Seeing with Fresh Eyes
- At August 03, 2026
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
6
“The real voyage of discovery consists not seeing new sights, but with seeing with new eyes.” – Pico Iyer
Great Heron at Rest
Photography by Linda Wilson
Miracles Happen
Many years ago, one of my beloved daughters was acting somewhat furtive, maintaining little eye contact, repeatedly touching her turned down face. Standing slope-shouldered behind her partner she stared at the floor. Then looked up. Light in her eyes changed deepening to a brilliant dark green like moss in the early morning. Rosiness of a pink sunset sky spread across her face. Suddenly a shift in my awareness and Joseph Pearce’s words hit home “insight is always complete and perfect in its single instant’s appearance.” In that “A-ha” moment I was seeing with fresh eyes. My daughter was carrying a special light, a heartbeat of its own swimming in her inner world.
Composer Vinteuil said, “The only true voyage is discovery…not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others….” When we “possess other eyes”, we allow ourselves to be transported to a wonderful and sometimes, surprising new land.
Read More»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»Finding Love: “Theirs and Ours”
- At March 23, 2026
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 12
Have you ever believed you didn’t count?
Abandoned by people you love? Nora and Agnes, daughters of Gustav Borg in the movie Sentimental Value, felt as children do when a treasured balloon suddenly is sucked away into the world. Sad, mad—vulnerable. When their father came to their mother’s memorial, they bottled up all their deep emotions blaming him for leaving the family and the hurt that followed. But what saved them, said Manohla Dargis, New York Times film critic, was “finding love: ‘theirs and ours,” the sustaining holy work that healed the hearts of the father and his daughters.
Challenging Relationships
Dargis describes the entangled father and daughters’ relationships as “…greedily self-involved and irresistibly charismatic, the kind who are easy to fall for and tough to let go.” Sentimental Value resonates with unwavering themes of resiliency, self-reflection and a conflicted love with intense highs and lows. Slow moving and layered with ambiguities and symbolism, the film is a tender, complex and poetic film that leaves much for the audience to absorb. . . and aspire to.
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.”
Love is Your Muse
- At February 10, 2025
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 8
Priming the pump.
Songwriter Johnny Lee and I have something in common– I [am] lookin’ for love in all the wrong places. For if love is the most powerful muse, why is a blank page staring back at me? So, where is the love? Then I remember, and the exhilarating joy of looking, unfolding, breathing in begins…Which image or stunning poetic lines are going to inspire me, lead me down the tortuously sweet path of flowing blue on my pages, into the mad scramble of fingers on the keyboard? What memories of love hold on and never end?
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.
Six Fashion Essentials for Writers
- At July 22, 2024
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 12
We writers are concerned with finding our voice, our writing style. What about our fashion style? Maybe we have a picture in mind as to what a “real writer” dresses like, and we imagine ourselves at the height of our writing success, writing every day. And taking from the mailbox packages of our latest books accompanied by big fat checks. The question arises, what are we wearing?
“Clothes Make the (Wo)man,” we hear, and “Dress for Success.” The idea is that if we look the part of an up-and-coming professional or well-known author, we start becoming that person. These tongue-in-cheek suggestions can help us on the way:
1. Mittens with the Fingers Cut Out This is a necessity for writing in cold weather, especially if you are one of those writers who hang out in your basement or your attic. And they’re great when writing on park benches, or jotting down ideas on your daily walk.
2. A long scarf hung loosely around the neck. I recommend this because of meeting a great instructor and writer at the Iowa Summer Writers Conference. She was talented and cool and looked good in her scarf—who wouldn’t want to be like her? So, consider a scarf—because of the “cool” factor, and because when you walk, ideas flow and swirl around you along with your scarf.
3. Good Walking Shoes To tap into inspiration, a great thing to do is to walk—at least thirty minutes every day. So, to get those creative juices flowing, you’re going to wear out a lot of shoe leather. Be kind to your feet and do it in a sturdy pair of Nikes.
4. A Slick Vinyl Raincoat We all face hard times—rejection letters coming through the mail, comments from critics and nay-sayers. If you’re going through a cold, rainy season of rejection, get out your raincoat, and let that negativity slide right off. You don’t need it. Don’t let it fall on you. Just be sure to remove it when the accolades start flowing!
5. A Comfortable pair of Blue Jeans Whether you prefer straight leg or boot-cut or skinny jeans, make sure they are extra-comfy. You’ve heard the advice to “apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.” Do it in comfortable jeans.
6. Accessories Bracelets make a nice clicky sound when you move, like typewriter keys, and that can be soothing. Necklaces work the same way, but stay away from chokers, as well as anything confining and restrictive. As for watches, wear them for fashion, not function—when you’re writing well, you’ll lose track of time, anyway.
These tips, of course, are for writers at work. At readings and public appearances, your look is your individual choice, the image you want to project. But for daily wear, consider the six tips above, and write in style. –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.
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.
Finding Fulfillment: Filling the Empty Spaces
- At May 20, 2024
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 9
From time to time, we all experience feelings of unhappiness, dissatisfaction, a lack of fulfillment. There may be a very good reason for that unhappiness—the loss of a loved one or other disaster. Maybe we’re feeling a lack of purpose. Or perhaps we don’t exactly know what we want, but sense that something is missing. We need something new to come into our lives to feel purpose again, to feel joy.
Let me make a rather “out there” declaration. That when we are terribly unhappy, whether it due to a deep-seated sorrow, or a vague sense of being unfulfilled—the forces that be seem to work together to present to you what you are lacking. To satisfy that deep wanting.
This is huge. So let me repeat that statement. The forces that be seem to work together to present to you what you are lacking. To bring you joy and satisfy your deepest longings.
I remember two times in my life when I was unhappy—woefully unhappy—and with good reason. The first occurred after my father died; and the second in the bleak days following 9-11 when it seemed that nothing would ever be right with the world again. I knew I was undergoing depression and desperately wanted relief, but couldn’t talk myself into feeling better.
Of course, time heals all wounds, but in each of these cases, there was a specific occurrence which worked to lift my spirits.
The Sunday after 9-11, after being glued to the TV news for days, my husband and I drove to Spring Creek Prairie near us to attend a raptor release. It was a rainy dismal day, but watching the release, the hawk lifting up into the drizzly sky, I felt something being released in me too. And I began to feel a little ease. Still upset about the events that had taken place, but the desolate aching was gone, replaced by the image of the hawk rising into the sky.
In the second instance after my father died and a smile had not crossed my face for weeks, I drove west on the Interstate to see my mother. I felt aimless, sad, and a little mantra began to go through my head. “This is the day the Lord has made. Rejoice, rejoice, and be glad.” This from a refrigerator magnet a friend had given me years ago. The verse floated around in my head, then formed itself into a melody. More verses and a chorus began to come. Within a few minutes I pulled into a rest area, and after a little furious scribbling, I had written a song! After all those days of feeling nothing but emptiness inside, what a blissful feeling that was.
Nature abhors a vacuum, the scientific principle asserts, the idea being that “unfilled spaces” go against the laws of nature and that inevitably the emptiness will “work” to be filled with something. And Will Shortz said that ”Human beings have a natural compulsion to fill empty spaces.”
So what can we do? Two things. First, I am a firm believer that to be happy and fulfilled, we must be doing what we love, using our gifts. For many of us, this is the gift of creativity. Of writing, painting, dancing, making music. And when we embrace our gifts and spend time using them, we find purpose. Secondly, we must be open when the universe presents to us opportunities for joy. Opportunities to fill any emptiness inside with something grand. –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.
Want to Consider Collaboration?
- At July 25, 2022
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 4
Ever think about collaborating with another writer or artist on a creative project? Wonder how it works? Bryan Collins, host of the “Become a Writer Today” Podcast recently interviewed Becky and me about our collaboration on our two books, Writing in Community and The Fire Inside. We had an intriguing conversation which provided an opportunity for us to think more about collaboration, how it worked successfully for us, and how a collaborative partner can help you to accomplish more–and better!
You may want to know:
How does the collaborative process work?
What are the advantages?
How do you find a collaborative partner?
You can listen to the interview (or view the transcript of it) here.
For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.
Or follow this link to purchase our latest book, The Fire Inside.
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