| |
In the Client's Words
|
"I have written [a poem] about the piece of bark you gave me and I would like to share it, the bark, and process.
It was a good experience for me."
|
|
Gratitude & Compassion Practice
| |
Make a gratitude list today. Be very specific. Make a new list tomorrow. Do this every day for a week.
| |
|
|
Jennifer J. Wilhoit's Books
| 
| |
Common Ground Between Crafts Collectives and Conservation
Weaving a Network
Order through Amazon or your local bookseller |
|
|
TEALarbor stories'
mission is to compassionately support people as they discover & convey through writing their deepest stories.
|
|
|
Greetings!
Limbs covered in white flowers hang over the side yard. An exquisite gift, they spill down in ivory arcs and ask nothing in return for the beauty they offer. I swoon each time I catch a glimpse of them through the window or stand outside underneath them; I am giddy in love.
I had planned to write about "priorities" in this month's newsletter. But the clients and others I serve, as well as the spring landscape, remind me that "beauty" is what is being called for. So I begin typing about how much we need beauty in our lives and the following memory arrives.
On a humid day twenty years ago, I rented a rusty bicycle with no gears and nearly flat tires to traverse the boulder-dirt pathways of a remote Burmese village. Out in a forest-lined countryside, I passed a man crafting mud bricks by hand. He was the only person around for miles. Carefully laid out in straight lines on the ground were dozens of rough-hewn building blocks drying in the intense heat of the sun. I waved, marveled, and pedaled on until I arrived at a small structure made of these same bricks. I dismounted the bike to peer through a glassless window and I saw something curious. Though the three-sided building was crumbling and had no roof, inside the enclosure was a pristine altar with vibrant flowers, candles, lit incense, ripe fruit, bright textiles, and a shining golden Buddha. It drew me in and I lingered a long while there.
It took me years to realize the vital importance of creating and maintaining pristine beauty in the center of lives full of hardship, toil, and a paucity of resources. That crumbling brick room with swept dirt floor and fresh offerings was an act of beauty, of reverence, of stability. It was the place a brickmaker, his family, or a wandering stranger could find respite. It was not extraneous or frivolous; on the contrary, it was a place of homage and respect, the locus of inspiration, insight, supplication, and sustenance.
We need beauty to write. We need beauty to see clearly and to have perspective. We need beauty in order to feel nourished, and to have something to offer others. And, beauty begets beauty, especially in the face of adversity. We know this, but sometimes we forget.
Blessings,
Jennifer Wilhoit, Writing Mentor, Guide, Mediator
TEALarbor stories
* * * *
TEALarbor stories' newsletters offer inspiration, encouragement, & beauty; inform about the connection between story, the natural world, & all things writerly; & promote professional writing, guiding, & mediation services.
|
Stories: Beauty, Written & Lived
|
At the heart of TEALarbor stories' work, too, is a passionate desire to help people see the inherent beauty in their stories, their writing, their transitions, or conflicts, and healing. For there is something lovely in the process of growth, even when it is difficult. The wholeness and wellbeing that arrive within a person, a blanket of grace and peace, are the gems with which we are rewarded for engaging our challenges.
Try any one of these repeatedly over the next month and be aware of what shifts within and outside of you:
- place a beautiful photograph on your desk
- fill a vase with nature's bounty
- light candles and incense
- stroll through the nature-filled landscape
- savor a poem
- see an art exhibit
- listen to music
- make a simple altar
- thumb through a picture book
- listen to the wind
- slowly eat something delicious
- lie down in the sun
- smile at your accomplishments for the day
- create or display something lovely in a public place
Making space for beauty is central to countering the negativity and strife we all face in a troubled and troubling world. Join me in the practice of beautymaking.
Please email to learn more about how TEALarbor stories can support you as you move forward with your writing projects, as you traverse a life transition, or as you face a difficult situation of conflict.
|
|
News & Updates
|
My presentation, "Transforming Conflict, Transforming Lives: Re-writing & Re-rooting Stories," for the Association for Dispute Resolution of Northern California's Annual Conference on March 19th (at Univ of San Fran) was a wonderful experience. Click here and scroll down to "Updates" to read more, and to see a few photos.
The Tulpehaking Nature Center in Hamilton, New Jersey has invited me to write a piece for their Questions for a Tree Project, a collaborative community endeavor combining visual art, viewer-derived questions for a tree, and the written word. My and others' writing will be recited at a benefit on May 1st in celebration of Arbor Day.
My online course for the Charter for Compassion's Education Institute is fully drafted. Once it has been reviewed, CEI will schedule it. A Natural History of Compassion: Growing Tenderness for Self and Other via Writing and Ecology will be accessible to an international audience already eagerly participating in the first institute offerings. Please stay tuned.
The Windows Within Project interviewed me about my hospice service work. The summary of the interview is available by clicking here. It's entitled, "Jennifer Wilhoit & Discovering the Natural Landscape of Death & Dying, A Hospice Volunteer Spotlight: The Peace of Integrating Death Into Life."
|
|
Upcoming Workshops & Events
|
Inner/Outer Landscape Workshop/Experience: Opening to What Blooms Within
Sat, Apr 16, 2016, 10 AM - 12:30 PM in Kitsap County
Writing for the Summer Solstice
Sat, Jun 18, 2016, 10 AM - 1 PM in Kitsap County
Free, Optional Add-On to Sat, Jun 18, 2016 1 - 2:30 PM
Treephilia: A Global Earth Exchange - Making Beauty in Wounded Places Ritual in collaboration with Radical Joy for Hard Times and earth citizens all over the planet
Writing for the Fall Equinox
Sat, Sep 10, 2016 10 AM - 1 PM in Kitsap County
Grief & Writing for the Holidays
Sat, Dec 3, 2016 10 AM - 2 PM in Kitsap County
Writing for the Winter Solstice
Sat, Dec 17, 2016 10 AM - 1 PM in Kitsap County
Weekday workshop times are also available upon request.
If you have a venue and a group (large or small) that you would like to see participate in a TEALarbor stories workshop, please email me. With a quota of confirmed registrations or a venue we can use, you will attend for free!
Popular workshops include:
* Writing the Inner/Outer Landscape (introduction)
* Writing the Inner/Outer Landscape (five part series)
* Grief and Writing
* Writing for the Equinox/Solstice
|
|
|
Did You Know?
|
TEALarbor stories presents at a variety of venues throughout the year. You can arrange to have Jennifer present her work about writing and the inner/outer landscape, or conduct a workshop tailored to the needs of your group.
The work of deep storying that is at the center of TEALarbor stories has served individuals and groups on all seven continents. (Yes, even Antarctica.)
© 2016 TEALarbor stories - Jennifer J. Wilhoit, PhD
|
|
|
