Denise M.
Interests: Succulents, Gatherings, Nature, Design, Photography
Denise M.
Interests: SUCCULENTS, GATHERINGS, NATURE, DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY, CEREMONIES, WRITING
Blog Posts
2024-02-03 Resilience Workshop
2021-01-01 Simplicity Workshop
2024-01-16: Resilience Workshop
We can easily take for granted the automatic functioning of our body, such as breathing, until of course it becomes difficult. When Denise reached out to me about doing a workshop for her birthday, I recalled our many discussions about her health issues with asthma and how challenging it can be to even take a breath, let alone try to get out of bed in the morning with enough energy to put on your slippers. This made me think about a resilience theme and in collaboration with Denise, we came up with a booklet that incorporated brainstorming and writing exercises to help one recognize the resilience they already had within.
The booklet guided us to:
Define what resilience means to us
Provide examples of ways we’ve cultivated resilience in the past
Identify who we’re becoming through our resilience
What we need to let go of to become more of this person
All gaining a better understanding of how the resilience we’ve already developed helps us with our future decision making process.
MY BIGGEST TAKEAWAY
Resilience tends to be associated with a certain toughness, but the wisdom of this group clearly explained there is a softness that also needs to be present. As one of the participants said, “It’s like a tree that bends in a storm, but the roots stay grounded.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DENISE! 🥳
2021-01-01: Simplicity Workshop
Journals
Words send out powerful vibrations into the ether. These vibrations can create beautiful, harmonious changes. Every year I try to think of a new word for myself. Something I know I need more of to bring greater harmony into my life.
In 2019, I remember my word was laughter and boy did I notice how many
conversations with family and friends would have me laughing so hard my cheeks would hurt. This year my word became simplicity and I mentioned this to Denise who said, “me too me too!”
I knew this was my word because of how complex I felt everything had become after the interesting year of 2020 came to a close. But my intention behind the word wasn’t to denote laziness. It was to make everything I do more purposeful and efficient so life ultimately became more simple.
I created two lil’ journals with simplicity embroidered on the front for Denise and I so we could really bring traction to the word. Then I printed the three very effective illustrations Loveleen S. created to set your intentions for the new year and put them in the journals (pictured above).
Denise asked if we could do the workshop down in Laguna Beach, CA so we gathered our supplies and headed that way on New Year’s Day. I walked her through the three illustrations…
“I am grateful for…”
"I am ready to let go of…”
“This is my year of…”
It always surprises me to see what shows up emotionally when you go through these activities. For me, I started out making everything look all pretty and colorful using the abundance of sharpie markers I packed for us, but by the end I was down to scribbling with a turquoise color while feeling a great amount of resistance show up with each stroke. For Denise, it was much different and her own personal experience that helped to clear the way for a new beginning to the year.
The best part about this workshop happened at the end. We noticed a little boy designing a labrinyth in the sand with a stick and digging out a ditch so he could run and jump into it. His laughter, smile, and playful heart won us over. The simplicity of a child playing without a care in the world was the perfect representation of our word for the year for us to remember.
When you set these intentions, they become magnets for those words to manifest in your life. In the following months, everything did begin to shift, especially for me. Not only in my personal life, but in my work adventures, building projects, and day to day activities. Denise felt the same. It was a real gift and one I hope everyone gets to experience.
2020-05-28: Creating A Lip Balm Formula
Denise has highly allergic and sensitive skin. She’d been using the Urika Dry Skin Balm and loved it, but was a little nervous about the nut oils in our formula. Therefore, Denise reached out and asked if we’d be willing to help her develop her own formula without the nut oils and also add ingredients to increase the SPF. She’d always been interested in learning how to formulate her own balm and this was a great opportunity to fulfill this desire and personalize her skincare even more. So we told her we’d be happy to help.
How did we do this?
First, we created a base formula. This formula gave Denise the freedom to pick out the ingredients that best worked for her so she could apply them to the formula to create her very own concoction. Then I facilitated the creation of these lip balms by walking her through the necessary steps.
I sprung our zoom meeting on Denise after knowing she had all the ingredients. I did this on purpose because instead of her rigidly following a set of instructions we’d reviewed well beforehand, I wanted the process to happen naturally.
Watch the video to hear our session
During this process, Denise felt she needed to restart because she thought some water had gotten into the beeswax she was melting. Then Denise took the risk of putting in some zinc oxide into her formula without either of us ever trying it before. This was her trusting the process. I simply boosted her confidence to give it all a go.
In the end, this is what Denise said about the facilitation process…
I had been wanting to make my own lip balm for quite some time and was lacking the know how and confidence to do so on my own. Kathryn gave me the gentle nudge I needed to start. She expertly facilitated the process from start to finish and helped me see that I could do it. Her kind and supportive instruction allowed me to feel comfortable to experiment with the base formula, to create my own variation with zinc oxide, for product with a natural SPF. I'm loving my lip balms and highly recommend collaborating with Kathryn. She is a gem! – Denise M., California, USA
2020-01-20: Surprise Art Retreat
With a week long trip planned to Hawaii, Denise gave me the keys to her apartment and told me to come stay while she was away for some much needed peace and quiet. I was pleasantly surprised when I got there and saw all the art supplies set up in her computer room with Cheryl Stayed’s book “wild” ready and waiting for me to read it.
What I love about helping others on their PLBTM journey is I not only assist in supporting them, but they return that same support a hundredfold as you can clearly see here. So I texted Denise and she replied telling me to use whatever I would like for a mini art retreat throughout the week’s stay.
This whole thing actually hit me by surprise because I thought back to the last time I’d actually painted like this. It had been 10 years! Way back when I was wanting to go into graphic design, but switch to healthcare because I didn’t feel confident enough to do what I loved.
Denise must have intuitively known I was ready to get back at it. I took the canvas and had a little heart to heart with myself saying that whatever was going to show up was what needed to come through.
Pictured left is how it started and every morning I’d wake up with the
sun shining on what looked like an eye with veins and arteries coming off of it.
I’d continue to add to it as I felt drawn to the piece over the coming week sending pictures to Denise throughout letting her know I was using her art supplies to the fullest. It made her very happy.
As I finished up the piece and introspected, I remembered how the eye is the window to the soul. A beautiful reminder that each one of us has goodness within ourselves and our eyes can reflect this purity helping others to see past the built-up, imperfect layers.
I decided to leave the painting in Denise’s computer room with the words “The eye is the window to the soul” written along one of the veins. It was meant for me to create, but it was meant for Denise to have. When she got home, Denise couldn’t believe I was going to give it to her and found a perfect home for it in her succulent, meditation garden.
I didn’t end up reading “wild” until a few months after. Some books are harder than others to get through and this one touched a little too close to home at that time. So it took a while to get the courage to read this incredible story, but I did eventually finish it. Oh and I’m pretty sure this artwork is going to become an inlay for a workbench / crafts table / dining table of sorts one day for Denise. Let’s see what ends up happening. Time will tell…
In Progress & Final Photos
