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November 04, 2004
First Quarter Graduation
Is there an easier day than the last day of the quarter?
Heart Circle was amusing: we all went around for each person and said one word or short phrase that made us think of the person. Some things said were "surface", others were heartfelt, and all were fun.
Erica showed us this crazy video... some TV show on Puerto Rico, and the spa she worked at was featured. There's a 3 second clip of her massaging Regis. The hilarious thing was, when they cut to it, the "angels singing" background music.
I cracked a "massage therapist to the stars" joke, and then she began naming all the famous people she's worked on. Not so joke. I'm glad she decided to come to Heartwood instead!
Anatomy was cool. We did a lot of paperwork and such at the beginning, course evals, etc. We went over some material, watched some of Dr. Ackland, and finished up with circle.
All kinds of circles, some more participatory, others led; some more verbal, others more meditative. Soyka has preferred, this quarter at least, leading us in visualizations. Today though she opened it up and a student volunteered to lead it. That was an interesting change of pace.
I'm on the fence about whether it's ok to talk very generally about what we did with that circle time, but since it's a question, I'm going to choose to not talk about it. The general rule is that it's ok to talk about one's own circle experience, but what one hears from others stays confidential.
After science, a carful of us went down to the Harris General Store (about 15 minutes away) and bought some champagne and wine.
The plan looked like this: dinner upon return, champagne immediately after, then graduation, then after-party.
I put the champagne in the deep freeze in the treatment rooms, surrounded by frozen gel packs. By the time dinner and dessert were over, it was nice and cold.
Dinner was amazing... I couldn't believe they served shrimp cocktail. Dessert's chocolate cake was too rich. I couldn't finish it all.
The graduation ceremony took place in The Temple. It was an odd mix of traditional and, um, not so traditional. On the traditional side, the founder and president got up and talked. On the not so traditional side, the entire thing opened with tribal drumming instead of elevator music.
Each of us in our Shiatsu class were called up to receive completion certificates. Deep Tissue received certificates also. Then they called up the quarter's graduates. A couple 3-quarter MTs, some Work Study graduates, and some folks completing their Internship with Paul.
I enjoyed seeing our instructors up there. Amy MC'd. I'm so glad she's teaching one of our classes next quarter. Erica & Kassy, Warren, Kristen & Paul, and Soyka each had to get up there to present certificates.
For closing, Surya did something ("What the fuck is she doing?" is the story of Surya's life, as told from an outside perspective) scheduled on the Program as "Offering". I'm not sure how to describe it, so that makes it indescribable I guess. Imagine an amazing performance: one part speech, one part spoken word art, two parts body language.
As it ended, the graduates each arrived on stage with a candle, the drumming and singing bowls got very soft, and those of them who felt inclined shared a small prayer.
All in all, I quite enjoyed it. Most interesting and shortest graduation I've been to.
Posted by Josh A. at November 4, 2004 10:50 PM