One of my grad students mentioned Viola Davis's new book and I went poking around and saw this on her Instagram. WOW.
Writing prompt for you some time soon (when you have a chance to breathe!):
Write about all the yous that passed the baton....All the yous in the midst of this thought-traffic....
I got chills hearing her speak about this. It's exactly how I have experienced my own journey, and why YA was so big for me for so long -my 17-year-old self had passed me the baton.
Hello, friends!
Last night was a new moon - symbolizing new beginnings! So I hope you get to draw on some of that new moon energy for this month.
Here we are in Month 2 of our journey. I am just giddy after last month's connections and knowing you are all out there sharing with and supporting each other.
You've all received your writing buddies, so I hope you have fun getting to know a new person. I know May is a weirdly busy month, so just be gentle with yourselves and be up front about your bandwidth.
I am so excited about this month's theme - I'm in a very spring purging simplifying mood, but not so much with my house (I mean, that too), but with my tech and all the tabs open in my head. I'm really looking forward to cracking the code a bit with some of this stuff.
I thought it could be fun to get a little crafty and make mindfulness glitter jars.
Here's a video where I explain what that is. I think sometimes it's nice to have a visual demonstration of what you're trying to do internally (and externally).
Less glitter, more spaciousness.
Also, remember to keep a running list of all the things that are diluting your attention. Just write them down. We'll work with them as we go along, but let's see what all those open tabs are in our minds that are taking up our creative energy.
For this month, the koan that immediately came to mind is a scrap of Rumi poetry.
It is:
Who am I,
standing in the midst of this
thought-traffic?
I went to look it up to make sure I was using the proper translation and OH MY BLESSED - would you believe the poem is called "The Well"?! I love when magical things like that happen.
My recommendation is to not read the poem. I'll share it at our first meeting, but I think just sitting with these words in meditation, on walks, in traffic....
I am going to be doing a practice - and invite anyone else to join me - in writing the koan at the top of a journal page each day and seeing what comes up (each day - how interesting if the idea of who you "are" feels the same or different...).
This is deep, deep inner writing work. We're going to the source. To....wait for it....the INNER WELL. (I'll be here all night, ladies and gentleman).
And, of course, you'll want to see how this connects to our word of the month...SIMPLIFY.
Take a few moments today or tomorrow and set your intention for how you want to show up for your writing in May. Take your whole life into account. If you have health problems, travel, busy things....just note that and see what feels good for you about how you show up for your writing.
If you love tarot, you may pull a card for the month and see what that brings up.
I took in all the feedback from everyone about how to work things out with the busy Sundays this month, so this is what I came up with (remember, I will always record):
Meeting 1: Tuesday May 10th 7:30 - 9:00 pm EST
Meeting 2: Tuesday May 24th 7:30 - 9:00 EST
Generally I think Sundays might be best, but with summer coming...maybe not? Let's see how this goes this month. Please give me feedback. I'm also super happy to do a lunch time meeting, if that works for a lot of people. I know many of you work remotely, though not all.
Okay, here we go!!!
(And if these days I chose based on what people told me are absolutely no-go's, please email me ASAP. I tried to take what everyone was saying into account and it seemed Tuesdays were good).
H