Weekly Wide-Awake #65

[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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Weekly Wide-Awake #65

Bees. Good Shit. Peaches. Voyaging.

Nature promotes mutualism. The flower nourishes the bee. The river waters quench the thirst of all living beings. And trees provide a welcoming home to so many birds and animals. There is a rhythm to this togetherness. — Ram Nath Kovind

I am thinking about the togetherness of bees. Let me explain. I believe in mutualism, oneness, and the wholeness of things. I find hope, faith, and optimism there. There is something deep down awesome about a healthy hive. Faith bursts from a flower’s blossom. That is the sweetness of honey. That is the rhythm of optimism. Everything and everyone has a role to play. There is beauty. There is urgency. There is interdependence.

That makes sense to me in the way idle time is alive with the possibility’s buzz.

I draw lessons from the bees. Bees make the most of life’s brevity and purpose. Bees are builders and creators. Bees rely on one another.

I want to celebrate togetherness—togetherness that connects and creates, togetherness that nourishes and sustains, togetherness that breathes and grows, togetherness as big as oceans and mountains, togetherness as strong as scar tissue and stars, togetherness that pollinates loving kindness.

Living the Comma #39

Good Shit. Grace. Nadia Bolz-Weber.

Suleika Jaouad — “If you could offer one permission slip to everyone in the thick of it, what would it be?”

Nadia Bolz-Weber — “You have permission to experience joy right now. It’s ok. I know all the stuff. I know all of it is happening, but you have permission to notice whimsy. To experience joy. Its ok. Despair’s not gonna fucking save our asses, but joy might. Insisting on beauty and joy might.”

Hello Writer Friends,

I participated in Nadia Bolz-Weber’s project, 40 Days of Good Shit (a lenten discipline for cranky people.) She describes the Good Shit Project saying,

“Each day in Lent (which starts Wednesday, Feb 18th), I’ll either: Take one photo of something beautiful I notice in my day—like how the light comes through our front room in the afternoon, or Write one sentence about a warm interaction with a stranger—like the guy in the hospital elevator who asked which floor I was going to and pushed the button for me, or Post something helpful someone said to me that day—like the six-word prayer my friend Jackie just shared: I can’t. You can. Please do.”

We are living through a tough time for so many reasons. This project was a daily deep breath. It was a lesson in finding what we seek. It was a way into paying attention to life’s fullness. The humor. The details. The cracks. The tenderness. The sweetness. The brokenness. The wholeness. The curiosities.

Lent ended and I have not been as diligent in finding “good shit.” I feel a little less anchored. It is such a simple exercise. Taking pictures. Posting notes. Pausing in the midst of hurry. Listening in the midst of noise. Creating in the midst of destruction. Hope in the midst of fear.

I have an opportunity to write about Nadia Bolz-Weber for a women’s group of which I am a member. I am going to write more about Bolz-Weber next week.

Read entire post here.

MONDAYS ARE FREE EXERCISES 251-255

Peaches. Sunshine. Birds. Armadillos. Magenta.

EXERCISES 252: REVISE WITH REARRANGEMENT

the order of things

Find a draft that you’re interested in shaking up and change the order of things. Maybe you make what is first last, or what is last first. Maybe it’s several stanzas, and you switch them around a few times to see what happens, to see what it shows you.

EXERCISE 089: SAVE THE SUN

haul the sun up

A 5-Step Plan to Haul Up the Sun In the Morning

Step five in a plan to haul up the sun — fall apart and back together. Falling apart and back together — invoking the work of Pema Chōdrōn — is the heart of the haul. Mornings are series of aparts and back togethers, pushing the boundaries of light and dark to a next level experience of choosing breath and tomorrow and life. Step three in a plan to haul up the sun — decide toward morning again and again and again. Hauling up the sun requires decision muscle exercise. Every. Day. Like working out in the gym. That requires strength, too. Step one in a plan to haul up the sun — breathe again and again and again. There is no strength without breath. Step four in a plan to haul up the sun — celebrate light and dark. Hauling up the sun requires moving between light and dark. Hauling up the sun requires living through light and dark. Hauling up the sun requires thriving in the light and dark. Step two in a plan to haul up the sun — be like plants. Hauling up the sun requires we head to the light like plants growing toward the sun.

WANTED WEEK 5

Reasons for Voyaging

The sculpture in the front of the Christchurch Art Gallery is called Reasons for Voyaging. I possess a traveler’s heart. I am the stone with no moss. I am the star bouncing across the sky. I am the shipwreck in which coral thrives. I have always had my reasons for voyaging.

It all started with an invitation to New Zealand from a handsome Kiwi sheep herder after a conversation at LAX. Treks and whales and Sauvignon Blanc and young travelers on holiday. Hostels and sailing and lamb and jet boats. Fjords and Maori dance and the Southern Cross and glaciers.

The helicopter landed on Fox Glacier’s ice. I wanted my Christmas card picture that year to be of my arms raised and eyes to heaven in victory and awe. In grace and beauty. In perfect time and joy. In breath and pause. In song and prayer. In “Hell, Yes!” In I am and as if and not yet. The bluest blue and solid flow. The crunch and glare. The thin air and close sky. The arrival and destination. The dream and experience. The ascension and the stretch. If I stepped out of my body I would break into a million pieces.

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Weekly Wide-Awake #65

Bees. Good Shit. Peaches. Voyaging.

Living the Comma #39

Good Shit. Grace. Nadia Bolz-Weber.

MONDAYS ARE FREE EXERCISES 251-255

Peaches. Sunshine. Birds. Armadillos. Magenta.

EXERCISES 252: REVISE WITH REARRANGEMENT

EXERCISE 089: SAVE THE SUN

haul the sun up

A 5-Step Plan to Haul Up the Sun In the Morning

WANTED WEEK 5

Reasons for Voyaging

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