Volume VI, Issue 6 February 6, 2017 Word of the Week: procrastination Dear ,
Have you, like me,
sometimes beaten yourself up for procrastinating on something that mattered a lot to you? Like, say, your writing?
One of my WordPlayers, Cathia Friou, whom you'll meet in next week zine, gifted me with a very different viewpoint on procrastination that I liked so much, I chose it for this week's featured
writing. It's from David Whyte's Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words, a book after my own heart, the way it unpacks words we take for granted we understand and offers new perspectives on them. It's a "must-read"—that is, if you've ever procrastinated!
In the beautiful way that life often works, that very same day, in my Thursday evening Under Construction class, one of my students shared an essay
she'd written about her "crush" on David Whyte, a poet, philosopher, and public speaker. She mentioned having heard David Whyte read at CPCC's Literary Festival in 2001, and another student chimed in that he'd been there as well. And so was I!
The whole night came back to me in a flash. My
then-middle-school-aged son Dan and I had just had dinner with children's author James Howe, whom I had picked up in our brand new, just-picked-up-that-day Honda Odyssey, and in my excitement, I'd locked the keys inside—with the car still running. There I sat with the two of them, my son trying not to be mortified by his ditzy mother, me trying not to feel like such a big idiot, listening to David Whyte read beautiful words in his beautiful voice, repeating lines that
resonated throughout the auditorium, while waiting for my friend at CPCC who was assisting that evening to come tap me on the shoulder to tell me AAA had arrived…. Oh, what a night!
But I digress—this has nothing to do with procrastination except, perhaps, to illustrate that while we're NOT doing that thing
we're "putting off," we are often doing something else of value, like recalling a treasured memory, or making a new one, as I did today with my grandsons, whose parents came to town to attend a Superbowl Party and stayed for almost a whole extra day after, as my son-in-law had work to do in his old Charlotte office before heading back to Virginia.
Rhys had just asked me to sing for him, Harry, often a wiggly worm, was ready for a nap and as cuddly as could be, and my sweet daughter thought to snap a picture. Life doesn't get any better than this.
Was I procrastinating, given I am just now getting the zine out to you? No, I was savoring an opportunity.
But, believe me, I have procrastinated. Have I ever. I believe my most noteworthy example is when I was staying in a cabin at Wildacres Retreat, having won a week's writing residency, and instead of writing, I found myself in the tiny kitchen alphabetizing the eight or so jars of herbs and spices that former writers on retreat had left there. I had to laugh at myself. I mean is that ridiculous or what?
Having not read David Whyte on procrastination, I didn't know then that it "...can be a beautiful thing, a parallel with patience, a companionable friend, a revealer of the true pattern..." I was just dismayed at my inability to get myself to write the way I thought I
should.
One note before you scroll on down so you'll know what procrastination is good for: if you've been procrastinating about registering for one of the two coastal retreats later this month, don't delay! The first one starts on February 17, and that's only ten days away. More below or here. Upcoming WordPlay
COASTAL WRITING RETREAT
Connect with Your Creativity at the Sunset Inn
(Writing—and more—as Renewal and Inspiration) Renew yourself and reconnect with your own creativity, whether you are a practicing writer, closet writer, or as-yet-to-pick-up-the-pen writer! The techniques and prompts we’ll use will spur your imagination, and can be used to create nonfiction, fiction, and/or poetry—the choice is yours. $378 for the weekend beginning Friday, February 17th through Sunday, February 19th. The Coastal Writing Retreat includes writing sessions, two nights’ lodging, two
breakfasts and Saturday lunch (hotel tax and Saturday dinner at a local restaurant not included). Want to extend your retreat? If you’d like to stay another day to write, or to just enjoy the beach, the Inn is offering to Coastal Writing Retreat participants the opportunity to stay Sunday night, February 19th, at half price. (Extra retreat sessions are a possibility too. Email info@wordplaynow.com if you’re interested.)
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, February 17 – Sunday, February 19, 2017*
TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at
888.575.1001 or 910.575.1000 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call). Because the Inn is holding rooms for you, our participants, they are blocked off as unavailable online.
*Also, please let the Inn know when you call if you are interested in staying Sunday night, February 19 at half price. The Inn will hold your reservation with a credit card.
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PROJECT BOOK RETREAT:
GET YOUR BOOK OUR OF YOU AND INTO THE WORLD
(Writing / Publishing Your Book-length Writing Project) A hands-on workshop for any writer who would like to write and/or publish a
book and
1) doesn’t know how
2) doesn’t get around to it
3) feels
a) intimidated
b) confused
c) overwhelmed
d) uninspired
e) all of the above You’ll gain clarity, confidence, direction, momentum, and working knowledge of the steps you need to take and the procedures and pieces that are necessary (overview, synopsis, outline, and all that jazz), as well as an
introduction to today’s publishing world (major publishers, university presses, small presses, self-publishing, e-publishing, and print-on-demand). We’ll talk about marketing, too, whether you’re an introvert, extrovert, or ambivert. $378 (plus tax) includes retreat, lodging, two breakfasts and
Saturday lunch. Note: Class doesn’t include critique of your book manuscript, which is a separate service.
$378 for the weekend beginning Friday, February 24th through Sunday, February 26th. Includes Project: Book sessions, two nights’ lodging, two breakfasts and Saturday lunch (hotel tax and Saturday dinner at a local restaurant not included). Additionally, for those who
might like to stay another day to work on their writing, or to just enjoy the beach, the Inn is offering Coastal Writing Retreat participants the opportunity to stay Sunday night, February 26th, at half price.
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, February 24 – Sunday,
February 26, 2017*
TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888.575.1001 or 910.575.1000 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call). Because the Inn is holding
rooms for you, our participants, they are blocked off as unavailable online.
*Also, please let the Inn know when you call if you are interested in staying Sunday night, February 26, at half price. The Inn will hold your reservation with a credit card.
More WordPlay opportunities here. Photo courtesy of http://www.davidwhyte.com/ Procrastination is not what it seems… What looks from the outside like our delay; our lack of commitment; even our laziness may have more to do with a
slow, necessary ripening through time and a central struggle with the core realities of any endeavor to which we have set our minds. To hate our procrastinating tendencies is in some way to hate our relationship with time itself, to be unequal to the phenomenology of revelation and the way it works its own quiet way in its very own gifted time, only emerging when the very qualities it represents have a firm correspondence in our necessarily struggling heart and
imagination.
…Procrastination when studied closely can be a beautiful thing, a parallel with patience, a companionable friend, a revealer of the true pattern, already, we are surprised to find, caught within us; acknowledging for instance, as a writer, that before a book can be written, most of the ways it cannot be written must be tried first, in our minds; on the blank screen on the empty page or staring at the bedroom ceiling at four in the morning. Procrastination enables us to
understand the true measure of our reluctance.
Read the entire article here: 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 "procrastination."
PROMPT: Write about a time that you, or one of your characters procrastinated. What did you/your character gain and/or lose in waiting? What were the consequences? What was the result?
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! |
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