Daily Nourishment for August 17, 2024: Is There Any Other Way?
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 40 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 13 minutes
“It seemed to me that what she was doing was much more interesting that what was being done to her.” - Jen Bervin
Pause.
Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the image below.
Prompt.
“If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”
— Emily Dickinson, Letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1870)
Practice.
Set a timer for 10 minutes then journal, take notes, or begin writing a new poem, story, or essay in response to the quote and art above and/or the questions below.
—What works of literature, or other types of art, have thrilled and electrified you over the past few weeks?
—What works of literature or other art types have you engaged with but can't remember much of?
—What do you feel in your body, mind, and soul when you read something powerful and transformative?
—What do you feel in your body, mind, and soul when you write something powerful and transformative?
Want More?
View Jen Bervin’s Dickinson Composites Series, “a series of large-scale embroidered quilts” depicting “Emily Dickinson’s variant marks in her manuscripts that have been omitted.” One image is in the Pause section above.
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Upcoming Workshops & Gatherings
—The August Co-Writing Schedule is live.
—Spiritual Direction for Writers® + Enneagram for Creativity Gathering will take place on Friday, September 27th and Saturday, September 28th. Recordings will be available if you can’t join us live. You can register here.
August 31— Online Revision Stations Designed by Lauren F. Winner
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
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