Birds, Puppets and Books - Thoughts about reprinting 'Flying on Little Wings'

Well, I thought I finally made the decision to reprint Flying on Little Wings  as I only have a few copies left. I looked at the cost again, and the reactions from people who own this little book. 

Flying on Little Wings book

Recently I receive a letter from a lady in Donegal who wanted to buy a copy for her 92-year-old mother. She only found second hand books for way too much money, online. I checked. Around €20 or $20 for a book which sells for €5.

I posted a book to this lady, as a gift, and received another gorgeous response, written on a beautiful card with image of a sunset at a beach in Donegal. (Made by a friend of hers, but no name given)

She wrote: “… The book [Flying on Little Wings] is a treasure… & that is how it will be each day when we see the birds!”

A new shop in Bantry called Forest & Flock, ordered 15 of these books yesterday (and my other books, which are flying of their shelves - thank you Bernie and Maeve).

Anyway. Yesterday I was Very Sure I would reprint. 

An edited version, with some new photos of the birds in my garden; which are waiting to be shared.

I created a new Design page and added the images of the old book to get me started.

Last night, while lying on the couch (a place I am found a little too often these days), I scribbled notes in a well-used ‘viewing copy’: good page; new photo; add new quotes.

I asked readers who told me over the years what this book meant to them, for short quotes for back cover.

Senator Grace O'Sullivan with her copy of Flying on Little Wings

Senator Grace O’Sullivan wrote: “This precious little book is one of my treasures. It sits on my bedside locker where I dip in an out of it for solace.”

Another acquaintance was going to ask her brother “as it helped him so much at the beginning stages of his healing.”

I feel responsible to continue to be the messenger of the wisdom of the birds. 

The book came about from a time in late 2010, early 2011 when I needed (again) to re-evaluate how to continue, how to find ways to be well. The birds told me. For example: ... to be brave, even when you are vulnerable.  I created a handmade book, which was later printed as this 10x10cm little book, small enough to carry nature’s wisdom in one’s pocket.

page from Flying on Little Wings

So, reprinting was going to happen. 

Phyllis who is helping me in the studio as my Creative PA over the summer, looked and listened to my plans this morning. We looked at the new bird photos I had. She listened to the stories I have about these birds.

She is all for a new book. But a Totally New Book. Intertwining my life with the birds in my garden. Which are totally and utterly linked.

So, reprint?
Or a new book?

My mind has been busy with creative ideas since this communication.

My mind also acknowledged the stark truth of life with M.E. at present. In all reality I have not been well enough to do a whole lot else than engage with the bird life outside my windows. At times it is even a challenge to hold the camera still enough to take a picture. The fact that I thought to be going back into the studio and create these amazing new puppets, telling the story of M.E. and Disability, are too far out of reach at present. I hope those day will return. For now I do go into the studio for a few minutes most days, but I have not created a whole lot to show for. Other than finishing the Butterfly Puppet (attaching the wings). 

I have to concede that I am actually not as well as I would like to be.  Not something, which I happily admit to. It makes me sad.

Makes me sad that my creative brain has awoken about ten weeks after my return from the UK, but my body has not yet caught up.

Lying on the couch earlier, I had to face that horrible fact.

But, I can write (again).

Write about the birds.

Perhaps about the Puppets too.

And about the truth of living with M.E. and Disability. In a much more open and honest way that I have perhaps done in the past in my books.  I often like to focus on the good, the positive, or shroud the challenges in gently poetry. Maybe it is time to ‘come clean’. And describe what twenty years of living with M.E. has brought me. Where I am at present. How I am still fighting the system. Fighting to be heard and supported.

Perhaps the book in the making is about all of the above, with the help of the birds – who still teach me so much, and the help of my puppets, who in a funny way taught me to speak up.

As for Flying on Little Wings (second edition), well, if I can miraculously raise half of the reprinting cost (total cost about €1300), I will reprint an updated version.

Alternatively I can make it into an e-book, but it surely does not have the same appeal as the little printed book.  (The size, shape and full colour does not lend itself to the print on demand format.)

So, if you feel strongly about the reprint - please let me know and I will set up a funding page.

And Yes, I will write another book. I was heading that way anyway, I just didn’t know the birds would be in there too.

Flying on Little Wings indeed.

Thanks for listening.

If you like to get your hand on one of the remaining copies of Flying on Little Wings, please see my Shop

Podcast and Talk related to This Ability Exhibition

Two links related to the recent Dis-ability This Ability exhibition on the one page:

Talk by Grace O'Sullivan at the launch of the exhibition, and the Podcast of my interview by Bernadette and Stan Phillips on Tramore Community Radio.

Other recent podcasts and talks related to my work:

• World in View 2018

• Podcast of life with M.E. on Cocoon Life 2017

• World in View with Bernadette and Stan Phillips 2016

• WLR FM Geoff Harris about Life Outside the Box 2016

• Michael Harding launch of Into the Light at Dzogchen Beara 2015

• Sister Stan's talk at the celebration of Into the Light and my work at the Sanctuary in Dublin 2016

• Talk with  Pádraig Naugthon, (Arts and Disability Ireland) on his Arts & Disability Radio program on Near FM (7.45 minutes into the program) 2015

• Interview with Sean O'Rourke, RTE Radio 1,  2015

There is no such thing as dis-ability ...

... if you take the dis out of dis-ability. [views expressed are in connection with the group who are part of the exhibition]

Today I visited the Dis-ability… This Ability exhibition in Tramore. I wanted to see it in my own time, to take in the energy around the exhibits; to really look at the work, the location, the story behind it. And to explore my own story within it all.

Ann O'Grady and Karen organising the puppets

It is just about a week ago that I travelled to Tramore with Artist Anna Moore to set up the exhibition. It took us and fellow IWA member Ann O’Grady and her sister Karen over two and a half hours. We divided up the tasks between the hanging of the prints and paper art, the display of the puppets, and the various books, notebooks and postcards. Pleased, but exhausted, we departed to meet again at the launch the following day.                        

I stayed at a hotel that night, I'm so glad I didn't have far to travel! My back felt like it had about 6 twists in it. My legs, in serious pain, were close to being put up for adoption, and I was totally exhausted. But we were all very pleased with what we had achieved! 

The way Ann and Karen displayed the puppets from the puppet - project  all tell a story: A story of music, fun, and traveling abroad by plane, or on a butterfly. Of life, and being a proud Irish citizen. The story of being a reporter but also of stillness and even flirting!

Biker and Baker from the puppet-project,
by Mark Foley and Sarah Lennon

They show the story of our lives, lived with illness or disability - by stepping out of the Box to share the story of our Ability! The paper art, books, cards, poetry, knitwear and paintings on sale all tell the same story- just through other forms. 

I am so immensely proud of all the work that has been created. Proud of my fellow IWA members - proud how they all jumped into the deep end with me all those months ago to create these puppets, to create a story, to create such amazing works, way beyond anyone's expectations. I am honoured of the trust they endowed me with. The trust that I could guide them through this eight-month period: from handling the first piece of clay to the filming and sharing of our story.

I feel deeply privileged to have had this opportunity. To realize that, with the help of the IWA staff, I could teach again. It had been 17 years since I led my last official workshop - in a group home with teenagers. I still think about that workshop which I had to abandon because of sudden illness. I still want to go back there and finish the puppets with them. But knowing that 17 years has passed, these young lads and lasses probably have kids of their own right now…

Anyway, back to the present.

I had doubts in my physical ability to curate/run this exhibition. After my solo exhibition in July my health was badly challenged. I was concerned this would happen again. But, it has been a week since the exhibition opening, and I am reasonably okay. I was able to sit in a car, to meet a friend at the gallery, and to write! I did have support at the IWA for this exhibition, and I didn’t had to create any new work, other than the notebooks, but a lot of organising and overseeing still came down to me. 

Listening to the speech by Grace O’Sullivan last week  (see youtube link below), and talking to other visitors to the exhibition, I realised how this exhibition is actually a logical step in my own journey:

To bring awareness that we are more than wheelchairs, we are more than our illnesses. We still own our personalities from before illness or disability changed our lives. And even if our personality changed because of an acquired brain injury, we still have our place in the world. Yes, we don’t occupy the same ‘space’ in society as before, but does that make us any less equal?

For those who have a disability from birth, they have as valuable a space in our society as anybody else. Unfortunately, this is not how we are often treated.

People talk over our heads. Decisions are made for us. Not by us. We are at times treated as toddlers. This saddens me beyond words.

Ann and Corina after setting up the exhibition 

In my own case, yes I use a wheelchair, or a mobility scooter, or walking sticks. Sometimes I can walk for a  short distance. I wobble when I walk. Sometimes am I well, sometimes I am not.

But I am still the person who worked as a volunteer in a cultural centre as a teenager; studied and worked as a nurse, as social care worker and as self-employed artist. And who, years after becoming ill, had several solo exhibitions and published four books; as well as completing a year of disability studies, and guiding the Life Outside the Box Puppet Project. All while living with limited energy, dealing with several challenging conditions within my body, use speech-to-text software to write, a brain does not always function as I would like it to be… And that is just the tip of iceberg of living with M.E.

But I am still me!

Last week Grace O’Sullivan said - while looking me straight into my face - that I don’t accept my dis-ability: “You are absolutely motivated and have a strength of character, and are on everyone on case … you are setting the bar high. We as a nation in Ireland, are a bit of ‘cap-in-hand’. You won’t settle for that. Keep pushing the barrier!”

Grace also raised the point about the need to have people with disabilities visible in the community. “Everyone in our community is the richer for it if we can live in harmony with each other … as shown here, there is no such thing as dis-ability.”

So, with this exhibition, with Grace’s talk, with the encouragements from visitors to the exhibition and through social media, to readers of my books and blog, friends new and old, I am catapulted into trusting that I am on the right track within my own development.

That I have to keep on traveling and exploring the road life’s circumstances has brought me on: to share my views about life with illness/disability with the wider public. To speak up for others who might not have this capability. To highlight our Abilities!  For the way I see it, we have many!

Thank you for coming along on my exciting journey.

Now I will rest, and I hope you will take a few minutes to listen to Grace O'Sullivan, and that you will visit or share the exhibition.

Best wishes to you all.

Anna, Ann and Karen pleased to be finished setting up the show.

See Puppet Blog for more images and abstract of talk etc.

See my website for My art and books and SHOP.