Listening for Wonder — Katheryn Trenshaw

Increasingly I am enjoying being a bit bolder and more true in my life. Not in an, “I’ve got something to prove” kind of way. More the opposite. More tender and true. More vulnerable and connected. More honest. More presence.

I was recently asked about my biography, which is increasingly funny to me, though I understand completely why this person asked. They wanted to know more and knew nothing of my 35-plus years worth of work. And I answered with a perfectly good answer: “I am a trauma-informed somatic-based art therapist and artist.” It is true and accurate. But it bothered me. So I mulled it over and realised that what I wish I had also said was the more poetic, and perhaps more accurate, answer: “I listen for wonder.”

And it is true. I look for the wonder and beauty where we are told there is none, like in the worn-from-years-of-use spilled and “spoiled” paint splotch on a bathroom floor (see background to the quote on beauty above) that makes the most marvellous texture. Where can we find beauty? Everywhere if we are looking from and for curiosity and wonder.

Apparently, the Irish word for curiosity translates* into three words: ‘Watch with wonder’. I love this. It sums it up so perfectly. And curiosity is much needed at this time, perhaps like never before. Curiosity connects us and reminds us of our already connected and whole nature. Curiosity and wonder are healthy and promote well-being.

I also feel strongly that finitude, gratitude and the fundamental uncertainty of being alive increase our capacity to watch and see and listen with wonder. And if all that is not a definition of well-being, I do not know what is.

*from Pádraig Ó Tuama (host of the fabulous Poetry Unbound)

And speaking of beauty, It’s been fascinating to me just how much new thinking has come up around the In Your Own Skin film since the premiere party and screening. Part of this is down to the anticipated becoming actual - I hoped it would reach people in a way that the screening has proved it does.

But I was especially struck by the fact that the more personal and specific we are when we reveal our inner stories, the more relatable it is to more people. Vulnerable, soft, personal truths from depth of presence. So touching.

Similar to Kintsugi pots and Wabi-Sabi living, there is so much more beauty in the ‘imperfect’, asymmetric, the real, the authentic and the wild. Where is the ‘broken’ or ‘scarred’ in our lives that are actually very beautiful?

Happy Thanksgiving if you clebrate it and thank you. Thank you for joining me on this journey and for each and every bit of the beauty that you are - already and always.

PS My 2 color lithograph, She Carries Her Moon Always, is featured in the exquisite 2023 Wemoon Diary. Its is also the subject of this Blog on radiance She Carries Her Moon Always .