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.

I’m thrilled to offer retreats in my home on Thursday, April 25th and Saturday April 27th and additional retreats online via Zoom on Friday, April 26th and Sunday, April 28th.

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 Note from Charlotte


Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.

*Please help us protect our intellectual property, our creative process, and the integrity of our work. Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment is covered under the Spiritual Direction for Writers® trademark. You are welcome to share this link with others, but any other use (written or spoken) is prohibited without written permission from Charlotte Donlon.


 
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Daily Nourishment for April 14, 2024: “There are things that you cannot not know” with Kerry James Marshall

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Daily Nourishment for April 12, 2024: The Bones and the Skeleton of Language