MONDAYS ARE FREE EXERCISES 216—220

[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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MONDAYS ARE FREE EXERCISES 216—220

Unloading. Trying. Learning. Holding.

EXERCISE 216: UNLOAD THE DISHWASHER AND

every feature

Describe every feature of your hand as you put away a knife.

I used a knife to cut an orange. Before the I put the knife away, my entire hand grabs a dishtowel and turns on the water. I wait for the water to get hot enough to carefully clean the self-sharpening, silverly-precise, elegantly-specific knife. Gentle attention. Finger by finger. Wrist twirl to wrist twirl. The arthritic finger on my right hand faithfully straightens as much as it can. I immediately and thoroughly clean the knife to protect its pristine nature. Mindful cleaning feels almost holy — like a rehearsal for how all life should be — present and attentive, intentional and patient, slow and simple. Once clean, I return the knife to its perfect assigned place in the knife block, alongside the other perfect knives of all sizes and assigned tasks and scissors. I rinse and dry my hands.

EXERCISE 217: TRY THIS!

thank you

With your non-dominant hand write a thank you note to your dominant hand./ Accessibility Note: As always, please feel encouraged to modify this exercise so that it works well with your unique body, needs, and capacity.

Thank you dominant hand. Thank you for strength and direction. Thank you for confidence and clarity. Thank you for holding and letting go. Thank you for every finger, even the ones that don’t quite work right. Thank you for consistency, in heat and cold. Thank you for movement, even before storms. (I remember when my Nana’s fingers would not move before storms.) Thank you for creating and caressing. Thank you for not letting me grab hot things. Thank you for petting cats and guiding soil. Thank you for directing the lens on my camera phone to capture beautiful images and for helping me to fold warm laundry.

EXERCISE 218: LEARNING TO SEE

without lifting

Open up to a blank page in your notebook. Divide your blank page into four quadrants by drawing a vertical line down the center and a horizontal line across the middle. Use your dominant hand to draw your nondominant hand four different times (one drawing in each quadrant) without lifting your pen/pencil off the page. Spend no more than one minute on each of your four drawings./ Accessibility Note: As always, please feel encouraged to modify this exercise so that it works well with your unique body, needs, and capacity.

See Notebook

EXERCISE 219: LEARNING TO SEE BACKWARDS

drawing in each

Turn to another blank page in your notebook. Divide your blank page into four quadrants by drawing a vertical line down the center and a horizontal line across the middle. Just like yesterday! This time, use your nondominant hand to draw your dominant hand (one drawing in each quadrant) without lifting your pen/pencil off the page. Spend no more than one minute on each drawing./ Accessibility Note: As always, please feel encouraged to modify this exercise so that it works well with your unique body, needs, and capacity.

See Notebook

EXERCISE 220: I HAVE HELD

kiss or otherwise

Step 1: List 10 things you have recently held in your hands./ Step 2: List 10 things you have held not in your hands (maybe you’ve held them in your heart, or in your mind’s eye, or in your knees, or in your ears… images, words, memories, stories, sounds, feelings, sensations, etc.)/ Step 3: Kiss or otherwise pamper and admire your hands. Compose a poem that employs anaphora in the form of the following repeating refrain: “I have held…I have held…I have held…etc.” Occasionally disrupt the repetition by using some form of negation occasionally. (I have held…I have held…but I have never held…)/ Consider “Things We Carry on the Sea” by Wang Ping as a reference.

Step 1 — 1. Cat 2. Pen 3. Journal 4 Eye Liner 5. Book 6. Foundation 7. Make-Up Brush 8. Lip Stick 9. Laundry 10. Face Cream

Step 2 — 1. Psalms 2. Stars 3. Magnolia 4. Iris 5. Picture Window 6. Peach 7. Spätzle 8. Fiddle 9. Birds 10. Dessert

Step 3 —

I Have Held

I have held cats/ I have held books/ I have held lip stick/ but I have never held Psalms

I have held eye liner/ I have held pens/ I have held face cream/ but I have never held Spätzle

I have held laundry/ I have held make-up brushes/ I have held journals/ but I have never held birds

I have held fiddles/ I have held foundation/ I have held dessert/ but I have never held picture windows

I have held irises/ I have held magnolias/ I have held peaches/ I have never held stars

Thank you for reading MONDAYS ARE FREE. These exercises are explorations of poetry and language and joy. Subscribe to the Wide-Awakeness Project to share this journey.

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MONDAYS ARE FREE EXERCISES 216—220

Unloading. Trying. Learning. Holding.

EXERCISE 216: UNLOAD THE DISHWASHER AND

EXERCISE 217: TRY THIS!

EXERCISE 218: LEARNING TO SEE

EXERCISE 219: LEARNING TO SEE BACKWARDS

EXERCISE 220: I HAVE HELD

I Have Held

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