Write Every Day

April 30, 2012 Leave a Comment

I’ve made a sort of “silent resolution” with myself to start writing every day (again).

Not necessarily blog, but write…just for the sake of writing…in my journal, on the computer, on a napkin…it doesn’t matter. I used to tell my students, “to be a writer all you have to do is write,” and there are sadly days, weeks, and even months that go by when I don’t take my own advice.

So many parts of me need writing to survive…my brain, my heart and all of my insides swirl with thoughts all day that need an outlet. Sometimes I just need a place to dump them, but most times I long to share and connect them to others, which is why I’ve always loved the blogging world.

I’ve asked before, why is it that we deprive ourselves that which we need to survive?

I make excuses…I don’t have time, I’m too tired, I’m afraid >>> it won’t be good enough, it won’t be perfect and if it’s not good or perfect, then what’s the point? (We all know I’ve “been there/done that” on that particular topic…)

Now is the time to give up the expectations and just write. To write. Because I need it. I love it. I want to share and connect. It makes me happy. And it provides an awesome way to look back and say…oh, yeah…that’s what I was thinking and feeling and loving and hating on that particular day.

And when I feel lost I remember.

I am not lost. I am right here.

In these words that overflow and spill into an awkward, jumbled and sometimes “beautiful” mess.

I am not lost. I am right here.

(And while there may not be perfection

I find great

security.comfort.happiness

in being grounded

in these words.)

Filed Under: Beautiful Life, Make it Beautiful, Read.Write.Heal Tagged With: ,

“Beautiful in my surrender…”

June 22, 2011 3 Comments
So, let me tell you a secret. 
I’ve been praying for inspiration. 
School is out. 
Summer is here.
I’m feeling void of…
ideas.
What used to come natural to me is now feeling forced.
What to write about? 
Well, prayers have been answered. 
Ten fold. 
(stay tuned for more later this week)
My first inspiration came from Writing My Way Sober. 
Enjoy her words of wisdom.
 
 
The above image is from Writing My Way Sober, who described these sticks found on an Oregon coast as, “drift wood, perfectly smoothed and sanded by the elements. Beaten by life – the waves, wind, rocks, sun.  I love them.”
 
She goes on to say, “What I am realizing is that my struggles during the past few weeks are all gifts: events trying to smooth, polish and humble me. Purify me.

‘When we are born our hearts are all shiny and new.  As human beings we come into the world with pure hearts.  We are created in the image of God.  The unabashed wonder and innocence of a child reflects our divine inner nature.  Yet, over time the process of life changes the pristine nature of our hearts.  Our innocence evaporates.  We learn negativity.  We say and do things that move us away from our creator’s image.  Slowly over time our hearts become filled with things other than God. 

We call this process veiling the heart.  It is how we begin to feel lost or disconnected.  The pain and suffering that troubles our hearts is a direct result of veiling. It has been written that 70,000 veils of both light and dark separate us from the divine light.’
–Kirk Habib Laman
 
So…when I stumble, I need to remember that each “bad” event can be an opportunity to lift another veil. To smooth another edge. 

So I suppose I’ll let the water tumble me, the rocks sand me, the sun bleach me. I’ll become a perfect stick.

And I will be beautiful in my surrender.”
 
That last line is haunting. 
And I love it. 
 
It reminds me of the mud balls…
  “We polish on own lives, creating landscapes and canyons and peaks with the very silt we try to avoid, the dirt we disavow or hide or deny. It is the dirt of our lives–the depressions, the losses, the inequities, the failing grades in trigonometry, the e-mails sent in fear or hate or haste, the ways in which we encounter people different from us–that shape us, polish us to a heady sheen, make us in fact more beautiful, more elemental, more artful, more lasting.” –Patti Digh

…and the process of learning that the dirt of our lives can be smoothed, polished and shined into something beautiful. 

 
Thank you, thank you, for your inspiration. 
Filed Under: Read.Write.Heal, Writing Inspirations Tagged With:

Free Friday: Thank you, Elvis

January 7, 2011 Leave a Comment
I have this magnet on my fridge. 

And I love it. 
And I need it.
And I saw on google that Elvis Presley said it. 
Not sure if I believe that, but it sounds cool.
Happy Friday.
Filed Under: Beautiful Life, Uncategorized, Writing Inspirations Tagged With:

Tools and Topics Tuesday: Four Word Self Help + a GIVEAWAY

November 30, 2010 7 Comments
Patti Digh, author of one of my favorite books, Life is a Verb, says Life is complex, not complicated.
So why is it we insist on complicating things?

In her book, Four Word Self Help: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives Digh says, “There are three kinds of problems: simple (baking a cake), complicated (a moon launch), and complex (raising a child or finding meaning in your life). Most of us mistake what is complex with what is merely complicated. We create more strategic plans and worksheets and believe we must invest in expensive solutions to the complicated issues of our day. What if life is complex, not complicated? What if the counterintuitive response of simplifying is exactly the right one?”

Is life really all that complicated?

What if we could solve all our problems with just four simple words?

Try writing your own four word mantras for the areas you need help with in your life. Here are some examples:

be a surge protector

eat less, move more
use your own voice
give up toxic people

Share more examples with me in a comment below!

A random commenter will win a signed copy of the book  Four Word Self Help: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives by Patti Digh.

The winner will be chosen on Friday, December 3rd, 2010.

Have fun!

*I am trying a new structure for my blogs. See more here.

Filed Under: Jounaling Tools + Topics, Writing Inspirations Tagged With: ,

Praise Song 2010

November 23, 2010 Leave a Comment
*In Thanksgiving spirit, I’m reposting one of my favorite writing activities: the Praise Song. I encourage you to create your own Praise Poems and share!

I read this poem a few years ago for my Journal Therapy class and was very inspired.

Praise Song

Paise the light of late November,
the thin sunlight that goes deep in the bones.
Praise the crows chattering in the oak trees;
though they are clothed in night, they do not
despair. Praise what little there’s left:
the small boats of milkweed pods, husks, hulls,
shells, the architecture of trees. Praise the meadow
of dried weeds: yarrow, goldenrod, chicory,
the remains of summer. Praise the blue sky
that hasn’t cracked yet. Praise the sun slipping down
behind the beechnuts, praise the quilt of leaves
that covers the grass: Scarlet Oak, Sweet Gum,
Sugar Maple. Though darkness gathers, praise our crazy
fallen world; it’s all we have, and it’s never enough.

- Barbara Crooker
(Abalone Moon, Summer 2004)

I was pushed by the last line to think that if this “crazy fallen world” is never enough, then what is?

Read here for more inspiration:

Write your own praise song

My Praise Song in November

Filed Under: Writing Inspirations Tagged With: ,

G. Lynn Nelson, Writing and Being

October 22, 2009 Leave a Comment

At Roanoke College I was lucky enough to come across the book Writing and Being: Taking Back Our Lives Through the Power of Language. The author, G. Lynn Nelson, visited our campus and took part in a “Drive-by Sharing” in which his Native American students from ASU read some of their most intimate and powerful pieces inspired by the book. My amazing professor, Dr. Mike Heller, had already been teaching us from Writing and Being and to hear their examples first-hand was awe-inspiring. I guess you could say this is where it all began for me on my journey in writing and healing… Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

“I only wrote when I thought I had something to say…Now, I write to find out what I have to say. The point is: for things to happen, you must write…It is the most important relationship of your life. It determines all others.” (pg. 22)

“If I do not seek quietness around me, I cannot hear the words that my heart whispers.” (pg. 50)

“We tell our stories first in anger, then in letting go, and finally in love—the freeing love for our fathers and for ourselves.” (pg. 66)

“To write the stories of your past is to change your life in the present.” (pg. 96)

“As we do our journal work and come together to share open and honest messages with each other…we discover one terrible/wonderful truth: We have all been, and we all shall be, wounded by life. There is no choice in the matter. It is an inescapable condition of living. Despite the fairy tales, no lives “happily ever after.” So the question is not whether we will be wounded by life. We will be. The question is: How do we respond to our wounding? What do we do with our wounds? For beyond our wounding lies our power and our salvation…we can choose to hide our wounds and pretend and go on bleeding throughout our lives—or we can tell the stories of our wounding…and we can heal ourselves.” (pg. 105)

Filed Under: Writing Inspirations Tagged With:

Inspiration

September 23, 2009 Leave a Comment

Writing and Being, G. Lynn Nelson
Praise Song

Filed Under: Writing Inspirations Tagged With:

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