Wild Passions
- At August 21, 2023
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
1
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:
- Read the Poem “Night Fishing” by Peter Sears.
- Make a list of some of the human emotions/conditions…like loneliness, happiness, a feeling of self-satisfaction. You can think of more.
- Make a list of some of the activities you do…like fishing, mowing the lawn, making a pie, and so on.
- Choose one of the human emotions/conditions, and pair it with an activity.
- 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.
Living Among the Glories
- At June 26, 2023
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 4
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.
Read More»Your Wild and Precious Life
- At April 03, 2023
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 6
Your Wild and Precious Life
“Tell me,” Mary Oliver wrote, “what is it you intend to do with your wild and precious life?” What a wonderful question! And one we answer every day with every decision we make. Every action we take. And now that it is spring, the time of new beginnings, it’s a good question to ask again.
As children, we make discovery after discovery; every day brings something new; and we learn, we delight, we find joy in one wonderful new experience after another. As we grow older, the pace of discovery slows down, but we still have many opportunities to make new and exciting finds, and open up our lives.
Perhaps some spring, we decide to plant a few flowers, and suddenly find ourselves intrigued with the world of gardening, plotting grand new schemes of beauty for the back yard.
Read More»Writing From the White-Hot Center
- At January 30, 2023
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 8
Writing From the White-Hot Center
This last year I discovered a new writer that I love, the novelist, Lily King. In an essay in the back of one her novels, she tells about doing a reading at an Ivy League college in which, during the Q and A afterwards, she was asked “what factors determine your authorial distance from the narrator?” She responded that “I don’t think when I write. I am like a blind worm on the ground.” I love that! “A blind worm on the ground.”
She goes on to relate how she loves English literature classes and has been an English teacher herself. How she’s discussed and taken great interest in English-teachery things such as themes and yes, authorial distance. But that when she writes, she doesn’t use her “English teacher brain.” Not in the first draft of writing, “What you need,” she writes, “all you need, is your creative, sensual, wide-open brain.”
Read More»Gerald Stern and The One Thing in Life
- At November 28, 2022
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 4
A month ago, I learned about the death at age 97 of poet Gerald Stern. I knew only a handful of his poems: “The Dancing,” “Waving Goodbye,” and “Stepping Out of Poetry,” but I loved those poems. They got me in the stomach, punched me with their emotion. And hearing of his passing, I knew that I needed to read more of his work. These last few weeks that is what I have been doing.
I read again “Stepping Out of Poetry” in which he reminisces about getting on “the old yellow streetcar” and going to the public library, the joy he found there: “What would you give,” he asks, “for your dream/ to be as clean and simple as it was then/ in the dark afternoons, at the old scarred tables?”
I found and read “Waving Goodbye,” about sending his daughter off to the next stage of her life, experiencing her loss “as an animal would, pressing my forehead against her/ walking in circles, moaning, touching her cheek…”
Then there is “The One Thing in Life,” a poem he considered as one which best described him and his life in poetry. Here are the last five lines:
There is a sweetness buried in my mind;
there is water with a small cave behind it;
there’s a mouth speaking Greek.
It is what I keep to myself; what I return to;
the one thing that no one else wanted.
How lucky he was to recognize that buried sweetness, to explore that small cave. How lucky for us to be able to read his poetry. And wonder about the wonderful one thing in life which exists for each of us. –Lucy Adkins
Writing Exercise:
- Read “Waving Goodbye” and “Stepping Out of Poetry”
- Think about some people or ways of life you have said goodbye to. Jot down a few.
- Think about some fond remembrances of the past and list some of these.
- Write, beginning with the phrase “What would I give……..” Go on from there and see what happens.
For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.Or follow this link to purchase our latest book, The Fire Inside.
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!
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.
Blue Horses: Saying the Unsayable
- At May 23, 2022
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 8
Blue Horses
One Christmas I received as a gift the Mary Oliver book, Blue Horses, and was absolutely blown away by it. First of all because of Mary Oliver’s writing which I’ve admired for ages, and secondly, because of the book cover. This features a painting of four horses, their forms rounded and graceful, all looking to the left as if something interesting is there. A fox or a dog returning their gaze, perhaps, or a person. The horses are beautiful and blue, the background in shades of yellow, spangled with stars, as are the horses themselves, their heads and bodies starry. So whether the horses are of the earth or the heavens, we are not sure.
Franz Marc
The painting is by Franz Marc, an expressionist painter and part of the “Blue Riders” group of artists in Germany in the early 1900’s. Marc was talented and influential, but his career was cut short after serving in the army in World War I. In 1916, flying shrapnel struck him in the temple and he was killed instantly. He was just 36 years old.
The Writing Life: Keeping the Faith
- At March 28, 2022
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 6
Are you a writer? A visual artist or musician? As my writing partner, Becky Breed, and I write in The Fire Inside, we are all creative, an inner fire aflame in us, urging us on. But it is not always easy—sticking to our writing or our art–we need to keep the faith.
I believe that the longer we live the creative life, creating poems or paintings, making music, loving our work, sometimes struggling in our work, the more we realize that our art is a calling, our birthright to create. And we are in it for the long haul.
We may come to the realization gradually, or it may be that after two or three years of writing, it suddenly dawns on us that this obsession of ours is not going away. This is not the fad of the moment we pick up for a while, and then drop as interest wanes. It’s more like embarking on a marriage, building a relationship that will last a lifetime.
There will be hard times: days when it’s difficult to get to your easel, when the words for your poem won’t come, or if they do, limp onto the page and fall flat. Nothing worthwhile comes easy, the old saying goes, and that is certainly true of our passions, our art. Still, it is our passion, our deep love, and we want to keep at it, knowing that our lives would not be as rich or as full without it. So you find a way to keep the faith, to keep on going. How do we do that? Here are some tips:
Keeping the Faith
- Look for the joy in the “every-day” of work. Relish those moments when the words flow from the tips of your fingers, when the brushstrokes come free and fluid.
- Read books like Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. These and other writers provide gentle encouragement and help keep you going.
- Set goals for yourself—such as writing a certain number of pages per month, or sending out a certain number of submissions—and ask a friend to hold you accountable.
- Celebrate your accomplishments—even the small ones. When you find the right color for your painting, the right word for your poem. Give yourself a pat on the back when you send out a story to a potential publisher.
- Develop a work schedule and stick to it as much as you can. Include in your schedule some down time, time to go “off-line” and free your mind.
- Don’t beat yourself up when you stray from your writing schedule or fall short of your goals. Give yourself a break. Be kind. Then get back on track.
- Become a part of your local artist community. A good writing group or artists’ group can provide a lifetime of support and encouragement, and is probably the very best thing you can do to nurture and sustain your creative life.
Elbert Hubbard said that “Art is not a thing, it is a way.” It is not the finished painting that matters, the completed novel (though these accomplishments are wonderful!) It is the everyday of work—the violinist practicing, the writer writing, the many happinesses found in doing what we love. This is why we wrote The Fire Inside—the joy in creating. We hope you pick up a copy and explore its pages. We hope you get in touch with your inner fire—and keep it blazing.
For more ideas to help you along the creative path, see our book, The Fire Inside. We think you’ll be inspired!
The Power Within
- At January 24, 2022
- By Write in Community
- In Blog
- 8
The Power Within
Feeling powerless in your writing life? You don’t need to!
Let’s say you’ve been on the creative path for some time, but are feeling depressed, thinking you are not as far down the road as you envisioned. You write and you write but the essence of what you want to express remains elusive. Or perhaps you feel that you have acquired the chops it takes to be a writer. But your publications remain few and far between. The series of books you dreamed of remains just that—a dream you fear will never be realized.
Many writers, good and talented, dream the same dreams you do, and want validation in the form of a book. The same is true in other areas of creative endeavor–people who are pursuing their aspirations in the visual arts, in photography and acting and design. The competition for public recognition is fierce. The reality is that in some areas of the artistic life, we have little control. We cannot make the publisher publish our book. We have no control over whether the director will choose us for the part in the play. That power lies in other hands.
There is, however, much over which we do have control. We can do our work—complete our paintings, learn the new dance routine, write new stories and poems. This is great and joy-filled power. And if publication is your goal, know that every poem you write makes the possibility more likely. Every submission you make makes it likelier still. Rejection has been and will always be a part of the submission process. Perhaps because the piece you submit isn’t quite “there” yet. Or because the editor had a bad day and couldn’t see it for what it was. We can’t control the latter, but we can continue to hone our abilities—take classes and workshops, strive always for excellence, and keep submitting. We can also take an active part in the artistic community. So that when possibilities come along, we will be aware of them. These things we can do.
And whether or not we are recognized by the gatekeepers of the art world, our greatest power lies in believing in ourselves and what we are doing. We were born knowing there was magnificence around us; it was magnificence we were created from, and we are capable of greatness we cannot imagine.
We are like birds, the ability to sing in our own unique ways embedded within our DNA, the facility of flying in the ways we were meant to fly. We yearn to find the notes to the song, to take wing in flying. And while sometimes we try to suppress that yearning, it is there inside us, waiting like a phone we know is about to ring. And when it does, it will be our destiny on the other end of the line, the call we have been waiting for.
All we need to do is answer the phone. Pick up the pen or the paintbrush and do what we were meant to do And take joy in that, even if the book remains unpublished. “…Publication is not all it’s cracked up to be, “ Anne LaMott said. “But writing is.” It is the creative act itself which matters—the intense focus, the feeling of reaching beyond yourself to connect with the magnificence of the universe and bring into being some new sort of beauty. There is satisfaction in that, and great joy, and therein lies true power. You have it within yourself.
For more ideas to help you along the creative path, see our book, The Fire Inside. We think you’ll be inspired!
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