On Change (and the power of writing)

What was a host of giant purple poppies is now a bundle of flaxen coloured seed pods. The poppies were glorious, but I find these pods equally as beautiful, just as they are. Add in the fact that they contain the potential for so many more poppies, and they are elevated to the status of nature’s magic!

Writing Heals

I first came across the work of Beth Kempton when I started taking an interest in the Japanese concept of wabi sabi last year. I had never heard of the term before, but it really resonated with me once I found out what it meant. As it turns out, Beth had written a whole book about it! Of course I bought the book and Beth gained another reader and follower (i.e. fangirl).

Beth was particularly proactive earlier this year when the pandemic and lockdown hit the whole world. She immediately began writing as a way to process the unprecedented thing that was affecting us all. Within a couple of months, she had a book ready to be published, called We Are In This Together. She graciously offered free access to her Words Heal course to anyone who purchased the book (ebook or audio) by a certain time. I jumped at the chance!

To be honest, I still haven’t had a chance to go through the whole program, but what I have completed has been very inspiring.

In particular, Beth’s Daily Spark writing warm-ups have a way of getting me to slow down and reach inside to access my own wisdom. Beth put it like this in her introduction:

“The expression of our true essence can be blocked by whatever is going on in our head. Writing helps us to clear the channels so that what’s deep inside can come out.”

She encourages the participants to consider things from different perspectives and to appreciate the small moments in the here and now.

Each Daily Spark warm-up includes an audio recording of two small excerpts from books, and then we are encouraged to write freestyle for 5 minutes, without editing anything. I loved how this felt in my body and my mind.

Here’s something that I wrote about change during one of the Daily Spark writing warm-ups.

ON CHANGE

Mourning change. What is no more. Living in the memory of what was.

Change is inevitable and necessary. Change doesn’t take away from what was, it just ensures that “what is” takes a different form. “What is” has its own beauty, its own treasures to discover.

So don’t mourn the past. It was what it was, just as today is what it is. You can’t avoid change, just as you can’t stop the earth from moving around the sun.

The earth in its current season doesn’t mourn the previous seasons. It’s all part of the process and there is beauty and wonder to be felt along the way.

Revel in what lies before you now, without comparison to what was. The memories will still be there for you, just as the memories of today will continue to live on.

Embrace change, for it’s natural.

Try It Yourself!

Want to try 5 minutes of freestyle writing to see what comes out? Read the two Zen monk-poet poems below, set a timer for 5 minutes and write whatever comes to mind, without any judgment or editing.

Like the little stream
Making its way
Through the mossy crevices
I, too, quietly
Turn clear and transparent.
– Ryōkan Taigu (1758–1831)*

The bee emerging
from deep within the peony
departs reluctantly
– Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694)**

How was that? How did it go?

I’d love for you to share anything you write in the comments below. Let’s heal ourselves with words!

*From Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf:  Zen Poems of Ryokan, translated by John Stevens. Published by Shambala in Boston, 1996.

**From The Essential Basho, Translated by Sam Hamill.  Published by Shambala in Boston, 1999.

Go out on your first Creative Walking Tour using the PDF & audio guide I put together for you.

If you enjoy it, you may enjoy A Year of Creative Walking Tours, with weekly prompts to keep you walking in this new way!

Click the image or the button down below.