Join Dr. Jo Bowers PhD for this Artist’s Journey Christmas Special—a 29-minute celebration of music, art, and reflection designed to help you slow down, heal social media fatigue, and rediscover deep meaning this holiday season.

Experience original songs like “Sing for the Maritimes,” “Little Baby Jesus,” and “Nanny’s Arms,” plus a heartfelt discussion on the Incarnation, the healing power of the hearth, and the story behind the painting “Christ Consciousness” by Australian Aboriginal contemporary artist Dr Dwayne Wannamarra Kennedy. 

Enjoy festive cheer, beautiful Christmas music, and stories that honor the journey of 2025. Whether you’re seeking inspiration, comfort, or a sense of connection, this special episode offers a space to reflect, reconnect, and celebrate the true spirit of Christmas.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at The Artist’s Journey!

#ChristmasSpecial #ArtAndMusic #JoBowers #Healing #Incarnation #HolidayReflection #ChristmasMusic #ChristOurDreaming #MentalHealth #2025

00:00 Intro & Welcome 03:20 Sing for the Maritimes (Song) 08:30 Reflection & Transition 09:00 Christmas/Incarnation Theme 13:30 Little Baby Jesus (Song) 19:00 Reflection & Transition 20:00 Nanny’s Arms Story & Song Intro 21:00 Nanny’s Arms (Song) 27:00 Closing Reflections 29:00 Community Invitation & Sign-off

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Artist Journey. This is our Christmas special, and I am your host, Dr. Jo Bowers. I'm so excited and moved to be with you tonight to share an evening of music, art, and memories. And as I've been sitting here in our studio, I've been wondering how to close out this year with you. Paradoxical year of 2025 where we have had a lot of movement forward and excitement and [00:00:30] growth.

And at the same time, all of us have been dealing with the stress and strains of the mechanical world that we live within the new age of AI dawning on us this year, and the transactional way of the internet has shifted it towards commerce and sales and a depersonalization has been emerging in social media [00:01:00] where we all, in one way or another feel deeply fatigued.

So I wanted to step back from this environment that we're struggling with all of us now and offer a space apart, a place where we can enjoy, kickback, enjoy some music and some memories and some stories at this special time of Christmas. And [00:01:30] so I thought, what better gift could I offer personally to you than to share my own

compositions Art is, is like an anchor for our soul and art like music. And this time of year, in particular, Christmas, the holiday season calls our soul back home. Back home, not just to the place that we [00:02:00] lived growing up, or to a particular house or location, but to the country. To the place, to the depth of connection that we once felt as children to the land and to the people that we grew up with.

And so art and music is that anchor. It calls us back home. I was looking, a couple of weeks ago through footage of a trip that me and my [00:02:30] partner made back to my home in Canada to Nova Scotia to Mi'kma'ki, the place of the Mi'kmaq First Nation, and so I decided to share some of those images with you. The song is called Sing for the Maritimes.

It's a classic Canadian folk song in many respects with a yearning for a place with a deep connection to that [00:03:00] place with many memories and stories of that special place and memory acts for us like a medicine. Memory is a way of lifting our spirits and bringing us back to a part of ourselves that is important.

And so I think that this song, for me to share this with you now, is a profound moment because it's bringing ourselves back [00:03:30] together. This song is a way of rekindling. I encourage you as you're listening to this song, sing for the Maritimes, to call up within yourself, a memory of a time when you felt connected.

Let this be a calling for you, a calling of your spirit to come home.

 

[00:04:00] Sing for the Maritimes, Sing for the Maritimes

Sing for the ocean breeze, [00:04:30]  the flowers fields and autumn trees

Sing for the Maritimes.

Walking the rocks of Peggy’s Cove, [00:05:00]  Pickin’ Mayflowers growing in droves,

Lying with my head to’rd the sky, [00:05:30] Dreamin’ of summer passing by.

Sing for the Maritimes, Sing 00:06:00] for the Maritimes

Sing for the highland trails, the lonely paths and ghostly tales

Sing for the Maritimes .[00:06:30]

Lovin’ blueberry fields of Parrsboro, In Annapolis Valley apples grow

Walking with my lover to [00:07:00]  Fisherman’s Cove

No hardship stops the dreamin’, never grow old

Sing for the Maritimes, Sing for the Maritimes

Sing for the .[00:07:30] ocean breeze, the flowers fields and autumn trees .[00:08:00]

,[00:08:30]  Sing for the Maritimes – to end

 

Welcome back. That song really takes me back to a specific place, but also a place in my spirit. [00:09:00] And I feel that here, even in Australia, and this is what art does for us. It locates us. It gives us a sense of place. It grounds us into a new reality and an awareness that that works within us to awaken, to change, to enliven us in our spirit, in our minds.

So I want to talk about a deeper theme [00:09:30] related to Christmas theologically. We can call this theme incarnation. But philosophically, I think this theme relates ultimately to an act of embodiment. Think about it. The divine didn't say, I am other than this world. I, I am apart from this [00:10:00] world. The divine essence said, I am more than an abstract idea.

I am more than a detached presence somewhere else in the cosmos. I will become a body, I will become presence. I will become a person. So Christmas is when the divine shows up in our [00:10:30] world, in our reality, in an incarnate way in body, and this embodiment is within the mess of this world. This is within the upheaval and the humanity, and the tensions and the frictions of this world.

And the Divine comes to be a part of that. To play with that. And [00:11:00] so even as we think in this digital and very mechanical age that we live within, and we are entering into even more now with the rise of artificial intelligence, and many of us are struggling with this emerging theme. This emerging dominant power within the world and this new way of working, this new way that will demand a shift in our thinking in the same [00:11:30] way we are.

We're not made of machines. We are not an artificial intelligence. Our intelligence is embodied. Our way of life is an artfulness, and so I'd like to shift the focus of our discussion to this painting behind me, to Christ our dreaming. This beautiful indigenous painting by Dr. Dwayne Wannamarra Kennedy [00:12:00] is a stunning example of

his indigenous, Australian Aboriginal artwork. And this is a rendition of the Christ figure and the rays of light that pour out from the embodiment of the Christ- presence are rays of light that shine within all of creation that connect the parts of [00:12:30] the cosmos, parts of ourselves, and that bring us home to a place of deeper connection.

And this is a sacred story within the dreaming, within the Australian indigenous dreaming tradition where the land, the embodiment of the land, and of our ancestors, is a totemic power. A presence embodied within [00:13:00] the image of the Christ in the painting as an anchor, as a doorway, as a passageway. Through which we can find parts of ourselves and rekindle the fire of our sense of identity.

Our sense of place, our sense of connection, our sense of country. I share this song with you as it has been finished, produced, recorded for the [00:13:30] first time for this show, and I hope you enjoy this. This song is called Little Baby Jesus, and it comes from a time of greater innocence. I hope you can reconnect to the spirit of Christmas. [00:14:00]

 

Little Baby Jesus, Wrapped in Mamma’s Arms so warm

Be for us the Sweet Peace that shone into our hearts.

1. When the [00:14:30] star rose into the sky, Something went strange inside my heart

And I knew this was the King foretold by the.[00:15:00] prophets of old

2. [00:15:30] When the day long begins to fade, a journey far and fearsome made

We three Kings sought out this place where precious [00:16:00] babe be born.

3. Kneeling beside the Saviour’s bed, bearing gifts we bowed instead

All that we [00:17:00] bring pales in compare… to this child’s [00:17:30] radiant light.

4. Worn out for years, poor have borne the lies,

[00:18:00] Kingdoms rise and fall, there’s no disguise,

Humbles your heart in Bethlehem… can you understand why??[00:18:30]

Song ends approx. [00:19:00].

 

Thank you for listening. That was the song, 'Little Baby Jesus' by Dr. Jorandi Bowers. I was very happy to share that [00:19:30] song with you, and interestingly enough, the last verse of the song expresses that paradoxical nature of life and of society and the politics and the world that we live in very much so today.

This next song that I would like to share brings forward a sense of an appreciation for grief and loss. It was the summer of 1994, and I was living in an 18th century planter home [00:20:00] in Wolfville Nova Scotia. My grandmother, a person very dear to me, passed away, but in the lead up to the funeral, I wrote a commemorative song.

The song is called Nanny's Arms. I sang that song at St. Mary's Basilica in Halifax. It was probably one of the most difficult days of my life. But I pulled myself together. I was enabled [00:20:30] by some power greater than myself to share that song with the family, with the community in Halifax. And I'm very grateful for that memory.

And so it's a very great privilege to share this with you through this podcast and show The Artist's Journey. This is 'Nanny's Arms.'

 

It is been so many [00:21:00] years since I’ve been a child. I remember your laughter and how you forgave. What is this memory that clings to me?

I still sleep with your crocheted squares [00:21:30] but I can’t remember where your rosary is, that pretty pink rosary that you gave to me.

With the faith of a child.[00:22:00] In heaven’s arms. You lifted me higher and higher and higher. My Nanny, you've always been good to me.

You've [00:22:30] been everything that a mother can be, you were strong when all the world was forlorn and wrong. You sacrificed for family.

These woolly socks we are wear say [00:23:00] something about the love you gave.

With the faith of a child, in heaven’s arms. You lifted me higher and higher and higher .[00:23:30]. My Nanny, you've always been good to me.

We never had all that much. And Halifax was many years unkind.[00:24:00] 

Granddaddy served in the war and came back a little bit a broken man. And it was said that during those years, Nanny went to bed without food. Because she loved, and she was broken in her love.

With the faith of a child, in heaven’s arms. You lifted me higher and higher and higher. My Nanny, you've always been so good, so good to me.

Song ends approx. [00:27:00]

 

That was 'Nanny's Arms' by Dr. Jorandi Bowers. It is [00:27:30] such a privilege and such a joy to share these memories with you, and it is a reminder that our personal stories are our medicine. Our stories are our medicine. This is a deep teaching within our indigenous culture. And the significance of this is that that art, music, song, dance culture, family- the country, our [00:28:00] ancestors, our family- all of these aspects are so interconnected.

So interconnected that we are all within kinship. M'sit No'koma, 'All My Relations' are a part of me. A part of me that is a part of the All. And that it is not so much about us as individuals, but it is about us as part of this collective, part [00:28:30] of humanity, and this aspect of us is calling us forward at this time, particularly at Christmas, to awaken to a new sense of ourselves- as our collective identity as part of this bigger story, this bigger picture.

Please do join our community at OzFineArt.Au. This is our website, our [00:29:00] Home in the internet universe, where we have designed a place to connect and to reconnect through sharing of stories, Sacred Stories, and the Medicine of art, the Medicine of artful living.

We invite you to join us and to sign up for our bimonthly. We wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and we will see you again soon. Thank you so [00:29:30] much.