Goyer developed greater strength as she contorted and pushed her body through the air. She also gathered other strengths. She discovered it was more and more comfortable to inhabit her own life as well. “I realized I was super passionate about creativity, and becoming comfortable in your own body and being able to access your creativity in your own body,” she explains. “(But) I think creativity comes from some (different) kind of comfort. It is your brain connecting things in a new way. If you have walls up, I don’t know— there’s some neurological function that influences this. I was comfortable, and that energy would flow and I would be aware of it, and let myself be open. I realized the importance of the process of becoming comfortable.” Meanwhile, Goyer’s open mind also reflected the experience of what Humphrey calls “flow”. Two important things happened. “Which were both big parts of that year off for me,” she writes by e-mail. Goyer, in experimenting with her personal identity, shaved her head. She explains that she did not want hair, a physical attribute, to identify her. Then, Goyer made her first trip to Rwanda, working and living at a boys’ school for six weeks. Later, she returned to Rwanda. “On the second trip, we did art therapy work with the boys.” Afterward, Goyer returned to Athens and began applying to graduate schools. “I ended up studying at UGA for lots of reasons.” Employing the same self-questioning she always used, Goyer confronted herself: “Okay, now
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meghan goyer
“It’s paradoxical that I do trapeze and that I do yoga,” says Goyer. “Yoga is centered upon being grounded.
you’re going to grad school. What are you interested in?” “I was sitting in on two classes in religion because I’m a big old nerd. My prof, Carolyn Medine asked, ‘When are you coming into the department?’ It hadn’t occurred to me that it was a possibility.” Again, more questions than answers flowed. Going With the Ebb and Flow… Medine’s comment stayed with Goyer. Yet, post Rwanda, she toyed with becoming an art therapist. “The reason I did not land on art therapy was because I felt it was too narrow and I would get bored without a wider range of stimulation and skills.” Goyer was conflicted. “Mom was an artist, and she returned to art school when I was growing up.” She struggled for clarity, bumping up against this emotional scar tissue: “Was I doing art because of my Mom or because that was what I wanted to do?” Meanwhile, Goyer had been painting so much she had enough pieces to assemble a show. “I ritually honored my experience of learning,” she says. “I had my own exit show at Walker’s downtown.” That exit provided Goyer with the closure needed. Goyer deliberately pulled away to reflect. She used yoga and the trapeze for outlets. She realized the answer with stunned recognition. It was as if taken from a Joseph Campbell tutorial on the power of myth and meaning-making—something that became a phenomenon when Campbell and broadcaster Bill Moyer discussed it in a 1980s television series.
Goyer’s paintings. At top, Because of Amanda. Work below is untitled.
The answer was a single word: “Ritual.” That word illumined Goyer’s next steps. She started to explore ritual through religious studies, an inter-disciplinary program. Ritual seems oppositional to innovation and creativity, but Goyer disagrees. “We have to be innovative—looking outside of where you expect a formal ritual to be.” On Ritual, Meaning and Healing… Goyer’s research addressed how the structure of ritual can be used intentionally. “What that means is, at the least it requires reverence for something wholly other, intention, and some kind of self-reflection,” Goyer explains. She finds a more comfortable spot, crosses her legs and smiles. Next, Goyer would like to explore opening a business integrating mind-body and health. She might incorporate massage therapy and nutrition into the business model. If the concept is broad enough,