...And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


~ From Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

by Dylan Thomas

What it is

This is a two hour workshop facilitated by Rachel Blackman & Brooke McNamara on the theme of ageing, explored through the potent medicines of Embodiment and Creative Expression.

Timed to warm our hearts as we move into the darkest period in the Northern Hemisphere. You are invited to explore with us: In a world that praises and fetishises eternal youth, how might we celebrate dignity in ageing? Our own and others? And what might true Eldership look like in our world today?

We begin with a short awareness practice for arriving and settling into our bodies. We do a brief check in to welcome all who are with us, followed by some exploring of the theme. What brings you here today? What questions related to the theme are you sitting with?

Then we move into a deeper guided somatic visualisation or 'drop in' facilitated by Rachel. This will be followed by a bio break and some sharing. Then there will be an invitation to create some written expression from the information that came through from the drop in. this will be facilitated by Brooke.

Finally, we will make space for sharing. In this section, you are invited to share from your writings, or from your process or perhaps you may wish to offer reflections on the sharings of others.

they convinced me

i only had a few good years left

before i was replaced by a girl younger than me

as though men yield power with age

but women grow into irrelevance

they can keep their lies

for i have just gotten started

i feel as though i just left the womb

my twenties are the warm-up

for what i’m really about to do

wait till you see me in my thirties

now that will be a proper introduction

to the nasty. wild. woman in me.

how can i leave before the party’s started

rehearsals begin at forty

i ripen with age

i do not come with an expiration date

and now

for the main event

curtains up at fifty

let’s begin the show


~ Timeless by Rupi Kaur


Why this work now?

We are living in a culture that tends towards neglect of our elders. A culture that is obsessed, obsessed with youth. The idea that ageing is something that needs to be 'cured' like an illness, or hidden like something to be ashamed of is a ubiquitous suggestion.

Meanwhile, It seems some of the figures dominating the world stage these days, purporting to represent 'eldership' are behaving more like out-of-control toddlers, than proper grown ups. Everything seems upside down.

What if we could remember ageing as a Sacred, precious thing? What if being a good Elder, was something we were excited to become? Aspire to, even? What does it look like, true Eldership?

Perhaps a deepening relationship with the mystery of Death could give us confidence, compassion, and peace as we explore these questions. An acceptance of the truth of Death, often ignored or avoided, might even bring us liberation and play as we celebrate ageing bravely.

In one two hour workshop, we might barely touch the hem of this vast subject, but what if we were to consult the wise council of some bodies larger and older than us? Perhaps through embodied exploration and creative expression, we could invoke a little more of the world we'd love to live in.

How it works & what you need to participate

No experience of anything is necessary. You can be brand new to embodiment and creativity and still get plenty from it. Simply having a body and an imagination is all the experience you need. Please do check out the section below titled 'Is this workshop suitable for me?' to support you in making an informed choice about participation.

To prepare, you need a quiet space with a door that closes for privacy, an internet connection and any materials you might like to use for creative expression. Art materials or a notepad and pen.

You are warmly encouraged to join us either live or via the recording. Everyone who signs up has access to the recording for life (or as long as we are hosting it online). Recordings will be available within 48 hours of the live workshop.

All welcome. If you are a member of KIN, our animist writing membership, you get this workshop (and all our Somatics & Poetry workshops - usually 4 per year valued at £160 GBP.) included along with co-writing spaces most weeks, guided practice sessions, a seasonal deeper sharing circle, all facilitated by Brooke and Rachel. To sign up for that, choose the KIN subscription option below. Alternatively, you can just sign up for the workshop on its own.

...When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

~From When Death Comes by Mary Oliver

~ 

Flow of the Workshop

Opening Prayer & Intention setting 

Arriving in the body & an initial poetry prompt - Brooke & Rachel

Somatic drop in - Rachel 

Sharing Circle  

Poetic expression - Brooke

 Sharing Circle  

Onward Pathways & Worldly Actions

Closing

Workshop Only Ticket

You get the 2 hour live workshop, and lifetime access to the recording. Please note that pricing is listed in Pound Sterling. Amounts in other currencies will fluctuate with the market.

If you'd like to join and you are living in circumstances or places in the world that make this amount impossible, please be in touch.

Workshop + Kin Membership

This option signs you up to our writing membership. As part of the KIN membership these Somatics & Poetry workshops are included free.

KIN membership includes

- Everything in the Workshop Only ticket
- Free access to all Somatics & Poetry workshops (approx. 4 per year).
- 3 x co-writing spaces most months, hosted by Brooke or Rachel
- Monthly guided practice sessions facilitated by Rachel & Brooke.
- Seasonal deeper sharing spaces
- An off f-book private community space for sharing your work & connection with other KIN folk.

To read more about what the KIN membership gives you, go HERE.

To find out how this price translates into your local currency, go HERE.

You can unsubscribe at any time.

Is This Workshop Suitable For Me?

This workshop might be suitable for you if:
~ you love exploring through the senses and direct experience.
~ you appreciate and are drawn to creative expression.
~ You feel some curiosity arise as you read about this theme.

This workshop might not be suitable for you if
~ you don't feel curious about being in a body
~ you don't really enjoy creative expression
~ the theme makes you feel unsafe or on an unhelpful edge.

Please note that while this workshop might have therapeutic benefit, it is not a replacement for therapy. It's intention is self enquiry and creative expression. If working with these themes feels flooding or overwhelming for you, please trust your body and know that this workshop might not be right for you at this moment in time. It will be right for you if you can come towards the themes with a curiosity and resourcefulness.

More About Rachel Blackman

Rachel Blackman is a Somatic Coach and Trainer, a Theatre Maker, Ritualist and Feldenkrais Practitioner.

She has trains coaches to work with embodied intelligence and ritual technology at the School of Bio-Intelligence. Themes that really bring her alive include creativity and the Generative Principle, biological intelligence and supporting change to happen at the level of neuroplasticity.

She is an Animist and and loves to hold spaces that weave together connections between the sacred, the embodied and our biosphere.

Rachel works with people 1:1 and in groups, coaching and teaching embodied intelligence, Earth honouring ritual and creative practice. She is one half of The Aliveness Lab with Kate Daisy Grant, whose aim is making embodied practices that are normally only available in 1:1 contexts, more accessible. She is also the mama of an online space and art project called The Museum of Tiny Failures, which is all about taking the shame out of our non-award winning moments.

In her life as an artist, you are most likely to have seen her as Charra in Matrix Revolutions. She is also an award winning theatre maker and has created 5 full length original plays.

Rachel is down-lineage of - way back - European, Scandinavian, Scottish and English ancestry and more recently, a mixed bag of convicts and settler colonists to Australia, where her family now live mostly on the unceeded territory of the Bungalung and Yugambeh Nations. She is now based in south east England where she lives with her husband Shad and bonus son Akash by the big wild Mama sea.

www.rachelablackman.com

More About Brooke McNamara

Brooke McNamara, MFA, is a poet, creativity coach, meditation instructor, and transmitted Zen teacher and lineage holder.

She has published two books of poems: Bury the Seed and Feed Your Vow. She loves to create poems from 3 main ingredients: the raw material of everyday life, wholehearted and visceral listening, and the mind of meditation. For her poetry, Brooke is the recipient of the Charles B. Palmer prize from the Academy of American Poets.

A dancer and writer since childhood, movement, meditation, and poetry have always been her way of sensing meaning in this wild world. From Tinkerbell to Clara in the Nutcracker to some mind-boggling, experimental contemporary performances, Brooke loves engaging mind, body, soul, and spirit to seek and ignite connection on many levels. From 2003-2018, she danced professionally with Malashock & Dancers (San Diego), LEVYdance (San Francisco), Sweet Edge Dance (Denver), and in extensive collaboration making dance-theater duets with Lauren Beale (Boulder).

Brooke has taught at Naropa University in Yoga Studies and at the University of Colorado, Boulder in Dance. She is president and a founding teacher at Dragon Lake Zen, and teaches in-person and online courses and retreats to facilitate the awakening of innate wisdom, compassion, artistry, and play. She continues to study and deepen with her Zen teacher, Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi.

Originally from San Diego, Brooke now lives in Boulder, CO on the unceded territories of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe people, with her husband, Rob, their two sons, Lundin and Orion. They continuously teach her every day how to live in love.

www.BrookeMcNamara.com
www.DragonLakeZen.org