This last weekend we were together in another great D&D event ‘How can we change opera for the better’ at English National Opera in London.
Bill, Malika, Delia, Suni, Germaine, Ruth, Norman and Blue came to my session and helped to put dreams and hearts into the dolls and we meditated connecting with our heartbeat. We made 13 dolls together.
We are now half way to complete the second community of 700 dolls!
Some interesting new thing happened at this time – the dolls were given names – we’ve got now a George, a Clive, an Emmer and an Odette.
‘George has one leg longer than the other – just like me!’
‘Emer has a beautiful heart’
‘Clive is funny and beautiful inside out.’
‘Odette is a very calming person’
and a comment about the process
‘Thank you! I found that more emotional then I expected and I needed to be alone for a few minutes afterwards’
On Sunday morning I told everybody that it took me three years to reach a thousand dolls. I am growing older and I don’t want to die before I reach at least the five communities of 700 dolls. I need more people to help me making them so we can reach 1000 in one year and meet the target in two years and a half time instead of 10 years!!!
Thank you so much everybody and a special thank you to D&D people who opened this space to talk and do what is essential for us so we can transform the world in a better place to live, Thank You!
Every Saturday afternoon from 30th January to 6th March 2016 I spent precious time at D&D events at The Vaults Festival in London.
We talked about funny women, artists with learning disabilities, autism, depression and other mental illnesses, progressive politics, women ageing and about the Vaults festival.
Paul, Sharon, Malika, Jolen, Lee, Imogen, Paul, Sarah, Susie, Colin, Yolande and Rachel helped to make dolls, we made 29 together while having these inspiring conversations and we also meditated.
‘It is like building an extension of oneself filling it with love’ – a beautiful comment about the dolls.
Thank you so much Sarah, Susie, Rachel and Kirsty for being such great facilitators, Susie and Rachel first time, they did it brilliantly, thank you!
Seriously, I will miss these Saturdays under Waterloo bridge, they made my winter much warmer.
We spent last weekend in our loved annual D&D event at The Rep in Birmingham.
I asked people to help me to put dreams and hearts into 38 dolls and we would reach 1000 together.
Monica, Heather, Ridley, Elinor, Sofia, Miriam, Emma, Hugh, Sally, Rachel, Nick, Amy, Hannah, Vivian, Ben, Janice, Jess, Tabitha, Len, Lisa, Steven, Kath, Ali, Sunny, Claire, JP, David, Aimee, Frances, Lu, Vivian and some more people that I forgot the names, came to the session.
I can’t even believe, we made it!
1000 dolls!!!!!
Actually we made 1001 so we have already started the next thousand!
I run out of fabric. On Saturday I asked everybody to bring any fabric that they could have at home, not thick fabric, from white to medium cream. On Sunday I received very nice pieces of fabric and we are now ready to sew the next community.
We had inspiring conversation and shared beautiful intimate moments while we were adding the dreams and hearts into the dolls, and also after meditating.
Some comments:
This is a brilliant session. Great to sit down and making + chatting + contributing to this project. Beautifully led! So glad I came!
Relaxed + enjoyable experience.
I totally loved this. Small meditative beautiful!
I loved making my little person. Beautiful idea and a really relaxing, creative experience. Thank you!
Good to finally do a doll, have started on other D&D, at last I finished one, thank you Regina, hugs.
What a beautiful idea and a calming ‘other’ experience. Regina is a skillful dreamer and this passion project is a beautiful shaft of light in a complex world. 7 billion will be.
Thank you for creating a space for craft and meditation, may the hearts of the dolls spread love across the universe!
Very calming! Look forward to seeing more of this project. The doll I stuffed had a red mark which appeared where its appendix would be – funny because I’ve just had mine taken out.
1000! Thank you, a wonderful moment of calm for body and brain – lovely!
I had a lovely time making my doll today. Thank you!
A tender holding both of me by her and by me to the doll. May life reign beautifully!
A brilliant moment of calm and peace in the middle of creative chaos.
At first I asked Regina what this session was about and she said let’s do it and you will see. Really touchy, connecting and so important. Just let it be. Really enjoyed and thank you for the meditation and for inviting me to make a doll.
This has been absolutely lovely, so calm! Thank you for teaching me.
This was a really therapeutic exercise. I had a lot of great conversations with great people whilst making my doll and after meditating I felt very connect and a lot of love for my little creation. I hope he has a good journey! Thanks Regina.
Really enjoyed this – found it so relaxing, I even learnt how to sew – so new excuses for me regarding missing buttons! Wonderful project.
Calming, ‘different’, very ambitious, don’t doubt it will happen, thanks.
This session was beautiful! It helped to center my mind, it centered my dreams and suddenly made me realise I must pursue the reoccurring persistent dream I’ve been having.
I can’t wait to meet everyone again to continue making the next communities of dolls.
Thank you so much for your generosity and support
and a thousand thank you to Improbable who once more organised an amazing event – Sarah, Susie, Rachel, Lucy, Nick, Phelim and Lee
In 2015 we met regularly every last Friday of the month at Cufos Community Centre in Muswell Hill. I am very grateful to everyone who came over to put dreams and hearts into the dolls and I am glad that we finished 82. We had a lovely time together and I hope to see you all next year.
Thank you so much Tim, Cynthia, Caroline, Mari, Natasha, Jo, Tabada and a special thank you to Nicola who came every month, we missed her just in February.
On 27 October 2015 evening I went to the D&D event ‘Puppetry – Shackled by the Past?’ at the Little Angel Theatre in London.
Jemima, Amy, Seb, Sarah, Freddie, Harriet, Karol, Elaine, Zoe came to the session, we put dreams and hearts into the dolls and we did a short meditation connecting with our own pulse. Some dolls are finished and some I’ll finish myself sewing the legs.
Some people wanted to make dolls but unfortunately we run out of them. I brought eight as we would be working for just three hours, but I should’ve brought double!
It was good to be in a room full of puppeteers. Jemima offered to help me with some more dolls in the future, yes!
We stayed in the spot called ‘fairies’, it felt like a little tent inside the room, very cozy.
Some comments:
‘Using my hands helped lubricate my ideas and thoughts’
‘It was nice to come here and relax after intense conversations’
I spent 3rd October 2015 afternoon at Kingston Environment Centre at ‘Harvest Extravaganza’ making dolls with Jan, Marianne, Jane, Charlie and the children Leanne, Sam and Melody. We struggled with a weak fabric that tore easily. We lost three dolls in the process of stuffing them.
We had good conversations about Earth Angels, kind of people that do good, usually are alone and don’t feel lonely.
Thanks everybody for the special effort with the fabric, we luckly managed to finish 7 dolls, well done us!
Last Saturday 19 September 2015 we spent a lovely sunny afternoon outdoors at the New Malden Arts Festival making dolls.
People turned up from different backgrounds as India, North Corea, Jamaica, Japan, England, China, US… they were mainly fathers and mothers with their children.
Randeep ( light in darkness :)), Guk Hwa, Lucy, Suzanne, Li, Nathan, Henry, Charlie, Danielle, Simone, Jean, Laura and the children Irableen( emerging in God :)), Soo Jung, Leila, Corinne, Bella, Inesh, Hamza, Tashane, Jadah, Helena and Estelle.
Li brought five pillows full of hers and Nathan’s dreams, thanks so much Li!
We made 15 dolls, many are finished and few of them I’ll finish myself. Most of us meditate with our hearts including the children. We stayed together for 4 hours, until 6pm, one more hour than planned. I was invited to come again in the next event. I will.
We had great conversations about dreams. We talked about the dreams we have when we know that we are dreaming. They are called ‘lucid dreams’.I wonder how cool would be if we realised that we are dreaming when we are awake? Would be called ‘lucid reality’?
Phelim has just told me that there is a book by Arnold Mindell called Dreaming While Awake techniques for 24-hour lucid dreaming.
What he calls ‘lucid dreaming’ is what I am calling ‘lucid reality’, I guess.
‘It was very rewarding to shape those pieces of fabric! It reminded me of morphogenetic fields defined and demonstrated by Rupert Sheldrake, Cambridge University. Just as the spirit needs to become a morphic field that guides the biomolecules until they become alive, I felt that the cotton fibers were this morphic field giving ‘life’ to each doll! Contemplatively immersed in the richness of the creative process. Eternal gratitude!’
‘It is an invitation to share the present time, to be present together.You cannot be with others while paying attention to your mobile phone, but you certainly can do that while sewing and meditating. In present times, dreaming a better world is a kind of privilege. Regina is promoting a community experience – working together to donate the result of this togetherness to other person in another part of the world.’
