Months 9&10: Figuring Out the Good Part

The title for this month springs from an essay, “The Good Part,” written by Dennis Covington and found in the anthology, The Healing Circle. Covington’s essay is such a good essay, funny and sharp. It asks and re-asks what I think are terribly relevant questions to writing and healing: What’s the good part? Have you gotten to the good part?

The challenge, I think, when figuring out the good part in regard to some difficulty or pain is to figure this out without glossing over or suppressing what is painful and difficult.

Mary Oliver, I think, strikes this balance in her poem, The Wild Geese.

But you may also want to start with some research on figuring out the good part:

Asking a New Question: More Research on Writing and Healing

Writing and Healing and Breast Cancer

Research on Shifting One’s Point of View in Writing

Or with one of the pieces below that has to do with reframing–considering something or some things from a new perspective.

The Healing Circle Anthology can be found here.

Photo taken in Northumberland, England

When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron

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This is Water by David Foster Wallace

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Because Even the Word Obstacle is an Obstacle by Alison Luterman

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