Writing Retreat

A Writing Prompt from Me and T.S. Eliot

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Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.  –Ralph Waldo Emerson Every writer needs a bit of prompting at times. I have several techniques and explorations that help us write when we have fooled ourselves into believing we are stuck. I find that there is never “writer’s block,” when we are in conversation with the world around us. There is always something to write about. When I can’t seem to move forward on a particular idea I either write on something else, go … Continue reading →

Getting Into It

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I was a cat person, until I married Bill, who came with two dogs. Now I am a dog person. Soon after Lydia was born, and both Bill’s dogs had died (and my cat companion, Targhee), we decided to get another dog. (What child doesn’t want a dog?) Still not a full blown dog person, I had several rules: Dogs stay in the kennel or outside.  (I soon relinquished that rule and our dog Zafu lived in the house.) Dogs stay off the furniture.  (Well, our now blind dog Cookie has a favorite chair.) Dogs never, ever, ever sleep on the … Continue reading →

Writing To Remember

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This old tale was handed down to Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She shares this in her little book: The Gift of Story. For me, this tale is about writing to remember and the power of passing on our legacies through story so others can remember too . . . The beloved Bal Shem Tov was dying and sent for his disciples. “I have acted as intermediary for you, and now when I am gone you must do this for yourselves. You know the place in the forest where I call to God? Stand there in that place and do the same. You know … Continue reading →

What To Write About

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Later today my daughter and I head out to register her for college. So I want to get my weekly writer’s blog done and out to you before we go. But, what to write about? (Something we writers often ask ourselves as we stare at the empty page or screen). I just spent a week with 14 (most amazing) writers at Write-By-The-Lake. Should I write about that? Last night I met up with 8 writers from the Spring Green area as part of the Write Your Story Project. I could write about that. Or, how we live a storied life, about this month’s … Continue reading →

A Writer’s Feast

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Dear Writers, Here’s my writerly menu. Join me for some great “meals” for the writer’s soul! Starting on Monday the 15th, I will be at the Write-By-The-Lake for a week. Attendees refer to this retreat as a “week at a writer’s spa.” My class is full but there’s still a chance to learn from some wonderful, fantastic instructors at this event including Kathy Steffen and Laurie Scheer. In June I begin my FREE series: Write Your Story Project. Come and attend three summer seminars on writing, held in the Spring Green area. The first one is Monday evening, June 22nd, from 6 till … Continue reading →

Here, Writer, Take This Gift

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Dear Writers,  Here is my monthly (Zero Point) blog I am re-gifting to you.  Our writing, and then sending out our words to the world to receive is a gift we offer each other. We must join in the community of spirit by sending out our creations. Dust off the poem, manuscript, or essay and send it out to be read. As writers we must take the risk of living our life in the open. There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street, and being the noise. –Rumi, A Community of The … Continue reading →

Better Late Than Never (Or Not?)

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For me living the active life gets down to conversation and community. I emphasize doing spiritual and creative work in circle, whenever possible. I hold all my classes in circles because we are all teachers, we all bring something unique and meaningful to the whole. As a leader, I learn too from those who show up and share their wisdom. Writing, relationships, and spiritual practice depend upon our showing up in an on-going conversation around our ideas, intentions and questions. One of my circles is “virtual.” We meet on-line for a virtual writing circle around 5 am to write together. Community is felt … Continue reading →

So Much Here

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“The entire heavenly realm is within us, but to find it we have to relate to what’s outside.”  ­ –Joseph Campbell No signs of our cranes this year, although a male crane appears each sunrise calling out his primordial song. My husband claimed this could mean a female is there on her nest. I doubted it because there wasn’t any sign of them doing their usual mating dance or nest building. I’ve been holding a conversation with the pond and its inhabitants for nearly two decades. Most of my attention has been on the comings and goings of a certain pair of … Continue reading →

Bewitched By Backstory

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At 5:15 each weekday morning I am up with my virtual writing support group. About eight of us have committed to “write together.” By the time I have sent my daughter off to school I have fulfilled one creative intention. This accomplishment lifts me up throughout the day. Still, this getting to the page isn’t any sort of magic pill. I still have to get the words out. I still have to have my words find a way to become a scene of a good story. And there in is a glitch — Somewhere in my fiction writing I find myself … Continue reading →

Einstein Had A Day Job

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Once Einstein graduated from college, unable to land a teaching position, he got a day job. By then he had developed a deep curiosity about the mysteries of life and no matter what he was up to, kept a conversation going with the questions he held about these mysteries.  He explored mathematics, inquired about how things worked, all which resulted in ideas and then of course, discoveries. “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” —Albert Einstein — To Carl Seelig – March 11,1952.  We start with a curiosity about some dream or question we have, we hold a … Continue reading →