For the past seven years, I’ve had a file dedicated to a series of writing workshops that I’ve dreamt of facilitating. The first workshop in the series is a prompt-based generative writing event called Leap! The idea is to do a series of timed prompts with a focus on creating new ideas and rough starts of works during the session. For the next workshop, each participant would pull together a more focused piece and create…
In what ways do tools change how we think? We’ve all heard the expression that to a hammer every problem looks like a nail. But, of course, it isn’t the hammer with the myopic problem; it’s the wielder of the tool.
Other than adversity, where else is there a third path? Not only in ways of responding to situations around us and within us but to seeing the world in general. How often do I get stuck in this or that, either/or thinking?
I should tell you now that I’m self-diagnosed. After taking a self-assessment test online, attending online seminars, and living with this hell for over a year and a half, I feel qualified to make that assessment. At its worst, I had close to 200 wounds at once, across both arms, both shoulders, my upper legs, my chest, and my lower back. I know. I counted them.
I sat on the couch at my therapist’s office, back when we could still go into offices for therapy so I know it was before March of 2020. How much before, I won’t hazard to guess. But it wasn’t all that long ago. I don’t know what the topic of the hour was, only that I had one of those ugly crying moments as I heard myself say “if only I could make the voices…
This year – 2021 – is the year of big milestones for me. In 20 days, I turn 50. And at the end of the year, if I’m fortunate enough to still be here, I’ll be honoring 20 years since my breakdown. 20 years of borrowed time that I never would have experienced had it not been for a suicide plan interrupted. Twenty years of life on a level I could never have imagined. I…
Woke says the human things and lets its audience know that it is on them to do the same. Which is seemingly the point of Woke. To generate understanding, to activate passion and compassion, to elevate being Woke and claiming this world.
In his inauguration speech, President Biden spoke of our “cascading crises.” He mentions the pandemic, financial inequity, systemic racism, climate change, and the tenuous role of the US in the world in the post-Trump era. He also spoke of “an attack on our democracy and untruth.”
While he never mentions Trump by name, I would argue that we should add “recovering from Trump and his administration” to the list of traumas we have been juggling for far too long at this point.
Had I known that this book centered around building ephemeral earth altars, I most likely would not have read it. And that would have been, unbeknownst to me, a big loss. While Morning Altars was not the resource for creating the type of in-the-home altar I was seeking, it did engage with one of the fundamental questions beneath that quest: How can I create sacred space that invites spirituality into my life in a tangible manner?
At slightly under 100 pages, I assumed I would read this book in a day. I was wrong. After a couple of essays, or sometimes even just one, I needed to put the book down and give my heart time to settle. These are, indeed, small and short and personal. Almost like reading a still life in the time of COVID.