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Sand Between the Toes: Keeping Creativity Alive in Children

“We had sand in the eyes and the ears and the nose, And sand in the hair, and sand-between-the-toes.” — A.A. Milne

Sand. Doesn’t sound creative to me. It works its way into carpets, beds, corners. What’s so great about sand-between-the-toes? It itches. Causes blisters when you put on shoes. Christopher Robin doesn’t live in my house, and I don’t have a nanny or a maid to pick up after him. But if I think hard enough, I do remember when I was very young how I loved to dig my toes into warm sand and wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.

Read the rest of this essay by downloading the PDF below.

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The Use of Poetry in Identifying and Coping with the Emotional Tasks of Moving

Moving has been identified as a major stressor and quantified in terms of life exchange units (LEU’s) in several widely used stress surveys (Coddington, 1972; Holmes & Rahe, 1967; Sarason, Johnson, & Siegel, 1978.) I am now preparing for the stress of my fourteenth move in twenty-five years of marriage, moves which have included living in eight states, buying and selling eleven houses, negotiating rental agreements, moving and packing tons of household goods, relocating children in their teen-age years, and finally, always having to create new community.

Through the early years of dislocation I was not employed outside of the home, and I could use all my energy and resources toward the moving process. However, in the last ten years I have been working as a social worker and therapist. It has meant less time and energy for the moves, as well as dealing with my own feelings regarding the loss of my practice and coworker camaraderie.

Read the rest of the article (reprinted from the Journal of Poetry Therapy) by downloading the PDF below.

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The Use of Poetry in Exploring the Concepts of Difference and Diversity for Gifted/Talented Students

Teachers of gifted/talented (G/T) students have known for a long time that poetry is a very special medium with their students. Many G/T students write poetry on their own, and those who are assigned to write it are often astounded with their results. Those of us who are familiar with poetry therapy know how poetry can bring out inner knowledge that was previously hidden from our psyche. This article addresses the concept of “difference.” G/T students are, after all, “special education” students. They know they are different from most of their peers. “Diversity” is a concept which is being addressed in almost all areas of life, but it is here integrated with the idea that G/T students have to deal with their own differences as well as those of others.

The rest of this article (reprinted from the Journal of Poetry Therapy) can be downloaded as a PDF below.

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What’s Your Favorite Music?

As a child of the 60’s I grew up loving folk music. This photo was taken of me and Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul and Mary) a few years ago when Woody Guthrie was being honored here in Tulsa. My dad was a professional musician, and allowed us only to listen to classical music and jazz, with an occasional folk tune thrown in. He absolutely forbid us to listen to the new rock and roll, especially Elvis and the Beatles, because it was “noise,” not “music,” or country music, because It was, well I won’t say what he said. My friends always shake their heads when I ask them about some rock or country star or other. But I think it’s true that what is beautiful to one, may very well be noise to someone else. Our brains develop specific pathways that are familiar, and other sounds may not fit into them. As an adult I have learned to listen to the other forms of music, even developing some fondness for Oklahoma red-dirt country music.

As a poet I listen for lyrics, and am disappointed with the lack of creative lyrics in rock. Repetition is boring to me. Country music still tells awesome stories, sometimes with great humor. The lyrics in church music are especially important to me. That’s why I tend to like the older, more classical hymns, and dislike singing praise music, which I think is one-sided theology.

What music were you raised on? Do you still listen to the oldies? Have you reached out to new genres in music, or are your hearing pathways too set to respond to the new sounds?

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Looking for Eagles

Yesterday my husband saw an eagle poised on the ice of our lake here in Oklahoma, fishing in an open hole. Wow! This photo was taken in Canada at our friend’s house in summertime. There is little in life more majestic than an eagle. This is a good time to watch for them, because they congregate around open water. Even in Minnesota, some eagles stay because they find open areas of the Mississippi. Seeing an eagle makes you stop in your tracks, and watch. What else does that for you? What makes you really see the world around you today, not remembering yesterday or worrying about tomorrow, but what is in front of you today? Here there is pouring rain and gloom all around, but when the rain paused for a moment, a whole flock of robins landed in my yard, pulling up worms by the dozens. Yes, we have robins here in winter. They don’t remind me of spring. They help me love this moment of Oklahoma winter, along with the eagles, hawks, owls, great blue herons, white pelicans, chickadees, cardinals, woodpeckers, terns, and other birds that share my winter world.

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December 29, 2013 – The Starkness of Winter – Cynthia Blomquist Gustavson

“In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan. Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.” The water isn’t frozen here, but it is cold and windy. Have you noticed how the sun hardly makes a difference, because it is so low in the sky? But the days are lengthening now, and hope survives.

This is a good time to take stock of your life, and make changes to the things that need to be changed. In the meantime, drink warm tea and sit by the fire, sing old folk songs, and love one another right now.

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2013 Christmas Poem

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Swedish Tea Rings for Christmas and New Year’s

I made eight Swedish Tea Rings for the holidays this year! Here I’ve taken a picture of one. Would you like a piece?

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Stockings on the Mantelpiece

“The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there…”

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Welcome to my Blog!

Dear ELCA Friends (and others),

It was really exciting in October to go to the installation of our first woman bishop, Elizabeth Eaton, at Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago.

Since then, I have attended the first Church Council meeting in November. It was overwhelming as a new member, since there are now 50 of us on the Council.

Check back to this blog site, and I will be reviewing some of the items that we covered at that meeting.

If you have feedback, please contact me via social media or email.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

– Cynthia

Photo Credit: Installation of Elizabeth Eaton as ELCA Presiding Bishop, Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago, Oct. 5,2013. ELCA Archives image www.elca.org/archives