Instructions for Life
- At May 25, 2026
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
6
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting– over and over announcing your place in the family of things. – Mary Oliver in “Wild Geese”
Family of Things
Mary Oliver saw herself in the family of things. She recognized that by opening to what was happening around her, she was already part of the natural world. Imagine Mary as a young child walking alone in the woods away from her difficult home life when she first heard the raw honking of Canadian geese break silence.
She saw the kindness of the lead bird float on air currents allowing trailing birds to fly faster with less effort. The tired goose dropping back, graciously letting others take the lead. Oliver watches the flock head to the same wetlands where food and safety were plentiful. A beautiful rhythm year after year. Mary Oliver took this wisdom of what she encountered in nature and wrote many poems. In “Wild Geese”, she penned these words “you do not have to be good” nor “walk on your knees,” but let the “soft animal of your body love what it loves.” In my reflection of these words, I think Mary suggests that experiencing the natural world helps us begin to shift from whatever we’re experiencing—anger, frustration, sadness—and realize there is a place for us. That we can accept ourselves—belong.
Oliver’s instructions for life are simple: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” She said one of the wonderful things about being immersed in life is the joy of surprise. Feeling joy is a redemption for our life, no matter our struggles she insisted “the world goes on…”
Read More»When the Poem Gets Away
- At April 27, 2026
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 6
A poet friend (a professor) once shared with me how it was for him sometimes, with writing. He was an accomplished poet with a good number of completed poems to his name. Yet there were times when an idea for a poem would come—a good idea, a prickling-of-the-skin kind of idea, but he had too many student papers to grade, letters of reference to write, and lectures to prepare. And the poem went away.
Has that happened to you? I believe that it happens more than we know. Life intervenes and we do not always act on inspiration when it comes. Or an idea may skip across our minds so fleetingly that we do not recognize it or its potential. And the idea is lost.
The good news is that the universe is teeming with ideas—ideas for poems, paintings, novels, and books of essays, all waiting to take form; and if we pay attention, if we keep our eyes and ears and our minds open, more ideas will come.
In her book, Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert shares her belief about the way creativity takes place. That there are untold numbers of ideas floating about, standing by, wanting to be born. That ideas have a sort of consciousness. They have will, and they “want” to develop and emerge into a larger existence. But for this to occur, they need a human collaborator. Someone who recognizes the idea for what it may become, takes hold of it, and devotes herself to making it manifest.
Perhaps that’s a little far-fetched. A little fanciful. But the ways of the cosmos and of creativity are mysterious. There’s always a little magic about the creative process. And if our next fabulous poem or novel is wanting to find us, it behooves us to be in readiness. Do what we must so that we can act when that spark of inspiration happens by.
So how do we do that? Mary Oliver says that for writers, “to pay attention, that is our endless and proper work.” So let us work to be alive to the world. To what we see and hear. The way the scent of plum blossoms takes you back to your childhood. How a robin warbling in early spring at dusk can almost break your heart. Do what we can to slow down, indulge in idleness, and remain curious. Sit in your chair in the sun with a pen in your hand, and see what wants to be written.
We live in a busy world. We have to make a living and take care of those around us. And we cannot help it sometimes—ideas disappear back into the ether from which they came. Our solace is to know that more inspiration will come, and we can unplug, relax, and pay attention, and that wild joyful rush of inspiration will make its way to us once more. –Lucy Adkins
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.
The Experience of Light
- At January 12, 2026
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 10
Sunrise Photograph by Mary Kay Roth
In Emily Dickinson’s poem “There’s a Certain Slant of Light” she artfully expresses the way winter light transforms the snow-filled world: “When it comes, the Landscape listens—Shadows —hold their breath.”
Experience of Light
Writers have chosen to write about the variants of light for a long time. For many, it’s not so much the color, but the experience of light. Poet Jane Richardson wrote “…light loves searching out/what is hidden/what is lost/what is forgotten…” Consider Shakespeare’s famous lines, “But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?” Washington Irving in Old Christmas said, “Surely happiness is reflective, like the light of heaven… .” Or lines from “Meditation in Sunlight,” May Sarton wrote “The sky looks down and meets the mountain range where time is light not shadow.”
A Light Show
To experience winter light, as Thoreau suggested, one must walk. All year long, Thoreau loved walking, strolling long distances by himself, often fifteen to twenty miles a day. In “A Winter Walk,” he wrote “At length we awake to the still reality of a winter morning. The snow lies warm as cotton or down upon the windowsill; the broadened sash and frosted panes admit a dim and private light.”
What Are You Learning?
- At December 15, 2025
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 12
Recently, at one of our weekly family dinners, my 13 year old grandson turned to me and asked, “Grandma, what have you been learning lately?” It was a great question, and a surprising one, prompted, perhaps, by my questions to him from time to time. What was he learning in math? In English?
But now he was turning the tables, and I was taken aback. What had I been learning?
I said I’d learned that politicians can surprise us, maybe even surprise us in ways we liked. (I was thinking of Marjorie Taylor Greene.) But I wasn’t satisfied with my answer. That wasn’t learning, I thought. That was just paying attention to the news.
Since then his question has remained with me, remembering times in my life when (not involved in a particular formal course of study), I was nevertheless intensely involved with learning. Learning which came about spontaneously, organically.
One of these times was after we moved into a new house with a new back yard and I became suddenly obsessed with all things relating to flowers and flower-gardening. Perennials, in particular. Another time, I developed an intense interest in the impressionist painters—Monet and Manet, Pissarro and Cezanne, Mary Ann Cassatt. I absorbed everything I could about them—their painting styles, where they painted and who they painted with. Their love relationships, their struggles for acceptance by the traditionalists. There’s a delight in these passions–becoming completely engrossed with something new and wanting to learn everything you can about it.
Undoubtedly, you too, recall similar times for yourself. When you’ve been fascinated by a particular subject—maybe photography or cave art, poetry or the history of the Civil War. You become totally absorbed in the subject—paying attention to every reference that crops up in your life, seeking out other avenues to discover more. It’s an exciting thing– a new infatuation, a passion. And it adds a richness to every day that not much else can.
So how can we add more of these sorts of experiences to our lives? I would suggest that there are two ways: (1) paying attention, and (2) curiosity.
“Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning,” William Arthur Ward wrote. And Eleanor Roosevelt said that “Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive.”
For the creative in you, a healthy curiosity is an invaluable asset: What would happen if I took this series of photographs in black and white rather than color? What if I added another protagonist to this novel and wrote her chapters in first person?
What are you interested in? No matter how off-the-wall this might be? What are you passionate about? Indulge yourself and be on the lookout for new interests. Not only will it provide a spark for the creativity inside, it’s a joyous way to be fully alive. –Lucy Adkins
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.
Seeing is Knowing
- At November 17, 2025
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 10
Finding a place I can see with new eyes.
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way,” William Blake wrote “As a man is, so he sees.”
Expectations and Seeing
How we see our world shapes what we know according to Andy Clark, cognitive psychologist. Our brains make predictions of what it expects to see and limits our reality to that. “Those predictions then structure and shape the whole of human experience,” Clark continues, “from the way we interpret a person’s facial expression, to our feelings of pain, to our plans for an outing to the cinema.” It’s true, what we perceive today is embodied in what we experienced yesterday, and all the days before. Past histories are important. Seeing is knowing.
Discovering Yourself
All my life I’ve loved water and trees. It can be a mountain stream, farm pond, and, visited last month, Hanging Horn, a large Minnesota lake rippling with a strong north wind and rimmed with dancing ladies wearing tutus of orange and yellow leaves. Those flirty cottonwoods curtsying and prancing fill me with nostalgia for my Mother, an observer, a seer who had the wise eyes of an artist. Mother was touched by nature and all that it contained. Through painting she was guided inwardly to a larger and more bountiful life. Maxime Lagace said, “By discovering nature you discover yourself.”
As she grew older, Mother gained new perspectives and a deeper appreciation for all that was. Her canvases in later years shine depth and authenticity, a kind of awareness that can only be created by living in tandem with green things, in the open, nature. In one painting an old knotted apple tree sways at its knees and another, a copse of aspens with branches playing with each other like school age friends. Mother’s depiction of a ramshackle grey barn with a young boy chasing a mutt is my favorite. On the canvas, too, a towering oak tree, the father of all trees, is a carved heart with initials. Mother’s D.K. alongside initials of someone else. It took me a while before I recognized the letters were not father’s. Seeing is knowing. Even at age seventy Mother was a romantic.
Sending Invocations
The last night at Hanging Horn we sit close to the water’s edge gathered shoulder to shoulder around a campfire. The lake a black mirror reflecting pinpoints of light. Marshmallows burnt hang from pointed sticks. Symphonic layers of sudden laughter rise as some fall unbidden into the flames. “Oh, no, another one, Gram!” A chilly wind kicks up the fire’s embers that float like tiny Chinese good luck lanterns into the dark sky. I close my eyes and send silent invocations summoning the spirit of Pegasus, the constellation of creativity, inspiration and freedom. Watching my granddaughters’ turned faces look up I see Pegasus transformed in them. All light and love, emancipated. — “alive” in the world. And, as Joanna Macy beautifully described, “…with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it—is a wonder beyond words.”— Becky Breed
Writing/Creativity exercise:
- Choose a memory from a time you were in nature. Who were you with? What did you do? Describe the colors and season. Why is it important to you? Suggested activities: Artists, create a canvas reflecting this memory. For writers, create a prose piece or poem about your favorite nature memory.
- Select a type of tree you are most like or would like to be. For example, a fruit bearing fruit, a giant redwood, a Christmas fir, one splintered by lightning but still alive, the tree you grew up with or your choice. What characteristics will you relate? Passions? If the tree could talk (maybe it has), what would she say? Now write.
- Invocations are deeply held convictions asking for guidance or assistance. Today, what words would you use? To whom? Write your own invocation.
- What does being “alive” in the world mean? Tell a trusted friend what this means to you.
Focused on the Small Sounds
- At September 22, 2025
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 6
Hermann Hesse observed that “whoever has learned how to listen to trees…wants to be nothing except what he is.”
Changed by Their Sounds
Aspens, The Small Sounds of Whispering Trees
My childhood was punctuated with careful, attentive listening. No, not every day, but when I turned off my attention to common, familiar sounds around me and focused on the small, seemingly insignificant notes, different kinds of music were heard. One day walking thistles in our cornfield with my grandfather Nanny he told me to stop and listen. Nothing was heard at first but soon a soft clapping crescendo like raccoons playing tiny cymbals enveloped me. In a hushed voice, Nanny said it was the sound of corn growing–growing fast.
At first I didn’t believe it. But standing amidst rows of six foot green giants the rhythm of tiny twigs being snapped was undeniable and inviting. My face tightened and then opened like I was possessed for a while. Heat radiating from the lofty stalks drew me closer into their circle brushing against me. It made me want to climb hills and shout like when a new friend touches your hands.
Read More»Kinder, More Gentler Beautiful World
- At July 21, 2025
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 14
There are always flowers for those who want to see them. – Henri Matisse
Several years ago during a challenging time in my life, a wise friend suggested I learn how to “drink from a deeper well.” She said slowing down and paying attention guides an individual to a deeper place within, and a kinder, more gentler beautiful world is revealed. Today, with the daily news filled with one horror story after another, seeking those moments of grace reminds me how much the world has to offer.
Read More»Your Life’s Intentions
- At April 14, 2025
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 4
What is important to you? Being financially successful? Being physically fit and healthy” Becoming a writer? Maybe you want to explore your spirituality or become well-educated or well-travelled. Life presents us all sorts of possibilities, and undoubtedly we will be interested in many things. But there will be some possibilities that ring so true, we must list these first. These are our “Life’s Intentions.”
Possibilities that Call Out to Us
This is the subject of Maria Nemeth’s book, Mastering Life’s Energies. I read her book the first week of the new year and have been thinking about it ever since. How do I intend to live my life? Or perhaps, since I am well past the midpoint of my life, what are my intentions for the time I have left? At least as I see it now?
According to Nemeth, there are some possibilities “that call out to us in a fundamental way,” that when we think about them, we “feel our hearts relax.“ And this is telling, for that feeling of rightness reveals what is right for us.
What Gives Your Heart Ease?
With so many possibilities that present themselves, it is important to focus on what gives us that “feeling of rightness,” that gives our hearts ease. Right now, a few of my intentions revolve around doing some good writing, being a loving family member, maintaining physical fitness and health, and since it is Spring, being a creator of beauty (in my garden.) These goals ring true for me. I think of them and feel a sense of calmness, a sense of peace. All my life I believe these intentions have been a big part of what I value. Sometimes set aside as I pursued an education and worked to make a living, but still there. A touchstone I am able now to keep more to the fore.
Touch Me
Do you know Stanley Kunitz’s poem “Touch Me?” The poet speaks of himself late in his life thinking back to the times he was “wild with love.” “What makes the engine go?” he asks. And then answers. “Desire, desire, desire.” Desire for love, for life, to be part of “the dance.” He ends the poem like this:
“Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am.”
Perhaps that’s what we need, too. To have a touchstone. To be reminded of who we really are, of what makes our engines go.
Exercise:
- Think about your “Life’s Intentions.” You can read Nemeth’s book for a list of intentions, or make your own. Use those mentioned above and include items such as being a successful artist, a well-respected professional, and a loyal friend Include other possibilities as they occur to you.
- Place a number value from 1 to 5 on each possibility, with a “5” indicating an intention extremely important to you, and “1” having little importance.
- Select 3 to 5 intentions you’ve given a value of “4” or “5.” Then sit with that list. Do these intentions feel right? Does thinking about them make your heart relax? Then consider how you might spend more time focusing on what you hold of most value. 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.
–Lucy Adkins
Liminal Space – Creativity Spark
It is when we are betwixt and between, have left one room but not yet entered the next room, any hiatus between stages of life, faith, jobs, loves, or relationships. – Richard Rohr
An In-Between Space
Misty Dawn
Photo by JoAnne Young
Initially there was not cognition. Only later after reflecting I realized it as a liminal space, an in-between space that signals a change and a feeling of being transported. A liminal space is often described as a portal that momentarily ushers a person from a place to another world. Yes, it can be unnerving, but also magical. According to Rakel’ Elizabeth Sampson, those who bring awareness to the transitional space “find value and re-enchantment.”
For All Creatives
Writers and artists use this spark of creativity to awaken, be lifted and create. Such places transport by creating a pause for one to reconsider time and place. Meaningful perspectives and new mindsets are its offspring. Following the hospital experience a poem called “Abandonment” was forged. My friend Sarah sanctified the value of liminal space when her father was in an in-between place in hospice. She noticed that fresh flowers were delivered daily to the care facility and often wilted before they were used. Sarah said she recognized the liminal space as the spark for creativity. Sarah and her father got to work arranging flowers in vases and delivered weekly bouquets to the hospice roommates.
Find Your Creative Edge: Follow the Love Trail
- At June 17, 2024
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 8
“The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves, they find their own order…the continuous thread of revelation.” – Eudora Welty
Dreaming Asleep
I had a dream the other night which encouraged me to follow the love trail, confusing in some 
ways, yet wonderfully reassuring. It took me to a deeper place, a place of invitation that led me as poet David Whyte writes to “where we are most alive and awake…living on the edge of our existence.” Following the love trail takes writers and artists to a creative edge when remarkable and lasting experiences reach for you and move you forward. And where you think-especially sweet-of him or her and sometimes it.
Life Holds Mystery
Looking back holds mystery for us. We want to think more about life”…the brevity of it, the complexity of it, the incredible richness that enters into it…” writes author Marilynne Robinson. These moments of transformation fill us with joy, celebration, longing. What else is love? Like telling dad at his graveside that his beloved barn is gone. Went up in a hot fire. Brother used an old electrical heating lamp to take care of baby pigs and over heated. I know losing that barn was like losing a friend I whispered. But we still have the memories. The only thing good about the barn being gone is on a cold, winter morning you can watch the sun slowly rise.
Writing to connect Memories
Powerful stories and images emerge when we follow the love trail connecting what we’ve experienced to our art or writing. These lived stories radically resonate in us; we did not learn them from books or from other people, but gained them firsthand as personal encounters of love, commitment and longing. Moments of truth, of loss and the everlasting search for meaning and love hard-wire into our memories pivotal moments that continue to surface. But they can be bittersweet. We wonder what could have been, reflecting on the perfectness of the union or the beauty of the remembered sunset. Yet, powerful memories stir the imagination and bring a vividness and spontaneity to our process of creating. These remembered experiences enrich art-making and expand us in ways where we feel the melancholy, wistfulness or joy from the past. A creative edge crystallizes and we dizzily fall into a deep pool of possibility and imagination.
Following the love trail offers writers and artists opportunities to grow in their craft. It opens the door to a larger existence, offers a creative edge–a more authentic one. More life, more love and we begin to recognize how layered and textured our lives truly are. And how deep and wide precious memories.– Becky Breed
Writing/Creative Exercise
1. Jeffrey Kugler wrote “…and the genius of sleep is that it allows you to explore other, untried avenues.” Dreams are often fragmented and unclear. Yet, they can often lead to new creative horizons. Leave a notebook by your bed at night and after awakening take a few notes. What were the details of the dream? Who was in them? Where was the love? Choose one or parts of several dreams and create a love poem or an art piece emanating love.
2. Read Shoulders by Naomi Shihab Nye. Most of us have experienced familial love, a kind of natural love experienced in a family. Select an experience with one who showered you with unconditional love. Put a frame around the memories. Now create a creative love trail using your hands to convey the message.
3. Reflect on a time when romantic love possessed you. Read It is Here by Harold Pinter. Who are you remembering? Perhaps, the heady, rousing feelings of a dramatic crush remain unforgotten. The sweetness of a long time love. Consider these words as the first line in your written piece “In this room…” or sketch a face, start with the lips.
4. Finally, the words of E.M. Forster: “You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.” Create what you know about love.
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