​THE LIGHTEST TOUCH
​
Good poetry begins with
the lightest touch,
a breeze arriving from nowhere,
a whispered healing arrival,
a word in your ear,
a settling into things,
then, like a hand in the dark,
it arrests the whole body,
steeling you for revelation.
In the silence that follows
a great line,
you can feel Lazarus,
deep inside
even the laziest, most deathly afraid
part of you,
lift up his hands and walk toward the light.       David Whyte,
- from EVERYTHING IS WAITING FOR YOU and RIVER FLOW
 
Everything is waiting for you, for us. The completed book, the house, the relationship, the revelation, the peace of mind – the idea, is there. Here. For you. Even when the world seems to be revealing the opposite, and our heart may be breaking. Of course what shows up may not be what we expected or wanted. 
 
Work with that. Write from there. 
 
A fundamental truth (for us writers) is always here for each of us at every moment: to find that place where the internal landscape and narrative of our lives meets with the outer world  experiences– this is the writer’s frontier. You don't ever leave it. 
 
What works, for me, is to stay in the conversation. When writing on a particular subject and theme – I  listen and notice how these come up in my every-day life. This is how my writing practice has become part of my spiritual practice. Everything becomes material for me to work with (on and off the page). 
 
We have to rely on others, to ask for help, to give into the vulnerability of not knowing. We can choose to listen to and engage the uncertainty. We will have to open our eyes even wider to consider what we might do, where we might go. Listen to the internal conversation as much as to the outer experience.  Like the advice I've given in sweat lodges -- keep your eyes open; there's much to see in the dark.
 
Be curious.
Get help.
Stay in the conversation.
Never leave home without your field notebook. 
Work with this.
 
 
My view? That the very health and beauty of this world relies on us to do so. 
 
 
SOMETIMES

​Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest, breathing
like the ones
in the old stories, who could cross
a shimmering bed of leaves
without a sound, you come to a place
whose only taskis to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests, conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.

Requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
andto stop what you
are becoming
while you do it, questions
that can make
or unmake
a life, questions
that have patiently
waited for you, questions
that have no right
to go away..- David Whyte, from EVERYTHING IS WAITING FOR YOU and RIVER FLOW

JOIN ME AND OTHER WRITERS for a a FREE WRITERS’ RETREAT:  MONDAY August 19th from 10 am till 4:00.  Email me for location (near Barneveld) and for other details.  julie@julietallardjohnson.com

(For those who are wondering if I got my novel done -  YUP! Now for some serious revision before I send it out to an agent.)

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.  

Hello All,  I'm teaching at Write by the Lake this week in Madison . . . one of my favorite weeks as a Writing Sherpa.

Wish you were here.  Maybe next year.  

Consider joining me and other writers in one of my writing circles (openings this September):

Madison Evening Writing Circle starts September 3rd
Holy Wisdom Monastery, Madison WI
Meets monthly on the 1st Tuesday 6-9pm. Free parking.
 
Prairie du Sac Writing Circle continues on September 4th
595 Water Street, Prairie du Sac
Meets monthly on the 1st Wednesday 6 till 9pm

of join Molly and I at this summer retreat: 

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 

You don’t need a critic to make your writing great. Criticism can hinder the creative process. We are afraid of being criticized and when this fear gets realized, we shut down. Instead what writers need is encouragement; a place that invites exploration. In my writing circles we don’t critique each other’s work; instead we listen for what we want more of and what resonates with us as readers. As long as you keep writing and reading, your writing will improve.  
 
You don’t need to force anything. Instead let the discipline of showing up to the page allow for what is already there to emerge. Let the blessings of uncertainty give you the permission and courage to write forward into the Unknown. Forget yourself and write. 
 
“Self-forgetful concentration is precisely what happens in the artistic process–an absorption in the moment, a pouring of the self into the now.” The Art of Description by Mark Doty 
 
You are a writer not an editor. Don’t edit your writing (ever) – focus on sharing your story, develop that beautiful sentence like an artist that brings out the details on their canvas. Listen for where the comma may go, and drop the rules.  
 
Stop talking about what you want to write or are going to write about and write. Take notes. Write each day in your journal. Get the whole story or scene down before you mention it to anyone. Get in the habit of writing your life down. There is too much talk in the world anyway.
 


​Write from your body. Listen from the body. Don’t write (or live) in your head. 
 
Trust. Trust yourself as you write. Trust the reader as you write. Trust your intuition, your memory, your experience, your take on things. Listen and follow this trust to your death. 
 
 “One purpose of writing—its central purpose—is to offer your testimony About the character of existence at this moment. It will be part of your job to say how things are, To attest to life as it is. This will feel strange at first. You’ll wonder whether you’re allowed to say things that sound Not merely observant but true, And not only true in carefully framed, limited circumstances, But true for all of us and, perhaps, for all time. Who asked you to say how things are? Where do you get the authority to do any of this? The answer is yours to find.” 
― Verlyn Klinkenborg, Several Short Sentences About Writing




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

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 

Monthly Transformative Circle: The Red Thread: Touching Reality in our Everyday Lives  at Healing Services on the River in Prairie Du Sac, WI  Meets monthly on the 2nd THURSDAY evening of each month, 6 to 9 pm  starts AUGUST,  2019. Gather together with others once a month for a year to explore what is truly meaningful and possible for you.  We will use two of my books: The The Zero Point Agreement: How To Be Who You Already Are, along with, The Red Thread: Touching Reality in our Everyday Lives through Contemplation and Action. THE RED THREAD BOOK's publication date: April 2020! The Red Thread book and circles are based on the core teachings and Circles of Trust by Parker J Palmer.  Connect more strongly to what matters to you. This is my 3rd decade of offering such circles. This circle is open to 11 participants. Learn more and sign up.

LAUNCHING NEW ON-LINE COURSE:  (How to) BE THE CAUSE OF YOUR LIFE (rather than the effect). Starts Friday June 14th. Take any time, and at your own pace.  This course is an invitation to increase your authenticity through strengthening your personal boundaries and developing your courage. There is so much that hinders us in accessing our inner truth, trusting our experience, and living freely.  How to BE THE CAUSE OF YOUR LIFE series is a way to ignite or reignite your truest, most authentic self. The course gives you simple means to be yourself, to be the cause of your life. This course is a means to develop and trust your intuition, your inner-knowing. Where all lessons are simple, they are also quite profound in their transformative abilities. You will awaken more to yourself, your confidence and your knowingness through the application of these lessons. You will know what is yours to deal with and what is not yours.  We start with a free-20 minute phone consultation.  Learn more and sign up.
​

 
 

 "It’s never too late for a happy childhood." –A popular bumper sticker
​
We are always writing from the past. Everything but this very moment is memory. In fiction and nonfiction alike we create stories from what we remember.  Just so with life, we live off our past . . . everything we thought, chose, did and ignored got us to here.  Pretty powerful really, when you think about it. 

Think about it.

"Everything," as John Muir said, "is connected to everything else."  For the writer we want to make sure that our narrative and all the dramas and events connect. In memoir we can't just report what happened. We have to have many entry points and narratives to help the reader stay with our story. We have to show them the connections (not tell them). We have to trust ourselves as we listen in on our past.  

Many nonfiction writers ask about what Voice and perspective to use: the one from the past or the one writing the story in the present?  My answer is: both!
​
You have two voices and perspectives when writing memoir or autobiographical pieces -- the one who had the experience and the one I refer to as the Wisdom Keeper. The one having the experience is written from what you knew or didn't know then, what you experienced then. The past voice will be almost all show and no tell . . .  though,  you will have thoughts to share as your past self.  The Wisdom Keeper Voice gets to slip in that wisdom from the present -- something you know now that you didn't know then (likely a hell of a lot!). The Wisdom Keeper Voice holds the hand of the reader, they feel you there as they read. They know you are likely going to make it through most your troubles but the reader doesn't know how. You don't point out to the reader these two distinct voices, you simply hold them in your consciousness as you write. You know when you are writing from the past; and, you know when you are writing using the wisdom accumulated from all your experiences. The reader will hear the difference. Sometimes you will refer to this present day wisdom, but don't hit the reader over the head with this.

In fiction, your characters may have these two perspectives as well, and as the writer you will distinguish these for the reader. 

A good practice is to contemplate the present scene of your life or the life of a fictional character in lieu of the past. What did it take to get here?

​ Go ahead,  take a look.  I have a hold of your hand.

​bare foot sets down
on soft ground.
familiar ring the bells that called
you and you
to come wander again
through the rough
internal terrains,
looking always for the Word.   –Rebecca Cecchini 

The following practice may seem counter-intuitive to helping you get your narratives down on paper. However, when you build this skill of witnessing not repressing or ignoring difficult emotions, you are able to return to these edges, or imagine them as a way to host and harvest stories. First, I give you a practice to use in your daily life, followed by one to improve your showing and not telling in your writing! 

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

Hosting Your Edges
First let me invite you to approach “hosting the edge” as an experiment. This gives you permission to simply learn; to see what happens for yourself. I can tell you that this practice has worked for me as well as for countless clients (and indeed it has!) but the proof will be in your own personal experience. And here is a caveat: Just this willingness to experiment will bring some relief from negative emotional states. Trying this will be like giving yourself a bigger view out a larger window. 

When you are at some edge and feeling an edge of negative emotion, bring awareness to the emotional/habitual state. Imagine stepping back and just letting the emotion be, without adding any story line to it. Be a witness to this emotion. 

With this technique we ignore the routine thoughts that arise. Instead we go with the sensations; we host the edge and witness all of the different sensations that arise in the emotional and physical continuum. This practice is much like watching the breath and other sensations in a mindfulness meditation practice. You host the inner experience and don’t lose yourself in the appearance of the outer story, or build on any narrative. Do your best not to name it, label it, or build any kind of story around it. Let yourself just experience the various states surrounding it without responding to the inner experience in any way. Witness from the body.  Most internal edges are triggered by some outside circumstance, some which are known, some not. Here, we are willing to just be with the inner experience and their attendant sensations, whatever they are. 

• Whatever sensations are felt, we stop “talking to ourselves about it.” We realize that it is “just an emotion.” “Just a sensation.” “Just” in that it is not proof of anything, our emotions are not in themselves  a call to action—it is simply an emotion or physical sensation. Let yourself be with this emotion “just” as it is, even though your ego (and habitual self) will tell you to do something, now! 
 
• Don’t act on this emotion (or the outer edge) while the intensity is present. You will find that the intensity and negativity are (like everything else), ephemeral. And emotions shorten and decrease every time we approach the same negative state in this way. Along with the decrease in the intensity of emotions, the narrative winds down too. They are in many ways attached to each other—the narrative keeps the emotion going, while holding onto the emotion keeps the story going. As you are thus passive and not invested while hosting the edge in this way, the edge begins to round out; you turn this sharp edge into a passable corner. This is a way not to repress or suppress emotion. And this allows one to feel intense emotions such as regret or grief while not letting them develop into chronicsadness or regret. Also, we then can respond to circumstances with being reactive. 
 
• Next bring your attention to the edge, which has now been transformed into a turning point. Your mind and heart are opennow to this present point where an antidote presents itself or you naturally just move on to something else (you turn the corner). What often happens is that you reach the end of the negative state and find yourself in something else. After the emotion is released through presence (and even though you know it will return or that it hasn’t entirely been released), you can choose to draw your attention to an intention or spiritual principle, or return your awareness to the present experience. What principle or practice would help you take the next step? Or if you are at work, or having lunch with a friend, or simply hanging out at home––return your awareness to the present experience.  But every time the emotion of fear, hostility, regret, or loss arises, you can again, be with the experience in this way.    (This is an excerpt from my upcoming book: The Red Thread, released April, 2020)

"The ego conceals, whereas awareness reveals." David Hawkins, Letting Go: The Pathway To Surrender (a book I recommend to all my writerly clients). 

Hosting Your Stories: Writing From the Edge
Our willingness to hold space with difficult circumstances and emotions gives us the capacity to write about these edges and other experiences into our narratives. Start with practicing the above exercise with hosting the edges that arise in your daily life.  This increases your emotional intelligence, and ability to enter or reenter any scene and harvest its content into story.

Remember to host your edges and your stories from your body. Listen to the physical, emotional and energetic sensations that are present within a situation. 

When hosting a story, close your eyes and enter that fictional or real situation (memory). Just like hosting the edge, you now host this story, scene or memory. Again, experience this without telling yourself  "what this is all about." (When we start telling ourselves "what this is about," we then "tell" the reader instead of showing the reader)! Don't have a narrative here, just like in the hosting the edges, be attentive to the experience -- notice. 

Then open your eyes and hand write what you witnessed in your hosting this scene or memory. While you write some narrative, various story lines may naturally appear. That's great! Always allow your writing to take you where it wants. 

Host and Write from your body: 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   

Join me for free consultations and writing time at Sjolinds in Mount Horeb every Friday morning in June (except June 21st, when I will be at Write-by-the-Lake).