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- Gail Calwell Courageous Conversations True radical self The ability to manage care is difficult difficult conversations and challenging. and tolerate awkwardness is a skill that we should It is about nurturing develop, so that we can our soul, and having the live authentic lives. courage to take those steps that will lead to Most of us are not the change that we there yet. We struggle need to thrive. with change and we fear the pain that we Everyone benefits when might cause. we speak our truth. It is harder to accept that Start with baby steps, our truths may result select something small, in discomfort to others. take a deep breath, We must always be kind speak your truth. and choose our battles, and words, carefully. - Siobhan O’Neill Antrim, Ballymena, Carrickfergus, Larne & Newtownabbey Women’s Aid 4 Corners Festival Belfast | Soothing Breath 028 2563 2136 Come. You are loved. Sit and rest in the presence of these words and this art. You are welcome. May they find their way to where you need them most. Into your heart, for courage. You are seen. Into your soul, for hope. Into your head, for wisdom. Into your body, for peace. Like dandelion seeds, may these words and this art take root and grow. May they challenge and strengthen us from within. We invite you to be the breeze that carries them further, to others who may need to hear them too. For we share the same air, we are each other’s burdens and dreams. Let us all breathe. Armagh & Down Women’s Aid 028 3025 0765 or 028 3839 7979 4 Corners Festival Belfast | Soothing Breath www.4cornersfestival.com Belfast & Lisburn Women’s Aid 0284 Corners 9066 Festival 6049 Belfast | Soothing Breath When you’re as scared as you’ve ever been. Sip slowly at the breath. Though your eyes flare, your heart - Philip McCrea shatters and the knot in your stomach grips tighter than life. into fear into Let the Breath seep tortoise like Breathing Breathing into veins and arteries to calm the haring of the blood. Find the breath and find it again. And breathe slower, Breathe deeper. Find space where there is none. In this place you can let the shadows dance and the world do what it will. - Mary O’Rawe Causeway Women’s Aid 028 7035 6573 4 Corners Festival Belfast | Soothing Breath And a time comes When your time comes, when fear can’t stay immense And takes a chair, like everybody else. Black - Kieron A time comes when you conjure strength Like water out of air. A thing you didn’t even know was there. A time comes when you find a voice A Time Comes A Time You find to be your own: You raise it, like a sail, And head for home. A time comes when you know The bites have been healed around your tongue: A time comes when you know A time will come. - Damian O’Gorman Fermanagh Women’s Aid 028 6632 8898 4 Corners Festival Belfast | Soothing Breath - Philip McCrea Sometimes your mind plays tricks on you. It can tell you you’re no good, that it is all hopeless. But remember this; You are loved, and important and you bring to this world things no one else can. So hold on. - Charlie Mackesy Foyle Women’s Aid 4 Corners Festival Belfast | Soothing Breath www.4cornersfestival.com 028 7141 6800 Changing places, Different faces, Heart scared, Feels strange. Changing faces, Different places, - Philip McCrea Heart races, Feels right. The next chapter starts now. This is my next chapter. I accept all that has happened, This was not the story I imagined. It is destiny. It is reality. It is part of me, This is not the story that ended me. but does not define me. It is history. It is over, fear no longer grips me. This is the story I lived through and am living. I believe in magic. It is possibility. It is not fantasy. This is my story, I imagine... I am my story and live my dreams. The Next Chapter The Next It is being written. It is dignity. I am me. I survived. Free to be, I have faith, Free to do, I have hope, Free to dream. I have love. My next chapter is serendipity. So, I am. Be you. Just be. - Heather Palmer Mid-Ulster Women’s Aid 028 8676 9300 4 Corners Festival Belfast | Soothing Breath www.4cornersfestival.com A dreamy piece to draw in the viewer. Abstracting elements of the sunset, almost moments in time where hue, intensity and movement evolve. A softer palette allows the sensory experience to take hold. - Geralyn Mulqueen North Down & Ards Women’s Aid 4 Corners Festival Belfast | Soothing Breath 028 9127 3196 - Philip McCrea At times I inhale and believe It matters the most when I hold The weight of the world’s expectations Deep in the lungs of my soul Deeper beyond all desire Leaning on laughter and smiles Free like the breath of the kestrel Carefully careless and wild Breathe Posture shifts its position Scented loses its smell But stillness provokes expectation And silence is more than I tell Resting from all of my striving Meeting with God on my knees Rising to face my ambitions Reminded that I should just breathe - Philip Robinson Omagh Women’s Aid 4 Corners Festival Belfast | Soothing Breath www.4cornersfestival.com 028 8224 1414 look at you. I have chosen a piece entitled “Resilience” still standing that I feel is fitting for inclusion in the digital after being booklet ‘Soothing Breath‘ and which will accompany knocked down - Philip McCrea the 4 Corners Festival event, and thrown out. about domestic abuse look at you. ‘breath knocked out of you’. still growing I hope that anyone who is affected by domestic abuse Resilience after being reads and sees the art in it picked and plucked and finds the courage to and prodded out of make a call that will lead to them getting the support your home and help they need. look at you. Wishing you every still dancing success for the festival. and singing after being - Naomi Long defeated and disassembled. look at you, love. still here and hopeful after it all. - Alex Elle Women’s Aid Federation 4 Corners Festival Belfast | Soothing Breath www.4cornersfestival.com 028 9024 9041 Let us ‘Be still’ and take hope from scripture and the beautiful poetry of the Authorised King James Version: It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new EVERY morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3v22 & 23 Always remember that every day is a NEW day. - Arlene Foster Free 24-Hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000 247 Take a deep breath. Gather the strength you have within you. You may not realise it's there; but it is. It may seem hard; it can seem like - Oonagh Linden there is no light at the end of the tunnel. But there is always hope. There is a strength inside all of us. I have seen it many times in so many different people. But it is the same strength. It is the same striving for truth, for something better. No matter the challenges we face, no matter the obstacles placed in our way; that strength can see us through. And it all starts with a deep breath. - Michelle O’Neill National Domestic Abuse Live Chat www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk 4 Corners Festival Belfast | Soothing Breath Breathe in, and out. So breathe deep now. Slowly, deeply. Feel the Feel Her Divine Life in sparkle of Life within you. You. You are Divine too. Let the Holy Spirit fill you. You voice speaks Truth and Love as you breathe For She is the very out. The Universe fills you Breath of Life. up again with Love and Truth as you breathe in…. We’ve always been told an endless cycle of giving God is male. But the and receiving. Life, death, Bible actually says the re-birth. Holy Spirit is feminine. As women we know this. That Life Force within We experience it in our each of us, that Divine hearts. We live it in our Creativity, knows the bodies, month by month, depths of the feminine season by season. wisdom. She knows that Life is Both/And. Nothing Embrace your Holy Breath. is excluded. In and out. Embracing The Sparkle of Life The Sparkle And She breathes in and and letting go, so that it through each of us. may return to you again and refill you. Too often our breath is constricted, suffocated, Fill you, so that the Life- even strangled. Giving Spirit overflows Along with our voices. from you to others. - Talisker MacLeod - Jim Deeds Men’s Advisory Project Belfast 4 Corners Festival Belfast | Soothing Breath 028 9024 1929 God who speaks from God of caught breath, God of human touch, God of a welcomed God of each breath, out of the whirlwind, God of welcomed pause: God of spiritual embrace: pause, God of a calming God of this next breath: and hears sighs that are so much has happened this biggest event of exhalation: we can may this moment we’re too deep for words: as so quickly, that we can our lives will live on in move so fast in our in be a moment now we come to terms with lose a sense of time. our tissues, something thoughts, our actions, filled with reassurance what we do not know – a our bodies are actively our reactions and our and grace; with kindness timeline for return, a safe As we continue to pace learning to hold.