Writing for Life: Creating a Story of Your Own
The therapeutic power of journaling, proven and embraced over the last century by doctors and
psychologist, is an effective tool to improve health and achieve healing of the body, mind and
spirit. The journaling and scrapbooking techniques taught in this course provide a creative way
to connect with the inner self and heal emotional wounds while documenting your story, your
life, in a fun and unique way.
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Planting Our Creative Garden
By Sandra Lee Schubert
Spring to me is the perfect time to make plans and set goals. The air begins to vibrate, as everything starts to wake up. The birds are a bit perkier and lunchtime is for walking outside and not just huddling in warm offices. The ground has thawed enough for planting to begin. What we plant now will blossom and bear fruit in the summer and the fall. It is also the time to
seed our creative gardens.
My grandmother's garden took two forms. Her front lawn was well thought out, manicured and beautiful. A wayward dandelion knew not to rest in her grass. Flowers lined her house leading to the backyard. At first glance it mirrored the front lawn with well-placed bushes and trimmed grass. But to the back there was a line of demarcation. Behind the careful planning she gave her garden over to its natural desires. The garden was a riot of color and textures, a cornucopia of sensory pleasure. Wild flowers grew with abandon, trees linking with shrubs. Bees had their choice of nectar. My grandmother loved her perfect garden but relished her wild one. As did her grandchildren. We could walk through her wild garden and deeper into the woods where we reached a stream that we followed to all sorts of adventure. We literally entered into the creative world, wild, free and full of possibility.
As with gardening it is a good idea to
plan our writing life.
Goals can provide a foundation for even greater creativity. Think about what you want to accomplish through writing. What do you have to say? Whom do you want to reach? Words, like seeds, are ready to take root and flower. How will you let them blossom? As with my grandmother's garden there is wild side we can also explore beyond the order and planning. In her book,
Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write,
Gayle Brandeis asks us to connect again with our organic roots, our bodies and our creative nature.
"Writing is self-propagating. A fruit holds the seeds of future growth inside its skin. So do we. The more we write, the more we create seeds for further writing." ~ Gayle Brandeis, author
Writing Prompts Ideas:
What's that smell? In keeping with the theme of exploring our senses this year, I ask that you activate your sense of smell. Spring is a delightful time, offering us new scents with new flowers, spring rains and longer nights. Our sense of smell can activate all sorts of memories. Homeowners selling their homes will burn candles that smell of cinnamon and vanilla. They will bake cookies to entice buyers to believing this is a home they could live in. Think how your sense of smell activates your creative senses.Does the smell of ink or paint lead you to pick up a pen or brush? Pay attention to the things you smell. Hold an orange. Feel the texture of its skin. Run your nail across it and sniff. Sniff a day. Spend a day sniffing. Sniff the air, the food you eat. What smells are good and which ones are bad? Does a certain smell invoke a particular memory? Write about something about scents and smells. This can be an exercise into the exotic smelling is a good thing. After all, your nose knows. Use it well!
Copyright © 2006 Sandra Lee Schubert. All rights reserved. If you are interested
in publishing this article, please email .
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