Jen Violi's Blog, page 5

Taking You to the Coast, Part Five

November 10, 2010

Part five of a seven-day meditation, today's installment including a sea beast and some transmutation . . .

Today, I want to share with you what happened when I approached the free write I posted yesterday in a new way.  For me, it felt magical, and I recommend you try it with a piece of your own writing.

Basically it involves rereading what you've written, looking for what's juicy, taking those lines or words, and making something else.  I love this approach because rather than trying to take the weak parts and "fix" them, this exercise is about taking what's already singing and making it into a rock opera that Freddie Mercury would endorse (okay, that's my idea of a pinnacle; feel free to insert your own pinnacle here).

Taking You to the Coast, Part Four

November 9, 2010

Part four of a seven-day meditation, with today's reflection as a matter of life and death . . .

After several hours of personal time spent at the ocean on Thursday of the retreat, one of the prompts was "Out of this solitude," and what's below is what came out for me, again with just a few edits.

Taking You to the Coast, Part Three

November 8, 2010

Part three of a seven-day meditation, with today's installment brought to you by silence . . .

This morning, I don't have much to write.  Today's minimal words stemmed from my Thursday afternoon watching the waves and finding myself blessedly quieted.

So my recommendation and encouragement to you this day is to find yourself a moment of silence.  Park yourself in front of or take yourself on a walk through someplace outside and beautiful, and let it do the talking.  Feel free to share here how it goes for you, or perhaps play a little game of Marco Polo with this blog, just to let us know that you're out there, in quiet solidarity. 

Installment number three happens to be a poem, from me to you, with blessings from the Pacific:

Where I was by the ocean

Taking You to the Coast, Part Two

November 7, 2010

Part two of a seven-day meditation, brought to you by the Pacific Ocean, and about owning myself as vast body of water . . .

So here we are, day two, installment two.  It's November 7, 2010.  We've gained an hour of darkness, an extra hour for contemplation or sleep or to enjoy glow in the dark things stuck on our ceilings.

The writing at the end of this post came from a brainstormed list of what being at the seashore brought to mind and choosing some things off of the list to free write about.  By way of explanation or prelude, I thought I'd also offer a little backstory, what makes up the knotted twisty roots of the few lines I wrote.