We did not have a live call today, instead I made a recording for you on my own for your writing pleasure. As usual, please share your writing and link using Mr. Linky at the bottom of this lesson.
On this first Saturday at "And Now You Write" we will write of Randomness.
This theme percolated from a theme that has been working me for more than a week now.
Yesterday at the Art and Spirituality Center a woman asked me, "What sort of a photographer are you?"
It was a question I did not know how to answer. "What is your subject?" the questioner clarified.
"My subject for my photography is much like my subject for my writing: witnessing the moment I am in with images." Yesterday, for example, I photographed random objects I encountered along my path of the moment: a dinosaur wearing sunglasses, a huge and parched Parnelli Jones truck tire, a bent and used up nail along the side of the road. Each has its own story to tell and each has a story I may or may not choose to tell.
I also found a poem from Mary Oliver and was surprised by the random synchronicity of the poem's themes and some of our themes this week.
Read her words from the poem, "I don't want to live a small life" from her poetry collection, Red Bird.
I don't want to live a small life. Open your eyes,
open your hands. I have just come
from the berry fields, the sun
kissing me with its golden mouth all the way
(open your hands) and the wind-winged clouds
following along thinking perhaps I might
feed them, but no I carry these heart-shapes
only to you. Look how many how small
but so sweet and maybe the last gift
I will ever bring to anyone in this
world of hope and risk, so do.
Look at me. Open your life, open your hands.
# # #
Yesterday I also picked up my paintings, "What if" and "What if, too" from the walls of the Art and Spirituality Center where they had been waiting for me.
Asking the question, writing the question and painting the question allows randomness in all its elaborate beauty to shine through. It also gives us a writing prompt that is unequaled in the invitation to "a-ha's". This weekend, we will write into "What if" and see where it takes us.
What follows is my example of random "what ifs" from my own morning pages this morning. At the end, I will prompt you to write your own What ifs.
Please write your what ifs until you feel done and then come back to them throughout the weekend. Follow any "what ifs" that feel particularly potent to you.
What if I attempted to write about autism everyday - 750words. Go.
What if I prayed in color more -
What if I wrote my prayers this morning?
What if Bob the cat stopped being afraid?
What if I stopped being afraid?
What if I thought to invite people?
What if I only listened, no - what if I only listened detachedly rather than "opinionatedly"?
What if I cared enough to pray and ask, simply, what if? and then gave space to fill in the blank - -
What if... we sat here and listened with our breath?
What if I had named Samuel Jack or Hank or Hayden or Timothy Andrew?
What if the painting "What if?" wasn't finished?
What if "What if, too" was just a writing prompt?
What if I had journals, waiting to be given, instead of needing to run to the store?
What if my chaps were done? were brilliant? were the answer to someone's prayer?
What if I were the answer to someone's prayer?
What if I allowed myself the luxury of reconnection?
What if I loved green as much as purple?
What if I noticed another dinosaur wearing sunglasses, another enormous and parched Parnelli Jones truck tire, another rusted, curious looking nail, bent and tossed aside in the sand, me its only witness?
Again: from Mary Oliver:
"I don't want to live a small life...
"look at me....
"Open your life...
"Open your hands....
What if?
What if?
What if?
Write from the prompt, "What if" until you are finished. Return to the prompt throughout the weekend.
"What if?"
"What if?"
"What if?"
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I have been experiencing some "resistance" to the prompts - I think in part because I have been feeling some resistance to living fully, to accepting and processing the changes that occured in my life this summer - a job loss and the loss of my father. I guess sometimes we have to struggle first, and then we write -
What if I could allow myself to spend as much time as I desire, or maybe need, watching the hummingbirds at the feeder, the clouds passing by overhead, listening to the chattering jays and the hum of the bees in the garden, sitting and feeling the warm sun, the cool breeze?
What if I could cry until I was exhausted?
What if I could let someone else take care of me, of my needs?
What if I could admit how I really feel right now, all confused and lost?
What if I could honestly and completely open myself, surrender myself, to allowing Spirit to fully express Itself through me and as me?
What if I could let go of all false limiting beliefs, both subconscious and conscious?
What if I wrote every day with the same commitment I gave to the job I lost?
What if I treated my writing like it was as important as being loving and kind?
What if I painted or created the found object collage I have been thinking about?
What if I joined the local writer's group?
What if I stopped being afraid of flying?
What if I became willing to put my spontaneous writing out there instead of always feeling I need to rework it first?
What if I wrote something that made someone else feel joy or feel inspired or helped them to see beauty?
What if I could allow myself to the work necessary to lose the weight I always say I want to lose?
What if I put music on every day and danced?
Posted by: Lauren Strouse | 09/18/2010 at 12:22 PM
absolutely beautiful, Lauren. Wow.
The power of "What if?"
Posted by: Julie Jordan Scott | 09/18/2010 at 02:21 PM
Im stunned by your creation. Keep this thing going.
Posted by: Greens | 08/22/2011 at 11:52 PM