Greetings! It is the season for feeling abundant longevity. Lingering light, hot days, the ease of summer and the enjoyment of outdoor play almost create an amnesia, the illusion that it will always be summertime. 

Even the weeds in the yard, much to my consternation, are making the most of this season with their spiny heights towering over my head. I have spent hours in the tiny yard and cannot seem to eradicate the sum total of dead and dying things, while other weeds flourish and spike, creep and entwine - no doubt becoming next week's dead plants. 

Even in this drought, there is so much thriving. And this is another way we can think about sustainability: the ability for living beings to thrive. It is more than surviving. Can we open to the possibility that sustainability (on the planet, in our lives) might actually mean thriving? How can we reimagine a sustained life and planet as moving beyond "getting by" or mere survival? That is the focus of this month's newsletter:  writing sustainably as thriving.

Please check out the on-the-land workshop coming up September 20 in Napa. What better way to call in the fall equinox than some writing and walking respite in the beautiful Napa Valley landscape! (Details in the Workshops and Events block below...)

TEALarbor stories' newsletters offer inspiration, encouragement, and 

We need to navigate toward and then root ourselves in balance if we are going to thrive in our writing. Becoming depleted, being unable to endure, having few resources from which to draw, and lack of long-term wellness all threaten - and are the very definition of - nonsustainability. That is, in order to sustain our writing practices and lives as writerly people, we need to find the balance that affords us a wellspring from which we can draw, the spaciousness to endure, specific reserves we harness as we need them, toward ongoing wellbeing. 

 

Being well, thriving, sustainability; these are integral to the life of anybody who wants, or needs, to write. I could even say that wellbeing leads us down the path from "need" to "want" in our writing pursuits. We draw from what is within us as well as what is outside of us, in service to our writing. We do so that we can be sustained in body, mind, spirit and emotion.

 

1. We identify and learn how to tap into our inner and outer resources as people who write (i.e., integrity, purpose, education, experiences). We do so in a way that refreshes us and that allows us to move through our projects without getting used up, worn out, or lethargic.

 

2. We explore how we can move through the writing process as a marathon runner rather than a sprinter. We do so by recognizing the patterns of fatigue, the challenges, and the ease of downhill stretches while keeping our sights on the goal...knowing it takes however long it needs to take for us to get there.

 

3. We rely on old, as well as find new, strategies for keeping ourselves in shape, in wholeness, as we write (and as we live). We remember where our safe havens are and retreat there when we need to - in order to lick our wounds, find refreshment and quiet, to produce our writing.

 

4. We learn to hold the writing in balance, as we do our lives, so that we can write for the long-term, so that we can be free to live in wellness and peace. We do so by releasing our hold on expectations and "shoulds" and living, instead, in the feeling of the moment that our written stories offer us.

 

Please consider how TEALarbor stories can help you find balance, sustenance, and thus 'thrive-ability' in your own writing life; inquire via email.

Sustainable Earth, Sustainable Lives: Writing that Sustains

Gain insight into the connection between sustainability on the planet and sustainability in our lives. Learn how to stay in balance in order to avoid depletion, foster endurance, draw from inner resources, and experience long-term wellness in writing.

 

 

Writing on the Landscape Workshop

September 20, 2014 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM

in Napa. Fee $65. Pre-registration required. For details about location & what to bring, email Jennifer.

We will sit on the land, write on the land, walk solo on the land in order to feel more deeply how we are one with the land. Spend time outdoors writing just prior to the beautiful fall equinox. See how the outer landscape of the Napa Valley conspires with the inner landscape of your life experience toward inspired creative writing. Explore how sitting, writing, walking with intention and storying can nurture and nourish your transition into autumn.