And Now, You Write

Our Final Session of "And Now You Write" - Offer Your Writing as a Gift of Grace

Welcome to And Now You Write. This is our final day together and you are invited to experience this unique writing session today.

You may listen (and write along with the audio) here.

Before you read the lesson, allow the prompt of the day to seep into your mind. Don't actively seek the words yet, instead allow it to just be there, settling into your mind, as you go through the lesson itself.

 

Today's writing prompt: When I offer my writing as a gift of grace to the world, I... (see, hear, feel, smell, touch, know)

When I read this quote from Erma Bombeck this morning, I knew we needed to use it in our final "And Now You Write" lesson.

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." Erma Bombeck

We come now to completion - to the final day of writing together in this particular format. Yes, we undoubtedly will write together again in different ways and I know there is something important about putting our pencils to the page this final time. To celebrate the devotion, love and longing that arrives when we allow ourselves the luxury of falling in love with words and writing in-the-precise-moment in front of us.

Consider today two concepts: longing and completion.

The long to write and be heard and completion - of this time and whatever is continuing to call you to not only write, but to be complete with the writing you do.

Last Summer I wrote in my journal, "Longing wears a purple gown with a gold cord belt and sandals, fitted, protected and almost barefoot (but not quite.) Her drink of choice is ginger-lemonade and she issues me an invitation – with a time, place, a date and a request for me to RSVP."

It is like the railroad built over the Alps before the engine could be built to traverse the tracks. The railroad visionaries knew there WOULD be a train soon so they laid the ties, they heard the sounds of the trains crossing the alps, they could see the people moving over the mountain on the rails so they built it and the train – which longed to move across the alps, moved.

Again, from my journal: "My longing has my voice my voice, my same voice. So familiar. Longing, familiar, looking into my eyes in the mirror and seeing others eyes of longing reflected.

"My longing offers a way, a means, a support.

"My longing reaches out to me, I reach back, smiling."

My morning pages notebooks are scrawled collections of words, dancing, chugging, cavorting down the lined pages of my notebook. Sometimes I will leave quotes on the still blank pages as inspiration for those days
when I can't come up with anything intriguing to write from my stream of consciousness.

One day I found these words from Naomi Shihab Nye laced around the top of the page, unfurling rich text which said,

"Walk around feeling like a leaf. Know you could
tumble at any second. Then decide what to
do with your time."

So I wrote:

"If I tumbled, fell, went into the soil today,
Would I be satisfied?

Or would there be
Too much destiny left undone - -
Too many unfinished
Bits and pieces and
Clusters of paper left
Outside the trash can
And also outside the
Framed or bound or
Some other gracefully offered
Form of completion…..

My time…. My time…..
Would my children feel right
With what I have offered?

It is divine time…..
And I will continue
Working towards satisfaction so that
When I tumble, fell, go into the soil

My life will have been
A graceful offering."

Each day, I aim to create a graceful offering of a life, moment-by-moment.

I know when I do this - work toward satisfaction -  I write into both the longing and  completion. The grace of satisfaction sits in the threshold where the two meet.

This is the "place" where we will write today.

Let's take a moment to hold our writing, our longing, and our desire for completion in our heartspaces.

Breathe in Gratitude for what you have discovered throughout these seven weeks.

What will you do and who will you be as you create a graceful-offering-of-your writing and your life?

Today's writing prompt: When I offer my writing as a gift of grace to the world, I... (see, hear, feel, smell, touch, know)

 Add a link to any blog entries you write which relate back to our writing prompts. We would love to read your words.

And Now You Write Prompt on our next-to-last day: "I remember how much I didn't used to like……."

Today's prompt is simply, "I remember how much I didn't used to like……."

Welcome to And Now You Write. We are grateful you are here today to write alongside us. If this is your first visit: hooray! This is the just right time for you to start. We only have two more lessons, so consider this your personal, short term intensive writing program.

 

Today and Wednesday at 8:30 Pacific time  simply dial (712) 432 3100 conference code 440137.  I look forward to connecting with you!

Today really notice what stirs your appetite.  Is it smell? Is it sight? Is it thought?

Capture those observations on the page throughout your day. Choose to be inspired by them.  Allow them to teach you.

In our next to last day here at "And Now You Write," we focus on inspiration, using the sense of taste as both a metaphor and a means to engage our muse. One of my favorite composers, Igor Stravinsky, said "Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning."

What do these words mean to you?

Listen again:

"Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning."

In other words, you will find inspiration by starting to work even when you are not inspired.  You will create inspiration by taking action.  For a writer,  that means coming to the page and writing something, anything – one word – one sentence – one paragraph – one page – and it is the very act of writing itself which will bring about the shift of energy into a space of pure inspiration.

Mr. Stravinsky knew this concept intimately. He was not only successful as an artist, he was also a financial success. He received well-paying commissions for his work and was an astute businessman.  He also understood how to use discipline as a supportive tool.  He practiced composing as he said 'everyday, regularly, like a man with banking hours.'

His use of practice to inspire his work created a thriving career which continued well into his seventies and eighties when he was still touring conducting his rich and intense late works.

This is not unique to Igor Stravinsky, it applies to you as well.

Your momentum will become your inspiration.

We are seeing this manifest: live-and-in-the-flesh right in our midst. You might have noticed a shift in your writing appetite or in your writing productivity.

Just this morning I received an email from a young neighbor of mine. He actually lives in the house where my "Coaching Tree" lives: an old, stately tree that I have gazed at while teaching and coaching for many, many years. This young neighbor asked me, "How do I motivate myself for NaNoWriMo? I just can't seem to get the words down? What do you do?"

Learn and embrace this principle of hitting the page and adding words to the page as a writing practice will allow you to become a far more productive writer. Just write, even gobbledy gook.

You may even give yourself some prompts about gobbledy gook. Here are a couple:

When I write a page of gobbledy gook, it looks like...

When I devote myself to writing - even gobbledy gook - I remember....

When I was a kid and got a paper back with red marks all over it, I got sick to my stomach. What would have happened if I took those red marks and made the supposed "bad writing" into "really bad writing?" Just for fun, I am going to WRITE BADLY about my summer vacation....(or trip to the fair, or afternoon apple picking....)

You may even make art from writing badly. It is possible!

In my own life I found when I first started a writing practice I was more creative in other areas. I found I had a developing an appetite for painting and decorating.

You might be thinking, "Now matter how good this sounds in theory, it just doesn't sound like `the thing' for me. I can't imagine having an intense practice. I don't want to have to do anything else in my life, I am already stretched beyond belief!"

First, wipe out that "hafta" belief energy. Remember, we don't even consider "haftas" here.  Everything is simply, "Hey – I guess I will experiment with this..." or "Y'know, that item really doesn't inspire me. Sorry – I choose not to right now."

Second, remember for a moment back to when you were a child and a new food was introduced to you and you just didn't want to eat it.  It didn't appeal to you in any way.

It didn't smell good, it didn't look good, it didn't feel good on your tongue or against the roof of your mouth.

What do you remember from that experience?

If it was anything like my experiences, you were pretty much told "eat it or else" or "just a tiny bit – you need to eat at least a tiny bit."  Or "take three bites and then you can leave the table."

I thought it was sheer torture. Electing to bring a forkful of detestable swiss chard into my mouth, for example, felt like I was inviting an invading force to lop my ear off. So dramatic for a child. Somehow we remember these moments with acute and ever growing accuracy.

Here is scientific reality for you: Taste drives appetite and also keeps us safe from poison.  It is in our nature to enjoy the taste of sugar because we have an absolute requirement for carbohydrates (sugars etc.). We get cravings for salt because we must have sodium chloride (common salt) in our diet.

Bitter and sour cause aversive, avoidance reactions because most poisons are bitter (most bitter substances are bad for you - certainly in excess) and off food goes sour (acidic).

You didn't know about taste receptor cells when you were forced to eat that horrible pile of broccoli each night. You didn't know or even care to know that each taste bud has a pore that opens out to the surface of the tongue enabling molecules and ions taken into the mouth to reach the receptor cells.

None of that mattered.

You  just knew you didn't like it.

When I was a child, the thought of drinking coffee repulsed me. I had no idea how adults could like coffee so much. How on Earth could my mother and Mrs. Elder even think of bringing coffee in a thermos to our outings to Terrace Lake in the summer?

I enjoyed the scent of coffee, and coffee ice cream was tolerable if there was no chocolate available, but the steaming hot stuff in mugs they savored as they met in one another's kitchens in the afternoon?

No thank you.

Once a friend's mother insisted I drink some and she doused it with milk and sugar – I literally gagged into the cup.

This was a definite, strong aversion.

Fast forward several years to sophomore year in college. I was very aware of my appearance at this point and was constantly watching my weight.  I wanted to be able to have something warm to drink besides
hot chocolate.

I started practicing drinking coffee and found that I actually liked it. Plain, no sugar, no cream just coffee: preferably bold – I still do not like weak coffee at all. It gets poured right into the sink if it is too weak.

I love flavorful, rich coffee. I have even written poetry about coffee.

Yes, I have developed an appetite for coffee.

And I love broccoli.  I have been known to sit and eat a plate of just broccoli. No butter, no cheese just a pinch of salt.

When I was a child, the very thought of that was repugnant.

My tastes shifted with maturity.

Which of your tastes have changed?

What do you have an appetite for now which you didn't like at all in the past?

Prepare to write:

Remember a time in your life when you didn't like the taste of something which you now find quite appealing. You may use a food or a drink or you may choose an activity.

Before we write, jot several difference possible writing topics.

For me, I might have included broccolli and coffee and getting up early.

If you use a food choice, fill your writing with taste and sensory imagery.

What did that food feel like in your mouth – what was its texture?

Where were you when you attempted to eat it?  What did people say to you when you let it be known you didn't like this food?

If time allows, begin to write the later experience – of developing an appetite for the food or the experience. Think of how many times I write poetry about sunrise. If you had told me when I was fifteen I would love being awake for the sunrise, I would have thought you were crazy. Now, I just settle into loving (and writing) the sunrise.

Your prompt is simply, "I remember how much I didn't used to like……."

Add a link to any blog entries you write which relate back to our writing prompts. We would love to read your words.

If this is your first visit, you may "officially" JOIN OUR ADVENTURE IN WRITING -

Sign up here to receive daily lessons.

(Required fields are bold)

 

Email Address *
First Name
Last Name

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am so grateful to be writing together with you.

If you are interested in firing up your writing even more, please visit the Page for "And Now You Write: Premium Program."

 

Celebrating New Beginnings and the Last Three Days of "And Now You Write" - Join us!

Today's Writing prompt:  This November, I will write....

Welcome to And Now You Write. We are grateful you are here today to write alongside us. If this is your first visit: hooray! This is the just right time for you to start. We only have three more lessons, so consider this your personal, short term intensive writing program.

Tomorrow and Wednesday at 8:30 Pacific time  simply dial (712) 432 3100 conference code 440137.  I look forward to connecting with you!

Today's audio is ready for you to write-along with now!

 

 

 

 

 

The tree that is beside the running water is fresher and gives more fruit.
Saint Teresa of Avila

Welcome, one and all, to November - and to the beginning of the end of And Now You Write.

It is a sacred time, this beginning-ending. This conclusion and this invitation to a fresh start.

It brings to mind other beginning-endings that taught me how to be powerfully present wherever I was an whatever was happening.

There is something sacred in the discovery and recognition that the end is a beginning all its own: that we stop grieving for what we lost and become curious about what is.

Here, listen to what I mean:

When Marlena died, I became mother of a stillborn baby. I became an expert in infant loss and grief. I stopped being expectant and became a griever. I wasn't always happy about it, but that is what was and what is.

The beginning of motherhood for me was not of full arms, a car carrier with a pacifier holding baby – the beginning of motherhood for me was tears and ache and emptiness, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a  week.

When Samuel was diagnosed with autism, I became the mother of a special needs child. I stopped holding onto the myth of "perfect family" and instead, became an advocate, an activist and a committed volunteer in the educational system. I wasn't always happy about it, but that is what was and what is. My only son is not going to be that "all-everything-whoa, check me out" kind of boy. He will be himself, which is just right. I look at him and we laugh together. In my melancholy moments, I whisper, "so close to normal" and in my happier moments I shout, "What's so great about normal?"

When Katherine said "Yes!" to Smith College, I became the mother of a soon-to-leave-home high school senior. I had to grasp the fact that her day-to-day life is outside my knowing. Her recent surgery made me face this head on and yes, so far we have survived. In fact, it made our ties stronger as we reached toward each other in different ways. That ending is still becoming this new beginning. Last night we used Skye for the first time. It was beyond words great to "see" her, especially when Samuel walked onto the video screen wearing his Halloween costume and Katherine's room mate giggled with Emma about how having her on the video "was like having two Katherine's in the room" because they look quite similar.

It is perfect that we bring "And Now You Write" to a gentle end as November appears with all its creative possibility within in.

A couple days ago I sat down and wrote the beginnings of a festive-agreement with myself about who I will be and what I will do in November. I thought it would be fun to share this with you and also invite you into creating your November even more powerfully.

We will take a moment to visualize your November and then write it into powerful creation together.

This November, I will...

This November I will lay a foundation for a world shatteringly wonderful 2011.

This November I will write at least 2000 words daily.

This November I will stretch myself physically and creatively.

This November I will remember love, first.

This November I will put myself out there more than I am used to doing.

This November I will be living my dreams more completely and bringing several to light that I wondered... "Would this ever happen?!"

This November I will be praised and perhaps I will have fingers shaken in my nose.

This November I will playfully experiment and accept doing things badly on the way to doing them well.

This November I will remember love, first.

This November I will laugh hard.

This November I will do some new stuff.

This November I will catalog and hang words on shelves, I will put ducks and baskets and buckets in shiny, muddy, tear-stained rows.

This November I will fart, I will may puke, I will most likely wring my hands and do some wretching.

This November I will create and publish chap books.

This November I will perform poetry, twice.

This November I will perform on the largest venue ever.

This November I will remember love, first.

This November I will sit in the sun, I will more than likely be rained upon, I will yawn and be tired, I will howl at the moon and more than likely I will sob at least once.

This November I will say thank you.

This November I will hang out with my favorite nun.

This November I will vote.

This November I will hug my babies.

This November I will pray.

This November I will stretch.

This November I will NaNo, I will AEDM, I will do the PAD Chapbook Challenge.

This November I will.....answer the call, this November.

Today's Writing prompt:  This November, I will write....

 

 

 

 

Add a link to any blog entries you write which relate back to our writing prompts. We would love to read your words.

If this is your first visit, you may "officially" JOIN OUR ADVENTURE IN WRITING -

Sign up here to receive daily lessons.

(Required fields are bold)

 

Email Address *
First Name
Last Name

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am so grateful to be writing together with you.

If you are interested in firing up your writing even more, please visit the Page for "And Now You Write: Premium Program."