McDonough)

Channeling lots of InterPlay energy!

Dear Atlanta InterPlay friends, 

 

I'm participating in Reverb14 and today's prompt produced the following blog that I wanted to share with you all: 

 

Reverb14 Day 4: conduits (with thanks to Noël Rozny)

Today's prompt comes from l Noël Rozny (photo credit David Mark).
Noël writes:

We are all lightning rods, conduits for that which the Universe wants born into this world. What energies did you channel this year?

For those of you who have been following my blog this year the answer to this question is not going to be a big surprise.

This year has been all about InterPlay leadership training.

I channeled the energies of play, creativity, leadership, connection, incremental steps and so much more!

Secret's group photo by +Ruth Schowalter 

October 2013 I began the path to leadership training with a "Secrets" weekend that I wrote about here (I was very new to blogging at this time too): Creating Body Wisdom & some pictures here: Sunday Snippets.  It was so exciting to start our journey with one of the co-founders of InterPlay, Cynthia Winton-Henry!

Ruth - Here we are at the Secrets Weekend at the start of our journey!

Since that time with my good friend +Hallelujah Truth we have completed:

The InterPlay Life Practice Program - 3 weekends of fabulous InterPlay facilitated by my dear friend Sheila Collins and her 3 performance workshops too!

Sheila and Jennifer

Helped Sheila perform her book (5 times) - Warrior Mother

Which led to us being on Cable TV - Creating Quite a Day.

Race Dance Participants after our workshop

Participated in a Race Dance workshop lead by Soyinka Rahim, an InterPlay leader from Oakland, Ca.

In June myself and 3 other Atlanta Interplayers performed at a conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 & the Voting Rights Act of 1965 - you can read all about it here: I See You Free Performance.


In the midst of all of it we bought a house and moved in Creating the month of July.

We also had the chance to do a Secrets Of Leading Workshop/Weekend with Phil Porter, co-founder of InterPlay! Before the weekend started we participated in the Give Performance a Hug workshop.

We helped Celebrate Interplay's 25th Anniversary by hosting a FUNdraiser/luncheon that I coordinated and wrote about here: Celebrating #interplay25.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SOULPRINT PLAYERS! Sunday, November 16th, 2014, is a significant date in InterPlay Atlanta's history! Its performance group, Soulprint Players, had their premier performance! (photo by Dean Hesse) (blurb by +Ruth Schowalter)

 I also was part of a group that helped envision and launch the Atlanta performance troupe: SoulPrint Players under the direction of Jennifer Denning, InterPlay Atlanta Regional Director.  You can read about our first performance here: Ta-da Soulprint Players Premier or here: On Being Seen.  

Throughout this year, Ruth and I have been meeting at least weekly and lots of times bi-weekly to complete our self home study material as part of our training process.  This has been a tremendously important incremental step and I am so grateful for her support!

In September, Jennifer and I, in collaboration with Reforming Arts, started traveling to Lee Arendale, the largest women's state prison here in GA to do InterPlay with a group of 14-16 women once a week which culminates in a performance next Friday!  I wrote a little about the experience here: InterPlay and Grace Making.

I also traveled to Texas in Sept. to teach a Saturday class to foster and adoptive parents and  Incorporated InterPlay into my Social Work.

Whew - I have channeled a lot of creative InterPlay energy this year!!! 

Tomorrow begins the final weekend of Leader training with our Practicum weekend.  Atlanta InterPlay has been super lucky to year to have so many visiting InterPlay superstars facilitating our leadership training!  You are welcome to join us tomorrow at noon for The Power of Story.




If you're still wondering what the heck InterPlay is one of the founders, Cynthia Winton-Henry, wrote this: An Open Letter about InterPlay 

It's hard to believe anyone will have made it to the very end of this surprisingly long blog, so if you did - Thank you - from my heart to yours.

I'd love to hear - what energy have you been channeling in 2014?

Wrapping you around with infinite love and connection,

Christine