Transitioning Light

October 19, 2024

Dear Friends,

Here we are: Autumn’s Center, deeply darkening skies both morning and night, punctuated by brilliant blue so clear, it feels weightless. Glistening remnants of leaves fall like nature’s glitter to reveal the structure of our trees, ever present.  The leaves that remain on trees at this point seem singular, fortified with the color and brilliance of all those trees that have come before them.  I am in awe and reverence to this turning of seasons.

As many of you have been experiencing, this seems to be the year and season of very deep changes and shifts , either in one’s personal life or in the lives around one and certainly on the world stage.  We are becoming more and more finely attuned in what it means to be in harmony and what the stakes are.  In many, it calls forward a radical aliveness.

I have had deep and rich summer and fall.  In  August, I travelled to the upper Peninsula of Michigan, to the region and land of Lake Superior and smaller but not lesser, Fire Lake, where I engaged in an expansive creative experience of  The Space Between, the film I created with Andreas John and Evan Premo last fall. We performed and presented it in three locations in Michigan.  Evan Premo, Andreas John, Laurel Premo and I.   Such an expansive and satisfying experience.  We hope that the film experience will be performed here in Vermont sometime in the months to come .  Here is a link to the trailer.

"The Space Between" Trailer

I have been quiet during summer and early fall, and am now resuming the Family Constellation workshops. I cannot adequately describe the magic, the numinous quality, the ancestral and spiritual threads that are reworked and rewoven and what it feels like for an ancient entanglement to be freed, what it feels like for dry aching heart to be suddenly washed in love. The first one of the new year is scheduled to happen on  Saturday, January 18, 2025, in Montpelier.  RSVP to the Event on my website or contact me directly to register.  

RSVP Here

Wishing you all a soft warmth as the season continues to turn,

love,

Jan  

Beyond the Eclipse

Painting by Jan Sandman 2024

And now...we are moving forward in a way that feels to me as though we have gathered into the core of our beings, something essential, light filled, sustaining, nourishing and real. The heavens showed us something , opened the curtain by closing it and reopening again. No one can really describe what has happened and yet, we all know something did. It is refreshing to be in the presence of a state of being that we cannot place words upon, cannot describe. It calls forward humility in the face of natural wonders.

We live in and with natural wonders. We are natural wonders living amongst each other. What if we could behold each other as such? Behold with wordlessness and reverence the wonder that we all are. And be beheld in such a way. I am holding this possibility like a gentle flame in my heart.

In March, a beautiful gathering of people came together for a Family Constellation workshop. I can describe the nuts and bolts of what happens in these gatherings but I cannot describe the magic, the numinous quality, the ancestral and spiritual threads that are reworked and rewoven and what it feels like for an ancient entanglement to be freed, what it feels like for dry aching heart to be suddenly washed in love. Although I cannot at this moment remember the source, I read a beautiful article about the generosity of being a representative, about how unique it is to truly step into the shoes, the field, the living situation of another human being who is unlike yourself. It creates a physical, emotional and spiritual understanding of a slice of life that one would otherwise not have. It creates understanding, compassion, resonance. It expands us.

I am offering another Family Constellation Workshop on Saturday May 25, 2024 from 1:00-5:00 in Montpelier. RSVP to the Event on my website or contact me directly to either participate as a representative or to present your constellation.

Click Here to Register

Love in the deep complexity of this time,

Jan

Breathing in the Light

As February unfolds, morning light, evening light begins working itself into the edges of our days. Still cold, still winter-- but now bright, with the promise of more to come. I have been quite busy with creative undertakings this fall and winter that are coming to completion this spring. To be engaged with Creating on any level, from the most obvious to the most subtle is an affirmation of life itself, a movement of hope and faith, an act of bringing forward that which is new, as yet untested, unfettered by habit or pattern.

Evan Premo, of Scrag Mountain, composed a beautiful piece of music inspired by one of my paintings, Inside the Breath, which will be performed on Friday March 8 in Montpelier and Saturday March 9 in Waitsfield. CLICK HERE for more information.

Filmmaker Andreas John, Composer/Musician Evan Premo, and I have been immersed in creating a film entitled "The Space Between". The film invites the viewer to enter into the mysterious interweaving of three artists working with the unnamable essence of the Creative process. The creation of this film has been indescribably mysterious and surprisingly joyful. It is a treasure to watch the process unfold. The film experience will premiere on March 14 at the Green Mountain Film Festival Gala opening. CLICK HERE to stay up to date with the Green Mountain Film Festival. Once the Gala is announced I will share more information.

At the beginning of February, I hosted a Family Constellation workshop, which was attended by a group of people coming together with open hearts and open attention. We moved deeply complex family challenges with attentive caring and love. In the process, virtual strangers come together and leave connected with tender real bonds and a deep understanding of each other. The Family Constellation work never ceases to amaze me. Each participant receives on profound levels. It doesn't matter if you have participated many times or if it is your first time, you will leave changed by the work.

I am offering another Family Constellation workshop on Saturday March 30 from 1-5 in Montpelier. Please email me or text me to register or if you have questions. Here is the link to the event.

FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS: RESTORING THE ORDER OF LOVE

March 30, 2024, 1:00 – 5:00 PM EDT|The Clothespin Factory

Register Now

Wishing you all joy as the Light continues to return.

Breathing in the Light,

Jan