Weekly Wide-Awake #48

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

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Instructions. Flossing. Mariposa.

Living the Comma #20

Instructions. Purple. Advice. Essays. Sermons.

Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. — Mary Oliver

Dear Writer Friends,

I got my nails painted deep purple pink. They are now the color of the first magnolias that I see blooming on my walk. That feels important to share with our writing group. Writing is the way I pay attention to the blossoms on the trees, the color of my nails, the smell of the jasmine candle that sits inside our door, the taste of my favorite sushi, the scar on my left ankle that has healed beautifully since surgery a year ago. Paying attention matters. Life’s details matter. Telling about it, as Mary Oliver reflects, is part of living a life.

Spring is an invitation to pay attention, be astonished, and tell about it. It is an invitation to paint our nails deep purple pink and take pictures of blossoms and write our stories. It is an invitation to get our hands dirty with whatever work needs to be done. It is an invitation to focus our love and magic on what matters.

Read entire post here.

MONDAYS ARE FREE EXERCISES 196—200

Flossing. Customer Service. Rage. Hope. Ducks.

EXERCISE 196: PUSH THE SUBJECT

you would never

Write a poem about an activity you engage in that you would never think to write a poem about.

Flossing

I recently read we should floss after every meal. The article claimed it could help you lose weight and save your life. My hygienists, and there have been many over time, say that daily flossing prevents gum degeneration and bad breath and yellowing (which is more common as I stretch into my fifties.) When I was a kid, I would get a milkshake after every dentist appointment. Chocolate was my favorite. That helped. Once, I went a few years without going to the dentist (in protest of a previous hygienist with a judgmental attitude and a harsh touch.) When I returned to the dentist, the pain was enough to make me never want to go back. The never-want-to-go-back instinct often happens to me in gyms and Ashtanga yoga studios and loud dance clubs with much younger people and gatherings where I don’t know anyone and the moment after I apply for a job I don’t want and the three in the morning panic attack in which every awful thing I have ever said about someone is on blast in my mind despite the cat licking my face trying to soothe me.

Weirdly. It all comes back to flossing. It comes back to starting small. It comes back to the incredible strength of small habits. It comes back to healthy pink gums and well cared for foundations. It comes to back to 6-month check ups that keep things from getting too out of line. It comes back to a gentle touch in all things, to ourselves and everyone. It comes back to listening and heeding wise advice. It comes back to finding milkshakes and whatever it is that helps us do hard things. It comes back to listening and understanding and honoring the never-want-to-go-back instinct. It comes back to repetition and habitual ease.

Read entire post here.

Taking A Walk #2

Mariposa, Going Through, and ConNectar

Walking this week, I am thinking about butterflies. There are several pieces of art along the Beltline that are about butterflies. Across from Mariposa, at the time of my original project, was This Was Something I Had to Go Through. I situate them here, next to one another, to make a point. There is something about their message — a chrysalis and throughness, beauty and peace in becoming, of life itself as through. The ConNectar is about connection and sweetness. Connection being how we make it through.

Read entire post here.

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