Early in the day, everyday, I start with writing practice. Today, it led to something rather extraordinary.
I was reminded as a theater director and writing teacher, facilitator and coach, how much I value process work. Sometimes that is where the gold is found even more so than the final product.
Today, I am going to be transparent and bold, sharing with you my process of drafting wrestling with my thoughts through words. What you will read is the question I asked at the end of the “Mining for Writing Gold” process I created and use.
I always end with asking a question of myself and then free flow writing for five minutes. This time, it was longer than five minutes because I knew there was more there for me to explore.
My hope is you find value in witnessing the process. I’m also wondering if you ever enter into loving, open-hearted conversations with yourself? Maybe you view your inner conversations differently. I would love to hear more, hopefully after you gain some gold nuggets from my process.
What are the seedlings – the sprouts – to overcome my struggles that seem so inherently cooked into me? I can’t see or taste or notice them in me and yet they are there, like a virus or allergen that makes me sick at times.
I find myself wanting to go elsewhere. I want to look up quotes or google something. I don’t want to just sit with the imagery and the question I carefully crafted. I will stay. I will ask myself the question again.
What are the seedlings, bravely pushing through the rocky soil of resistance – the invisible destructive force, not the airy, gracious force I also say is there yet I don’t always act as if that is the case. I stay in the unripened state, the inert, filled with great question that sits in the core of the seed, not yet initiated into the seedling stage.
It is the potent question and the belief there is healing medicine within the answering of the question, the living the question where the seedling grows.
Giving space for the answer to rise – the seedling then, is the question + space + light + nourishment + belief –
I take my hands away from the keyboard. I am onto something.
I am going to pause for a few moments and re-read, allowing the seedling I have just managed to create to bring more to us, right here right now,
The seedling grows when it is surrounded in love: the air it breathes, the water that brings it nourishment, the space around it is drenched in love.
Once a coaching client asked me, “What does love mean?” and I had no idea what to answer.
From the perspective of the seedling:
Love is staying with me, not turning away frustrated when you don’t understand what I am trying so hard to tell you.
Love is bringing me your innermost secrets, your uniqueness – not holding back. How can you be afraid of me, a little seedling, when all I want to do is make this world a better place – just like you.
Love is witnessing the people we meet not at the surface, but at their core. Love is seeing the uniqueness of each one and the similarities we share. Honoring the uniqueness and delighting in the connections.
Love is being willing to set down the rushing agenda to be with the mindful agenda where we both find value in mutual restoration.
Second part: how to nourish the medicine within the seedlings as they grow and become stronger?
I went longer than five minutes.
The second part may come up later. We’ll see.
Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.
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Thanks for this Julie. There are hundreds of ways that love overcomes resistance and you’ve captured many of them.
Here is what jumped off the page for me and I think it’s what holds many of us back. “I don’t want to just sit with the imagery and the question I carefully crafted.” And then, Bam! your response: ” I will stay. I will ask myself the question again.” Sitting, listening, waiting, learning how to be more than patient and give ourselves up, surrender to the process of waiting for more to come. Having faith that it will and it most often does, maybe not on our timetable but so what? There’s a bigger process at work here and what we can do is to hook up to that and see what happens,
Hi Julie. Nice to see you here again. Thanks for sharing your process of writing and asking questions to get the answers. I’ve never thought of doing that, not consciously anyways. I will have to remember.
Thank you for this. Your what is love list especially resonated with me. In my blog today, I also talk about uniqueness. Great minds.