Volume VII, Issue 48
December 3, 2018
Word of the Week: laughter
Dear ,
When's the last time you laughed until you cried?
The lady in black (third from the left) in this photo, Kathy Gruhn, gave the rest of us in this photo a whole evening's worth of that kind of hilarity this past Tuesday up at the Tryon Fine Arts Center in the mountains of North Carolina (where Kathy lives) at an event to unveil her new book, Drug Tested for Being Happy: True Stories to Make You Laugh.
Lisa, Mary, Bri dgett, Lisa, and I were happy to make the more than two-hour drive to celebrate with
her. After all, she makes the drive down the mountain to Charlotte each week to be a member of our Under Construction class.
Besides, we knew we were in for a good time. Kathy can't help but to make people laugh. As Jack Canfield says, “Kathy Thorson Gruhn’s true stories are so ridiculous, and outrageous, that they’re bound to make you, your
friends, and your family laugh.”
Of course, you are more than welcome to check out Kathy's book. All of us beaming from this photo would love it if you did. (To get a small sampling, one of her "true stories," as Kathy calls
them, is the featured writing this week. Scroll on down to read “Head Over Heels.”)
But what I really want to encourage you to do this week is to spend a goodly amount of time with whatever it is that makes YOU laugh. And to try your hand at writing some funny material of your own, true or otherwise. Because, while laughter
may or may not be the best medicine, it is scientifically proven to be good for us. And we all deserve a hearty daily dose.
Love, light, and laughter,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
THE SEVEN ENERGIES OF WRITING WINTER RETREAT
(Writing as Renewal / Creating New Writing / Tools and Techniques to Enhance Creativity and Productivity in Your Writing Life)
Renew and delight yourself. The Winter Writing Retreat is an opportunity to create new pieces of writing and/or new possibilities for our lives. This year, in addition to enjoying various seasonal prompts that elicit beautiful material for essays, poems, stories, articles, and/or self-reflection, we'll be writing through the lens of what I call the "Seven Energies of
Writing."
If you’ve ever had a hard time getting started writing, finishing what you’ve begun, or gotten stuck in the middle (“writer’s block), knowing how to engage in the most helpful “energy of writing” at each stage of your process—and on any given day—will be a game-changer. Throughout the day, as we celebrate the coming of the winter season, we’ll explore—and practice—the ins, outs, and
benefits of all seven of these energies. You’ll learn invaluable tools and strategies you’ll use again and again to write with maximum ease and effectiveness. Yes, you can be more productive, creative, and fulfilled, no matter what kind of writing you do or how experienced you are!
You’ll also enjoy a communal lunch (you’ll pick what you like from the Panera Bread menu), and private time that can be used to work on your own writing in any way you like and/or play with your choice of "energy-related" 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, December 15th, 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 where you can pay with a credit card or by using PayPal.
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THE GIFT OF MEMOIR:
How to Get Your Most Meaningful Life Stories
on Paper with Ease
(Preserving Family History; Writing for and about Your Family; The Art of Memoir)
Just for you, a MONTHLY Gift of Memoir class to help you get your most meaningful life stories written. 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.
You will learn and practice the fundamental tools and steps needed to both capture individual events that have been important to you, reflecting on the impact and meaning as well as what happened, and the process of collecting events together into a full-length memoir or book of essays—whether this is for
personal reflection, to share with family and friends, or to publish to reach a larger audience.
And you'll have the opportunity to share one of your stories (up to 1,200 words) with the class to receive feedback and guidance in moving forward.
Our 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.
* For the benefit of participants, an audio recording of the class will be made each week so that participants are able to listen to classes they miss and/or review material covered at any convenient time and place. These recordings are available throughout the class session, along with all handouts, in a shared
Dropbox folder.
WHERE: The WordPlay studio, Ballantyne area. Directions will be sent upon registration.
WHEN: Thursday morning, December 20th, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
COST: $65/three hours.
Or save by taking the remaining series of six for $287. (Only one spot left for the series!) The dates are:
December 20
January 31
February 28
March 28
April 25
May 23
Feel free to try out the first class before committing to the series. If you'd like to continue, the cost of the first class will be deducted from the total.
TO REGISTER: Please send an email with your contact information to info@wordplaynow.com and the subject line: “Gift of Memoir” and we’ll reply with more information. Hope to have you there! CLASS SIZE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS.
WordPlay Success Story
"My time with Maureen has blossomed into many projects."
Meet Kathy Gruhn
Photo of Maureen, Kathy, and Under Construction classmate Mary Struble Deery reviewing Mary's photos
by fellow Under Construction member Lisa Kunkleman.
Kathryn Thorson Gruhn grew up in the small town of Blooming Prairie in southern Minnesota. She moved to the South with her husband in the late seventies and currently lives on a horse farm in Tryon, North Carolina. She has two grown daughters and two grandchildren.
Before becoming a writer, she was a speech pathologist for 35 years, working primarily with children ages birth to seven, which prompted her to create the My Baby Compass program. My Baby Compass is a program for parents and caregivers of children Birth to Seven that promotes the early identification of developmental delays. She recently entered in a joint
venture to get My Baby Compass evidence-based and into an App that will be available worldwide. For more information, visit www.mybabycompass.com.
Kathy is a bestselling author with the first edition of Soul for Success, for which she received an Editor’s Choice award.
She has been telling funny stories for many years and was finally prompted by Jack Canfield, the Chicken Soup of the Soul creator, to gather them in a book after he learned that writing them down was one way she handled the grief of losing her husband of forty-three years. Kathy's greatest gift is making people laugh through her stories
and jokes.
What Kathy says about WordPlay
I joined one of Maureen's WordPlay classes in the spring of 2006 and the first thing I ever wrote was the story, "Duct, Duct, Boots," which is in my new book, Drug Tested for Being
Happy. When Maureen asked me to read “Duct, Duct, Boots” in front of the class, I was so nervous—I had never been asked to read something personal that I had written. She loved the story and when I wrote more, she encouraged me to place them in a book. I didn't think people would be interested in my stories, but I should have listened. Now, twelve years later, Amazon can't keep the book in stock: I have sold over 200 books in five days.
This hasn't been the only success that my writing coach (AKA midwife Maureen) has helped me produce. My time with Maureen has blossomed into many projects, including the My Baby Compass series mentioned above.
Throughout this time, I've also had the support of my WordPlay Under Construction class members, which has been invaluable to me. In addition to suggesting titles for stories, critiquing content, and giving me advice to help me improve my work, they made me accountable, which led me to reach my goals.
Meanwhile, I’m continuing to write funny true stories and the next book, Fight Naked, will be out in 2019. Maureen, along with Jack Canfield, the creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, have me convinced that the world needs more laughter. I am having a blast fulfilling my purpose!
I was on my way to a pharmaceutical meeting at a fine hotel in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. My husband’s research department was looking for new clinical trials and we were meeting with CEO’s of a number of companies who were looking for venues in the area of Rheumatoid Arthritis. I was juggling my parental duties and my role as lead
Clinical Coordinator. As usual, I needed to be at two places at the same time.
When I arrived at the hotel, I realized that, in my haste, I’d forgotten my purse. No problem, I thought, I can get some cash for parking from Bill. He’s going to be at the meeting.
Afterward, as I was leaving, my husband handed me five dollars for the parking. I whizzed the car down the parking ramp to the attendant on duty as I was in a hurry to get to my daughter’s Open House and PTA meeting.
I looked for the parking cost on the lit-up kiosk: it read 7.15.
In a fervor, I feverishly looked for change in the glove compartment, under the seats, in the console, and even the trunk. I managed to put together a number of quarters, nickels, and chocolate-covered dimes that had no doubt been under the seat for a decade.
Cars were now lined up behind me, the PTA was starting in just a few minutes, and I was still twenty-two cents short. Sitting in his concrete box, the parking attendant reached out with his unusually short arms and carefully took my money. Because his hands were so small, it took a while for him to take all the change. He placed it on the shelf
in front of him. I’d given him all the coins first, hoping to plead my case before forking over the five-dollar bill. He had counted every penny when I finally handed him the five dollars.
“Why didn’t you give me this in the first place?” he asked.
“I owe $7.15,” I replied, pointing to the kiosk, which now flashed 7:22.
“That’s the time! You owe $4.50.”
He was laughing so hard, he leaned back to take a deep breath. Then he fell off his chair and disappeared. I waited. He didn’t reappear. Leaning out of my car, I peered through his window, only to see him lying on the floor next to a wheelchair. He was struggling to get up, but he didn’t have the use of his legs.
My first response——as if he was a boy drowning—was to dive in. I went through my window, pulled my torso through his window, and leaned over to give him my hand. At first, he couldn’t reach it because his arms were so short. I wiggled a little closer.
That’s when I started to feel the cool breeze on my upper thighs. I was backing my torso a few inches out the window when my dress caught on the metal ledge just short of my derriere.
“I’m stuck. My skirt is caught on the metal piece of the window,” I told him.
He giggled. “Oh my, I can’t imagine what the people behind your car are thinking.”
“It’s not funny. Give me your hands and boost me up.”
I grabbed his hands with both of mine. His biceps were large, giving me the confidence that he was strong enough to help me. As he was trying to push me back out the window, all of a sudden my head landed on his chest, with my bare legs halfway out the window and my dress over my head.
I was stuck. He was stuck.
“Oh, my,” he giggled over and over again, flapping his arms and hands back and forth.
“Stop laughing and let’s figure out how we’re going to get out of this mess,” I said, wondering if he could hear my words that were being muffled by my dress and slip.
Soon I heard a voice. “Are you okay in there? What’s going on?”
“Help us!” I yelled, “I’m stuck. My dress is caught on the metal ledge.”
I felt a tug on my dress and someone’s arms around my waist. “Bend your knees and I’ll let you down slowly,” the kind man said.
With the grace of an elephant, I managed to wad my legs into a ball, torn dress and all, and stand up inside the parking attendant’s station. The man then helped the parking attendant back into his wheelchair. As I was rearranging my hair and dress; there I was, face to face, with the CEO of the pharmaceutical company that I’d just met
upstairs at the dinner party.
“Hello, we meet again,” he said. I froze in disbelief and muttered something unintelligible. This wasn’t the image I’d had of our next meeting. Oh no! I thought. We’ll never get the research contract now.
“Thank you, I’ll be on my way,” I said, flipping my hair back over my shoulder as if this was a normal occurrence in my daily routine.
Driving away, I briefly looked in my rear view mirror at the line of cars waiting to pay their bill. What was on THEIR minds? I couldn’t help laughing as I replayed the events in my head and envisioned the parking attendant and CEO arriving home and saying, ‘You’re not going to believe what happened to me at work
today!’
Oh, by the way, the CEO must have had a sense of humor. We did get the contract.
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 "laughter."
PROMPT: Write one of your own funny "true stories." Or write any scene, story, or poem that makes you (or one of your characters) laugh.
It's fun to play with prompts in community with fellow writers, and to be able to share the results when you're done. You can find out about WordPlay classes, workshops, and retreats here.
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.
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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