Our first Heart Wisdom gathering

Last night, on Djarra Country, we gathered with the Daylesford & Hepburn Springs community to launch Heart Wisdom. As part of the Words in Winter festival, hosted at Radius Art Gallery, we offered an intimate sharing from our heart out. 

It was a celebration ~ celebrating what can happen when we remain curious; when we enquire with the parts of ourselves we don’t often give time and space for.  Celebrating when we allow our creativity to come through in playful and mysterious ways, and the magic that can happen when we do this in community.

Guests gathered, seeing the smiling faces of the ten Heart Wisdom creatives on the wall, a table laid with original heart art pieces and baskets full of gifts. They took their seats with art boards, paper and drawing materials at the ready to digest the evening in a creative fluid way. 

I opened with an arrival meditation, acknowledging our gratitude and respect to the Djarra people and the stories and spirit that this country carries - held in the earth, the tree, the hills, the springs. And acknowledging that these stories were shared through the body, the heart, through movement and sound. And the privilege to gather tonight to add our voices to the great human tradition of telling stories: of speaking what has been carried, what has been loved and remembering that every story needs somewhere safe to land. 

The invitation, as is the wider invitation of Heart Wisdom, for the audience to be inspired to take these sacred moments to tune in with their Heart, to see what was there to be felt, seen, acknowledged. Was there a way their Heart wanted to become more known to them? How can we enquire further, without judgment, instead with curiosity and playful creativity. 

I read a piece from Heart Wisdom titled ‘Bubble Heart’ by Emma Nicol, which dropped us in beautifully. Emmas piece is a gorgeous one that speaks to the Factory of the mind and thinking thinking thinking, hanging out with old mate Understanding, but the ultimate desire to switch off and spiral down into the bubble heart space. This dropped us in beautifully. 

Lesley Fox then shared her two poems, Heart Opening and Heart School, speaking to her process and inviting the audience to take further time to gaze at her third creation, Dancing Heart, and feel the possibilities of taking in life through different perspectives. 

We then had the opportunity to sit with our own Hearts in the here and now and I guided us through a creative arts invitation, to play with colours lines and shapes on the page, imagining the form their Hearts landscape takes in this current season of their life. 

I then read an excerpt from Candice La’Broyes essay ‘Feminine Coherence’, a compelling piece where she courageously shares her personal journey with Adenomyosis and elves into the concept of reaching mythical realms when the body is pushed to its limits by chronic illness. Which was the perfect lead in to a screening of her three-minute short film of the same name, created especially for this event. 

Anya Merril then read her piece, Heart line, where she explores the heart lineage, the invisible thread between generations and what gets passed down. It was a beautiful invitation for the audience then to feel into what has been passed down to them and what they’d like to pass on. Anya invited the audience to write these down on paper hearts and sting them together for a collective art work. 

I closed the evening with a joyous proud heart, so thankful to these women for saying YES to the project, and what we have co-created together. Thankful for the warm embrace from community for receiving us so lovingly. To end, I shared an excerpt from one of my pieces, titled ‘I am worthy’. 

I look forward to more pop-up community sharing opportunities to share Heart Wisdom and invite more and more people to carve out time and space to tend to their Heart. 

With love,

Cathy & the Heart Wisdom creatives