Skip to content
Reimagine: Life, Loss, & Love
This event was part of Reimagine: Life, Loss, & Love

A Tear and A Smile in the Eye: Lullabies and Laments

Hosted by Trish Watts

A Tear and A Smile in the Eye: Lullabies and Laments
In this workshop Trish Watts and Mary Diggins--singers, educators and longtime friends--explore the gift and power of lullaby and lament in our human experience.

Our lives are built on the movement and lilt of 'rocking'. At the beginning and end of life we are cradled in song. The lullaby beckons us back to the hearth of our existence and the lament expresses the cries of our soul.

In the first half of the workshop, we will explore memories of the hearth and home using soothing lullabies from Celtic lands and storytelling.

In the second half of the workshop, we will explore the landscapes of the lament and how it provides a container for threshold experiences. The lament has the power to hold the emotions that accompany grief such as loss, anger, rage, distress, lostness, sadness and fear.

Participants will have the opportunity to explore their own story. We will learn to sing together a selection of lullabies and laments from various traditions including Celtic, African American and sacred chant.

About Trish Watts:

Trish is a registered Voice Movement Therapy Practitioner, Singer/Songwriter and Community Choir Director. Based in Sydney, Australia, she believes passionately that ‘Every life can SING!' She specializes in finding the nerve to voice who we truly are whether at work, home or creating in between.

Trish is a published songwriter and recording artist with training in Music Education and Sacred ‘Spirited’ World Music.
She has offered sacred & creative retreats, workshops & performances the past 40 years. She has directed many a cappella choirs, including the Sydney and Cambodia Threshold Choirs (singers who sing beside bedsides in palliative care and recovery) and more recently the Music Arts School Community Choir of Phnom Penh. Trish cofounded the startup of a not for profit organisation -‘Cambodia Sings’ –‘rekindling the love of singing for all Cambodians’.

Her life work is anchored in the bedrock of ‘play’. She is trained in InterPlay ®, an improvisation-based community arts practice founded by Cynthia Winton-Henry and Phil Porter in the USA. Trish co-founded InterPlay Australia.

For more info check: www.interplayaus.com.au; www.iavmt.org ; www.vmtoceania.com; www.cambodiasings.org

FB: Trish Watts Soul Voice

About Mary Diggins

Coming from an Irish heritage, Mary was grounded from a young age in the beauty and passion of Celtic music and spirituality. She is interested in the power of creative ritual to give expression to the spiritual journey.

Mary's background is in education, creative arts, and Spirituality. She is an experienced teacher with over 30 years experience of working in school and community ritual settings. She is a retreat leader and is a trained spiritual director in the Ignatian tradition.

As a trained liturgist, she has worked collaboratively on pastoral & music teams in developing celebrations for the moments of life’s transitions.

Mary is a musician and singer, and has performed with choirs and groups for many years including the Celtic music ensemble "Ceridwen." During 2015, she was a member and music director with the Sydney Threshold Choir, which specialises in singing at bedsides in the palliative care setting.

Workshop Storytelling

Track:

Spirituality