making meaning making special

My first response to this prompt was - "finding inspiration in the isolation.... that's easy!"  It is difficult to feel uninspired or isolated in the midst of the Castlemaine Festival!  I reflected on the things that I had seen that inspired me, that I felt a sense of resonance with -  I felt it in my chest, in my breath, in my heart.  Little houses made by kindergarten children, creative conversations, adolescent power, light falling on faces, sadness, joy, beauty, movement, boxing kangaroos on a sea of light and pink....  Art creates connections - in viewing the work I feel heard, I am listening. I am very very lucky.  I made some wee notes and wee sketches:
 
My second visit to this prompt inspired a different response... "but I don't feel isolated."  I reflected on how lucky I am to know plenty of practising and qualified arts therapists.  I feel that my work is respected among peers from other disciplines, I live among many many creative people, my obsession with creativity is respected and shared.  Its the arts that is central to all of this, because throughout my life and my work art creates connections.  It helps me to truly listen to my clients, to reduce their interpersonal isolation.  I reflected on the times I have felt isolated: being stuck at home with young children, stuck with the drudgery of running a full house of people, having to focus on trauma and case notes rather than arts therapy research and practises...And in all of these environments I realised that it is my creativity that has saved me, it has connected me with others, it has made sense of my work, it has bought me joy:  Taking photos of my kids socks in all the stupid places I find them rather than continuing to yell at them, showing my new boss the therapy room after a child has 'trashed it" and saying "this is what I do and it is meaningful and creative and important, this is what trauma looks like - got it?" and of course he got it because it was the child's voice he was viewing, choosing to have an arts based focus to every aspect of my work, choosing to meet creatively with friends.  So I reflected that the source of inspiration in the isolation is me and my creativity and what my use of it and openness to it brings to my connectedness with others.  Given this, I chose to make a self portrait.  This is a tactile self portrait - eyes closed, feeling my face as I drew it.  The big surprise for me is that it was a breath thing, a feeling thing.  Its was a very very powerful experience.  It was deeply intimate.  I listened, I heard.  So, as it turns out, art doesn't just connect me with others, it connects me with me!