Wowza! What a joy to sit down and chat with Addie about balance as a creative and what that looks like for me. We settled into her sweet studio in Cottage Home neighborhood this week for a chat. If you haven't visited Addie's studio yet do yourself a favor and stop by... You will be welcomed by a colorful speckle of flowers before you step into her truly magical space. When I walk into Studio Alchemy I can feel the love radiating from the walls and Addie herself. Sometimes life allows us the opportunity to connect to places with a depth of character that is so true and real we can feel it in our bones. This is one of those places. You can check out Addie's blog about our conversation HERE. While you are there you may find other Podcast topics of interest... I have several favs!
 A long time coming, the next solo show is HAPPENING!! The fire for creation and completion is burning in my belly and on the canvas. These beauties would like to share their messages with you this November.
Deep Within the Dream explores going deep within ourselves and our dreams, our imaginings... Collectively, 2020 offered us the opportunity to stop, to pause, to turn within our homes, to look a little deeper at what we have seen a hundred times before. Maybe we saw the Spirit of our daily life a little differently? This body of work explores my dive deep within and what Spirit emerged in that place. HUGE thank you to Melissa Bunce of Essential Wellbeings for collaborating to bring this show to life in her beautiful new space!! Artist's Reception TBA.  Today I am sitting with the deep importance of seeing each other. This can take some bit of practice as we can tend to see a reflection of ourselves or our past experiences when we are seeking to understand one another in this life. While the beauty of each other as mirrors is certainly a wonderful art for personal growth there is a deeper sweetness to truly seeing one another. That being said, it's okay to allow your voice and your Beauty Expression even if what other's see is very different from what you see. A surprising joy about being human is our ability to experience the very same things in very different ways. Much like how even if given the exact same artistic assignment each of us would create a very different piece of artwork in a very different way... and that is a very BeautyFULL thing! "Tending the Fire" Victoria Williams Steen 8x10 Bristol Board
 BIG NEWS!!! I have teamed up with our doctor (who is also passionate about recycling and reducing waste) to offer a wonderful program in our dental office. You can read about it here or on our website: www.detaildentalkids.com. I made sure to include some of my favorite resources for sustainable living. We CAN make a difference!! Small Changes for a Global Impact. We’re on a mission. "Here at Detail Dental Kids we care about our impact on the planet and what we are leaving behind for generations to come. Finding green options in healthcare fields can be a challenge but we are up for it! Thankfully, we aren’t the only ones calling for change. We are now working with Terracycle, Crest and Colgate to recycle dental items in our office. We also take the extra steps in our office to recycle daily waste in our back office and breakroom. Since the program began this year, we have already recycled over 250lbs!! Here’s the thing… We need YOUR HELP! Our waiting room currently has collection bins just waiting for your contributions. We can accept toothbrushes, brush heads, toothpaste tubes, mouthwash containers, floss containers and floss picks. Bring yours by and we will have a fun eco-friendly/biodegradable prize for you to say thanks for helping. So come on over and bring your recyclable dental items with you. We’re doing our part and appreciate you helping by doing your part. Together we can save our planet one toothbrush tube at a time!" #RecycleEverything #terracycle #doingourpart Want some other awesome ways you can do to help save the planet? Our Dental Assistant and MRC Myofunctional Therapist, Victoria is especially passionate about doing what we can to better our planet for the children we are handing it down to. She wanted to share a few of her household favorites for a greener daily routine:  A Little Better Bags Love these biodegradable alternatives to Zipping bags! These alternatives to traditional zipper bags are treated with a biodegradable, eco-friendly compound which allows them to break down at least 15% per year when deposited in landfills and in contact with biodegradable materials. Plus, they don’t leak or fall apart. From snacks to school supplies, these bags come in a variety of sizes perfect for storing anything you need. Just grab and go!  Reli Biodegradable Trash Bags These eco-friendly garbage bags are made from plant starch and EPI additives, and are eco-certified to breakdown by moisture, oxygen and soil 100 to 1,000 times faster than conventional garbage bags. They come in a variety of sizes, perfect to suit your needs and are a great, guilt-free option to traditional garbage bags.  Who Gives a Crap Well excuse us! But understand, we really LOVE this toilet paper! From the reduced carbon footprint to their mission to ensure everyone has access to clean water and a toilet within our lifetime, Who Gives A Crap is a great product we can really get behind. (See what we did there?) This awesome company offers customers options for premium toilet paper, bath tissues and paper towel products with plastic free packaging, AND they donate 50% of their profits to their cause. According to their website, contaminated water contributes to over 1 million deaths per year and toilets have saved more lives than any other modern invention. Learn more at their website at https://us.whogivesacrap.org/.  Cupless beeswax tealights.
Did you know beeswax emits negative ions that cleans the air of airborne allergens such as pollen, mold spores, bacteria, and some viruses? They do this by attaching to positively charged particles making them too heavy to remain airborne where they can enter your breathing passage making you sick. With these little tealights you get 100% pure beeswax and a lead-free wick? Yes, please! What’s more, you can use your existing candle holders again and again while enjoying the sweet smell of natural beeswax. Once the candle is burned down, place the candle holder in the freezer. Give it an hour or so then you can pop the old wax right out to reuse the holder again.
 I don't know about you, but sometimes I get overwhelmed by the responsibility shift that needs to happen to truly make efforts towards creating a sustainable way of living on our beautiful planet. I refuse to be a person who throws in the towel and says it doesn't matter. IT DOES MATTER! How do I do this effectively? I don't use all or nothing strategies. I recognize it will never be perfect and I stay committed to problem solving rather than commiserating. When I make it past that hurdle I see the little things I can do.
Usually this looks like small habits in daily life that add up to a lot over time. Most recently I started recycling stations at our dental office. Every week I bring home about 10lbs of recycling to recycle at home AND I wrote letters to several facilities who offer recycling of dental materials until one wrote me back. Oral B sent us a return label for all the dental recycling we collect in our office. So, if you are looking for a place to recycle your old tooth brush, toothpaste tube or floss container come see us at Detail Dental Kids! PS. Please be a carer, the world desperately needs carers right now. What is a carer? I carer is a heart feeler combined with an action taker with a dash of problem solver. Be that. Not just about the planet but about so many of the vitally important things in life.  This weekend I had a sweet opportunity to reflect on the transformational power of personal symbolism in dreams and a piece of what it has done for my life. There is a particular repeating dream that would come to me starting in my early 20's. Through personal reflection, I was able to connect this dream symbol to a particular health issue I had been diagnosed with. My subconscious was communicating with me about it. Through the years this symbol comes up in my dreams always keying me into something about this diagnoses/part of my body. Through alternative paths I was able to move to a nearly symptom free state with this dis-ease. I had a dream of this particular symbol, an aquarium, recently. I was scared when I first saw where I was headed. I thought, oh no, I have been healthy so long, is something wrong??? But when I arrived to the room all of the aquariums were healthy and doing well. There was an aid there taking care of everything. What a relief! When I woke up I couldn't help but feel grateful for my brain sending these reassuring symbols. The very first time I dreamt of the aquarium it was haunted by dying fish and a snake like creature with a human face. Scary to say the least. Dream Sharing is such a unique and personal experience that can be deeply enriching. Truly infinite outcomes and expressions come from this space. The healing work we can do all the way into the subconscious spaces of ourselves amazes me!
 Today as I embrace the sun in this commissioned piece I am reminded of the sun inside me... I see this as my solar plexus. This is a chakra AND an actual nerve plexus called the celiac plexus. This is a complex network of nerves (a nerve plexus) located in the abdomen, near where the celiac trunk, superior mesenteric artery, and renal arteries branch from the abdominal aorta. When you feel something in your gut, this is where you feel it! As I dance with honoring my own sense of balanced, personal sunshine, I see healing in my body and life. Striving for balance has been a life long journey. I am grateful to say at this stage my sun is shining strong and healthy. Also feeling grateful for being alive in a time where we have access to so much information and the ability to find unity in the medical and spiritual knowledge available to us. It is a wonderful time to be alive!
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AuthorVictoria Williams Steen, another human, here for a blink, sharing experiences, stories and teachings. Archives
August 2022
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