What a wonderful week we had talking about walking, celebrations, the creative process and ocean life! We connected through conversation, creative word play, art & music making!
Kathleen offered a program on Wonderful Walks. She shared video footage of the many beautiful strolls she’s taken around our city and we shared some of our favourite walks.
We had fun playing with descriptive words to come up with our “walking monikers":
A Purposeful Explorer: Someone who pays attention to their surroundings instead of thinking about their issues.
Mindful Roamer: Someone who pays attention to their surroundings in a mindful way.
Social Meanderer: Someone who enjoys bumping into strangers for a quick chat, especially if they are walking their dog.
Solitary Strider: Someone who prefers to stroll in solitude to take in the beauty of the natural environment.
Creative Trekker: Someone who enjoys both urban and natural walks. They love novelty and are always on the lookout for something new.
Slow Stroller/ Contented Ambler: Someone who might have their hands clasped behind their backs walking at a leisurely pace, stopping often to enjoy what they see.
Meandering Observant Stroller: Someone who enjoys getting lost. They observe their natural surroundings and slow down and pay attention!
We thought we could write a book with all these lovely walking types. We decided the book will be called “Purposeful Meandering”.
In Robin G's class, we spoke about celebrations. We jumped right in, and started talking about the celebration of marriage.
Here are some wedding stories we shared:
To make a proper English wedding cake (a fruit cake) you have to prepare the cake several weeks in advance. The cake is massaged in brandy and this soaking process is repeated for several weeks.
I was happy with the arrangement of “no arrangements” for my wedding. We were very unconventional, it was led by a group of hippies!
I had a traditional wedding with an organist, the wedding march, and my wife joined me at the end of the aisle.
One member said “I lived through it!”
We thought about why people tend to cry during celebrations?
It’s a big occasion, that’s why it’s so emotional.
It’s important to distinguish between happy tears and sad tears. People are overwhelmed with joy!
How full of hope graduation celebrations make us feel - young people who are at the beginning of their adulthood, launching their lives.
Songs associated with Celebrations:
Mendolsohn's Wedding March (one of our participants used this traditional wedding song in his wedding)
Robbie Burn's Auld Lang Syne to help mark New Year's Eve
Sir Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance used in processionals for graduations
We ended our class celebrating our beloved Simon Law’s 60th birthday. We captured Simon’s spirit with this lovely caricature, and offered our well wishes. See the video below.
In Steve's class Steve and Simon shared their love of making music, and how they tap into their creative process. Everyone shared how they get into the creative process below:
Steve played a well known tune “Take 5” by Dave Brubeck. He shared that this musician consistently inspired others by his natural ability to improvise and to be in the moment.
During the session, the group went through the creative process together and produced an amazing album and booked a world tour!
Here are The Bitove Method Band tour locations:
Broadway - Carnegie Hall
Scotland - The Royal National Mòd
England - The Royal Albert Hall
Ireland - The National Concert Hall
Jerusalem
New Orleans
LA, California
San Miguel, Mexico
Trinidad
Finally the tour will end in Chicago.
After all this touring, we all agreed the last stop is to our beds!
In Robin D's class we talked about the ocean.
We shared some ideas and opinions about the ocean:
Shells are like snowflakes and fingerprints - each one is unique
You can listen to the shell and hear the sea
When you hold it up to the ear and it talks to you – it’s delightful!
I like “soap water” waves
I don’t like the sharks
We watched a video about about hermit crabs lining up to exchange their outgrown shells.
and someone said "Nobody's too old to expand!"
After watching a video of The Girl from Ipanema and Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka dot Bikini, we wrote a song about the beach in a Bossa Nova style.
Here are the lyrics:
Shake your hips, shake your hips
123-456
Come with me, let’s take a dip
Do re me so fa la tee
Do-n’t stand still
Shake your hips, pucker your lips
Tear up strips
Of other people’s clothes
Do re me so fa la tee
Join us next week for more engaging and inspiring classes! Book here: www.thebitovemethod.com/calendar
And if you haven't had a chance to listen to our latest podcast interview on Harmonising Healthcare, have a listen to a short excerpt below (the full episode is here).