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Writing and Healing Idea #9: The Mystery of Language

Posted by on October 4, 2006 in Writing Ideas

In Helen Keller’s memoir, The Story of My Life, she describes a now famous moment that occurred between her and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, when she was seven: We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten–a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. Helen Keller made a connection: between the cool stream gushing over one hand and the shapes of the letters traced upon the other: w-a-t-e-r Do you remember the first connections you made between letters and words and things? Do you remember, for instance, your first phonics book?  The pictures in that phonics book?  Or any of your early readers? What about the way the ABC’s looked in your first-grade classroom?  What about the shapes of those letters?  Or the way it felt to hold a pencil and write those letters?  What about that paper with the dotted lines? Do you remember what you felt when you first discovered letters?  Or what you felt when you first discovered that words and letters were connected to actual things? Choose one particular moment of remembering.  Perhaps a moment in a classroom.  Or perhaps you were riding in a car and you were able to read a sign for the first time.  Or maybe you remember one particular book from childhood.  Pick one moment or thing.  And then conjure the details of it.  What do you see?  What do you hear?  What do you feel?  Write the words that conjure the details.  Make the words into sentences if you...

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Writing and Healing Idea #8: Buy a Box

Posted by on September 29, 2006 in Writing Ideas

What do you hold your writing in? A drawer? A folder on your computer? A series of folders? A box with a lid? Virginia Woolf was right. Writing does thrive in a room of one’s own. But what about when one doesn’t have a whole room for writing? What about a table of one’s own? A file cabinet of one’s own? A portfolio? A box? If you don’t yet love the container in which you’re holding your writing—consider buying a good box. (Even if you don’t yet have a lot of writing. Even if it’s just a few loose-leaf pages. Or a couple pages printed from your computer. Or a single page. Or a single word) If you’ve started, or restarted, a new writing project—or a new writing habit—consider buying a good box in which to hold it. A new box or portfolio can serve as a kind of sign—or signal—that a project is a serious one—and deserving of its own...

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Writing and Healing Idea #7: Has Writing Ever Changed Your Life?

Posted by on September 16, 2006 in Writing Ideas

Consider a time when you wrote something—a letter—a journal entry—a word—that changed something—anything—then begin to write about it—write about what you wrote—and then the change that happened after—or during—no matter how large or small the change—no matter how quiet. Or, alternatively, consider a time when you read something—a poem—a book—a letter—and the words you read caused something to shift—something—anything—write about the words—the experience of reading those words—write about the change that happened. Consider these words from a poem, “The Class,” in a collection entitled, The Crack in Everything, by Alicia Ostriker: Perhaps it is not the poet who is healed but someone else, years later.  ...

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Writing and Healing Idea #6: Discovering Needs and Desires

Posted by on September 8, 2006 in Writing Ideas

Here’s that succinct sentence again by Laura King, researcher in writing and health: WRITING ABOUT TOPICS THAT ALLOW US TO LEARN ABOUT OUR OWN NEEDS AND DESIRES MAY BE A WAY TO HARNESS THE HEALING BENEFITS OF WRITING. One could stop right here, right now, and write this question at the top of a clean sheet of paper: WHAT DO I NEED?  Or, WHAT DO I WANT?  Or, WHAT DO I LONG FOR?  And one could write pages for an entire month (or a year) in response to this question.  I suspect this would be life-altering. Or, then again, one could imagine one is an orphan, out on one’s own, and one discovers a boxcar like those children in the book.  How would you set up your boxcar?  What provisions would you lay in?  What do you absolutely need to survive in your boxcar?  And what else do you need?  And then, if you like, you can consider that which you do you not particularly need but you’d really like to have it in your boxcar—because it would make your boxcar more comfortable—or more beautiful—or just...

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Writing and Healing Idea #5: A Shopping Spree

Posted by on September 2, 2006 in Writing Ideas

For this writing idea you may need to suspend disbelief. Imagine that you have five thousand dollars to spend solely on something—anything—any combination of things—that will contribute to your healing. Your task is to prepare a list of how you would spend this five thousand dollars if the sum were handed to you tomorrow.  In addition, you can, if you’d like, include a narrative as to why these particular purchases might be important to your healing. If, after careful consideration, you decide that you need more than five thousand dollars, then go ahead and write about...

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