Daily Nourishment for April 13, 2024: A Place to Put Yourself
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 40 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 10-15 minutes
Pause.
Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale.
Prompt.
Read the quote below from an interview with The Paris Review:
INTERVIEWER:
“I know you’ve spoken about this before, but could you talk about how that practice helped you overcome addiction?”
KAVEH AKBAR:
“There were a lot of things that helped me move out of addiction. It wasn’t like I picked up a book of Komunyakaa’s poetry and suddenly I wasn’t addicted. Early in recovery, it was as if I’d wake up and ask, How do I not accidentally kill myself for the next hour? And poetry, more often than not, was the answer to that. I would pick up Neon Vernacular and then I would have a place to be for, like, four hours. If I was writing a poem, that’s two, four, eight hours that just flew by. That was a place to put myself for a big chunk of that time.”
Practice.
Freewrite for eight minutes on how writing gives you a place to put yourself.
Want More?
Read more from the interview with Kaveh Akbar.
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Upcoming Workshops & Gatherings
—Sunday, 4/21/2024: Thoughtful Readers Gathering with Anna Gazmarian
—Back by Popular Demand: Narrative Writing with Tanya Davis is back for another four weeks this spring. The Friday Cohort begins on Friday, 4/19. The Saturday BIPOC Cohort begins on 4/20. $49 for four sessions.
—AND our Four-Hour Retreats are back this month to help you write more often, improve your writing skills, and feel nourished by your writing practice. The Four-Hour group retreats will also help you have greater integration between your writing life and other areas of life so you can establish a more sustainable writing practice that works for you.
SDW Members: You are eligible for a Four-Hour Retreat discount equal to your monthly membership rate. Please email me at charlotte@charlottedonlon.com for your discount code.
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Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
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