I hope you have enjoyed the last twelve weeks of writing! I am amazed by your work and commitment. We will start up again in January, 2012. Please check my website for details.
For this final week, I would like to share with you one of the stories that inspired this project.
One day, I went to the edge of America, to a cliff on the North Shore of Long Island. I planted a little “bundle” which was filled with seeds and words. It is something that people do in many traditions around the world so I figured I would give it a try too.
When I went back a year later, the bundle was gone. The tree I had planted it under was gone too. It was a tree with three big roots sticking out and my little bundle fit perfectly. Now it was uprooted and washed out to sea.
My first reaction was fear. It looked like a giant hand had plucked the tree up from its roots. I was hiking with my friend who is experienced in the shamanic traditions of Peru. She was the one who had help me make and plant the bundle a year ago. Very casually she said, “No, it’s your intention washing out to sea.”
Even though there had been a storm, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Why that tree?” and “Why exactly one year later?” I swear, it looked like a giant Jaguar had clawed the cliff. I took a picture and wrote the above poem. It fit perfectly with a mutimedia assignment I had in one of my MFA classes!
Here is my 2012 intention for you: share your voice and your gifts. True joy comes when we are aligned with our creative selves. I see it when my students and own children are engaged with their imagination and with the artistic things they love to do.
Every time I go through these cycle of words, the timing and synchronicity is impeccable. How perfect that the word, “Release” comes at the end of 2011?
WEEK 12 WRITING PROMPTS
1. Share your work. Email a poem to a friend, go to an open mic, or read a journal entry to your partner. Post on a blog, on your blog, on Facebook. You have been writing for twelve weeks, time to be heard! Get some feedback and revise.
2. The word “release” is multidimensional. What does it mean to you? Write your thoughts on that word in your journal. What habit can you release? Let go something that is NOT working for you.
3. Write a story that includes a powerful animal such as a jaguar. What symbolism can you create?
UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN IN JANUARY
Go to the first word of this e-course, “Imagine” and start over. If you are following this blog and have downloaded my emailed lessons, go back and try the exercises again. Give yourself time to savor each prompt. Please email: info@stefanielipsey.com and “Follow” this blog to get information on the e-course as well as access to our PRIVATE group.
Tomorrow night, Tuesday, December 6th, meet me at the Glen Cove Public Library for a FREE writing workshop from 7-8:15 PM. It is called, “Live Your Dreams!” and is a perfect way to close out the year. Visit the events page on my website for details and directions: http://www.stefanielipsey.com/readings_and_workshops. There has been some nice local press about this workshop series and all are welcome.
I would love to read what you have released! Post a “reply” here and share your voice.
I wish you a happy and healthy holiday and New Year.
With Love and Blessings,
Stef
The words and some of the exercises we have used are based upon my book, Sound Cliff: Twelve Words to a More Creative Life (new edition coming soon). All materials copyrighted by Stefanie Lipsey, 2011.
