Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT August 1st 2025

31 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at the piece “Le Repos” by Marc Chagall, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about something carried that is visible or invisible.”

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (“Leave a Reply”), to keep the conversation going here, bearing in mind that the blog of course is a public space where confidentiality is not assured.

Also, we would love to learn more about your experience of these sessions, so if you’re able, please take the time to fill out a follow-up survey of one to two quick questions!

Take the Survey!

Please join us for our next session Monday August 4th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Le Repos by Marc Chagall

Credit: Marc Chagall

31 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT August 1st 2025”

  1. Michael Williams's avatar Michael Williams

    I carry a burden that you cannot see

    Though now that I’ve told you

    I know you will look for it

    In my face, the way I hold my hands or the angle of my head

    Maybe you will listen for it in my voice, the way I laugh, or stutter

    Or perhaps you will stare into my eyes and find it there

    And maybe you will know.

    Or maybe you will simply ask me how I am

    And I will say, “Ok”.

    And you will say, “Me too.”

    And we’ll smile knowingly

    And continue talking as if there was nothing there at all.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
      • Michael Williams's avatar Michael Williams

        Yes, Michele. So true. I was thinking that and also how we don’t know the stories behind the voices or faces until we truly become engaged with the other. I work with elderly people in a care home and I’m always amazed at the stories that emerge if I simply show curiosity and offer my time. Unfortunately, so many older people don’t get this. I am sad at the number of people who die and take their stories unheard with them.

        Liked by 1 person

      • michele348's avatar michele348

        yes, Michael, there is so much wisdom to be shared if only we take the time to listen or if we have the courage to give voice to it.

        Like

    • Trevor Hebert's avatar Trevor Hebert

      This gives me some thought of “If you tell someone theres something wrong, they’ll find it even if there was nothing wrong to begin with.”

      Loved it, Michael! Thank you, sir!

      Like

      Reply
    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Michale, it was nice to see you back. I think your speaker and mine were on the same track. Often the voice is speaking but we don’t look/listen for it. Careful attention goes a long way to connect but it does require we slow down a bit. When we don’t our response will too often be “I’m OK or Fine” and “Me Too” and totally miss the point of the question. Thank you for sharing this narrative.

      Andre

      Like

      Reply
  2. Leila Segal's avatar Leila Segal

    Thank you! What a warm and beautiful session. Generous facilitators and participants. Here is what I wrote:

    I’m talking about shame and love and my husband whom I carry – all three. My husband I carry on my back across the bridge to this world, which I now must inhabit alone; and shame and love which I toss between hands like hot stones, each too painful to bear.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • michele348's avatar michele348

      Leila, welcome! Your speaker talks of love and shame and unbearable loss. Too heavy a burden to carry, too heavy a burden to reason through. May the burden ease up after a passage of time.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Leila,

      I am struck by the duality of the physical burdens and those we carry unseen inside, memories and emotions. The latter are broadcast via tossing hot stones and are often missed or miss understood. You have made them clear here. Thank you again for reading and sharing here.

      Andre

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  3. Rita Basuray's avatar Rita Basuray

    Something carried that is visible or invisible –

    Rita Basuray

    The prompt makes me blue – something invisible includes something ominous. What do I carry that is dark and dreary? On the other hand, something visible bring me to warm colors of gold and red. What could be both blue and red?

    Not a contradiction, but cohesive?

    Love/sadness duo?

    Anger/fear in duplicate?

    Opposites attracting?

    A raging ulcer with a perpetual fraun?

    This one is difficult for me.

    Like

    Reply
    • michele348's avatar michele348

      Rita, your speaker’s voice talks of contradictions and unfortunately, life is full of them. So we must do the best we can to forge a path ahead.

      Like

      Reply
      • Rita B's avatar Rita B

        Thanks very much! and if I’m not mistaken (that this is you) – loved the drawings behind you on Zoom. thanks, Rita

        Like

    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Rita, you have me back in the painting reckoning things not well understood but immersed in the beauty of the colors, images and mystery. I also find myself back in a painting that an 8 year old brought me one day of a girl with blue and black braids, her dress stained with red. She was grieving the absence of her mother and the death of her father…the “love/sadness” duo. Fortunately, she had a benevolent grandmother to help her voice get heard.

      It was good to be back together. Thank you for posting your narrative. Andre

      Like

      Reply
      • Rita B's avatar Rita B

        Dear Andre, Thanks so much! My goodness. Isn’t that amazing that prose or visuals take us back in time! Thanks so much for sharing. Your sharing reminds me of my students and how they responded to writing prompts and how they pulled from memory as well. I learn so much from all of your responses. Thanks again, Rita

        Like

    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Rita, did you know I worked in Leslie, Perry, Harlan and Knott counties back in the 80s? South Eastern KY is a narrative culture. The people there taught me about narrative medicine before it was a discipline.

      The story of the child I mentioned in my response happened 2 days after I returned from my first workshop in Columbia in October 2015, It is one of those dual memories, sadness at the child’s predicament and joy that I was in the position to help and bear witness. It’s all privilege. It was the first patient narrative I wrote.

      When I create prompts working with my residents and students, I try to choose ones that will tap experience. It’s rare that everyone doesn’t have something to write about. We have a wonderful community here. I am very fortunate to have found it.

      Like

      Reply
  4. Trevor Hebert's avatar Trevor Hebert

    Take a step back in time to the days of old, the days of gold, where our ancestors roamed freely.

    Keeping their magic of their mind and tips of their fingers, riding through life’s many wonders, legions of protecting through the angels, dragons and faerys.

    As the guardians of your life we see the world has changed much since we breathed life in our lungs, we’ve forgotten the knowledge that with which we have now come.

    To see the starry nights, the northern lights, the fight that is in your soul… to see the world once again and twice more through your eyes, through your blood, through your body, we thank you. We love you. We surmise.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • michele348's avatar michele348

      Trevor, your speaker’s voice asks to recall, remember the facets of life that truly are the most important, rather than that which is fleeting and imperfect.

      Like

      Reply
    • Michael Williams's avatar Michael Williams

      I lived for 30 years in Scotland and learned about the veil between the visible and invisible worlds and how both have much to teach use — as you clearly understand.

      Like

      Reply
    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Trevor, the pairing of  “the starry nights, the northern lights, the fight that is in your soul” takes me into another parallel dimension spoken by Chagall’s painting. The rhythm of your narrative keeps me moving through that dimension and the internal rhymes are pleasing to hear, the attract the ear. Your grateful, endearing closing fits the gift of seeing through the eyes of another. Thank you for sharing this narrative. Andre

      Like

      Reply
  5. michele348's avatar michele348

    About something carried that is invisible~~~

    There is a heaviness in my mind and my heart.
    I am confused…I am disheartened.

    The familiar has disappeared,
    and now a threatening presence stands before me,
    poking and prodding, causing me discomfort.

    Was this all planned by some unseen force?
    Can I find answers
    before time runs out for you and me?

    And so, I carry these questions within me,
    searching for signs, for understanding,
    in a floodwater of questions.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    • Michael Williams's avatar Michael Williams

      I too have similar questions about the state of the world we find ourselves in. I don’t know that I have the answers and I worry for my children and grandchildren. Perhaps I need to trust that they will take up the task of answering those questions.

      Like

      Reply
      • michele348's avatar michele348

        Michael, I guess maybe that’s all we have…hope and trust that in the future the light will shine forth.

        Like

    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Michele, your speaker had me back in the “floodwater of questions” Chagall posed in his painting. We do the best we can to discern, and ask Bruce Springsteen says about the stories of his songs, “we learn to live with them.” Your speaker’s heaviness of heart requires a continued search.

      I am strongly reminded of Rilke’s admonition to a student, “Love the questions…”Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you, because then you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now.” (Ranier Maria Rilke)

      Thank you for your presence, your writing and everything you share in this space. Andre

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  6. al3793's avatar al3793

    Something Carried

    We carry within us what is most memorable

    Some memories warm the heart

    We want to hang onto them

    And not let go.

    Some are so disturbing, onerous that they

    Won’t stop visiting, they won’t let go of us.

    (“My body is a crime seen, how do I forget?”)

    Often they are carried completely inside

    Completely invisible to others except

    In the way they anonymously express themselves

    Whether in broadcast joy or

    The darkness we try to keep silent.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • michele348's avatar michele348

      The cobwebs of the heart, just like a spiderweb, cling onto a variety of memories…those that make us giggle or make us turn warm all over…and then those that bring a shiver down our spine or an ache to our heart. So much is going on inside, and no one is the wiser, except the heart and the person it resides within.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • al3793's avatar al3793

        My speaker talks about episodic memories, no ordinary. They leave indelible marks. The line in italics/quotes is something a patient told me one day. Patients have taught me so much! The thought of those lessons make me warm all over and some send a shiver down my spine. Yet, all of those experiences have honed this Physician!.

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a reply to Rita Basuray Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.