I wrote this blog just after WinterWax last January. As I schedule and look forward to WinterWax2018 I think it apropos to actually publish my thoughts 🙂

In love.

trish

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Something has occurred to me this week-

in and around the cleaning and sussing and studio-ing since WinterWax participants departed-

courage is a group effort.

The EncaustiCastle has cleared of the presence that 12 women gathered together around a common table, or two, creates.

But it has not cleared of the wonder, awe and inspiration. 

In yoga this morning-snow tinkling the windows as the heaters blasted to keep the hot yoga hot-I heard in my minds eye

Courage Craft: It is a group effort.

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We gathered, the twelve of us, around two tables last week; the studio table and the dining table. It can be argued where the most impactful testimony manifest. If others are like myself, it was equally weighted between both.

But what I am carrying more readily in the forefront of my brain this week is the dining table.

Lessons of vision casting and goal setting and strategic planning for me come easily, but often pair unwittingly with doubt, fear, even panic. 

This week’s had me living in the converse of the emotions last week’s WinterWax walked in-courage. This week sees doubts; even panics.

What have I committed to by telling a table full of women my most audacious dreams?!

And more to point, What now, must I do with these visions I’ve shared, goals I’ve set, and planning I’ve strategized?

And even more deep, Do I have it in me to do this again?!

For you see, this is not the first time I’ve stepped out with courage and faith, only to ram up against doubt, fear and panic…

Group effort. 

I wrote to the group this morning of my mind’s trippings this past week and where it put me; in seeking not just the business advisory circle Brenda Tassava’s fabulous workbook Ignite Your Vision  encourages but to the collaborative effort of a Courage Circle. This is, for me, the ultimate reason we gather; women, some men as well, around a common table and share our deepest visions. We Craft Courage together. 

I can do all the imagining and vision casting and even goal setting alone, in the solitude of my prayer chair, my table-the lap before me. But I can only hold onto these visions, and remain steadfast to these goals, if I have courage.

And for this, I need a circle, a courage circle. 

Surrounded by others stepping into their own visions, tackling their own goals, we help craft the one, most valuable, asset to our visions’ manifesting; courage. 

This is what WinterWax has shown me as the group of like minded have left, and I became alone again with my own thoughts running rampant around doubt and fear; the week of WinterWax is my way of creating a space where I can cast my visions, and craft up the courage to go after them.

For me, the WinterWax week, and what I intend and expect from all the retreats I manage- even the guest instructor retreats-is to build up a community of courage-crafters.

Sure, our hands may be busy painting and torching and cutting and spilling and sawing and dyeing-this is a right and good, honest and true reason to gather-but our minds and hearts are building courage. Sending roots down deep and spreading branches out wide to reach each other; bolster each others courage. 

Courage Crafting.

This was the environment of WinterWax.

This will be the environment of Bi-Annual.

This is the environment of EncaustiCamp.

This is the environment of the EncaustiCastle.

It is a space where beauty happens with hands, and wonder with hearts and minds.

I get to.

Now in this space left behind where 12 women gathered, set intentions to do, and left so wonderfully changed,  I enter. Ready to hold onto what was, and grow it into what is and will be.

I get to.

Craft courage. 

I do.

in love.

trish