Dear ,"...in a time lacking in truth and certainty and filled with anguish and despair, no woman [or man] should be shamefaced in attempting to give back to the world, through her work, a portion of its lost heart."
~ Louise Bogan
There has been anguish this past week. There has been despair. It's been near impossible for me, and for many people I know, to carry on with the work of living in this time of such great loss.
And yet, as the horrendous details have been reported, day by day, from Newtown, stories of courage have emerged along with the grief and horror: a principal and a guidance counselor who rushed to stop the killer as he entered the school,
teachers who shielded their students with their bodies and their lives, first responders who did what it took to evacuate the building. And after, stories of love abound: the parents who are honoring their lost children with such grace as they tend their living, the counselors who have brought therapy dogs to provide comfort, the person who arranged that everyone who entered the local coffee shop could have free coffee, the students across the country who are raising funds to support the survivors.
And with each tale of courage, each story of love, a portion of my own lost heart is restored. Such is the power of words. And the actions of which they tell.
May we who believe that words can heal take heart. And may we who believe, as Natalie Goldberg says, that "We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded", record the details of our own lives and the lives of those we love (more below).
Thank you for your part in restoring the world's lost heart, through your words and through your actions. We are all in this together.
Love and light,
Maureen
WORDPLAY GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE
Want to WordPlay in 2013? I'd be happy to create a gift certificate for you or anyone else (including someone who may want to gift YOU) for any amount. Email info@worplaynow.com for details.
Upcoming WordPlay
For information about 2013 offerings, visit www.wordplaynow.com/current.htm
WINTER WRITING RETREAT
Renew and delight yourself. Seasonal retreats are opportunities to create new pieces of writing and/or new possibilities for our lives. Enjoy various seasonal prompts; they have not failed to 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.
WHERE: South Charlotte area. Details will be provided upon registration.
When: Saturday, December 22 10 am - 5 pm
TO REGISTER: Click
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=NMECPYT88NT6W
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Featured Writing
An Excerpt from "The Power of Detail"
in Natalie Goldberg's
Writing Down the Bones
Our lives are at once ordinary and mythical. We live and die, age beautifully or full of wrinkles. We wake in the morning, buy yellow cheese, and hope we have enough money to pay for it. At the same instant we have these magnificent hearts that pump through all sorrow and all winters we are alive on the earth. We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded. This is how writers must think, this is how we must sit down with pen in hand. We were here; we are human beings; this is how we lived. Let it be known, the earth passed before us. Our details are important. Otherwise, they are not, we can drop a bomb and it doesn't matter.... We have lived; our moments are important. This is what it is to be a writer: to be the carrier of details that make up history...
~ Natalie Goldberg
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 "heart."
Reading the details of the lives lost in Newtown is wrenching. And yet they are, as Goldberg says, "worthy to be recorded." (If you haven't read them and would like to, click here.)
I found this there:
The Newtown post office has set up a special address for people to send condolences to families who lost loved ones: P.O Box 3700
Newtown, Conn. 06470 A worthy use of writing time indeed.
f you like, in addition, or instead, take fifteen minutes to record details from the life of someone you love. Then share what you have written with someone else you love.
Want to be featured in a future Word-zine?
S
end in a piece of your writing that you think could inspire other WordPlayers to write. 500-word limit, please.) You can send something inspired by this writing, or anything else of your choosing. Email your words to WordPlay here and your piece may be chosen for a future Word-zine.
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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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