Rising Hope

The Power of Rising Hope

“Your struggle with your varied self, or selves, yields your art… .” – Joyce Carol Oates, The Faith of a Writer.                     

Morning begins with chirping cicadas, the hum of distant cars winding their way to work, and the smell of rich coffee. For a few single breaths, it’s a narrow and wonderful place where I find myself. The harmony of simple things and places is gold to me. Then, an unexpected rap on our door, again and again. Kerplunk! Rising hope vanishes like a stone thrown into the river–frustration and irritation tornado in. Suddenly, my castle of contentment crumbles.

Write this story? Why not? Who knows what unloved parts of me need attention. I’ve learned writing about deep feelings my own humanity becomes known to me and rising hope follows.

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Friendship

Author’s Note: Last week’s news was the Platte River is dry, bone dry in places. Hearing this grief gushes through my body, shakes me to my knees. Is the miracle of ample water a relic of the past? I remember when the Platte was alive, slurping water as it coursed through its winding banks. This writing celebrates when the river was full and the sanctity of friendship.

Photo of the Platte River by Mike Stinson

Five women, old friends, are ready for a lazy river ride under a beautiful blue sky, on a cumulus cloud-filled day. Our brightly colored kayaks—two green, blue, yellow and red—serve as transportation for the morning. With the help of a guide, our group pushes off, bobbing on the water like rubber duckies at a carnival booth. We are to travel five and one-half miles down the meandering Platte river, paddling our kayaks, breathing out the little disturbances and annoyances that float in our consciousness. I wonder if there is magic in deep friendship.

River Scene
Platte River unwinds before me like a sleeping woman. Soft curves and her iridescent brown skin sparkle and stretch long and mysterious. Along the shoreline, my eyes can’t take in all the countless shades of green. Hundred year old granddaddy cottonwoods frame the muddy water like dark green eyelashes that wink and blink in the soft wind. A few scattered leaves on the aging Black Walnut trees shimmer yellow and chartreuse in the bright sun. Clusters of forest green sumac seem to change colors flashing pink, readying themselves for the party reds of autumn.

Being on a river one becomes intensely aware of all that is around. The air has a fragrance to it, not sweet, but ancient smelling. Bur oaks in all stages of life send up an aroma of sap and wet leaves; dead trees with decaying bark release into the air something raw and unclean like unwashed vegetables. Fish parts lay scattered on the sand. A smoky blue-grey egret standing on a sandbar turns its face towards the sun. Soaring high on the soft wind currents, a lone eagle watches. We must look like ants to him.

Deep Friendship
These strong and adventurous women have had a long history with each other—some for over thirty years—traversing together over time the complexities of work, family and relationship. During this epic kayak journey, our tight bond reveals what it means to work united and join together in the wonders of sisterhood. Eudora Welty said literature, history and poetry are drawn to friendship as a subject “…to discover, perceive, learn from it the nature of ourselves, of humankind, the relationships we share in the world.”

It is said that friendship tests us and brings us to the edge. One went over baptizing her in Platte’s dark waters. She was there and then wasn’t vanishing like an act of Houdini. Her dark hair floats like seaweed before dipping under. A chorus of gasps. All in slow motion, we’re holding our breaths, was it a dare?

The  circles of water become smaller and smaller until one arm rises above the lid of the river like the hand of an old clock stuck on twelve. Bobbing around in our little ducks, we fish her out, the water closing softly behind. – Becky Breed

Exercise for Living Creatively:

  • Read “Happiness” by Raymond Carver.
  • Much has been written about the topic of friendship in literature. Consider how these special relationships are an important part of the storyline: Ann and Diane in Anne of Green Gables; Sherlock Holmes and John Watson in Sherlock Holmes; Huck and Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; and Athos, Porthos and Aramis in The Three Musketeers.
  • Make of a list of the friendships you have observed over the years. Or, make a list of individuals whether in storybook or in real life who form unlikely relationships. For example, recall the characters in Plainsong by Kent Haruf, the old bachelor farmers who befriend Victoria, a pregnant teenage girl.
  • Select a relationship you want to work with. Reflect upon the defining characteristics of the individuals in the relationship. In what ways do they support each other? What does it look like to be loyal and trustworthy? How can you convey belief in one another? What’s the bigger story or poem they are part of?
  • Now write or paint or sculpt conveying the strong bonds in the relationship. Let your art speak to you.

For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.

Or follow this link to purchase Writing in Community or our latest book, The Fire Inside.

 

 

 

 

Wild Passions

Always I have loved gardens and gardening, but about 15 years ago after moving into a new house (new to me, anyway) and acquiring a yardful of plants and flowers, I suddenly became obsessed with all things relating to flowers–perennials, in particular. It became for me my wild passion. I checked out books from the library—Perennial All Stars and Perennial Combinations (two I remember), and pored through the pages. I loved everything about those books. I liked the pictures, of course, the descriptions of the various plants, and I especially liked their names.

There was the elegant Lady’s Mantle, the exotic Siberian Iris and Golden Hakone Grass. There was Purple Toadflax—what was that?  Silver Wormwood and Bear’s Breech? It was almost as if there were years and years of ancient lore underlying each plant, and I wanted to learn about them all. I indulged myself in those books, and then in as many plants as would thrive in the twenty by forty patch of soil under my care.

It’s wonderful when these “wild passions” make their appearances, making each day a little more exciting, each new encounter adding wonder and meaning and fulfillment to our lives. Of course there are romantic passions. And relationships with family and friends.  But if we are lucky, we will experience all sorts of grand passions. Like a passion for learning, for music, perhaps, or for gardening. The more we have, the better. I think that’s how we were meant to live: like children finding delight in each new thing, like lovers wild for what we love.

From time to time, I’ve had flings with crewel embroidery, ceramics, and macramé—remember macramé? Those passions came and went.  Others have been more enduring. I love the work of poet, Mary Oliver, and have bought every book of hers I could lay my hands on. The same with Linda Pastan, Kim Addonizio, and Dorrianne Laux. Also Joyce Sutphen. A new discovery for me is poet George Bilgere, and I highly recommend his book, The Good Kiss. And I greatly admire the novelists Alice Hoffman and Chris Bohjalian. There are many more, of course, and  more out there I haven’t discovered yet. The thought of that send chills down my spine!

And now we come to that other great love affair you might be experiencing—that with creativity, in whatever form it takes. “Passion is energy,” Oprah Winfrey said. “Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” Let that passion burn. Embrace it, take that passion to a beautiful place, and make it yours forever. It’s a wonderful way to be alive.

What about you? What are some of your great passions?
–Lucy Adkins (Note: This appeared in a slightly different version in The Fire Inside by Lucy Adkins and Becky Breed)

 

Writing Exercise:

  1. Read the Poem “Night Fishing” by Peter Sears.
  2. Make a list of some of the human emotions/conditions…like loneliness, happiness, a feeling of self-satisfaction. You can think of more.
  3. Make a list of some of the activities you do…like fishing, mowing the lawn, making a pie, and so on.
  4. Choose one of the human emotions/conditions, and pair it with an activity.
  5. Write, beginning with a first line that makes a comparison between the human emotion or condition and the activity.

You might be surprised at what happens!

For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.

Or follow this link to purchase Writing in Community or our latest book, The Fire Inside.

 

 

 

Particularities of the Ordinary

Particularities and Meaning
When I was thirteen, dad gave me a small garden plot to tend for a year. It was six feet by six feet, tilled to make plantings easier. This fertile plot of earth received my attention for a year and before long, a window of wonder appeared. I started to notice details in the garden – a small city of vermin burrowing and crawling on their knees and fliers with tiny helicopter blades buzzing the grass.

At a young age I loved poetry and thought what’s important was looking for the extraordinary and exceptional. But “noticing” particularities of the ordinary made life feel bigger, more significant. Noticing the everyday brought up memories and meaningful connections sometimes from experiences years ago or, maybe a few minutes that wouldn’t have been accessed without paying attention.

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Living Among the Glories

We are what we eat, the old saying goes, and this is true, in that what we feed our bodies affects who we become as physical beings. Similarly, who we become spiritually and emotionally is influenced by what we feed our souls. As does nature.

As a people, we evolved living in nature. We wandered the plains, tended plants and animals that shared the world with us, woke to majestic sunrises and watched in awe as the heavenly bodies crossed the skies. How did this all come to pass, we wondered. We flourished, breathing deep of the rhythms of the earth.

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