Volume III, Issue 47
December 22, 2014
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Word of the Week: silence
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Dear ,
Such a full time of year,
December. Often such a noisy time of year, even if much of it is joyful noise.
I don't know about you, but the busier and louder my life gets, the more I need at least a small pocket of silence in my days. So most December mornings, while it's still dark, I make my way to my prayer spot -- the faded flowered wing chair I've been sitting in since I was a very small child. (Lucky
me, that none of my siblings wanted it :)...) I light a candle, I read a few inspiring words, and then I close my eyes for at least seven minutes of pure silence, just me and my breath and my beating heart.
Sometimes, I feel the same hushed, reverent way I did when I was a small child, listening to the words in the carols I loved: "Silent night, holy night...," "...above they deep and
dreamless sleep the silent stars go by..."
My wish for you this week, no matter what faith you practice (or don't), is that you'll take at least a few moments to experiment with the gifts silence offers. If you'd like some inspiration, author Kathleen Norris's essay on silence from her Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith is below in which she speaks, among other things, of how silence can "liberate the imagination."
Love and light and
liberation,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
UNDER CONSTRUCTION - starts in two weeks!
Register now to reserve your spot before they fill up! (Fulfilling Writing Dreams & Goals; Creating New Writing; Revising & Polishing Your Writing) Choose between Wednesday
mornings or Thursday evenings, to fit your schedule. This class is designed to fulfill your writing dreams and projects. You’ll set goals and support structures and watch your writing flow! You’ll also get feedback on your work (any genre) and learn revision tools. Jumpstart your pen and receive the knowledge and inspiration you need to write,
whatever your preferred genre. Each week, writing prompts will generate material for new writing or further a piece in process. Through examples of accomplished writers, you’ll learn techniques to aid you right where you are in the process. WEDNESDAY MORNINGS
WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead Street, Charlotte, NC 28204. Click here for map.
WHEN: Wednesday mornings from 10 am to noon.
January 14th, 21st and 28th, February 4th and 18th, March 4th, 11th and 25th, April 8th, 22nd and 29th, May 13th
COST: $395 for 12 classes
TO REGISTER: To register online, click here. Or email info@wordplaynow.com for details on registering by check via
mail.
THURSDAY EVENINGS
WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead Street, Charlotte, NC 28204. Click here for map.
WHEN: Offered Thursday evenings from 7 to 9 pm.
January 8th, 22nd and 29th, February 5th and 19th, March 5th, 12th and 26th, April 9th, 23rd and 30th, May 15th
COST:$395 for 12 classes
TO
REGISTER: This class is near capacity. (Class size limited to serve participants.) If you're interested in a spot, email info@wordplaynow.com for details and availability.
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GIFT OF MEMOIR - starts in two weeks!
Register now to reserve your spot before they fill up! (Preserving Family History; Writing for and about Your Family; The Art of Memoir) Our life stories are a precious legacy. Putting them in writing is a gift to all who know and love us—they can be treasured and enjoyed for generations to come. It is also a gift to ourselves. As best-selling author Rachel Naomi Remen says in her book Kitchen Table Wisdom,
facts bring us to knowledge, but stories bring us to wisdom. If you are interested in writing family and/or personal life stories—those significant tales of adventure, transition, love, loss, and triumph, as well as lovely everyday moments from times past or the present, come learn specific tools and techniques to retrieve and record them. WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000
East Morehead Street, Charlotte, NC 28204. Click here for map.
WHEN: Thursday mornings,10 am – noon.
January 8th and 22nd, February 5th and 19th, March 5th and 26th, April 2nd and
23rd
COST: $259 for 8 sessions.
TO REGISTER: To register online, click here. Or email info@wordplaynow.com for details on registering by check via mail. ----------------------------------------------------------------- CHECK OUT THIS UPCOMING OPPORTUNITY, TAUGHT BY WORDPLAY CREATIVE CONSULTANT WENDY GILL*. THE ARTIST'S WAY:
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
(Expanding Our Creativity; Creating Joy and Fulfillment in Our Lives) Are you ready to discover
the joy of creativity? Using the proven tools and structure of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, this course will spur your imagination and guide your journey toward creative self-expression.
Our 2-hour sessions include weekly check-ins, hands-on activities, and creativity exercises. The encouragement and support of this small in-person community (what Julia Cameron calls a “creative
cluster”) will help you fully experience the power of The Artist’s Way.
COST: $195 for 13 two-hour sessions over 13 weeks WHERE: Downtown Matthews, NC WHEN:
Thursday evenings, 7-9 PM, January 8 – April 2, 2015
*Wendy H. Gill was a special education teacher for 22 years. One of her greatest joys as an educator was adapting stories, rhymes and songs to engage her students and instill a love of books. She left full-time teaching in 2000 to create a literacy enrichment program for young children. She is currently a writer, producer, and the owner of Professional Communications, a creative video production agency. Her poems and essays have appeared in a variety of regional and national publications.
More WordPlay opportunities here. Featured Writing Silence
from the book
AMAZING GRACE
by
Kathleen Norris
Over the years when I worked as an artist in elementary schools I devised an exercise for the children regarding noise and silence. I'll make a deal with you, I said—first you get to make noise, and
then you'll make silence. The rules for noise were simple: when I raise my hand, I told them, you make all the noise you can while sitting at your desk, using your mouth, hands, and feet. The kids' eyes would grow wide—and the teacher's as well—so I'd add, the important thing is that when I lower my hand, you have to stop. I found that we'd usually have to make two or three attempts to attain an acceptable din—shouting, pounding, stomping. The wonder is, we never got caught. Maybe because the roar lasted for just a few seconds and school principals assumed that they'd imagined the whole thing. The rules for silence were equally simple. Don't hold your breath and
make funny faces, I learned to say, as this is how third graders typically imagine silence. Just breathe normally but quietly: the only hard thing is to sit so still that you make no noise at all. We always had to try this more than once. A pencil would roll down someone’s desk, or someone would shift in a seat. But in every case but one, over many years, I found that children were able to become so still that silence became a presence in the classroom. Some kids loved it. I believe it was a revelation to them, and certainly to their teachers, that they could be so quiet. “Let's do it again, “ they'd say. Others weren't so sure. “It's scary, “ a fifth grader complained. “Why? “ I asked, and I believe that he got to the heart of it when he replied, “It's like we're waiting for something—it's scary! “ The only time I encountered a class that was unable to reach a point of stillness, I learned the reason why when I happened to arrive early for class one day. Their teacher was shrieking commands at them—Write, don't print your name in the upper right-hand corner of the paper; set a left-hand margin and keep it; use a pencil, not a pen; line the paper up with the edge of your desk for collection. These children
had so many little rules barked at them all day long by a burned-out teacher that they had stopped listening, which surely is a prerequisite for silence. What interests me most about my experiment is the way in which making silence liberated the imagination of so many children. Very few wrote with any originality about making noise. Most of their images were clichés such as “we sound
like a herd of elephants. “ But silence was another matter: here, their images often had a depth and maturity that was unlike anything else they wrote. One boy came up with an image of strength as being “as slow and silent as a tree, “ another wrote that “Silence is sleeping waiting to wake up. Silence is a tree spreading its branches to the sun. “ In a parochial school, one third grader's poem turned into a prayer: “Silence is spiders spinning their webs, it's like a silkworm
making its silk. Lord, help me to know when to be silent. “ And in a tiny town in western North Dakota a little girl offered a gem of spiritual wisdom that I find myself returning to when my life becomes too noisy and distractions overwhelm me: “Silence reminds me to take my soul with me wherever I go.”
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt This is WordPlay -- so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's "silence."
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PROMPT: Choice 1: Set a timer and give yourself seven minutes of pure silence. All
you have to do is breathe. Notice that the world didn't stop when you did. (I find this very reassuring.)
Choice 2: Write about silence, in any genre or any way that you wish.
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MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and two collections of poetry, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another."
Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best learn -- and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours! |
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