Writers Flow happened again last night. This week our focus was on "Your Unique Style - Finding Your Writing Rhythm" We go about this in a "creative" way - imagine that! Through the course of the class we view pictures and invite them to "write through us". We listen to music and invite the music to form words through us. We use trigger words - randomly chosen - as if anything is ever random - and we let those trigger words write stories as if they are being delivered by waves washing through us.
By the end of the class we end up feeling expanded and stretched outside of our ordinary minds. And we find ourselves wanting to write more.
Really, you have to get out of your own mind to allow pictures or sounds to write through you. The thrill comes as we recognize that we are each unique instruments for the expression of Spirit in life. It dawns on us that there are stories everywhere. Everything has life in it waiting for one of us to bring it alive for others. Performers do that for their audiences. Writers do that for their readers. Lovers do that for their beloved. It is the creator in us that makes it up. And with Writing Practice we realize how creative we really are.
Is this some self-indulgent practice? Hardly! Writing Practice helps us develop our "creators muscles." As they grow strong and limber our capacity to share life in meaningful ways expands also.
A Writing Practice For You: Invite Music into Words
Find a piece of music that you love. Instrumental pieces work best. Close your eyes and listen carefully. Listen deeply. Let the music move through you as you ask it to become words. You might listen to the base notes and find one story. You might listen to the high notes and find another. You might listen from your belly and hear a different story than the one you hear in your toes. One piece of music can take you on many writing adventures. Writing music into words is great training for letting Spirits flow move your words. Enjoy!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
How Do Messages from Spirit Come?
"I believe that you're great, that there's something magnificent about you.
Regardless of what has happened to you in your life, regardless of how young or how old you think you might be, the moment you begin to think properly, this something that is within you, this power within you that's greater than the world, it will begin to emerge. It will take over your life. It will feed you, it will clothe you, it will guide you, protect you, direct you, sustain your very existence. If you let it! Now that is what I know, for sure."
- Michael Beckwith
I slept deep last night. One of those soul-satisfying sleeps where I know my cells are being replenished. This morning while I was drifting between sleep and waking I had an image on my mind. It was the leftover fragment from a dream I couldn't quite catch but it became words that lingered when I opened my eyes-
"I am catching fireflies on my plate."
Huh? What is that all about? I haven't a clue what that phrase means but I like it -and I've been mulling it over all day. I've visited with friends, attended a community potluck at the beach, watched the sunset over the ocean, shopped for groceries, fed my cat and still this one phrase keeps replaying in my mind.
I suppose I could have put the whole idea of "catching fireflies on my plate" right out of my mind but I didn't want to. I felt energized and enthused when I thought about it. In fact I felt delighted and touched with the mystery of it all.
Sometimes that is how messages from Spirit come. Strange phrases, dream fragments, feelings that light us up inside and signal something unusual, otherworldly, profound has arrived. The question is whether we are listening and once receiving these messages - will we cancel them out because they make no sense to our ordinary minds?
Our creative worlds often appear mysterious and strange. Artists know their best projects are often born when they stumble down paths not taken before. Many outlines of my workshops were first jotted down on scraps of paper while I was traveling in a car. Mystics know that creation happens beyond the left-brain - when we are "out of our minds."
I love being connected to the mystic, creative, mysterious realms of Spirit. My life is richer and more exotic for it. When I'm not - well, let's just say - I get restless, uncomfortable and my life feels flat instead of bold and vibrant.
So I will continue to catch fireflies on my plate - even if I do not - right in this minute - understand what that means. And I will continue to notice when I feel "lit up inside". - mmm - isn't that what happens to fireflies?
I ask questions - about my work, about my love life, about my financial flow and about the best way to care for my physical body. I know when I ask the answers come. And I also know the most expanded answers to my questions happen when I am in my creative zone.
And so I do creative practices. I take on creative projects that stretch me. I write. I dance. I do things differently. I change things up - in ways that light me up. (mmm- I'm beginning to detect a theme) I make new choices. I create.
Living a creative life connects us to Spirit's design for our lives. Some might call the creators life crazy but I wouldn't want to live any other way.
Regardless of what has happened to you in your life, regardless of how young or how old you think you might be, the moment you begin to think properly, this something that is within you, this power within you that's greater than the world, it will begin to emerge. It will take over your life. It will feed you, it will clothe you, it will guide you, protect you, direct you, sustain your very existence. If you let it! Now that is what I know, for sure."
- Michael Beckwith
I slept deep last night. One of those soul-satisfying sleeps where I know my cells are being replenished. This morning while I was drifting between sleep and waking I had an image on my mind. It was the leftover fragment from a dream I couldn't quite catch but it became words that lingered when I opened my eyes-
"I am catching fireflies on my plate."
Huh? What is that all about? I haven't a clue what that phrase means but I like it -and I've been mulling it over all day. I've visited with friends, attended a community potluck at the beach, watched the sunset over the ocean, shopped for groceries, fed my cat and still this one phrase keeps replaying in my mind.
I suppose I could have put the whole idea of "catching fireflies on my plate" right out of my mind but I didn't want to. I felt energized and enthused when I thought about it. In fact I felt delighted and touched with the mystery of it all.
Sometimes that is how messages from Spirit come. Strange phrases, dream fragments, feelings that light us up inside and signal something unusual, otherworldly, profound has arrived. The question is whether we are listening and once receiving these messages - will we cancel them out because they make no sense to our ordinary minds?
Our creative worlds often appear mysterious and strange. Artists know their best projects are often born when they stumble down paths not taken before. Many outlines of my workshops were first jotted down on scraps of paper while I was traveling in a car. Mystics know that creation happens beyond the left-brain - when we are "out of our minds."
I love being connected to the mystic, creative, mysterious realms of Spirit. My life is richer and more exotic for it. When I'm not - well, let's just say - I get restless, uncomfortable and my life feels flat instead of bold and vibrant.
So I will continue to catch fireflies on my plate - even if I do not - right in this minute - understand what that means. And I will continue to notice when I feel "lit up inside". - mmm - isn't that what happens to fireflies?
I ask questions - about my work, about my love life, about my financial flow and about the best way to care for my physical body. I know when I ask the answers come. And I also know the most expanded answers to my questions happen when I am in my creative zone.
And so I do creative practices. I take on creative projects that stretch me. I write. I dance. I do things differently. I change things up - in ways that light me up. (mmm- I'm beginning to detect a theme) I make new choices. I create.
Living a creative life connects us to Spirit's design for our lives. Some might call the creators life crazy but I wouldn't want to live any other way.
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