Arts & Disability Ireland 'Connect-Mentoring'

Sometimes life manages to join (all) the dots...

Póilin reading the Arts and Disability Ireland
Connect letter

After a tough year of decline in health, and fighting the HSE (our national health service) to gain adequate support to be able to remain living at home, a very welcome large green envelope landed on my hall floor about a month ago. 

It was a letter from Arts & Disability Ireland with the amazing news that I was granted a Mentoring Bursary through the "Connect" scheme, to work with Dr. Emma Fisher, artistic director and puppeteer at 'Beyond the Bark'. Emma just completed her PhD in Puppetry and Disability.

I met Emma two years ago, when I was invited to give a talk at the first ever 'Broken Puppet Symposium on Puppetry, Disability and Health' organised by Emma. This event brought me into a whole 'new' astonishing world. A world I was part of but didn't know... Since this first encounter I have been invited to give talks in the UK, Cork, also via Skype in Brazil and Chile.  This mentoring opportunity is a beautiful continuation of the journey my puppets have brought me on... while hardly leaving my home.

While still in hospital in February, Emma and myself started thinking about the possibility to apply for this mentoring opportunity. Emma read the guidelines as at the time I was so unwell that I was unable to think straight. But the seed was planted.

Over the following 6 weeks or so, I carefully minded this precious seed. It grew. Writing the application, literally a few minutes at the time, helped me to 'find my brain' again. And to focus on something good, rather than the huge challenged my body bestowed on me.

Sending off the application was a triumph. I was grateful for having found that spark again. The spark in my creative brain. To having looked carefully at the application and to truly look my current state of health into the eyes. To find a way forward in my creative life. 

It ignited a spark of life, within my not so lively life...

To actually be awarded the bursary was/is a huge icing on the cake.

Thank you all at Arts & Disability Ireland for awarding me this great honour to explore what I can do with the puppets I have created over the years, but for which I have lost the ability to perform their stories.

We started the mentoring process last week with a Skype session. Tomorrow Emma will be in my house/studio. We are breaking down the meeting in very short sessions. The main objectives are to help me write a play or script for a film to tell the stories of my puppets/me. Also to explore alternative puppetry (from my usual puppets) for example shadow puppetry. For now I won't yet share the details of the themes which are emerging, but in a nutshell they will be about life with chronic illness/disability.

What is exciting for me is that a lot of my past creative work (some from before illness, which struck me 21 years ago)  my writing, my love of books, scribbles from years past, the need of solitude and meditation, a story I have 2/3 written, short videos I made of the puppets, notes I have gathered, the more recent challenges and 'rising from the ashes', all seems to be part of this new adventure. Life manages to 'join the dots'. 

During the past 2 weeks I started to compile scribbles and glue in images in a dedicated scrapbook. My 'storyboard'. 

Chuffed.

Chuffed to have this opportunity to explore how I can bring my story out there through this exciting medium.

Stay tuned!

Further reading

There are many puppet related blog post on this Blog, including talks from Brazil and Chile,  and on my website

See Support video for application to introduce my puppets

stepping out into the world

Stepping more confidently into the world of social media 

in turn made me Dance in real Life.

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting Mags Durand, who gave me some of her time to help me dip my toes into the world of social media with a bit more confidence.

Yes, I had a website for years.
I had been writing the occasional blogs for years.
But I was not that bothered if anyone actual read it. I liked writing. I loved playing with the layout of the blog, and the design of my website.
To have people actually find my explorations was not my biggest concern.
Facebook, well that was set up - and updated for me for a while- by Brendan in aid of the Fund-it Campaign. It had taken a LOT of persuation to agree to set it up.

But, as you might know, from the 1st of January I have been writing a daily blog.
(missed about three due to hospital adventures.)
Some days I write a lot.
Other days, I just share an image or a thought.

It is about showing up.
It is about sharing the good, the funny, the challenging. Illness, wellness, vulnerability, books. The Millions Missing ME protest, creativity, cats, and nature.
A mixed bag.
A mixed audience too. Which is lovely!

Thank you all who turn up here every day, and have told me that they are awaiting my few words in the mornings.
That is so beautiful to know, that although I don't leave the house too often, I am still in contact with the world beyond.
My deepest gratitude.

Readers respond here on my blog (which I love the most, as other readers who might visit on a later day, can read the comments too). Others respond or share on Facebook. I get private emails with questions, and well wishes on days when life is a little more challenging than anyone hopes for.

So, back to the days of mentoring.
I was blessed to have been assigned a person by the Local Enterprise Office who did not just have the technical expertise to bring to me, into my house, but to bring me Mags who understood my story. From the start there were some amazing moments of connection.
A connection about the feather which I had chosen to become the logo and symbol of my website and blog - Of me - The Little Wings, me.

The Twenty Minute Bird

Mags identified with the way I work. How I view the world.
She invited me to share the thoughts on my "Twenty Minute Creative Rule" with a fledgling group of Women in Business. I would be their first speaker.
"Sure!"
You know those kind of commitments, they seem such a great idea, until the day looms close...

Thursday was the day. I was to give my Twenty Minute Talk about my Twenty Minute Rule. Tell my story, and how this 'rule' can apply to anyone. Not to just those living with illness. But also for people in business.
It is really a case of time management.
And scheduling.
Knowing what you are going to do with your precious time.
To not get distracted by anything- most of all social media or the phone.
To be disciplined.

The bottom line is, that we ALL have a few of these twenty minutes (or whatever time scale works for you) in our day, or week. There is NO excuse not to follow your dream and complete a project.

So, I did it. I gave my talk. And received and awful lot more than I had to share.

This group of women told me that they did not see an ill person in front of them, or a person in a wheelchair. Or a sad person.
Louise, who works at the restaurant we had the meeting in (followed by a gorgeous dinner- thank you) is a reader of my blog. She sat in on the talk, and shared some of her views on my writing. It almost brings me to tears writing this. It was honest and open. Thank you. Also her thought on my home, my garden... All has a place. Mags told the other women about my book in a box. And how she reads a page every day - always the right page. Miriam, staff member of the IWA was my driver and wonderful companion for the event.

I was welcomed with such respect and interest.
Beautiful.
Thank you all.

Some experiences - even if I had to rest for hours before hand and a day, or days after - are just too beautiful for words.

Stepping more confidently into the world of social media - in turn made me Dance in real Life.

Thank you ladies - for the dance.

Birth Dance -  detail
© 2016 Corina Duyn

Birth Dance  © 2016 Corina Duyn