Courting renewal

One of my favorite memories from my previous garden in the Hudson Valley happened one bright March morning, when I came out to find the crocuses with their faces wide open to the sun and one single bumblebee rolling and tipping himself from flower to flower as if he were drunk on delight.

That energy of spring's arrival charged our Write from the Body Gateless writing salon this week. We wrote about renewing relationships with the natural world and renegotiating relationships within ourselves, about the delight of our bodies in motion in the warm air and the power of our creative voices.

We met characters who loved, prayed, mourned, reached for inner freedom, and wrestled with holding the joy of spring and the madness in the world in the same gaze, ones who carefully avoided seeing the truth, and ones for whom truth is medicine.

I wrote about longing for a renewal I wasn't sure I believed in anymore, about the shock of momentarily perceiving clearly just how heavy the everyday background of my thoughts has become through the crazy ugliness of this past year, and about missing someone who, for all his flaws, helped me digest and understand the changing world we were living through.

I concluded:

To hold this seed in my heart – which has become perhaps one of those protective, hard Western pine cones that bursts open after lying dormant for years only when the heat of fire wakes it up, a promise of periodic renewal literally encoded deep in the DNA, because fire, the ecosystem has learned, does come, and someone must be ready to start up again when it does. Its seeds are as relentless as heartbreak, as relentless as greed and human stupidity, as relentless as the turnings of droughts and floods and the scraping clean of hot burns. We were all created together, all of us, and so of course, we were made for everything that will happen.

Gateless writing is a simple but powerful method for facilitating the creative act of writing. The word "Gateless" comes from a 13th century book of Zen koans called The Gateless Gate. It points to the method's faith that our creativity can open the way to the same limitless mind and inherent wisdom that meditation accesses.

Creator Suzanne Kingsbury says, "The Gateless methodology moves us from the conditioned mind to a place beyond judgment into a limitless landscape of creative potential. We do not expect this to happen through perfection, but through a feeling of non-resistance and acceptance."

Our evenings begin with a brief somatic meditation to help us drop into our bodies and from there into the spaciousness of our imagination. I offer an evocative prompt that may spark an idea or memory, or may be totally ignored. We write for 20-25 minutes and then gather back together for the opportunity to share our work. If we choose to read – and it's always optional – the group offers feedback exclusively focused on what we loved about the piece: the phrases that spoke to us, the details that brought us right into the scene, the voice that made us adore the narrator.

The container is gentle, but secure. The experience of hearing our strengths reflected back to us creates a positive feedback loop where we come to associate writing with pleasure rather than anxiety. We feel supported and capable, rather than braced for criticism. And both our writing and our confidence improve by discovering what’s really working.

Over time we find that we can trust that our voice will arrive, and facing the blank page comes to feel more like an opportunity for fresh discovery than like a confrontation with anxiety. In our own voices, we find the medicine that we need, and perhaps medicine that serves others as well.

We begin our next series Tuesday, April 14 at the Hidden Temple in Florence. Details and registration information are here. If you've been longing to shift your relationship with your voice, or would just like to enjoy creative time with a group of other brilliant, supportive souls, come join us!

Later this spring, I will be offering my Befriending your Nervous System workshop, on Sunday, May 24 at Sisu Wellness in Hadley. More info is here.

May you find some delight this spring like a bee in the crocuses!