Connected
I am connected to Lindsay We are really into our notebooks I am connected to Sarah When she was my 18 year-old student I was her 39 year-old prof I am connected to Jane We’re…
Category: Writing
Starting Where We Are: A Writing Course on the Mind-Training Slogans via Pema Chödrön
Join us this fall for a writing course that focuses on the 59 mind-training slogans as taught by beloved Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön in her book, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living….
They Will Want To Know More by Cristina Cousins
Dear Friends, Cristina came to hear Remi Kanazi last Wednesday and to see Five Broken Cameras and hear Iyad Burnat last Friday. I asked her if she’d be willing to write a response. This is what she…
Scintillating Promises (The Joys of Reading and Writing/Reinaldo Arenas)
Reading Reinaldo Areas’ novel The Color of Summer was a breakthrough experience for me. From him (and Eduardo Galeano) I figured out how to structure what eventually became The Book of Mev. The following are some passages I love from his Before…
A Class This Spring: Improv Wisdom
There are people who prefer to say “Yes,” and there are people who prefer to say “No.” Those who say “Yes” are rewarded by the adventures they have, and those who say “No” are rewarded…
A New Journal for a New Year
My friend Emily Guck sent me the following… Today is a day for a new journal. I’ll remember these words as I seek to fill it this year–Thanks, Dr. C! “Dear Emily- When the time…
Brainard’s Memories
The NY painter Joe Brainard wrote a wonderful book, I Remember, in which he collected memories from days gone by in one long litany. He writes about ordinary things: chicken noodle soup, juke boxes, tanning,…
Writing Meditation: A Course Inspired by the Work of Thich Nhat Hanh
“Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child–our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” “I…
Gratitude Journal/5 (“Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it”)
Several of us have been meeting weekly at a friend’s home on DeMun in a class, “Expanding the Heart: The Practice of Gratitude.” We’re keeping gratitude journals. Here’s a recent entry from mine. Thank you,…
Writing with Annie, Northwest Coffee, April 2012
It’s easy to be in the present moment With Anne Fitzgerald I want to listen I want to be receptive I want to assure her That Jesus was right: You, Annie Fitzgerald, are the light…