On the left-hand side of the main road when you’re just coming into Stinson Beach (at 3415 Highway 1), there’s a sweet little shop called The Healing Arts Store, full of books and art and all kinds of feel-good paraphernalia. It was just what I needed to welcome me into my mini-vacation last Saturday.
Just outside, my attention got pulled to a shed with an open door. On further investigation, I found out it’s a sandtray room – just sitting there open to whomever wants to visit. Sandtray is a form of expressive arts therapy that helps people give expression to things that don’t lend themselves easily to words. Basically, there’s a table with a box built on top that’s full of sand. All around on the walls are shelves and shelves of all kinds of miscellaneous items you can put in a basket and bring to the table. Once you’ve gathered what’s calling to you, you just start putting them down, moving things around, letting out whatever wants to emerge, telling some story that comes from deep inside.
The rest of the small grounds were lovely, too, with delightful surprises everywhere I looked. This is another one of those places that makes me so appreciative of the people who love something or some place so much that they offer it up to all the rest of us souls wandering around without expectation of anything in return. Thank you for the gift!
The same woman who runs The Healing Arts Store also has a wonderful and beautiful online resource, The Arts and Healing Network, that has tons of information on all things related to the healing potential of art.
Yesterday I gave my Aunt Peggy, visiting from NYC, a quickie insider’s tour of our town. In Hayes Valley, we stumbled on an interesting storefront 580 Hayes Street and decided to check it out. Inside, we found two delightful, hopeful, inspiring photography and art exhibits about aging.
Yeah!
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