Stirring the Waters. Janell Moon
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or ambivalence. You’ll use clustering when you want to open yourself to new possibilities and listmake to help organize your thoughts. I include a Buddhist Peace Meditation, which helps us approach writing with an open mind, and the techniques of Dream Sourcing and Coming Together, which help you make sense of your dream materials and explore what the subconscious may be trying to tell you.
Now, just a few words about developing a writing practice. We’ll be using writing as spiritual practice just as some might meditate, do martial arts, or yoga—not to create works of art but to create an aware and happy self, to develop character, self-discipline, and integrity. From my experience working as a counselor and teacher, I’ve found that this sort of self-exploratory writing is best done if you schedule your writing time into your day.
Put aside fifteen minutes a day to start. This will be long enough for you to leave the logical world behind and allow surprises to script themselves under your hand. This time needs to be sacred. It’s for your well-being and will affect everyone you come into contact with. Some of us want a room of our own to write and insist on it. Others find that a corner without a window is less distracting. The important thing is to make a quiet time and ask not to be disturbed. In time you will be able to access your wise voices easily, and that dreams and everyday happenings in life will give you answers.
When you feel ready, expand your writing time to twenty minutes, then twenty-five, and then thirty. You’ll soon find a length that seems long enough to delve into the soul, a length that the spirit responds to.
On each day of this nine-week process, you’ll find a few exercises to help you explore yourself in writing. If you only have fifteen minutes, choose one. If you have thirty minutes, do two. It’s up to you how many you’ll do. You might make a light pencil mark in your book to note any exercise to which you want to return.
Perhaps you feel that you can only write when you feel inspired. I often feel this way, too. If that’s the case, then your job here is to find whatever it is that inspires you and to do it regularly, whether it’s listening to the opera, walking in the rain, or reading some favorite poetry. Do whatever helps you get to the place of curiosity. This book also includes quotations and exercises designed to inspire you.
I suggest you keep a folder of ideas or images from your own life sources that are inspirational for you: walks, a church visit, an art catalog, news clippings. I have a postcard collection of images to which I am drawn. Magazines are a great source of images in ads and articles that can be clipped and used as grist for the mill.
I have a friend who comes over several times a year with her ideas and images and we share and write together. It brings us closer and gives us a better sense of community as we write during the year.
Of course, any idea a visual artist explores is thought for your journal. Claire Wolf Krantz, an artist in Chicago, explores memory and where memory goes through painting. Sculptor Bonnie Marzlak explores the sense of home. In her installation pieces, Rhoda London of San Francisco explores sayings we heard as children, such as “Who do you think you are?” and “Too big for your britches?” Katherine Westerhout uses photography to explore the mysterious world of spirit and light. All of these are wonderful themes to explore through writing.
I moved recently to a place with a pool and a large lawn. Being here, I remind myself that much of my life is filled with energy and grace. I have so many feelings and conflicts and yet I walk lightly on the earth glad to be alive. Each year gets better because I’ve been able to use my years to find some quiet in myself. Years and writing have brought me to this place of happiness. In my life, writing is as important as food. It is nourishment, sustenance. It can be that for you, too.
I remember the first time I fed my son cereal and how his eyes grew round as he held the solid food in his mouth and looked at me for a clue as to what to do. I swallowed and swallowed again, this time making noise in the hopes that he would follow my lead. With his eyes now closed, he took a leap of faith. Take a leap of faith with me now.
Because writing can bring us to deep and sometimes painful truths, I suggest you have support as you write, especially if you’re writing about traumatic events. It’s also good to have support just to keep you writing regularly. Ask a friend to join you, or start a small writing group.
Bear in mind, of course, that mine is just one way of approaching the spirit. Yours may be different. Let this structure help you get started. From here on, the sky’s the limit.
Remember, we are each everything at the same time: the healing and the healed, the doubter and the believer, the person of grace and the person who stumbles through the storm.
My hope is that you will find more singing in your heart just by starting this process. May every bird remind you of your ability to soar, of your gentleness. May the image in your own mirror be your friend.
WEEK 1: THE BIG PICTURE
There was a time when I was between jobs and I would wake up at night and write down my connections. I would write about my friend Suzanne, my shelter; Margie, my fun and escape; Greg, my heart; Donna, the artist of my soul. I would remember Ohio and how I loved its fields.
Reminding myself that I was connected helped me fall back to sleep. The awareness of connection makes life stable and provides continuity in our changing lives.
Today we will begin the process of developing an awareness of a connection to our spiritual force and spiritual selves. In order to do that, we must see our lives in a context of all that exists. Connection makes the tiny dot on the map of ourselves expand to a feeling that we are more than ourselves; we are souls with one another and with the forces that made these people and this place. When we connect, we join in union, an alliance or relationship, and become part of something larger than ourselves. This is the “eagle eye” that Native Americans tell us about. Writing will help us develop this big picture. By putting thoughts and feelings on paper, we can begin to sort things out and find our soul’s calling.
Perhaps we remember, as a child, being aware that there was something more around the corner from our house. That’s when we learned to see beyond ourselves, when we became aware that beneath the concrete there was land and mother earth. We came to the realization that truth isn’t always evident and that it can be difficult to stay connected to what isn’t so easily seen. You may remember trying to tell your mom that the autumn light at dusk has fairies in it.
As we get older, we often lose this sense of connection, but we don’t need to wait to reestablish it. Connections can live in us whether we are in a primary intimate relationship or single, whether times are easy or hard. Look around and notice where connections are possible, right now, with the people in your life and spiritually. You may feel emotionally connected to the heart of another, such as when a friend tells you they understand and won’t leave you alone with a loss. Or your mind may lead the way to a heartfelt connection. I once worked with a client who told me that kindness made her want to live. For her, kindness was connection.
Writing gives us an opportunity to explore all the ways of connection. It gives us a chance to notice the mysterious ways of God—how connection to people, art, nature, and animals can make us feel more open to our spirit. By writing about our connections, we honor them. We ask our wise selves to become alive in us.
We may hold loneliness within us, but through our writing we can learn to open the window to our own spirit and call out our name. We can find a sympathy for ourselves. We can write to make sure to include our spirit in our lives.
Sometimes you may write and nothing comes. If this happens, it might help to think of yourself as a stream meandering to the ocean, sometimes speeding over rocks in its way, other times slowed by the turn of the land or the shallowness of winter’s rain. Be patient. Grace will come.
It’s an unsteady and uneven trip. This is why we start this journal with the awareness of connection.
Day 1: Wondering
My mother was raised in a fundamentalist church where they spoke in