This Friday, September 4, I’m doing something I’ve never done before.
I’m having an art show.
For the past couple of weeks, those of you who have come into That’s the Rub may have noticed some unfamiliar artwork in the boutique. You’ve been getting a little preview of Articles of Connection: Between Shadow and Light, the collection I’ll be showing at Gather during Gallery Walk this Friday from 5-8pm. (116 N. Walnut Street, Bloomington, IN 47404)
Today, I hung the show.
And then I sat on a couch across the room and stared at it.
There it was. Something that had existed inside me, then on canvases scattered around my studio and at community events, then in the boutique at That’s the Rub, was suddenly hanging together in a gallery.
I felt excited.
Terrified.
Proud.
Sad.
Exhausted.
And underneath all of it, very, very alive.
This collection is about connection- not the kind that requires everything to be neat or resolved, but the kind that lets us remain in relationship with ourselves while life is changing around us.
Which, as it turns out, is a pretty good description of bodywork too.
The Body Is Part of the Conversation
After all these years as a massage therapist, I still find it remarkable what can happen when we give the body our attention.
Massage can't make the hard things in our lives disappear.
It can't make decisions for us. It can't fix a relationship, change an economy, answer the email sitting in our inbox, or tell us exactly what comes next.
But bodywork can give us a place to stop bracing against all of it.
For an hour or two, we can put down some of what we've been carrying.
Breathing changes.
Muscles soften.
The nervous system gets different information.
And sometimes, underneath all that noise, we can hear ourselves again.
I've spent much of my career providing that space for other people. Tomorrow, I'm the one getting on the table, it’s been a minute… okay less than a month… but it feels like an eternity.
The timing couldn't be better.
Because this week has reminded me that strength isn't always about how much we can carry.
Sometimes strength is recognizing when we need somewhere to set it down.
Articles of Connection
That idea lives throughout this collection.
Connection doesn't require us to have everything figured out. It asks us to notice what is here.
The shadow and the light.
The fear and the excitement.
What we're holding onto and what might be asking to change.
The person we've been and the person who is still becoming.
Maybe that's why making art and doing bodywork have begun to feel less like separate parts of my life.
Both ask me to pay attention.
Both ask me to be present.
Both remind me that we don't always need to force an answer.
Sometimes we need enough quiet to notice what is already trying to emerge.
If you've seen pieces of this collection while visiting That’s the Rub, I'd love for you to come see what they have become together and say hello. And if you ask me for a card, you’ll get to choose your very own tiny piece of original art to take with you.
Come find me. Come see the work. Come stand in front of something for a minute and notice what happens.
And if your own body has been asking for a little less carrying and a little more listening, we have appointments available this week.
Just in case you need the reminder to connect to yourself.
That’s the Rub,
Lisa
