E-Notes

May 2008

Hello Expressive Friends,

It’s so great to be back in NC after a six month sojourn in Magdalena, NM. My husband, Micheal Jokinen, and I were on a mission to build a compact adobe house on our land which is in the Bear Mountains. What a thrill! Last summer, we designed the passive solar house while primitive camping on the land. We got our well drilled the next day and everything fell into place for us to relocate last Oct. We lived in a mobile home for the winter. The wood stove kept us cozy in the cold, snowy, and windy winter. A local family, the Oteros, built the beautiful soulful house. We moved in two weeks before we left to come back to NC. We will be here until Oct. and then return to NM for six months.

It was good to return to Health Touch today to meet with clients. I look forward to seeing you and invite you to come by the office on Tuesdays or Thursdays. I also welcome working with you in an expressive art session. I continue to help speakers and presenters enliven and humorize their public presentation. Two clients are now enrolled in the “Certified Humor Presenter” course.

I will be offering the workshop, “The Power of Gems” on Friday, May 16 from 9:30 am-12 noon. You will interact with a vast array of the gems I love. We’ll create gem and rock art and everyone will take home semiprecious stones crystals. Also, I worked with the Navajos in NM to create beautiful bracelets, necklaces, and rings. I designed the jewelry and Vergie Jake of the Alamo Navajo Reservation (beside our land) created the beautiful turquoise and gem stone jewelry. It was exciting to work with a lady who puts prayers and healing power into each jewelry art piece. This jewelry will on display and for sale. Please print out this flyer and help me get the word out.

I’d love to hear from you and catch up on your life. Find a way today to experience nature and bring beauty into your life.

Have a wonderful expressive day, Ruth Hamilton

Beat the Heat with Humor & Expressive Arts!

How the Piedmont Wildlife Center helped me in my effort to save a baby bird.

It was no laughing matter last week when the temperature hit 104 F. Being the energy conscious being that I am, I took charge and raised the thermostat to 85 degrees. Then I started searching for creative ways to cool off. Some of the methods I tried were the wetting-down methods: the trusty ice water spray bottle, the mister on the garden hose, and a cool shower. And then there were the internal cooling methods: sipping ice water, crunching ice, and eating frozen fruit grapes and bananas. I also enjoyed an Arctic animal nature film and let the penguins and polar bears create cool imagery for me. You might also enjoy Planet Earth, BBC Video, narrated by David Attenborough.
Another of my favorite cooling off methods is water coloring with cool colors while sipping peppermint tea. The cool colors of blue, green, turquoise, white and silver gray work wonders for creating a relaxed mood. These colors are calming and restful and can create imagery of cooling nature places. To watercolor, youll need a large paint brush, a large piece of paper, and an inexpensive translucent water color set. Then you just paint away, covering the paper with cool colors. Soon the color effects will work on your brain and youll feel cooled down.
Playing with colors is a fun way to broaden your self healing techniques. I developed the workshop Watercolor for Emotional Healing to help everyone discover the power of colors. This workshop is offered on Friday, Aug. 17 at Health Touch, 3500 Westgate Plaza, Durham, NC 27707. At this workshop you’ll be dancing with color and taking a color bath, and also learn the watercolor wash method. Call me for more information at 919-544-2370.
Jane Austin said it well: What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps one in a continual state of inelegance. I say that heat and elegance don’t mix so just try to be creatively cool.
Happy daisies, Ruth Hamilton

How the Piedmont Wildlife Center helped me in my effort to save a baby bird

Hello Friends and Family,

Last night while I was cooking dinner, I heard a loud thump on the patio door. This is a sound I do not like to hear for it is usually a bird in distress. And there is was- a baby woodpecker clumped on the deck. We watched him for an hour hoping he was stunned and would fly away. Then my mothering instinct took over. I picked the little bird up and started hands on healing. Then there was the medicine dropper with droplets of water and finally pealed grapes. He devoured all of these. Next it was the shoebox and dish towel bed. Since the flicker couldn't use his legs, this was a good idea. We decided this morning to seek professional help. My husband, Micheal, Goggled "Durham NC Wildlife Rescue" and found 11 animal rescuers with 3 specializing in songbirds. I called a volunteer who directed me to take our little friend to the Piedmont Wildlife Center which is only a block down the street.

Piedmont Wildlife Center is an emergency hospital with a veterinarian on staff and friendly volunteers. The receptionist told me that the bird was a Northern Flicker and not the red belly woodpecker that I thought. There are five other flicker babies at the hospital now. My little bird is #1831 and I can go to checkup@piedmontwildlifecenter.org to follow his progress. I was also told that I should not have feed or watered the bird as sometimes the food gets caught in his throat. The better approach would have been to put him on a heating pad set at low. I don't feeding hurt my bird but I won't do it next time. This little bird will be cared for until it can be released into the wild. It may have to be euthanized if this is not possible.

I am most impressed with the Piedmont Wildlife Center and will support them with a donation. I also invite you to consider the good work this center does and see if this is somewhere you want to volunteer or support. And remember good information about animal rescue is the first step to keeping animals "positively wild."

Lover of all things wild & wonderful, Ruth

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