Volume IX, Issue 12
March 18, 2020
Dear ,
How much has changed since I wrote you last week. What unprecedented times we are living in. How are you doing? I am reaching out to wish you well, and I am confident you are reaching out to wish others well yourself. Today's subject line, "reach out your heart", is a line from today's featured writing that speaks to what we are undergoing
globally—and how we might choose to be in the face of it.
I'd be lying if I told you I'm staying centered in each moment and exuding peace and love. True, I've been centered, peaceful, and loving in SOME moments. And I have taken advantage of cancellations to do SOME writing. But I've been cranky more often than I want to admit. And my anxiety meter keeps shooting up as life gets less and less normal daily.
On top of all the shut-downs and cancellations and rising numbers of cases and lowering numbers in the stock market, my daughter and her family were in some pretty crowded places before they realized how serious this viral threat is, and she's worried about unwittingly infecting us. So, I am not getting those grandchildren hugs right now to make
me feel all's right with the world. Thank goodness for phone calls and video chats and photos! This one of my Harry enjoying a birthday cupcake cheers my heart.
For some reason, I've been thinking today of the famous acceptance speech Jimmy Valvano gave upon receiving the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award in 1993, a month before he died of cancer. When he was asked how he found the strength to carry on, this was his response:
“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives.
Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day.
Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought.
And number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy.
But think about it. If you laugh, you think and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heckuva day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”
To that end, you may want to try taking on these three practices of Valvano's as you hunker down to endure these difficult days:
1. Do or read or listen to or watch something that makes you laugh.
We all have our own sense of humor, but this video of a Ted Talk by James Veitch, who's made his reputation as a comic by responding to spam email in the most ridiculous ways, had me laughing until I cried:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Uc-cztsJo
2. Do or read or listen to or watch something that makes you think. I hope today's featured writing, which I found via a friend who found it via Parker Palmer's Facebook page, will accomplish that today.
3. Do or read or listen to or watch something that moves you to tears—maybe joy or happiness are too far a reach, but there is inspiration everywhere to be touched and moved by. This lifted my spirits today: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/03/18/coronavirus-acts-of-kindness/?arc404=true.
I hope you'll write your own stories of reaching out with heart. It's a beautiful way to sustain yourself and others.
May you and yours be well,
Maureen
Featured Writing
Pandemic
by
Lynn Ungar
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
–Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
Don't miss out! Read more of Lynn Ungar's work on her website: http://www.lynnungar.com
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 “reach."
PROMPT:
1. Write about a time you, or one of your characters, reached out in love to someone else in a difficult time.
2. Write about a time someone reached out in love to you, or one of your characters, in a difficult time.
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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