Monday - a new beginning

A new day,
a new week,
a new challenge,
a new opportunity.

I like new beginnings.
They (can) scare me a little too.

Today I will be teaching my second puppet making class. Start of making the faces. A fascinating part of the process.  Dolls/puppets create themselves... they often end up looking like their makers.

Today I also have to finish preparation for the talk at the Puppet Symposium. (Putting it onto a memory stick, is pretty much all there is left to do!)
Almost there.
A talk about puppets in my life, and how illness in a way brought me to facilitating the Life Outside the Box puppet project, and all the amazing things I witnessed during the project.

still from my talk how illness changed my life

still from my talk about the 'Life Outside the Box' project

still from my talk about the 'Life Outside the Box' project

Yes I am excited to be among others from all over the world who have an interest in puppets, health and disability.

Yes, I am a little worried too:

The logistics of travel; Working out how to best use my limited energy; Can I leave for a rest and not feel I am missing out. Staying in a hotel, and getting around (Thanks Pascale for being my PA!). Standing (sitting) up and sharing my story among this amazing line up of speakers. A little daunting, and yet I know I can do it.

Johnny Dwyer is ready to go!

For all the details of the Symposium, please visit the PUPPET BLOG where there is also a list of all the speakers and their brief. Speakers from as far as (I think) Chile, Germany, Japan, UK... and goodness know from where else.

for example:

Dr Melissa Trimingham: Puppetry and autism

Yasuko Senda: Heart-warming Smile Puppet Association

Emma Fisher: The Broken Puppet: puppetry and disability 

Poupak Azimpour: Listener dolls: a case study of women recovering from cancer

Gibdel Wilson: Puppets talk, communities listen

Aaron Jean Crombé: Self-acceptance and puppetry

A new era has begun, or just the next logical step in my story!

Talk to you soon.