Back to School

As you may notice (but probably not, since I have 4, count 'em 4,  people reading this), I have renamed this blog.  That is because Way does indeed open, and today I decided on a new home for my practice. 

As of October 1, Way Opens Center will be located at 22 State St. in Newtown. My "studio" is a small but charming room on the second floor, sharing space with a psychotherapy group. The energy there is quiet and serene, yet it is in the heart of town, right next to Allegheny Art, one of my favorite shops ever.

So the center is quite tiny right now, but it is a beginning, and it feels good. This time of year is always a fresh start to me. It always feels like a good time to initiate something (which is odd, given that as autumn progresses, nature begins to pull in, dry up, and disappear).  Anyway, I have a designer working on a logo and image brand, and soon I will have fun helping to create business cards, flyers, and a website. Fonts!  Lots of fun with fonts.

I am continuing half-time at Friends Council on Education as Director of Outreach and Development, so it's just fine if I start off with only a handful of students.  I believe I will have just as many students as I can imagine (and handle).

I am also going back to school a bit myself right now (but of course giving lessons is a form of learning). I recently began taking AT lessons again, this time with Ariel Weiss, one of Philadelphia's premier teachers.  Only the best for me. The experience of taking lessons again after 8 or 9 years without any hands-on at all is worthy of its own post, so I'll describe that another time. Ariel is very good and I can feel our work together is refreshing and re-toning my skills.  It's definitely helping me get my chops back.

In two weeks I embark on an 8-week course in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at Jefferson's Center for Integrative Medicine, the first step in what I hope will be eventual teacher certification. This is the program founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn, one of my all-time favorite teachers and communicators.  He and his wife Myla wrote the best book on parenting I have ever read, Everyday Blessings:  The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting.  But of course Jon is best known for this amazing MBSR program, and the way he and his colleagues legitimized it within the medical establishment, and mainstream society as a whole. 

Plus, in late October I'll be doing a 3-day training with Alaine Duncan, Director of Crossings and Crossings Healing Works.  The workshop, called Touching Trauma, is about learning to regulate the system -- specifically the autonomic nervous system -- in the aftermath of trauma.  Alaine is one of my absolute heroes, which might make her cringe, but it is true.  She's a woman of great faith and courage who followed a calling to help veterans heal and reintegrate, both within and without.  A talented acupuncturist, bright light, and fun Quaker woman, I aspire to be like Alaine. There, I said it.

Don't we all need positive examples in life?  Maybe we each are that to someone else.  I think what energizes me about the coming of Fall is that it is back to school time, and I love learning.  I don't always love the way I learn, I often learn the hard way, but I remain curious and captivated as my life path continues to unfold.  As way opens.