"Difficulty at the Beginning" is the 3rd Hexagram from the I-Ching. The I-Ching is an ancient Chinese oracle that I have come to rely upon since the age of sixteen.  

"It is through the meeting of Heaven and Earth, that individuals are born; and this birth is replete with difficulties. It is only through struggle that we finally attain form."  Hexagram 3, I Ching

Our life is full of beginnings. Each morning is a start to a new day. When we commit to a project, a relationship or an intention, we give ourselves a start to something. The I Ching counsels us that "if we persevere a great success is at hand." The success of completion, the success of relationship, the success of connection and financial reward.  And the success of figuring something out. 

I find that the difficulty (at the beginning) is what makes a commitment worthwhile (and engaging). For readers, if our novels, essays or memoirs don't start with some conflict or difficulty, we are not likely to hook our readers.

We seek the tension and drama of a good read.  We seek resolution too. But our successes and resolutions come after our perseverance through difficulty. 

"Beyond the difficulties and pressures that surround you, a success lies waiting." Brain Browne Walker, The I Ching, A Guide to Life's Turning Points. 

Of course I recommend writing as you go. Write through your difficulties. And make sure your future reader is given the richness of your challenges and difficulties, whether your stories be fictionalized or full-on truth.

Without our difficulties where's the story?

​

Difficulty at the Beginning         by Karen Holden 

I sleep folded, as if I had no bones;
my hands so bent and flattened in sharp
downward curve to my chest that I wake
up numb. My knees lifted, ankles crossed,
feet curled, as if I was made of strips
of paper, or green bamboo. My shoulders
curve inward so far I walk with a slump,
the knobby human knuckles of my spine
grind and shift as if they remember
the black fluid body they once were and the
brief, ventilated life of dark and fragrant 
pleasure. I can imagine the quick movements
from flower to flower through air as fine
as hair and no sleep until death. Each
morning still, it is as if I emerge from 
some gray spun cocoon formed from strands
of my own being, and fight my way through
that same fine air;  flexing, merely
waiting for my wings to dry.  

Karen Holden, Book of Changes, Poems. 

​ 

BREATHING UNDER WATER - BY CAROL BIELECK

​I built my house by the sea.
Not on the sands, mind you;
not on the shifting sand.
And I built it of rock.
A strong house
by a strong sea.
And we got well acquainted, the sea and I.
Good neighbours.
Not that we spoke much.
We met in silences.
Respectful, keeping our distance, 
but looking our thoughts across the fence of sand.
Always the fence of sand our barrier,
always, the sand between.

And then one day,
- and still I don't know how it happened -
the sea came.
Without warning.
​
Without welcome, even.

Not sudden and swift, but a shifting across the sand
like wine,
less like the flow of water than the flow of blood.
Slow, but coming. 
Slow, but flowing like an open wound.
And I thought of flight and I thought of drowning
and I thought of death.
And  while I thought the sea crept higher, till it
reached my door.
And I knew then, there was nether flight, nor death,
nor drowning.
That when the sea comes calling you stop being
neighbors 
Well acquainted, friendly-at-a-distance, neighbors
and you give your house for a coral castle,
and you learn to breathe underwater. 

I believe that our writing intentions and our explorations (curiosities) in life are about a desire for wholeness, for completion.  Life is not a worthiness competition. Life ultimately ends the same for all of us. (Spoiler alert: we all die). On the first day of my Social Work class through the UW, I write this on the board: "You have nothing to prove and everything to learn (and share)." Just so. In our writing and life -- nothing to prove. Everything to learn and share. Everything to explore. 

Our curiosity acts as our gills. Our curiosity gives us the ability to breathe under water and to be present with what is. Our curiosity, without pressure to figure things out a certain way, takes us to where we want to be.  As we write and explore we will discover what we need for this moment. 

Sometimes we are hit by that ocean, whether it be a loss of a dear friend, an addiction, a betrayal, an aloneness, or some other trauma or disappointment. And when we stay with it, be with the experience, write about it, we learn how to breathe underwater. And so will your readers.

Support this blog: A CUPPA JAVA for JULIE Your support helps keep this Sherpa writing and helping others. Please consider a donation.

​

Here’s what I know:  When (not if) you find your way to the page in a consistent manner this transformation will show up on your page. Whether you write poetry, fiction, autobiographical fiction, creative nonfiction, blogs or memoir.  
   
Whatever stops you from taking your world to word translates into what prevents every-day people from being transformed and taking action based on your writing. That’s what makes writing so transformative for the writer and the reader. 

Whatever comes up for you in your life can be part of your writing experience. When you allow your personal experience to be transformed on the page, through your writing, the reader is then given a transformative experience. 

Write about the denial, the fear, the loneliness, the joy, the questions, the encounters, the disasters and disruptions. Write about what you lost and how you found it. 

Take notes on your life. 

The thing that stops you from writing is likely offering up the most transformative dynamic for you and the reader. 

​So, what's stopping you from writing? Not enough time? Some secret doubt? Don’t feel the heat of the urgency? You wonder, "So what and who cares?" In the big scheme of things, does this matter? I will upset my mother, my sister, my neighbor, the spirit of my father. I won't make a difference; I won't make any money; I won't get published. I don't trust myself. I don't trust the reader. I'll be rejected.  Did I mention, so what and who cares?

Imagine working through these on the page. When you do, you will be transformed. You will have moved through the fear, doubt, and resistance, and importantly, so then will your future reader. I write about what I’m working out too. And when I meet up with resistance or any of the other myriad of hindrances, writing through them translates to a stronger, clearer message for my readers.

 What’s stopping you? . .  whatever it is, get it down. Face it on the page. And watch your world transform.
​

I will be at Sjolinds this coming Tuesday September 17th to write and to meet-up. Join me between 9 and 1:00. I'm available for free consultations on your writing. 

Want some one-to-one help with your writing? I'm available for individual Sherpa-Mentoring and Sherpa-Coaching. 

“Every day, think as you wake up: Today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.” – His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

I started my memoir about 8 months ago. Then put it aside. Then I picked it up again, and then, set it aside. Much like writing my novel . . . this experience could take decades. That's Okay. Writing takes as long as it takes. Then again, how much time do I have to finish this book? The clock is ticking (can you hear your own?); days are passing, just how committed am I to this project?  

I'm in. I'm committed. 

I want to use this memoir as a way to explore and understand a certain aspect of my life. (Relationships with men.) Courageous wouldn't you say? So every day I am dedicating some writing time to this project. I have taught an on-line memoir writing course through the UW, that Sue Roupp now teaches. I mentor many memoirists. And, I have devoured many a good memoirs. Now it's time to write my own. (I've written self-help books, spiritual books, blogs, short stories and finished my novel). Time to dig into my memoir.

You?

Are you writing a memoir? 

If yes, there's a one day workshop coming up you will want to attend!:

"​Memoirs are one of the fastest growing genres in the publishing industry. This one-day retreat offers sessions for emerging and established memoir writers. Nationally recognized instructors Julie Tallard Johnson, Sue Roupp, and Coleman join session director Laurie Scheer for a day devoted to developing, writing, and revising your memoir. Three manuscript critique groups available; submit your first 10 pages for feedback from your instructor and your peers."  – Laurie Scheer, Faculty Associate, Writing Mentor, Director, 31st  Annual Writers’ Institute, March 26-29, 2020, UW-Madison

Here is a link to this upcoming: WRITE YOUR MEMOIR FAST AND SURE held on Saturday October 19th, 2019.  On the beautiful Madison campus.  October 19, Pyle Center, contact laurie.scheer@wisc.edu for information.

Also, I have room for ONE MORE in my Praire Writer's Circle in Prairie du Sac. We meet up the first Wednesday night of the month. Contact me for more information:  julie@julietallardjohnson.com  

I'm setting myself up. Again. Typically this reference is negative -- we are setting ourselves up for disappointment, rejection and failure.

Yup.

I'm at the place in my life where rejections and failures are benchmarks for future successes. Something is going to happen; I'm going to end up somewhere. I'm going to get a yes or a no. And all rejections have led to the remarkable life I find myself in now. 

With my writing clients I remind them to write forward till the projects done. Spend a little time on re-writing what you wrote the day before then have most of your writing be new material. Keep getting the stories down. There will be a lot of messes and misses. Good. 

Just so in life. Keep living forward. Where contemplation is fundamental to a fulfilling life, too much reflection on the past keeps you in the past. Review the present in leu of the past while living forward. 

Set yourself up for as many failures as possible. Join in. Jump in. Eleven books later, this signing up before I feel ready, or smart enough, or good enough has worked well for me. Send out the query letter. Finish the darn book. Call her. Apply for that job. Take the long shot. Attend the meeting. Speak your truth. Write and post that blog. Sing outside the shower.  Declutter your creative spaces.

Set yourself up. 

So, I'm setting myself up with 5 days of writing on my novel. I'm going to spend the entire time focused on writing forward and finishing this final draft. (Final draft is a bit of an oxymoron, don't you think?) I'm headed to Pepin Wisconsin, next week. I'm staying at an airbnb out in the country, surrounded by restored prairie. I'm hoping the villain in my book shows up. I expect to get to the end of my book. How's that for a set up?
​
​See you on the other side. 


 Mind•Body•Word: 3 Days of Yoga & Writing at Holy Wisdom Monastery YOGA & Writing Retreat this August, 2019. August 27, 28, and 29.   Explore True Self on the mat and page with yoga teacher (and blogger) Molly Chanson and writing sherpa and counselor, Julie Tallard Johnson Three days of attending to mind, body and word in a beautiful, natural setting. Includes meals, writing prompts, retreat time, time to write, yoga for any level, inspiration. $150.00  To register contact: Molly Chanson at  molly@soulma.com. 773-259-1202 

Book Release!! The Red Thread: Touching Reality in our Everyday Lives will be released in April, 2020 by Shanti Arts.  I offer ways to touch reality through simple practices like Hosting The Edge, the Inner Labyrinth, and other simple tools to discover your truest self and greatest potentials. ​This book is based on the teachings and my conversations with Parker J Palmer. 

I have room for a few in my writing circles. One opening in my Tuesday morning Mount Horeb circle. 

I was in my late twenties. Still wore highheels. Newly to Minneapolis with my first Social Work job. I took on a volunteer-training position at one of the local hospitals that specialized in sexual addiction. Within the first week I found myself in a group where a girl of 10 years was to confront her father on his sexual abuse. He was in jail for this crime. They released him to attend this group. He sat next to me, a tall white man with dark edges that matched his dark hair and eyes.  Even in my highheels he loomed over me. The hospital social worker started the process by speaking for the girl, and confronted the father. He denied it. I wasn't given any particular role but knew what I had to do. While the other professionals (at least 4 of them) continued to confront the perpetrator,  and he continued to deny it, I spoke up.

I looked at the young girl and said," I need you to know something." I waited for her to look back at me. She did. The room thickened with silence. "I want  you to know that I believe you." 

She kept her eyes on me the rest of the time. 

For me, that's all that mattered that day, that she knew she was believed. 

In my work with writers, many write stories of past trauma and transgressions, some for the first time, some as the result of years of recovery and healing. Everyone of them at some time or another worries that the reader won't believe them. 

"Who will believe that this much happened to one person?" someone recently asked in one of my circles. 

Here is my response to each and everyone of you: First, believe and trust yourself. Do the healing work that attends to the pain and abuses (either as you write your trauma stories or/and before). Then, as you write, your job is to make your stories believable to your readers. Of course they are true. Tragically true, but true. Fathers abuse their daughters. Mothers too. Alcoholism destroys families. Children witness horrific events. Some lives are strewn with loss, abuse and trauma. Typically the perpetrators deny their transgressions. Yes, there will be those who want us to shut up.

​Not sharing our stories of course makes it easier for these true stories to be denied. 

Your work is to make your abuse story believable to readers. Not a small task by any measure. That's the job of all writers. That is done the same way we make all our meaningful experiences meaningful to our future readers. We write. We read. We write some more. We study others' writing. We join in safe writing circles. We write some more. All my work with writers is about helping with this daunting but worthwhile endeavor -- to take hold of your reader like that 10 year old did of me in the above story.

This makes us all brave.

​You can do this. And must. Without your courage to share and confront through the written word, the world will be a less beautiful and safe place.

We need your stories. 

I believe you.

Your readers will too. 


"Just a minute," said a voice...
by Mary Oliver

"Just a minute," said a voice in the weeds. 
So I stood still
in the day's exquisite early morning light.
and so I didn't crush with my great feet
any small or unusual thing just happening to pass by
where I was passing by
on my way to the blueberry fields,
and maybe it was the toad
and maybe it was the June beetle
and maybe it was the pink and tender worm
who does his work without limbs or eyes
and does it so well
or maybe it was the walking stick, still frail
and walking humbly by, looking for a tree,
or maybe, like Blake's wondrous meeting, it was
the elves, carrying one of their own
on a rose petal coffin away, away
into the deep grasses, After awhile
the quaintest voice said, "Thank you." And then there was silence
For the rest, I would keep you wondering.

Mount Horeb Morning Writing Circle (Next one begins SEPTEMBER, 2019)
Meets monthly on the 3rd Tuesday 10am - 1:00pm through Sept., 2019. This circle will be a
​smaller circle of 6.  FULL 

Madison Evening Writing Circle (Next one begins SEPTEMBER, 2019)
Meets monthly on the 1st Tuesday 6-9pm.  join us.

Prairie du Sac Evening Writing Circle (Next one begins September, 2019)
595 Water Street, Prairie du Sac Meets monthly on the 1st Wednesday 6 till 9pm. 
 I invite you to join.  

Cliché’s are dead metaphors. They are overused and therefor don't offer up anything authentic or original. They are everywhere of course, in life and in our writing. 

Cliché’s may be keeping you in a trap – the starving artist; no one will believe you; writing is a waste of time; I’m too old and it’s too late; family secrets should remain so.  – all these can hinder your creative flow. Identify  one from your life. One of my clichés was accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. For me this meant: don’t speak up about the dark truth, don’t be so sensitive, and, let the shadow aspects stay in the dark.  This cliché alone gave me a lot of writing material!
 
Search and destroy clichés in your perceptions and writing. Beyond cliché lines, what perceptions, beliefs and story lines do you hold that are also cliché? Facts can be cliché, rules and formulas – but our truth, and our experiences, which are the narratives of our truths bloom with authenticity and originality.  So, take the meaning of a cliché (which is also cliché) and challenge it – question it.  Write about at least two clichéd beliefs, assumptions or formulas that have shown up in your life and/or writing -- especially around your chosen subject and theme. 

Clichés  deprive us of genuine details. And our stories are often in the detail.

Can we have our cake and eat it too?
What does it mean “to not look back?”
Do we really marry our mothers?
What does it mean to be ugly?
Why shouldn’t we bite off more than we can chew?
What does it mean to be the center of attention? (Is this a good thing?) 
What does it mean to be told to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative? 
 
What clichés both structurally (in sentences) and in theme show up in your writing project? How can you liven these up? Which ones seem to come up a lot for you? What’s a live metaphor or detail that could tell us more? Be willing to search and destroy all clichés. To write metaphors we can start with finding our clichés and transforming them into something alive. 

Want to buy this Writing Sherpa a cup of coffee? Here's how: Click here: A Cuppa Java for Julie.

OPENINGS IN MY FALL CIRCLES

Mount Horeb Morning Writing Circle (Next one begins SEPTEMBER, 2019)
Meets monthly on the 3rd Tuesday 10am - 1:00pm through Sept., 2019. This circle will be a
​smaller circle of 6.   join us.

Madison Evening Writing Circle (Next one begins SEPTEMBER, 2019)
Meets monthly on the 1st Tuesday 6-9pm.  join us.

Prairie du Sac Evening Writing Circle (Next one begins OCTOBER, 2019)
595 Water Street, Prairie du Sac Meets monthly on the 1st Wednesday 6 till 9pm. 
 I invite you to join.