HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope your holidays have been joyful and the new year finds you healthy and content!

[Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA November 2014]

Wow, can you believe we are in 2015!? I remember when 2012 seemed to loom in the distance and now it's almost a distant memory. And we are moving right along.

[Sunrise over coquina beach at Washington Oaks, Florida December 21, 2014]

2014 was a rich year. Summer was busy for me, between Highlands and Clayton, and it simply flew by. Come Fall, I headed west to answer a strong call I had been feeling for a couple of years toward the west coast. It's best not to ignore callings - the Soul can be very persuasive...

[Hill, San Francisco, CA, October 2014]

I prepared myself for the possibility of staying someplace in CA until Spring, and headed out for a workshop with Deane Juhan in October along the central coast in Beautiful Avila Beach. This time for 4 days of learning from and being further inspired by this master. It was a wonderful workshop, partly because it was a small group and afforded much hands on time. Also, it was an opportunity for me to meet some new folks from totally different territory.

After the workshop, I headed up to the Bay Area to explore what the calling was about. I found scenery from big dreams I had had a year or more before in this place that was so new to me. The beauty is astounding, and I made some sweet connections. I was able to find a great job in Mill Valley at the beautiful Evo Spa, but finding a place to live was not so easy. So I made my way home to GA, then soon took a hard right down to Gainesville, FL, led by a dream.

[Deane Juhan working with a student, Avila Beach, CA, October 2014]

As it happened, Deane Juhan was giving another workshop in Gainesville in December, and since I was conveniently in the neighborhood, I signed up for another 3 days of learning. And I'm so glad I did. Each time I have the opportunity to study with him, a little more of the work seems to sink in to me. The work is vast - between Deane's Resistance/Release and the foundation of Trager work that it comes out of - and I know I am still at the tip of the iceberg, even after more than 150 hours in his workshops. I am so grateful for these opportunities to learn and grow.

[treasures from the ocean, December 2014, St. Augustine, FL]

Now on the "first coast" in St. Augustine, I am enjoying doing some work for a couple of Chiropractors who are new in the neighborhood at Matanzas Chiropractic, and this week will be moving into an office part time within Deprey Chiropractic to keep my hands (and the rest of me) engaged and inspired for the rest of the Winter. I am also, of course, enjoying being near the ocean and in warmer climes during winter this year. I signed up to be a volunteer at one of my favorite places nearby, Washington Oaks State Park, in order to fulfill my deep need for natural beauty. This is a special place, if you're ever down this way...

Saturday when I was at Washington Oaks' beautiful coquina beach, I was inspired to write the introduction for an upcoming dream workshop I am giving down in Tampa.

“Dreams, like ocean waves, keep coming every single day - no matter what we do. Some are big, some small; some scary, some calm; some memorable, some (seemingly) inconsequential. Some bear treasures, others leave trash behind on the beach of our conscious awareness. Just like walking the beach each morning, inspecting the rack deposited on the shore, when we shift our gaze to our dreams each day, we begin to find patterns in what appears. Some days or weeks, the ocean brings just horseshoe crabs, other days nothing at all. Some days a prized shark’s tooth is uncovered, or a 16 million year old turtle bone. After a big storm, there is a plethora of artifacts to sift through — much like the way dreams bring us the detritus of our affairs.”

Until next time... Keep well!

Honor Woodard, BFA, LMT
FL MA 66301 GA MT 008365 NC LMBT 13263

Happy Spring!

Wow, each year I feel like Spring is more and more magical. It may be that my memory is just not as good as it used to be, or that this winter felt longer and colder than last, or it may be that life gets sweeter and sweeter the longer I am on this planet. In any case, what a beautiful, magical Spring it is! The air this morning felt warm on my skin and smelled sweet to my nose. I felt lighter and wanted to explore the yard to see who is poking up through the soil, whose leaves have unfurled, how many warblers and other feathered ones can I hear and how many lily pads have opened on my tiny little pond. Yep, I love Spring!

I am also happy to see people returning to the hills from far and wide. A few more folks coming into the office and I’m looking forward to seeing clients returning up in Highlands pretty soon. It’s going to be a busy Summer.

In the meantime, it was indeed a cold, long Winter here in the cabin. It was slow and quiet around here, as it normally is in Winter. But it was a rich time. I kept the home fires burning pretty well - breaking for a workshop in December in Florida with Deane Juhan - this time focusing on the upper extremities. As always, I learned so much from Deane, and slowly I feel I am integrating the work and my quality and kind of contact continues to evolve and change - becoming more fluid all the time.

In February, an opportunity came up quick for a 3-day Cadaver Dissection Workshop in St. Louis at St. Louis University. I jumped in the car next morning and drove all day to get there in time for an early morning start to another adventure in learning, this time into the body. What an intense and rich experience that was. I won’t go into the details, but to say that I now have a much deeper understanding of what I am touching when my hands are on the body. And a greater insight into what surgeons are working with and through.

Come March, an artist friend invited me to be Artist in Residence up in Paducah, Kentucky once again for a week or so. I enjoyed spending some time away in a big studio where I could put photos up and move them around on the walls. I don’t have space here at home to do this, and it is quite useful to spread out the images and see how they relate to each other. Some of them, like people, prefer to be alone, while others like to mingle with friends and relatives. I hope before much longer to put together one or more books for images and maybe words, too. But for now, my attention is back on the body work.



While I was in Paducah, another opportunity arose, this time an opportunity to work one-on-one with Deane Juhan, as he had some time open up in April. I was quick to respond to his invitation to do this work together, and the universe conspired with me in the form of free digs and a cheap flight to San Francisco, near where Deane practices. Wow. There is no way that I can possibly convey to you what it was like to receive several sessions of work from the master. All I will say here is that I have a new body. Nothing is the same, and everything seems to work and feel much better now. My body in space feels relatively weightless, and moving in gravity seems effortless.

As a result of receiving several hours of work directly from Deane, I have much better integrated - physically and intellectually - what I have been watching and learning about from him in all the workshops I have attended. And I am finding that I am able to translate this to my work at the table - so far with positive effect and feedback. My work has changed along with my body, and I’m looking forward to sharing this with you.

Happy Spring, and I look forward to seeing or hearing from you soon!

Happy New Year and Chinese New Year of the Wood Horse!

Happy New Year! I hope you are keeping warm and moving with ease during this cold, cold winter here in the foothills. I have certainly enjoyed keeping the home fires burning, but there have been moments in which I have longed for sunny shores.
It’s been a while since my last newsletter, so there is a little catching up to do.

Let me get one important piece of news up front, here, in case you don’t get to the end of the newsletter. I WILL NOW BE PRACTICING AT THE AMARA CENTER IN CLAYTON. I have made arrangements with the Amara center to use one of their treatment rooms and am really excited to do some work in their beautiful facility. You will still call me directly (or email) to set up appointments, but we will meet at the Amara center instead of here at the cabin. There may be times in the future when I will practice in both places, but for now you will see me in Clayton.

The Amara Center is located next to the Mountain Lakes Hospital off of 76 West, just west of Clayton. Follow the signs for the hospital, and you will find it just before the top of the hill leading up to the hospital on the right. If you would like to map it, the address is: 629 Ridgecrest Circle, Clayton, GA 30525. In case you need it, the phone # there is 7 0 6 . 7 8 2 . 4 0 0 9.

BRRRRRRR! It's been such a cold winter!
Have you been keeping warm enough? All the dry heat can challenge our bodies. It's so important to make sure we get enough water this time of year. And it's also important to get some sunlight on our skin to help us synthesize vitamin D.

January is a time for some contemplation about what we really want to bring into being this new year ahead. There is still time to get clear about how we want to do things differently this next time around the sun. Have you set some intentions around health and healing?

I have found over the years that making even the most incremental, tiny change can create powerfully profound results in n my life. What small thing can you begin doing that will lead you gently into a whole new direction? I love to ask myself this question because I know that with even what seems like the littlest effort, I will see big change and progress and before I know it my life is transforming!

The first week of December I attended another wonderful workshop with Deane Juhan (www.jobsbody.com). This time we focused on the arm and hand, which of course are connected to the neck and back and torso - so all of this was addressed. By now I have studied with Deane for something like 100 hours, and I continue to be intrigued by his teaching, his thinking, his work and his unique presence. What a phenomenal thinker and a passionate explorer of this work he is.

I am so lucky to have found a teacher this early in my career who inspires me so deeply. Of course this is partly because his work is so uniquely effective. I continue to be amazed by the immediate results of Resistance/Release. One of the reasons it is so engaging for me is that it really involves the brain and nervous system and the conscious awareness of the person I am working with.

This work is effective because it brings our awareness directly to the muscle fibers and forges a conscious connection between our brain and nervous system and our various muscle groups where we have some imbalance happening. When we learn how to bring balance back to these areas, we are training our brain to recognize and be able to recreate what balance and ease FEEL like. Now we can create new, healthier patterns and behaviors which lead to more ease and balance and more pleasant sensations in our bodies.

It was a great workshop, and I made sure to get at least one sunrise in out on Paynes Prairie, near the Florida School of Massage. What a magical, special place, full of wildlife and water and subtle beauty.

(those are alligators drifting along the surface of the water)

Because I generally don’t plan extra time to enjoy the locale, though, and because I was invited back down to a sound healing workshop in January, I planned another short trip, this time with some extra time built in for enjoying the natural beauty of the area. I enjoyed spending more quality time on the prairie - this time seeing wild boars, a wild cat, sandhill cranes and numerous other bird species, along with hundreds of alligators. No buffalo or wild horses this time, but I was satisfied, nonetheless. I also took part of a day to kayak on the Santa Fe river north of Gainesville. There are so many beautiful places in northern Florida, each with their own magic.

Back home in Rabun, I have been enjoying exploring the beauty of ice in its many forms, especially along the Wild & Scenic Chattooga River!

The dream time has been powerful (for this dreamer, anyway) this winter. I am still facilitating dream work and welcome your inquiries into consulting with me about dreams or helping you get a dream group up and going. This is powerful and healing work, and makes for an even more interesting journey through this great web of life.

I hope your 2014 is off to a healthy, happy and productive start and I look forward to furthering our work together this year!

Keep it easy and happy new year!