Word of the Week: laughter
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Dear
,
Have you ever encountered Brian Andreas's "Story People"? The one I love best is called "Waiting for Signs" and ends with the words "Now, I think the whole world is filled with signs, but if there's no laughter, I know they're not for me." (You can read the whole thing here.)
Laughter's so good for us! And it's so easy to get so preoccupied with the endless array of things we "need" to do that we miss all the signs pointing to it. This week's featured WordPlayer, Kimber Britner, shares an excerpt from her book Untamed Heart: Releasing Your Creative Genius about laughter unbridled and "joy interventions." (Mine came today in an email from my daughter with the subject line "Rhys and I are doing some laundry..." and this photo of her baby boy): And this week's writing prompt invites you to focus on laughter-filled moments. In fact, I hope that, all week, you'll look for signs that point to opportunities to laugh with your heart wide open.
Love, light, and laughter,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
WRITE YOURSELF!
(Writing Inspiration; Creating New Writing; Fueling a Current or Languishing Writing Project; Rekindling Your Writing Passion; Getting Unstuck) If you have always wanted to write, or used to write, or have just forgotten the joy of engaging in language as a tool of creative growth, join me in this workshop filled with WordPlay. After all, play is the way we learn best -we're free to question, to experiment, to break through to something new, all our own. Surprise yourself! And reconnect with the power our words have to shape our very lives.
Want to come? Just use PayPal or credit card with one of the links below
or shoot me an email at info@wordplaynow.com to let me know you're coming and on which date(s) and pay at the door:
Thursday, August 1st, 7 to 9 p.m.
WHERE: South Charlotte near Stonecrest Shopping Center (Details provided upon registration)
LINK:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=LGG5SSWE46AJJ Tuesday, August 6th, 7 to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Rec Center, 1000 East Morehead, 28204
LINK:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CWR9KFPM6ZKC2
THE GIFT OF MEMOIR: WRITING PERSONAL AND FAMILY STORIES (Writing for and about Your Family; The Art of Memoir)
Our life 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. 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, as well as preserving everyday moments from times past or present, come learn specific tools and techniques to retrieve and record them.
Want to come? Just print out and mail in the attached form or use PayPal or credit card with this link:
WHEN: Thursday,
August 15th, 10 a.m. to noon
WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Rec Center, 1000 East Morehead, 28204
$30/1 session
Gift of Memoir
August 15th (single session for $30)
WHEN: Thursdays, September 12 & 26, October 10 & 24, November 14, December 5 & 19, 10 am to noon
WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Rec Center, 1000 East Morehead, 28204
$207/7 sessions includes audios and resources
Gift of Memoir Fall Series (seven sessions for $207)
UNDER CONSTRUCTION: YOUR WRITING (
Fulfilling Writing Dreams & Goals; Creating New Writing; Revising & Polishing Your Writing) This class is designed to fulfill your writing dreams and projects. You'll set goals and support structures and watch your writing flow! You'll also get feedback on your work (any genre) and learn revision tools. Jumpstart your pen and receive the knowledge and inspiration you need to write, whatever your preferred genre. Each week, writing prompts will generate material for new writing or further a piece in process. Through examples of accomplished writers, you'll learn techniques to aid you right where you are in the process. $397/12 sessions includes class audios. You'll need a copy of Spinning Words into Gold, available for $23.54 in class.
WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead St., Charlotte, 28204. WHEN: Thursdays, 7 - 9 pm, September 5 - December, 2013 (No class on September 19, October 31, November 7, or November 28) Want to come? Just print out and mail in the attached form or use PayPal or credit card with this link:
Under Construction Fall Series (12 sessions for $397 -- includes class audios and resources)
See attached registration form for more offerings.
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Meet WordPlayer Kimber Britner
"Maureen's writing methods opened my mind to
different ways and approaches of spinning my thoughts
into something I never knew was in me." As a professional life coach Kimber appreciates that women want to live inspired lives. After being widowed at thirty-six, she tackled the daunting task of finding new inspiration in her life and raising four small children from the ages of two through nine alone. Through the process she became an expert in the art of innovation, repurposing her life by connecting to her passion, creativity and inspired vision.
With a master level certification from The Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching, and a keen sense of intuition, Kimber's depth of personal experience and coaching expertise help the women she works with thrive. To learn more about Kimber, visit: www.moxieme.com
www.facebook.com/kimberbritner
What Kimber says about WordPlay As a professional life coach and "creative" I know the importance of investing in oneself, so I enjoy participating in workshops that offer the opportunity for expansion and growth. Participating in Wordplay provided the perfect environment to increase my writing skills, unlock creativity and experience personal growth. Maureen held the space beautifully to create an environment that fanned my flame and gave me the time and space to focus on my writing projects. And did I mention that it was great fun and I am craving another round?
Featured Writing An Excerpt from Kimber Britner's Untamed Heart: Releasing Your Creative Genius
A few years ago, a friend called to enthusiastically propose that several girlfriends go on a bargain cruise. Without any persuasion, four of us were packed and driving to Florida in an instant, ready to board a ship bound for the Bahamas. It turned out that you get what you pay for-although our cruise was a steal, there was a reason for it. Our sleeping quarters were on the lowest deck and the farthest down the long narrow hall covered in '70s flaming-orange carpet. We joked that if the ship sank we were sure to be the first to go down, and that was just the beginning of the jokes.
The spectacular midnight buffets that cruise lines are famous for turned out, in our case, to be a hamburger bar. The exciting excursion they marketed as a day on a beautiful remote island with pristine beaches turned out to be a trip to a dried-up water hole. Slumming was the word for the weekend, and unbridled laughter was the activity we participated in as we made our way around the poor tired ship.
Although this was not the picture-perfect cruise that would flank the front of a brochure, it was one of the most gut-splitting weekends of my life. Our faces hurt by the time we arrived back home from the unbridled hysteria that spun out of control. We got weeks of mileage over that trip as we shared our escapades with everyone we saw, and learned that humor and joy usually come from the truth about our lives. One of my favorite female authors Anne Lamott said, "Laughter is carbonated holiness." Nowadays, people are catching on to its power.
When I am slouching through my daily life and not recognizing the joy set before me, life has a way of sending in a joy parade as an intervention. Families of alcoholics have serious interventions by getting in the face of the person they love and saying, "Stop killing yourself." I once had a joy intervention in a bakery while browsing through the bread aisle: When the sales clerk asked a gentleman with a toupee how he was, he replied, "I'm doing so well that I have to sit on my hands to keep from clapping." That man had such joy that I considered asking him right there, amidst the bagel and croissants, if he'd pray for me, because I wanted that kind of joy too!
~ Kimber Britner
To order Untamed Heart: Releasing Your Creative Genius,
go to
http://moxieme.com/bookstore-categories/
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."
What always makes you laugh? What caused one or more of your most laughter-filled moments? If you write fiction, how would one of your characters answer those questions?
Today, write about one or more situations (yours or a character's) in which laughter won the day, as Kimber does in the excerpt from her book above.
Want to be featured in a future Word-zine?
Send 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. |
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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