Hello! Thought it was time for an update on what Stories Love Music has been up to so far in 2016. We have been in the field conducting Stories Love Music sessions with elders with memory impairment. These sessions have been filled with miracles and I don’t use that word lightly. When I started out as a musician and story teller, I always thought that these creative vehicles, had the potential for magical transformation and now I am seeing it in such powerful examples. “ReAnimation” is the best word I can think of. An elder with memory impairment, their life and experiences can be muddled below the surface and they can seem disconnected from it. Music and Story telling sparks that world and re connects them and their feelings about it. This is a vital part of this work.Being that I also do Stories Love Music training sessions with Care Givers, I see from both sides, how we can be cut off from sides of ourselves and chapters of our lives. When care givers, both professional and family, reconnect with this, they see the value on focusing on this with their elder. In these workshops I speak about the idea of allowing the “pregnant pause” after music and stories have been shared. In these pauses, circuits can be connecting to form deeper presence and stories. When we interrupt or rush through these pauses with our elders, we can short circuit something trying to form. I have learned so many times that PATIENCE can bring these miracles.
Coming up: Exciting developments in New York and Nationally that will evolve and share this work even further. Stay tuned for this and as always love to hear your experiences!
Love, Ilyana