Welcome to Week 17 of Sunday Spark!
Please enjoy listening to today’s audio.
If you feel called to get some ink on the page, be sure to read the below writing practice guidelines before you get your pen moving.
After you listen to today’s poem, notice which lines most speak to you. You could also choose a single word from the poem, or begin writing from an image/memory to spark your writing…
This week’s suggested prompt:
The heart, still a knot, remembers….
With so much love,
Julia xo
Inviting Spaciousness by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
“Inviting Spaciousness” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Today when the heart is a small, tight knot, I do not try to untangle it. I don’t tug on the strings in a desperate attempt to unravel it. I don’t even wonder at how it got so snarled. Instead, I imagine cradling it, cupping it with my hands like something precious, something wounded, a bird with a broken wing. I cradle my heart like the frightened thing it is. I imagine all the other frightened hearts and imagine them all being held in love. And I breathe. I breathe and feel how the breathing invites a spaciousness. I breathe and let myself be moved by the breathing as I open and soften. Open and soften. And nothing changes. And everything changes. The heart, still a knot, remembers it knows how to love. It knows it is not alone.
After you read the below writing practice guidelines, grab your notebook and a your favorite free-flowing, yummy pen, set a timer for 10 minutes (or whatever time feels best) and, beginning with the word/line that most resonates from this week’s poem, write write write!
NOTE: The intention is not to stick with whatever prompt you begin writing with, prompts are simply meant to spark your writing…once you begin, follow your pen wherever it wants/needs to go. Get those first words down (before the editor has a chance to sweep in and edit them out).
Writing Practice Guidelines
(As created, with some of my own tweaks, by one of my greatest teachers Natalie Goldberg)
First, give yourself permission to write the worst junk in the world (this is the most important one!). Writing practice is very much not about trying to be "good," it is about opening the door and allowing space for your insides to speak (without any pressure, agenda, or expectations). It is simply saying what is true, what is true, what is true.
Keep your hand moving. No stopping to edit (no crossing out, no re-reading, no attention to spelling/grammar). The reason for this fast writing is to outrun the editor who really wants to be in control. Give yourself full permission to lose control!
Go for the jugular. If there is energy there, dive straight into it.
If you get stuck (or find you are circling some important truth), write the words: WHAT I REALLY WANT TO SAY IS… or THE TRUTH IS…this can’t help but drop you more deeply into your writing.
Mostly importantly —Enjoy! Play. Have fun. Make a merry mess.
* Please feel free to share some of the "recalls" from your own writing. Recalls are simply phrases/lines that feel especially poignant/resonant/goosebumpy/true to you.
YOU’RE INVITED! I WOULD SO LOVE TO HAVE YOU JOIN US
The Zoom link will be emailed to paying subscribers before August 21st.
In addition to my weekly Sunday Spark, live writing sessions & conversations with guest poets will be a regular feature for paid subscribers of Julia’s Substack page. (Via Zoom)
Stay tuned!