Goodreads Giveaway for The Fire Inside
- At September 19, 2022
- By Write in Community
- In Events
1
Are you feeling the need for a little inspiration? THE FIRE INSIDE: A COMPANION FOR THE CREATIVE LIFE by Lucy Adkins and Becky Breed may be just what you’re looking for. And right now, it is being featured on a Goodreads Giveaway.
Enter on Goodreads for your chance to win a free copy!
Coming of Age: Becoming Creative
- At February 21, 2022
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 16
“Walls turned sideways are bridges.”–Angela Davis
Openness, curiosity and, yes, change spark creativity. Sometimes, change arrives because of something we’ve set out to do. Often, though, it approaches us sideways like a sudden flash of light, and, suddenly, we’re thrown into cold water. Transitions like coming of age experiences drop us like a stone into the swirling eddy of our lives. They are wild places where we are challenged, left naked and afraid. At least a rise in blood pressure. We can either sink or use our arms and legs to reach a farther shore. Becoming creative helps us navigate. Here’s my story.
The Sweet Smell of Remembering
- At August 16, 2021
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 6
The Fire Inside: A Companion for the Creative Life
Chapter Five: Wooing the Muse
The Smell of Remembering
“Already many of the memories of the previous two weeks had faded: the smell of that small hotel in St. Andrews; that mixture of bacon cooking for breakfast and the lavender-scented soap in the bathroom; the air from the sea drifting across the golf course; the aroma of coffee in the coffee bar in South Street.” —Alexander McCall Smith, Trains and Lovers
Ahh, the sweet smell of remembering? Have you ever encountered a scent that takes you back to a place or person? A whiff of Old Spice, for instance, and you are a little child sitting beside your grandfather at church. Or the sweet perfume of cinnamon and you’re back in Aunt Mary’s kitchen licking the bowl while her head is turned. Smell triggers memory. As children, we notice scents and associate them with certain people or experiences. Years later, when we encounter the scent again and the same associations are aroused, memories return.
Read More»Lookin’ for Love: In All the Wrong Places
- At February 08, 2021
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 12
[Love] is art’s most powerful and enduring muse, fuel for the creative process, more potent than anything the world has known. –Maria Popova
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? In to love?
Hello dear Home!
- At December 14, 2020
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 20
Tucked In by Gina Barlean
Even now after so many years when I close my eyes, the enchantment of the first home I knew and loved comes into view. Follow the yellow brick road and you’ll see a small, brick farm house with homemade lace curtains that seem to blink hello. Hello dear home! I spent countless hours in a storybook red and white striped barn with a magical playground hayloft. In the summer, deep blue and purple petunias framed the stone front porch where, in early mornings, I would sit and watch the sunrise. Oh, how the translucent rays, so radiant in their soft pink color, were transfixing! And, there I would begin to drift away dreaming of such things as wild horses and dancing cottonwoods. Cock-a-doodle-do! Cock-a-doodle-do! A friendly greeting from our leghorn rooster would stir me and I would slip back to my bedroom into my special place, and write.
Read More»Seize the Moment: Make a Difference
- At October 12, 2020
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 8
“A teacher affects eternity, he (or she) can never tell where his influence ends.” –Henry Adams
I see it in the flushed faces of children, talking in great bursts of energy, flinging their arms in the air. They are painting smooth river rocks with the name of their favorite presidential candidate.
Photo by Mike Stinson
I connect with a retired nurse who said “My heart is just broken and burdened for this country.” Kathleen realized the importance of honoring those who have died from Covid-19 and organized a national collective mourning time. Honor. Hope. Heal.
I witness the perseverance of Rex for keeping on, believing in the sanctity of the human spirit and promoting fairness, working with love towards restorative justice at a state penitentiary for men.
Read More»Exciting News for the Writing and Creative Life!
- At September 21, 2020
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 33
Exciting News for our Writing Community!
from Lucy Adkins and Becky Breed
Hello friends, we have some exciting news to share! Since the publication of our first book, Writing in Community, we have become more and more interested in all the ways we and those around us express our creative powers. Not only in writing (which is still our creativity “go-to!”) but also in painting, making music, all the traditional ways we think of creativity, and in the very way we live our lives. We use our creativity every day. To solve problems, to create more beauty in our lives. To find the right words to say to a friend who is hurting. Our creativity is vital, essential to who we are. And the good news is that we are all wildly creative, each and every one of us. Let us repeat that. We are all wildly creative, each and every one!
Ivan the Gorilla Wired for Creativity
- At August 31, 2020
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 4
“To every thing there is a season…”—Ecclesiastes
Ivan the Gorilla
“The One and Only Ivan,” is a book and a movie about Ivan the Gorilla, a beloved Silverback Western Lowland gorilla, who captured the hearts of everyone who met him. Ivan lived in isolation in a 40-by-40 concrete enclosure for twenty-seven years in a shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington; didn’t go outside for all this time, touch grass, nor see another gorilla. But, in spite of these bleak circumstances, Ivan continued to delight children and families with his daily antics. He loved to play games, teased his zoo keepers, and was always full of surprises. Ivan especially loved having books read to him.
Read More»Hunger
- At July 20, 2020
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 6
A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all people. —Brene Brown
These are challenging times. We are being asked to shoulder all the sorrows, surprising sweetnesses and unsettling machinations that cycle through what we now call the “new normal.” For me, dealing with what seems like insurmountable problems, the pandemic and effects of systemic racism, creates an emptiness in my stomach as if little food has passed my lips.
Deepen Your Curiosity: Gaze
- At February 20, 2017
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 4
“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein
Walking with his gaze on the ragged grass in front of him, a five-year old so immersed 
in his looking he’s in slow motion. The boy lowers himself like each movement is a slide from an old view master, finally turning over a broken ceramic bowl sticking out of the ground. The smell of fresh dirt fills the air. Maybe it’s a water bowl for a dog? he asks. Artists, too, are drawn to certain experiences. We may not be digging in the dirt anymore, but when curiosity is piqued, our attention arises from a deeper sense of aliveness. We have to keep looking.
Recent Comments