​Write Through Troubled Times

“There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal."  –Toni Morrison in her mobilizing manifesto on the writer’s task in troubled times. And these are troubled times. Fortunately, whatever arises in our life can be material to work with. Everything can be used for healing, transformation, and connection. 
 
Everything. 

We can accept that the world is chaotic, troubled and often overwhelming with causes but we must not give into its malevolence. As I have written before, there are always a multitude of possibilities in any given situation. We just have to look up and get off our deck chairs. It’s hard not to be stuck in this sense of it doesn’t matter what I do. Little ole me. 
 
It does matter. 

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We can get paralyzed by the amount of pain and suffering that needs our attention.
 
Don’t be. Every little action matters. Every word makes a full sentence. 
 
You must write. Find a way. The distractions and detours are ever-increasing in this busy, high tech world. The division among us pronounced at this critical time in our collective lives. 
 
Write about that. Or, write from that. 
 
This is not the time to be perfectionistic, silent, still, or isolated.
 
Focus your energy on engagement rather than resistance. Don't be distracted from your writing.
 
This is the time to write it down, get it out (even if only to one other human being); to write and live forward, to gather together with others as much as you can. This is the time to TAKE NOTES, write that poem, send that card, make that yard sign.

Take more notes.  
 
As writers, life is constantly giving us raw material, like wet clay. We must work the clay while it is still raw and wet, molding it into a story, letter or article.
 
“We do language.” 
 
Gather with me and other writers.  Starting NOVEMBER 9th I will be writing every FRIDAY MORNING  at  Sjolinds Chocolate House in Mount Horeb from 10:00 till 2:00. Come write and visit. Bring your writerly questions. They have great coffee, hot chocolate and lunches. I will be there, writing.

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