Nineteen years ago in October, I embarked upon the most transformative and healing journey of my life when I began my Creative Journal Expressive Arts (CJEA) training year with Lucia Capachhione. She and her work and the beautiful CJEA community she created supported me through the deepest grief of my life when Cameron died the following spring.
It is with a heavy heart that I now grieve Lucia’s passing on Monday, November 28, 2022 at age 85.
Last night, some of us in the CJEA community gathered on Zoom to process our grief through clay work. The process and the two pieces that emerged helped me to express and release my emotions. The pieces themselves spoke volumes about the power of this work.
Lucia, I am forever grateful to you for all that I learned from you and for all the healing and growth your work brought into my life. May this beautiful community you created continue to thrive and may the powerful body of work you created continue to bring healing and growth to the world.
Go in peace, Lucia. It’s time to shine your light in other dimensions. The seeds you have planted here will continue to bloom in your memory.
~~~
The clay felt cold and hard when I began, and as I breathed my emotions into the clay, it became oh so heavy in my hands. I felt I could not hold it. I felt desperate to set it down.
I asked the feelings, what do you need most right now? And the answer was
To be held. To be honored. To be accepted. You know how to hold me now because she taught you to. What a gift.
My feeling continued, telling me its name was “Letting go,” and that it felt heavy, lifeless, cold, inert. It didn’t want to be here again at grief’s door. It didn’t want to feel grief again. The feeling told me that when things are too heavy, I can let go. It asked me to soften. It said, “Hold me. Let IT go, but hold me, coz I’m your sweet child.
And, of course, this is the core of Lucia’s beautiful body of work – the journey of healing and loving my own Inner Child. It is the Inner Child who feels grief – and all the other emotions – and that Inner Child just wants to be loved and accepted.
After wetting and softening my working block of clay, I broke it into two chunks and began to mold and shape one of them. This piece represents and holds my current feelings.
As the first clay piece began to emerge, it fell easily and naturally into the form of a mother and child, although the figure’s face was very bird-like.
I asked, who or what are you? And the figure replied:
Mother Bird. Your safe nest. Be still. I am always here. Let me soften your landing place. Let me be your resting place. You are safe. You are loved. I will hold/absorb your pain and emotional stress. I will give it to the earth so that, when you are ready, you can fly.
~~~
The second piece of clay represents a supportive quality that can help me through these feelings of grief. The chunk of clay that had been torn away from the original block was so misshapen when I began, but had a vague body and wings, like a thick, fat butterfly. I sharpened and detailed that form. It became a bird or a butterfly still in the process of unfurling its wings. The message I received was to know that everything is always in the process of transforming, a process that is never complete. I noticed and reflected that one wing seemed heavy and stuck to the table, while the other was lifting. A figure caught between Earth and Sky, a balance of Heavy and Light. That’s the nature of life, I guess. We are here to find the balance between. This piece told me it is ready for whatever is to come next.
Can you see? I am poised for flight. The wind is already lifting my wings.
~~~
I am so grateful to have known Lucia, this remarkable woman. To have been given these tools for inner work. To have found a creative way to live and to grieve and to heal. To know now how to comfort my own Inner Child. To find grace and balance between feeling grounded and allowing the wind to lift my wings.
Fly free, Lucia. You have my deepest and undying gratitude.
All emotions, including fear, originate with the Inner Child. Other parts of us may evolve and emerge whose only job is to worry. Remember this guy from the 
But at the core, it is the Vulnerable Child who feels fear and worry, because a child is dependent and powerless. A child depends upon his or her parents to keep them safe from harm, to get rid of the monsters under the bed and chase away the bogey man. A child does not yet have the capacity to study the situation rationally and then take appropriate action.
I can do the same thing for myself. Enter the Nurturing Parent. My inner Nurturing Parent’s only job is to nurture my Inner Child. It is the Nurturing Parent who speaks calming words to me, just as I would to my own children. She is the one who takes my scared parts into her arms and rocks them and sings to them. It is the Nurturing Parent who, in a situation like the current covid19 pandemic, sees to it that I am getting enough sleep, that I am eating healthy foods and drinking enough water. She is the one who takes me outside for a walk in the fresh air and sunshine. She is the one who says, let’s make some art, let’s journal about your feelings, let’s watch a funny show on TV, let’s listen to some music, let’s talk to that friend who always brightens your day. My Nurturing Parent calms me down and loves the fear out of me.
My Nurturing Parent’s more outwardly active partner is my Protective Parent. My Protective Parent is a Mama Bear who will do everything necessary to protect her cub – my Inner Child (and, by extension, me) – from harm. She is the one who sends my Inner Child to play in her room while she (the Protective Parent) tunes in to just enough news to stay abreast of the situation and the latest recommendations of the CDC and local government officials. My Protective Parent is also the one who says, “Enough. Turn off the news. Get off of Facebook. We know what we need to know and any more of this going down the rabbit hole is detrimental.” My Protective Parent is the one who reminds me to wash my hands, to stay home, to order the few things I need via the internet instead of going into a crowded store. My Protective Parent lets my Inner Child know that she is on the job and the child is safe.