re-imagine and re-story your life and work

Images, Triangles, You and Me
The tale is often wiser than the teller.
Recently I was storytelling in Namibia engaging with therapists teachers and cousellors who work with children at risk – courtesy of the Carl Schlettwein Foundation. The theme ? How creativity and imagination offer a path to healing. In one of the exercises I offered one of my ballads, Night Flight, which Erna Buber illustrated. The guiding question – how could you use this with children? Here is the poem and two of the images.

Night Flight

Last night as I lay dreaming
A Zebra came to visit me
I jumped upon his stripy back.
We soared towards our tree.
The tree grew near the window
of our house in Donkeydraai
It rose so high above the ground
Its fruit reached to the sky.
“What is your name?” I asked her.
“and why did you come for me?”
“My name is Zeb,” she answered,
“and just you wait and see.”
Just as we passed the branches
Zeb picked an orange with her teeth.
“If we are travelling all this night,
We’ll need a bite to eat.”
“Now you must keep this orange.”
She rolled it on her back.
I caught the juicy orange moon
and put it in my sack.
I held on to the Zebra’s mane.
As we rose, I stroked her pelt.
I could not see our donkey
who grazed the nearby veld.
We rose above the village
Where people sighed and snored.
Up away in the cool night air
Zeb flapped his wings and soared.
“I think dear Zeb you chose me
Because my shirt is striped?
My granny made it for me
In rows of black and white.”
“You are so kind to the donkey
that lives in the village below.
By the time that morning comes
There is a lot that you will know.”
The moon was full and golden
As we rose up through the night.
“If we get any nearer, Zeb
We’ll soar beyond its light.”
As Zeb and I jumped the moon
she wore a smiling face.
“Molo, dear sister” we greeted her
“Tonight you shine in space.”
Then we flew back above the veld
Near river, jackal and hare.
“These are your family too” Zeb said.
They all looked up to stare.
So we flew on in silence
as I peeled the orange moon.
We made up a song to thank the tree
And then we made up the tune.
Just as the sun was rising
we headed back to Donkeydraai
I still could not see our donkey
We dropped down to land nearby.
“The spirit of life is in everything,
in the tree, the moon, the hare.”
And as Zeb spoke she vanished
And the donkey stood right there.
And as I climbed back into bed
In the village of Donkeydraai.
I opened my arms to my family
in the river, earth and sky.
Dorian (Feb 2004)

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/March-2021-letter.pdf

1. Magaliesberg, Emoyeni Buddhist Retreat Centre Zen Pen: A Writing, Being & Meditation Retreat (bookings emoyeni.org.za )
   26-28 Feb 2021
   We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us to see their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our silence. (Yeats)
   Zen (Chinese chán ‘quietude’) invites us to be present, to live and write simply. Pen (Latin penna ‘feather’) refers to both practicing the art of writing and to the implement we use. It also invites us to play in a safe place – as in playpen. We explore the connection between writing and meditation. Both these states of grace slow us down so we can live in the moment. They increase our awareness and wake us up. We look with new eyes and hear with new ears. We write and meditate on the many changes and transformations we experience as we journey along the river of our lives. We consider how creativity steadies the boat and how writing helps us dip the oars into dark water so we may navigate the river safely.

2. Your Life, your Movie: 3 Sunday zoom(erang) storyshops-
   21 Feb 14 March 28 March
   Life is a tragedy viewed close-up and a comedy in the long shot (Charlie Chaplain)
   eImagine that you are directing your life as if it’s a movie and scripting (writing about) it. These 3 storyshops offer you an opportunity to do just this. While I suggest you enrol for all three, they also stand alone so each one will benefit your writing and story-telling. These wordshops will explore many questions.

What music score? Songs that evoke memories? Landscapes and seascapes? Places that hold energy for you? The architecture of the buildings?
Session 3: Synchronicities, Mysteries and Rolling Credits? – Sun 28 March
Synchronicities? Mysteries? What recurrent themes and repeated patterns? What symbols carry power for you? How would you represent them? What angles, lighting? What close-ups? How would you use the zoom? Where do you cut? What incidents do you leave off screen? And the ending… and rolling credits?
Payment:
SA: All 3 = R990 Single = R360
USA: All 3 = $140 Single = $50 ($ equivalent in foreign currency)

What music score? Songs that evoke memories? Landscapes and seascapes? Places that hold energy for you? The architecture of the buildings?
Session 3: Synchronicities, Mysteries and Rolling Credits? – Sun 28 March
Synchronicities? Mysteries? What recurrent themes and repeated patterns? What symbols carry power for you? How would you represent them? What angles, lighting? What close-ups? How would you use the zoom? Where do you cut? What incidents do you leave off screen? And the ending… and rolling credits?

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/March-2021-whats-on.pdf

Your life as a Movie

In Wally Lamb’s novel, Felix, a film scholar and lecturer, runs a Monday-night movie club in what was
once the Garde vaudeville theatre. Ghosts from the
theatre’s past appear. Lois Weber (1879-1939) a silent
film actress, screenwriter, producer and director gets
Felix to enter the screen to revisit his childhood in the
1950s and 1960s. Lamb writes:
“That’s what movies are, right? Thousands of still
pictures taken months or years or decades before—
streams of images burned onto celluloid that are
reeled in front of a lamp and projected onto a screen,
allowing us the illusion that they’re alive. Flickers of
light and dark. Brightness and shadow that won’t stand
still—like life itself.”

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Feb-2021-letter.pdf

1. Babushka Dolls and you inside You: Zoom(erang) Writing Wordshop
   Zoomerang? We hurl our words across oceans. They return to us with images
   hidden in the curve – like a boomerang.
   Sun 24 Jan 2021 SAST 15.00 – 18.00. USA east coast 08.00 -11.00 (14 max)
   What can these peasant crones [ teach
   us? Russian Babushka (crone) wooden dolls
   (stacking or nesting dolls), are rich in symbolism.
   They offer us wisdom about living and writing.
   Babushka has inspired other sets of dolls. e.g.
   Inside a Pushkin (writer of Russian fairy tales, love
   stories and ballads) nesting doll are other authors

• Tolsoy Gogol Turgenyev. The dolls connect us
  like the do-ray-me-far music scale to inner and outer harmonies as we
  unpack the different layers in our story.
  Payment: $50 (Payment secures place)
  for UK and European folk the equivalent US$ rate in your currency
  pay via PayPal through my email dorianhaa@gmail.com. ref: your name
  For SA participants (R360)

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Feb-2021-whats-on-1.pdf

Wherever you are in the world… join a ‘virtual’ group or enjoy one-onone
mentoring…talk to me about choices
I create a space that is safe, supportive and encouraging
[

1. Year Begins: 2 Zoom(erang) Writing Wordshops
   To take us through the gate of the year
   Zoomerang? We hurl our words across oceans. They return to us with images hidden in the curve – like a boomerang.
   a. My Collage, Images and Words to Welcome 2021
   Sun 3 Jan 2021 SAST 15.00 – 18.00. USA east coast 08.00 -11.00 (14 max)
   Collages open us to the patterns, themes and rhythms of
   our lives. They can be made simply with a number of
   pictures cut out from magazines and pasted on a large
   sheet. They offer us insights and surprises. And access the
   deep self.
   Explore your creativity and imagination and write about
   the emerging images from your collage – around the
   theme that chooses you. Through this ritual of beginnings,
   we become playfully present. We set intension, possibility
   and evoke courage.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Jan-2021-whats-on.pdf

Dear seeker of words and images

A word is dead when it is said, some say.
I say it just begins to live that day. (Emily Dickinson)

Losing and Finding Words
Words. What are all these slippery symbols? Strung together with gaps between them to create meaning and nuance? To elevate and deprecate? Inspire and insult? Soothe and disturb? Enough words have been written about words to encircle the galaxies. So as we approach another year, this letter offers a minuscule reflection on losing and finding words in one language of the many tongues – English with its vast vocab.
What happens when we begin to lose a world of words? Lose a language with its nuanced imagination? Through ageing, shifts in the culture, stripping significance as we rush into a future? “Words strain, crack and sometimes break, under the burden, under the tension, slip, slide, perish, decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, will not stay still.” (TS Eliot)

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Jan-2021-letter.pdf

1. The Drama of the Moment: Zoom Writing Wordshop
   Zoom: Sun 29 Nov 09.30 – 12.40 R340 pp (12 max)
   To the pens Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. Coming back is not the same as never leaving. (Terry Pratchett)
   Dramatic moments are not always about living and dying. When the sky
   cracks open. They are about the silent and vocal in-betweens – when
   change knocks on your your front door, when a dream calls you to attention, when you pack a bag. All writing, in whatever genre – life story, fiction, poem play – is about drama. Paying attention to the moment, to how the present changes, to what happens next. The impact of weather.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Dec-2020-whats-on.pdf

Dear seeker of words and images

So absolute, it is
no other than
happiness itself, a breathing
too quiet to hear.
(Denise Levertov)

The Education of the Heart

In Thomas Moore’s book (1996) he pays tribute to the sources
that he drew from in Care of the Soul, Soul Mates and The Re-
Enchantment of Everyday Life.
In this letter I wish to pay tribute to four wellsprings, flowing
from an underground stream that I draw from to quench my living
water thirst. They speak, as mystic do, of abundant life beyond
the illusion of borders. These books/poems/stories have been
resonating in the world for years before I stumbled upon them.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Dec-2020-letter.pdf

Dear seeker of words and images
I saw grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out, “It tastes sweet, does it not?” “You’ve caught me,” grief answered, “and you’ve ruined my business, how can I sell sorrow when you know it’s a blessing?” – Jalaluddin Rumi

The Cup of Grief
Grief keeps the heart flexible, fluid, and open to others. (Francis Weller)
Peter Fox, my friend, showed me recently. Francis Weller’s, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief. (see youtube video Newschool Comonweal Oct 2016) So grief arrives once again on this month’s newsletter radar.

To write of grief is to write of love- not only in their spacial co-habitation but also in volume – the galaxies of words that have hosted these two shooting stars ever since the first person scratched the first signs and symbols of sorrow in the sand. This letter is rich in a scattering of quotes that have inspired my spaceship’s navigation in such a fathomless cosmos.

The cosmos nescientia – the cosmos of unknowing. Here be skydragons, hurled rocks racing through space. From an unfolding galaxy of light years of literature, I share a scattering, a handful of grief stars. They remain constant even in the unseen dazzle of the joy of the day.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Nov-2020-letter.pdf

1. Zoom: The Rough Writing Road: Keeping a Journal
   Sun I Nov 2020 09.30 – 12.40ish R340 pp (14 max)
   Why the rough road? It’s writing that has not been crafted or edited.
   Spontaneous. Rough also as in rough days. It’s the place of beginning.
   Many writers have kept journals. The journal is a
   vehicle for my sense of selfhood. It represents me
   as emotionally and spiritually independent.
   Therefore (alas) it does not simply record my
   actual, daily life but rather—in many cases—offers
   an alternative to it. (Susan Sontag)
   Journals inform and support all genres. As a think
   book a plan book an open-hearted one. Instants
   of inspiration. As William Blake says, kissing the
   moment as it flies. This wordshop will lead you into
   keeping that vital journal.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Nov-2020-whats-on.pdf