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The
interesting thing about this session is that they kept asking for my
songs—I think the staff had been playing [my recording]
Special Delivery or something. Anyway, it was a nice change of pace. Harry’s
example of A Little
Bit of Kindness–
when his
daughter buttons his top button in the morning. I
showed her how to do a transfer print (she had some thick paint on the
surface). I laid another sheet of paper over the top of this one and
pressed…there were areas of color that had transferred to the new
sheet which delighted Stacey. She kept showing people her “transfer
print.” One
woman was so bored and difficult I hoped she would opt out of the
project. But she stayed and, amazingly, became very docile and
satisfied. She told me she had done ceramics for thirty years. It was
very rewarding to see her extreme negativity disappear as she became
involved in the project. I
had a GREAT time at Ross Boddy today. Wound up getting one woman
to play guitar for 15 minutes -- for the first time in 30 years -- and
hearing her rendition of My
Silver-Headed Daddy! Lots
of happy images being evoked from childhood memories--jumping rope,
swimming, swinging in tires—the images of movement seemed to energize
the women. There was laughter, a general feeling of light-heartedness,
in spite of the sadness of Michelle’s departure. One
gentleman told me after the session that, although he was diagnosed as
manic-depressive, after the music, he didn’t feel depressed anymore! A
nice way to start the weekend… She
wheeled over her chair and told me she usually doesn’t do that but
that she felt such strong need to tell me how much joy the program
brought her and the other participants…how valuable it was to know
that someone like me cared about old people like them…her words were
rays of sunshine that lifted some shadows from my heart. |