Daily Nourishment for May 21, 2024: A Moment of Pure Mystery
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 55 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“There are writers who write for fame. And there are writers who write because we need to make sense of the world we live in; writing is a way to clarify, to interpret, to reinvent.” - bell hooks
Pause.
Do four rounds of 4/7/8 breathing. Inhale for a count of four, hold your breath for a count of seven, and exhale for a count of eight. Repeat this breathing pattern three more times. Then meditate on these words from bell hooks:
“Words have the power to heal wounds. Out of the mysterious place where words first come to be “made flesh”—that place which is all holiness—I am given the grace to work with words in a spirit of right livelihood that calls me to peace, reflection, and connectedness with communities of readers whom I may never know or see. Writing becomes then a way to embrace the mysterious, to walk with spirits, and an entry into the realm of the sacred.”
Prompt.
Here’s more from bell hooks:
“When I sit down to write I do not imagine my pen will be guided by anything other than the strength of my will, imagination, and intellect. When the spirit moves into that writing, shaping its direction, that is for me a moment of pure mystery. It is a visitation of the sacred that I cannot call forth at will. I can only hope it will come.
This hope is grounded in my own experience that in those moments when I feel my imagination and the words I put together to be touched by the presence of divine spirit my writing is transformed. At such moments I am touched by grace. I am moved both by the writing and by the presence of spirits that make that writing the very best that it can be. When I complete this work I feel intense jubilation and ecstasy. Not all the writing I do is divinely inspired. The difference is tangible. Many writers who have felt guided by unseen spirits testify that the writing poured forth with ease. Much of the time we labor over words.”
Practice.
Set a timer for 13 minutes and journal in response to the quotes above and/or the questions below:
How does writing help you connect with yourself and the divine?
How do you participate with the divine in your writing and other creative work?
What parallels have you noticed between your spiritual life and your creativity?
Want More?
Read Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work by bell hooks
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Upcoming Workshops & Gatherings
—The May Co-Writing Schedule is live. Learn more here.
—This month’s Revision Stations Designed by Lauren Winner gathering will be on Saturday, May 25th from 10:15-noon CT.
If you have something that needs revision attention, you will not regret attending. Promise.
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
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