Crochet to Comfort

There were 2 magazines that “mysteriously” appeared in my mailbox a few months ago. It has been at least 8 years since I subscribed to a magazine.  I had no time to read the articles, didn’t want to spend money, plus I would need to dispose of outdated issues. My name was purposely put on a mailing list — a lesser form of harassment than stalking. The first magazine I cancelled, but I didn’t get to cancel the 2nd magazine.  It arrived Monday.

I looked at the table of contents, scanned the recipes and then spotted a short article that caught my attention: Handmade scarves for traumatized women.  I knew women who crocheted, knit or sewed hats for cancer victims, but I never heard of anyone making something for victims of abuse.   A young woman, age 29 (I’m over 50. She’s young to me) suffered from depression earlier in her life as a result of trauma.  At the suggestion of her therapist, she decided to re-explore a craft she learned as a child — crocheting.   Within a few months JoHanna gave away the 15 scarves she crocheted to other abuse survivors.

Now JoHanna continues to create comfort through crocheted scarves and offers them to girls and women through her website.

If you know of anyone (even yourself) who needs a special boost of comfort to continue moving forward through life, contact JoHanna.   She will wrap you with woven warmth to heal your head and heart.

Participation in art, crafts, music, reading have always provided therapeutic comfort for people in need.   JoHanna has found HER voice through her crochet hook and she creates scaves for strength to girls and women who have thankfully survived their episode of abuse.   Thank you JoHanna!

 

Parks and Peace

Find your peace and get healthy in one of our countries fabulous state parks.  With the wonders of nature all around us, there is always a way to bring peace and tranquility into your daily thought.  Relax at the river.  Gaze at the clouds.  Sniff a leaf.  Touch a tree.  The Shikellamy State Park has been a standard location for area residents in the center of PA.  Amazing new improvements were just completed this last summer.

Autumn at the Park

Read how parks improve your health and well-being – as researched through Cornell University, NY.

Music for Life’s Journey

I think I should have no other mortal wants if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.     George Eliot (1819-1880)

Music is one of the great art forms. It companions us along the journey of life and its effects can bring depth to experience and enhance wellbeing. It is associated with the people, places, events and feelings we experience each day and through the years. The effects of music can invigorate or calm us, excite and persuade us, call us to arms, inspire us and lift our spirits.

Music is one of the great art forms and art of any kind is a conscious use of skill, experience, judgment and creative imagination.
Music is ubiquitous. It permeates culture and has for thousands of years. Music is a powerful art form because of its accessibility. Technology has made music, of any genre, accessible. Regardless of technology, we all have a built in instrument: the voice. Music reaches into every domain and has a transcendent capacity. Each live performance of music is unique even when it has been performed hundreds of times before. Every new offering is a fresh moment in time and space.

There are some influences that shape the meaning of artistic experience. Perception is about how you view something, how you take in your surroundings both with your senses and with ideas. Perception can be influenced by eyesight, sense of hearing, spatial proximity and sense of processing. Preference is a preferred option, a greater liking or tendency to choose one thing rather than another. Experience influences preference. Culture, that is, the traditions, beliefs and patterns of behavior that you have grown up within may influence your experience of art. Education is part of culture and certainly the more we know about something, the more informed our choices can be. Mood can also shape our experience of art; this interaction is complimentary. Music as art has the capacity to influence and alter your mood.