Write your own prayer for month six of the pandemic. Bring to your mind’s eye someone who is suffering: a loved one, someone in your community, your friend who just had to close her business, a first responder, someone who just got diagnosed with Covid-19, the person who packs your groceries, or to someone, directly known or unknown to you, who is grieving or suffering because of this pandemic, or because of fear, bias or prejudice. You can choose to write a prayer for someone else or if you are feeling the need, you can write it for yourself. Be specific in your wishes for that person. You can share your response to this prompt below. ... [Continue Reading]
Writing Through the Pandemic: July 14, Number 1
Tell me about the person, during this time of pandemic, that you have felt closest to, the person who has understood your experience the most. Describe a moment in that relationship when you felt truly seen and heard. Bring me inside a moment of intimacy and closeness with that person that happened despite physical distancing. Bring us inside a moment when you felt deeply connected to someone. If no person comes to mind, broaden out and consider a moment when you felt deeply connected to an animal, an ancestor, a stranger, to nature or to a being or spirit in the spiritual world. You can share your response to this prompt below. ... [Continue Reading]
The Price of Talent
“Everyone has a talent; what is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.” --Erica Jong
Tell me about one of your talents and the pleasure and pain it has brought you. Be sure to include both.
... [Continue Reading]Helpful Resources in a Time of Uncertainty #57
Coronavirus & the Pandemic Response How Do They Do It? An interview with five top health specialists about how they navigate daily Covid-19 risks in their own lives. I found this article from the Washington Post really helpful: Click here to access this resource. How to safely wear your mask. Even though I’ve been wearing a mask for months, I found this refresher on how to do it safely useful. It’s easy to get sloppy or careless. [Continue Reading]
Writing Through the Pandemic: July 7, Number 2
See if you can find something in this list that speaks to a dilemma you faced recently or are facing in the future: This summer everyone is struggling to balance their yearning for normalcy with the risk of catching or passing on the virus. Describe a situation in which you felt caught between these two very real human needs. A moment when you had to juggle competing needs, your own—or your own and someone else’s. Bring us into a moment you had to make a decision. When you decided to take—or not take—a calculated risk. How did you make the decision? What did you base it on? How did it feel in your body? How do you feel about it now in hindsight? You can also tell us about a decision you’re facing right now. Or, paint a picture of a situation in which your idea of what was safe was at ... [Continue Reading]
Writing Through the Pandemic: July 7, Number 1
Make a list of things that open. Make a list of things that close. Tell me about something that is opening or closing for you right now. Or tell me about something that is opening or closing in the people around you, or in your community, your nation, or our world. You can share your response to this prompt below. ... [Continue Reading]
To Really Commit to My Writing
“In order to do creative work in any of the arts and sciences you must go through long or short spells of not knowing what is going on, of being irritated, and not being able to find the cause, of being willing to work as hard as you can and what happens isn’t valuable enough, isn’t good enough, isn’t what you meant to do, what you meant to say. Then, if you can bear it, if you don’t quit and move to Canada or call up Joe and go hiking for two weeks or quit your job or get a divorce or do anything else to relieve the pain and it is pain, it’s really irritating, it puts you in a bad mood, you are irritable to children and can’t focus on anything and keep changing your mind, if you can put up with it and just go right on sitting down at that desk every day no matter how much it ... [Continue Reading]
Helpful Resources in a Time of Uncertainty #56
Coronavirus & the Pandemic Response Referrals to Online Services for Addiction and Mental Health For many people, the stresses of the coronavirus has exacerbated existing problems with anxiety, stress, depression, addiction, and other mental health challenges. Here’s an online portal where people needing help can get hooked up with teletherapy. This resource was sent to me by someone from The Recovery Village. I don’t know the people running it or much of anything about their services, so do your own due diligence, but it seems like a good idea for this moment when a lot is coming up for people and folks don’t know where to turn for help: [Continue Reading]
Helpful Resources in a Time of Uncertainty #55
Coronavirus & the Pandemic Response Fascinating infographic based on interviews with epidemiologists on when life will “get back to normal.” Thanks to Jen Astone for passing this along. Click here to access this resource. CORONAVIRUS: WHEN YOU CAN NO LONGER JUST TELL PEOPLE TO STAY HOME In this podcast by the On The Media team, Marcus and Brooke consider the shortcomings of an abstinence-only response to the pandemic, and how harm-reduction approaches could better serve the public. Here's what it's about: When the US entered the early stages of the pandemic, federal and municipal leaders maintained that the best way to prevent the spread of the ... [Continue Reading]
Writing Through the Pandemic: June 30, Number 2
Right now, four months into this pandemic, what would your refrigerator say about you? Write in the voice of your refrigerator, speaking directly to you. Consider starting with the line, “Now look, Laura (insert your name), let’s get a few things straight….” You can share your response to this prompt below. ... [Continue Reading]
