A dream image from 15 years ago surfaces: I’m crossing a trackless desert, the Nevada desert, trying to escape both toxic smoke from oil fires and radiation from another nuclear test explosion. My car is being driven by my son, an inexperienced driver, but I choose to trust him and am horrified to see two army officers standing in our way ahead of us. Though there is nothing but desert all around us, no road, we have no way to go around these men and we stop the car. One of them is U.S. army and the other is a Middle Eastern, bearded, turbaned and robed man. The Middle Eastern man gently picks up our car and with utmost kindness changes the direction we’re headed by less than a quarter turn.

"Now you’re on the right track," he says.

I feel my entire being is now headed in the right direction, the road of my destiny. Every foot fall, every decision, every thought has a context I have not known before. I experience awakening happening everywhere I go. It’s as if my glasses have been cleaned, my hearing expanded, my expression liberated. The shift, so basic and elemental, yet life affirming and boldly challenging, leads me into the unimaginable future. Though I hardly recognize it as a ripple in my interior, this quarter turn in direction is so potent as to alter my sense of Self.

Somehow this relates to a friend’s comment. She had just experienced death due to an allergic reaction to anesthesia administered for a routine medical exam. About the fine line dividing life and death, "It’s just a slip," she said, "just a gentle slip between the two."

I ask all of us to slip gently into acknowledging the fragile brevity of this thing we call living by making the most of our own lives, risking everything to experience a more loving, humble, passionate aliveness. I know life not as a puzzle needing to be solved but as a mystery to be embraced. I ask you to know NOW that you are enough. I am enough as I am to inspire other humans; I am enough as I am to speak for the voiceless; I am authentic enough as I am to awaken realness in others; and I know that communion with any being other than myself expands my own vibrancy, my own gratitude. And it is the same for you.

I ask you to use yourself as a tuning fork – to vibrate and give forth ululations...to be the canary in the coal mine. May my human voice add meaning to the chorus of the Northern Hemisphere’s wild things – wolf howl, eagle song echoing off cliffs, cougar snarl, bee buzz, canyon wren's trill trolling dark slot canyons, infant's cry, winds’ whisper and rivers’ burble, may all our voices sing to what is fundamental to wellbeing – a world rich with surprises, sacred by its very nature, plump with paradox and complexity, where everything is recognized as intrinsically valuable, inextricably intertwined.

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workshops

September 25th begin - BodySinging -The Art and Soul of Being Alive

If you are interested in bringing dreams to life, discovering purpose, freeing creativity and feeling more engaged with living, then this course is for you, EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU CAN’T SING.
BodySinging moves us far beyond the possibilities provided by ordinary speaking . When we BodySing, we experience what it means to be authentically alive in the moment. It’s as SIMPE as that —
and as LIFE-CHANGING!

WHAT: A five session participatory creative course meeting once a week. Drawing, mandala making, authentic movement, and poetry writing will be part of the process along with other experiences inspired by the group and guided by our singing. There are no expectations and full-hearted support to explore our edges and change our notions of limitation.
WHEN: Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 9 PM beginning September 25th and concluding on October 30th. ( No class on 10/09/08).
FEE: $155 includes space, facilitation and art supplies. Full fee requested at time of registration. Payment plans can be arranged.
TO REGISTER:
Call Deborah:406-726-0030
or email her: Deborah@athanorarts.com
WHERE: Zootown Arts Community Center ( ZACC ) at 235 North First Street West
near the Orange Street Underpass.

Deborah has been inspired by Chloe Goodchild of The Naked Voice ( www.thenakedvoice.com) ,
Shawna Carol, author of The Way of Song - a Guide to Freeing the Voice and Sounding the Spirit
and Michele George, composer and singer with audio tapes “River of Song, River of Life “,
along with others who will weave their songs and ideas into the sessions,
including you.

October 5th - A Council of All Beings: A Creative Opportunity to Reconnect with
Life-Sustaining Community

Feeling connected to the web of life is good medicine for us all.
The Industrial Growth Society makes it difficult to remember
these connections, so twenty-three years ago, John Seed and
Joanna Macy developed a ritual process called a
Council of All Beings—maybe more vitally necessary today
than it was then. Join Deborah for a day of identifying
more deeply with others with whom we share this planet.
We’ll learn first from listening to each other, then we’ll
experience an Ecstatic Wisdom Posture to help us identify
with another life form. We’ll make a mask to embody
“the other” and sitting in council learn from their diverse
vantage points, inspiring our own creative awakening
and developing a more passionate clarity about our own
contributions to a Life-Sustaining Society.

WHAT: A day long creative retreat .
WHEN: Sunday, October 5th, from 10 A to 4 P.
FEE: $40 includes space, facilitation and art supplies: Full fee requested at time of registration. Payment plans can be arranged.
TO REGISTER:
Call Deborah:406-726-0030 or email her: Deborah@athanorarts.com
WHERE: Zootown Arts Community Center ( ZACC ) at 235 North First Street West near the Orange Street Underpass.
WHAT TO BRING:
sack lunch or finger food to share, journal and pen, scissors, glue or tape, any special embellishments you think might be useful. I will bring lots of stuff too. A pillow or chair back for sitting on the floor. A FIST SIZE PEBBLE.

October 19th - Archeology of the Soul: Ecstatic Wisdom Postures and Luminous Mandalas

We all have hidden within, images and symbols which have significance only to us.
If they don’t come out from hiding, we lose their wisdom and diminish our vitality.
Yet, thinking ourselves not creative, we often don’t know how to unearth these buried treasures.
Join Deborah for an introduction to Ecstatic Wisdom Postures—the visionary, spiritual practice that has guided her being for the last fifteen years.
With Postures as our map and compass, we will play with black paper and colored pencils
to bring our own symbolic power-source to light.

WHAT: A day long creative retreat and inspirational sojourn.
WHEN: Sunday, October 19th, from 10 A to 4 P.
FEE: $40 includes space, facilitation and some art supplies: special black paper on mat board and a white Prismacolor pencil. Full fee requested at time of registration. Payment plans can be arranged.
TO REGISTER:
Call Deborah:406-726-0030 or email her: Deborah@athanorarts.com
WHERE: Zootown Arts Community Center ( ZACC ) at 235 North First Street West near the Orange Street Underpass.
WHAT TO BRING: sack lunch, journal and pen, ruler and compass if you have them.
Six basic Prismacolor pencils:
905 aquamarine, 918 orange, 930 magenta, 913 spring green, 916 canary yellow and 932 violet. Michaels has all of them at $1.49 each.  About $12 for pencils .