Instructions for Life

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…”

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Dove Cottage: Finding Inspiration

A long time ago my husband and I took a trip to Great Britain and the Lake District, and while there, poet that I am, I couldn’t help but include in our itinerary a visit to Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage. Do you know it? It’s an unimposing place, a small whitewashed structure which was originally a pub called the “Dove and Olive.”

From late 1799 to 1808, Wordsworth lived there with his sister, Dorothy, the two indulging in what he called “plain living and high thinking.” Their lifestyle was indeed plain—there was no indoor plumbing and their meals were simple. But they filled their days with meaning. Walking in the countryside, keeping journals (both William and Dorothy), and in William’s case, writing poetry. Three of my favorite poems of his: “Ode: Intimations of Immortality,”  “My Heart Leaps Up” and “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” were written there.

 A Connection to Greatness
There’s something inspiring about being in a place where exceptional lives were lived. Where works of greatness were created. Being in rooms where writers worked, seeing their favorite chairs and desks, the pens and pencils they used. At Dove Cottage, I felt a certain sense of connection, knowing that where I walked, Wordsworth walked. Where I looked out the window to the English countryside, the poet did, too. I experienced a sense of the sacred. A sense of the heights a human heart and soul and brain can attain.

Then, too, there was the idea that being in the same space where Wordsworth wrote, maybe some of his molecules of greatness were still floating around in the atmosphere. And if I were lucky, some might fall on me.

Lastly, it was encouraging to see the humble surroundings. To think that I, too, coming from a similar modest background could dare to attempt poems that might be, if not great, then at least not-half bad.

Finding a Mentor From the Past
Pushing the limits of your abilities in the arts is the work of a lifetime. And like all worthwhile things, it isn’t easy. It helps to have a companion, someone along with you who is walking the same path. Real life mentors who can encourage you and coax you, and prod you at times. But also mentors from the past like Wordsworth or Jane Austen or Mary Oliver. People we admire and want to emulate—whether it be in their writing style, or their work ethic and commitment to excellence.

Since Dove Cottage, I’ve visited Eudora Welty’s home in Jackson, Mississippi and Willa Cather’s childhood home in Red Cloud, Nebraska. Also Hemingway’s house in Key West. It is said that inspiration can come from anyone, anywhere, anytime. What about your experiences? What places have inspired you? –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.

 

 

What Are You Learning?

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.

The Eye in the Heart

Original Artwork by
Bonnie Hadfield

Short story writer, novelist, and writing mentor, Tom Paine, gave a presentation discussing a concept I would like to share with you. It had to do with what he called “The Eye in the Heart.”

“You have an eye in the heart,” he said. “What you write on the page is an image of who you are.” And who you are comes from your heart—what it is you love and how you love. “Go find your heart,” he went on, “and you will be a better writer.” Or musician or artist. However it is you pour out of your heart all that you are.

So how do we go about finding our hearts?  The answer to that, I believe, is very much the way we love. Most days we go about with chain link fences around our hearts. We don’t allow others in, we don’t allow even ourselves in to feel what we are feeling. So we must open ourselves to being truly alive, allowing ourselves to want badly. Remember the first time you fell in love? The tug in the stomach, the excitement, how you could be pierced by love? Oh, it could be ecstasy or it could be a world of hurt. We allow ourselves to be vulnerable when we love, and we need that same kind of vulnerability when we write.

In the cartoon strip Peanuts, from time to time we see an image of Snoopy sitting atop his doghouse with his typewriter. “It is a dark and stormy night…” he writes, or “His was a story that had to be told,” and in the next frame, “Maybe not.”  We are all Snoopy at our typewriters wanting something wonderful to emerge as our fingers strike the keys. Sometimes succeeding and sometimes not. In another cartoon, Snoopy again is pecking away at the keys and a thought bubble rises above him “Writing is hard work.” This is true. But also “Writing is heart work.”

Right now I’m revising a novel I’ve been working on for some time. And I’ve discovered that when a particular chapter or scene is limping along, it may be due to either one of two things:  1) “bad” writing or 2) the writing is too much with the head than the heart. Of course, there are many more ways a piece of writing can go wrong, but these are two biggies for me.

We are often fearful of sentiment, not wanting to be overly syrupy or saccharine. This is a legitimate concern, but I would suggest that if we must err, let us do so on the side of the heart. If we see a piece is overly sentimental, we can always edit. But let us first write with the emotions, let us write from our hearts.

Writing Exercise:

  1. Think about your childhood, about the times you were in trouble, sick or hurt, the time you got your first bike, the kinds of games you played. Make a list of these memories.
  2. Read “The Dancing,” by Gerald Stern about a powerful memory from childhood.
  3. Choose an item from your list and write. If you’d like a starter line, you might begin

“I have never____________the way I did________. Allow yourself to become absorbed in the memory of that time with all your emotions, and write with the The Eye in the Heart.

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

Your Life’s Intentions

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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

The Muscles of the Imagination

Imagination will carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.”  -Carl Sagan

The Imagination
In the worlds of our imagination, anything is possible. Maybe that is why in January, when the days are cloudy and cold, and the spirit begins to droop a bit, gardening catalogs are so popular. We flip through the pages and dream crocuses bursting through the snow. We imagine ourselves raking away the dead of winter, planting banks of petunias, chrysanthemums. And as we do this, something in us lifts and makes the day a brighter one.  Perhaps we go on to order seeds and bedding plants, so that when warm weather comes, what we envisioned in January comes into fruition.

Artist’s Dates
“Your imagination is a preview of life’s coming attractions,” Einstein said. Pascal goes on to say that “imagination decides everything.” So it’s important, that we do what we can to take time to dream, flex the muscles of the imagination. Children are masters of this—playing games of “pretend,” imagining all sorts of wonders. But as adults, we often get out of the habit. We are intent on getting through the problems and challenges of the day. We are focused on our goals. And if this goes on too long without allowing in new dreams, we begin to go a bit stale

Julia Cameron proposes we take “Artist’s Dates”—trips to movies, museums, Asian food markets—anything out of the ordinary that will trigger that exceptional something we all have in our minds. We see a movie and while we are taken in by the primary plotline, something strikes us. Let’s say it’s about a minor character, a character who is in a scene for only a moment—but someone who intrigues us. We start dreaming a backstory for them, maybe developing a new story idea that we can’t wait to begin writing. We visit a fabric store and take in the wonderful hues of purple—and imagine a painting we could paint featuring that array of colors.

Time for Dreaming
Another thing Julia Cameron proposes is that we schedule time for dreaming. “It takes practice to expand our imagination and inhabit a larger life,” she says. And she believes in sitting down with paper and pen to do so. One of the exercises she proposes is to complete the phrase “In the best of all possible worlds, I would__________.” or “If I didn’t have to do it perfectly, I’d __________.

In all of us, there are seeds of ideas that we are not even aware of. That we haven’t allowed to come out into the open. Maybe we have the idea of a beautiful garden,  a dream to run a 5K, or to write a series of short stories. Napoleon Hill said that “what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” So let’s conceive some wonderful things.—Lucy Adkins

Writing Exercise:
Let’s try a Julia Cameron exercise to expand our imaginations.

Get a cup of your beverage of choice, put on some soothing music, and number a page in your notebook from 1 to 10.

After each number, write the phrase “In the best of all possible worlds, I would___________” and complete it with what you would love to do or bring into being. Have a little fun with this, allow yourself to dream whatever crazy thing comes to mind. Enjoy.

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 Fire Inside–A Great Gift

“As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December’s bad weather,” Donald Westlake said, “it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same.”

One of the biggest challenges for many of us lies in shopping. A book is always a great gift, and for the creative people in your life, consider giving a copy of THE FIRE INSIDE: A COMPANION FOR THE CREATIVE LIFE.

New York Times bestselling author, Tosca Lee calls THE FIRE INSIDE “a warm and welcome conversation for those searching for their creative identity;” and writing guru Judy Reeves applauds it as “jam-packed with ideas, tips, suggestions, and general cheering-on…for writers and creatives of all stripes.”

Purchase through our website http://www.thewritingandcreativelife.com or follow this link to Purchase on Amazon: https://amzn.to/39s2bai.

You may also want to consider our first book, WRITING IN COMMUNITY: SAY GOODBYE TO WRITER’S BLOCK AND TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE at https://amzn.to/2ZiVtOi

Happy Holidays!
–Lucy and Becky

Six Fashion Essentials for Writers

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.

Finding Fulfillment: Filling the Empty Spaces

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.

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