Good Luck?

How is our art therapy group different than a craft group? Many of the planned activities could be categorized as either art or craft and yet there are some differences.

   We can use our celebration of St Patrick’s Day as an example. The women were provided with an abundance of green and gold papers, stickers, wire and magnets. They were asked to create either a fridge magnet or a Good Luck charm. After introducing the theme “What does “good luck” mean to you?” I spoke briefly about the phrase “the luck o’the Irish”.

   This phrase has always been a puzzle for me because the Irish people have traditionally been anything but “lucky”; caught in cycles of foreign invasions, poverty and starvation. Some of the women spoke up about when their ancestors had emigrated to Canada for a better life. I shared what the internet had to say about the phrase…. Apparently, it comes from the gold rush days when many of the best gold mine claims were made by Irish immigrants, perhaps due to the hard work and endurance rooted in their heritage.

   We often use background stories such as this to invite the women to think a little deeper about our theme. The preparation of this material often takes as much time and effort as gathering supplies. We do this even knowing that for some participants the activity will remain simply an item that says “good luck”. There are many factors that go into any individual’s reaction: personal history, level of comprehension, state of health, etc. For some women getting to the group on the right day, at the right time is the victory

   This is also the reason we usually keep the planned activity simple with an infinite number of creative solutions. Detailed specific instructions to follow are more apt to create a mood of frustration than the playful experimentation we prefer. A wonderful example of this was the week we tried to make origami swans. Although the instructions seemed simple they were beyond comprehension for many of us. What saved it from being a disaster was the laughter and shared problem-solving as we worked on them together.

   We want everyone to experience some level of success with what she creates. If an activity requires advanced art skills many of the women are predisposed to reject any possibility that they might be able to do it well. We offer simple patterns, stencils, tracing paper, etc as tools of the trade and try to avoid judgments of right or wrong.

   When we discuss the theme together there is a balance of encouraging the quiet women to speak up and limiting the time given to the talkative ones so that we have time to hear what everyone needs to say. People are allowed to “pass” As expected, the sharing portion of our time revealed a wide range in what constitutes “good luck”; from deep superstition to personal faith in divine interventions. Several women spoke about how we can make our own luck with our actions and attitude.

We ran out of time but the personal stories were still unfolding as we packed up to leave. Two women who had chosen not to do the activity lingered to apologize. They were assured that their contributions to the discussions were more than enough to qualify for the therapeutic component to our session.

   What does “good luck” mean to you? Is there a phrase or greeting that you prefer?