This is a great post from Lori Greenburg’s Beadnerd blog on creativity and setting yourself up to be more creative: http://beadnerd.com/?p=606

Just back from an evening out in the studio with my friend/apprentice after a long hiatus. I wasn’t in the mood to make anything new, wasn’t even sure I was in the mood to light my torch, but did. Noodled around with a new colour – Kryptonite and made a few colour study beads and talked about life and teaching.

A good evening. I was reminded again just how important it is to keep up one’s practice, so that when inspiration strikes, you’ll have the technical skills to execute your plan. Next time in the studio – take one technique and work with that technique only for the entire evening.

I have been following Gretchen Rubin’s “Happiness Project” tweets. This one from a few days back really struck me:

“New Secret of Adulthood–obvious, but worth remembering: If I don’t really want something, getting it won’t make me happy.”

Find out more about this great FREE OT event:

World OT Day: Global Virtual Exchange

Long days
Short nights
Green surrounds us
Let this bittersweet summer of love
Begin

I have been thinking recently about a colleague’s claim that one of the key roles of occupational therapists is promoting health literacy. While I ‘m not convinced that this isn’t /shouldn’t be a key role for every healthcare provider, it does seem likely that OT’s will be key players in helping clients organize the information they are getting from various HCP so it is easy to access and use to inform their daily routines. It is easy for people to get over- whelmed with the reams of paper that accompany each prescription, every new diagnosis and each treatment program. Add to that all the paperwork for lab requisitions, and in countries/situations where one is dealing with insurance companies and/or the legal system, the paperwork produced by those systems, and things spiral into chaos quickly, stressing even the most organized person.
What’s out there to help a person get a sense of control back?

I will be looking at paper and digital systems and report back.

I’ve talked about iDance before in this blog – here’s another integrated dance company in Alberta – Momo.

Courtesy of Jane Packota , I found this site that describes the GlassBook Project. What a powerful way to tell stories! I think I will explore this further as a way of working on understanding mental illness in my introductory mental health class. I’ve been thinking that the way we’ve presented client stories has gotten a bit stale – mostly narrated movies or PowerPoint/Keynote slides. These glassbooks are such amazing works of art and require both creators and viewers to dig deeper. And, of course, as both someone who creates with glass and someone personally interested in narrative and in stigma-busting, these really speak to me. Wow!  Thanks Jane.

Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage.

Anger that things are the way they are;

Courage to make them the way they ought to be.

~St. Augustine~