Volume V, Issue 20 May 16, 2016 Word of the Week: wholeness Dear , Greetings from Erie, PA, where I've just spent a lovely evening with my sister and her husband after my "Writing Ourselves Whole" retreat at Olmsted Manor Retreat Center, which is tucked away in the Allegheny Forest some two hours southeast of here.
Olmsted was beautiful—especially with the snow falling on the blossom-laden trees. And I loved being with the beautiful souls pictured here as we explored, through writing, what it meant to be a "whole" human: body, mind, heart, and spirit, accepting the joys and sorrows in
our lives. After this morning's bout of laughter and tears as we went around the circle sharing our writings, I told them that, though they hadn't known it, they had really come to do the hokey pokey, where "you put your whole self in and you shake it all about." And we did... This week's featured writing is a small excerpt from Parker J. Palmer's book, A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life, which perfectly fit our theme. I hope you find it as meaningful as we did. Love and light, Maureen Upcoming WordPlay
WRITE LIKE A GENIUS
(Expanding Our Creativity; Learning New Tools for Our Writing and Our Lives; Creating New Writing)
Discover your own genius as you learn to apply seven fascinating approaches of Leonardo da Vinci to your writing. These techniques enliven non-fiction, poetry and fiction.
Expect fun, inspiration and writing galore in your preferred genre, with opportunities to share your work.
$630 for one week-long session (lodging and meals are additional – options can be found on the Folk School website). WHERE: John Campbell Folk School, 1 Folk School Road, Brasstown, NC 28902
WHEN: Sunday, August 7 – Saturday August 13, 2016.
TO REGISTER: To register, please click this John Campbell Folk School link to register
directly from them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMER WRITING RETREAT
(Writing as Renewal / Creating New Writing / Tools for a Writing Life)
Renew and delight yourself. The Summer Writing Retreat is an opportunity to create new pieces of writing and/or new possibilities for our lives. Enjoy various seasonal prompts; they elicit beautiful material that can be shaped into essays, poems, stories,
or articles. After a communal lunch, you’ll have private time which can be used to collage, work with a piece of writing from the morning, or play with a number of other writing prompts and methods. You’ll take home new ideas, new drafts, and new possibilities. $97
includes lunch and supplies.
WHERE: South Charlotte area. Details will be provided upon registration.
WHEN: Saturday, August 6th, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. TO
REGISTER: To pay with a check via mail, email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions. To pay online, please click this link to check out using PayPal.
More WordPlay opportunities here. Featured Writing
an excerpt from
Parker J.
Palmer's
A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
“The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and
pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love.”
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 "wholeness."
PROMPT: Write about a time in your/a character's life in which two opposing emotions occurred in juxtaposition with each other. You can borrow from the writing above and use faith and doubt, hope and despair, love and loss, or use any other pairing. 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 three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. One of her long-held dreams came true in July of 2015 when Garrison Keillor read one of her poems on The Writer's Almanac. 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! |
|
|
|
