What would make this moment richer?

 What would make this moment richer?

I should remember to pack my storytelling rugs
on every occasion there is room in the car!

There are various questions that I often forget to ask myself in the final phase of planning, sorting and packing a workshop

I know they are there, hovering like moths on the edge of thought but the immediate questions - how many scissors? where is the glue? where is the other glue? have I packed the cutting boards? isn't that already in the car? tend to keep them at bay.

Cowries and a top shell

But these elusive challenges are often the questions that can shift a session into a stronger, more rewarding place and they call for me giving myself the chance to step back and look at a workshop again. The session will already be planned, the packing listed if not completed, the camera charged and then I just need to pause and look at the bigger picture again before I set out. It's all very well 20 miles down the road to think "O, it might be good to have a pocketful of cowries"*, but better to do the thinking when there is still time to respond to the thought!

So I am hoping that if I blog these questions as they hit me, maybe that will help me keep them more active in my consciousness.

So, first one:

What would make this moment richer?

 

even a small box of "things to hold" helps everywhere...

Is there something I should take with me that would add that little extra something… Without messing up timing, without turning the workshop into an exercise in ego (O, look, I've brought this wonderful thing because I could bring this wonderful thing and let me tell you how I got it and why I'm even more wonderful than it is**), without throwing the theme and thought of the session but that might add a little extra inspiration, a touch of magic….

...and plastic animals should never be underestimated!

Little Man

(Little Man is a puppet I made 30 years ago and has helped out at so many workshops in so many unexpected way that he has earned his current retirement)

* there is almost always something intriguing in a pocket - an owl-whistle is a great regular, and I've usually got bones and shells  about my person.

** heard this and really hope I've not done it!