Julie Tallard Johnson
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Julie's Blogs
Come as You are
​&

All Write Wednesday: World into Word

Writing on the Mobius Strip

1/5/2022

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Mobius Strip by Jackie
"I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear." – Joan Didion, Why I Write (essay originally published in the New York Times Book Review in 1976)

In my book The Clue of the Red Thread, actually in all of my books,  a core message abides of living life from our side, living life from the inside out. 

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Write until your heart is nothing but ashes

12/22/2021

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Write until your heart is nothing but ashes is taken from this excerpt from a Barry Lopez lecture, 2008: 
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"I wondered what it meant to be a story teller—the saying of what one imagines, which includes poetry. What does that kind of person do? ...

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Breaking my Silence

12/17/2021

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There are so many ways we are silenced or silence ourselves.  Speaking up, sharing ideas, confronting injustices, and challenging passive (micro) aggressions can cause a great deal of discomfort.  I nearly put this article away for good, being silenced by the idea “too much time has passed.” (So therefore it’s forgotten and we all have gotten on to other [better?] concerns.)

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What is It?

12/15/2021

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Canada, 2017
"However it all works, I do think it is.  Making myself go through my paragraphs and all my its, makes me come face to face with myself.  Instead of deleting sentences, paragraphs and words, I ask myself for clarity to go deeper into myself.  Where I seem to lose my storyline, I look for what I am afraid to say and keep writing instead of erasing.  There always seems to be a core there, something of a bit of truth.  When my critic comes out I turn him around and am learning to make him my advocate asking me for a little more truth to my storyline."  –Rick, Writer, ​

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The Heroics of Writing

11/24/2021

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His business card slipped out from a pile of  stationary as I decluttered my writing space.  I set his card to the side. On my walk earlier that day, I thought of him and what a big part he played in my life.  I decided to reach out to him. After all, he saved my life. 

Writing is heroic because through the written word we carry ourselves and others across thresholds.

​Writing is heroic in its vulnerabilities, which make us and the reader courageous.  Writing is heroic through the legacies left behind when the writer is no longer with us. 


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The Writer Must Write

10/27/2021

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Corinna Stevenson, Acahk Miskinahk Iswew, in her Sit Spot at Ravenwood
 If I can let you go as trees let go
Their leaves, so casually, one by one,
If I can come to know what they do know,
That fall is the release, the consummation,
Then fear of time and the uncertain fruit
Would not distemper the great lucid skies
This strangest autumn, mellow and acute.
If I can take the dark with open eyes
And call it seasonal, not harsh or strange


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Writing In the Time of Heartbreak

10/13/2021

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Look down
 “Sadness is an essential part of conscious life these days, especially as we age. The path is to fully accept without letting it take over. There's beauty in sadness: and it reveals what we value.”   Santikaro,  teachings on Anapanasati meditation, Kevela Retreat Center in Wisconsin
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In the Meantime . . .  (part 1.5 of 3)

9/9/2021

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​"Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit—such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony—which brings happiness to both self and others. While ritual and prayer, along with the questions of nirvana and salvation, are directly connected to religious faith, these inner qualities need not be, however.  There is no reason why the individual should not develop them, even to a highest degree, without recourse to any religious or metaphysical belief system. ​

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To Be A Writer

9/1/2021

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“Don’t mistake my finger for the moon.”  The Buddha
 
Buddhism offers a myriad of formulas, teachings, practices, sutras, and meditations. Three major Buddhist texts (like bibles), with their own countless sutras and teachings. Most are multi-layered and complex. Many emphasize awakening to your True Nature; all rely on practicing kindness toward oneself and others. My personal practice, found in the Mahayana tradition, is the Lo jong teachings, which is translated into 59! pithy slogans. And this is just in Buddhism, then there’s all the other religions, spiritual practices, yogic traditions, psychological and transformational programs, healing therapies and self-help formulas. There are even books and classes on how to be an atheist.  
 
Each approach worked for at least one person.   

“Don’t mistake my finger for the moon;”  don’t mistake the teachings or formulas for direct experience. 
 
Don’t practice meditation to wake up; wake up to the practice of meditation. 
 
Don’t write to prove something; write to explore, discover and express yourself. Write to share yourself. Don’t force a scene or try to make something happen. Let the mystery unfold as you write. (You have nothing to prove and everything to share).
 
Don’t try to write like someone else or follow someone else’s “sure” technique of success.
 
My main message to writers is this: let the writing prompts or teachings take you where they will. Open to your own personal experience and knowledge. Your own ideas.  Your moon. Trust your personal experience above all else. 
 
With teachers (from the Buddha to William Strunk jr.,) notice what they have to say and what resonates with you, let the rest go. Don’t mistake their finger for The Way.  Be brave. Fumble and discover as you go.  There really is no there to get to anyway. Yes, you will complete a poem or book, but that is in no way the Nirvana or finish line of one’s writing life. And the poem or book is just a pointing finger for someone else to go find their own moon; their own experience.
 
I walked at sunset last night. The sky a brilliant orange messenger, a reminder that the moon the Buddha pointed to is right here in this sky. 
 
That moon is in my heart.
 
And in yours. 
 
Write about that.
 
As a writer you are a Buddha pointing.  Your words are pointing to something for you and your readers.   What are you pointing at?  Write about that.
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FREE  Writing RETREAT: FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 10th
I am offering a Free Virtual Retreat.  We start with an hour LIVE talk on The Truth About Lies:  Writing Fiction that sends a Message.  9:00 am . I will give several writing prompts for the day.  This will be just for my writing tribe, you, and we will follow with a half day (optional) retreat! Then we will meet up for another hour at the end of day to share in a closing circle. You in?   Simply RSVP to me.  I will be at Stewart Lake pavilion from Noon to 3:00, come visit and write! Meet up in a closing circle at 4:00 via ZOOM. 

A monthly EMBODIED Writing & Living Series
1st Wednesday of each month, 6:30 to 8:15 CST.  Live. An evening of writing prompts with a transformational theme, meditation and breathwork, with simple body awareness practices.  Starts Wednesday NOVEMBER  3rd (Please contact me to get on list). Donations welcome but not necessary. (6 month series).
 

​FREE webinars through Oregon Public Library: Writing Your Story series.  A popular webinar/U-tube on Embodied Writing:  Click HERE. 

My Write-by-the-LIGHT class & workshop in October is full, so sign up for this month-long class in MARCH 

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How Change Happens (part 1 of 3)

7/8/2021

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“ 'Saying what we believe may be the first step to social change.' In How Change Happens, law professor Cass R. Sunstein, formerly a senior adviser in the Obama White House, draws on behavioral science to describe the actions that lead to social change, whether for good or ill. In this excerpt, he describes the power of breaking with convention and challenging the seemingly entrenched norms that 'leash and inhibit us.' ”

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–taken from YES! Magazine, ( a link to article in Community Conversation below.)

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    All Write Wednesday blog:  Some Wednesdays and my Come as You Are blog on some Friday's.  
    Read the past posts. 


      Welcome to
    Julie's Blogs

    Author and counselor Julie Tallard Johnson
    I live in Mount Horeb WI where I walk (snow shoe in the winter) my dogs through Stewart Park, garden my corner lot, wear a mask in public (and a cape at night). I love to write & connect to writers. My book The Clue of the Red Thread is my latest of eleven. I do love to write!   the Clue of the Red Thread: Discovering Fearlessness & Compassion in uncertain times  came out in January, 2021 through Shanti Arts, Nine Rivers Imprint. 

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