💚 You read the book and the book reads you

Email Read Time: 45 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 10-15 minutes

Announcements:
—NEW: Monthly SDW Revision Stations Designed by Lauren Winner begin Saturday, January 27 from 10:15 a.m.-noon CT.
—Online Seminar for Motherhood and Writing is Saturday, January 27
—Thoughtful Readers Gathering with Amy Long and Codependence is Sunday, January 28
—Online Seminar with Sarah Sanderson and The Place We Make is Saturday, February 10.

Pause.

Do a few rounds of Box Breathing: Inhale for a count of four, hold for a count or four, exhale for a count of four, hold for a count of four.

Prompt.

Read the quote below by Toni Morrison.

“I got my paradigm from music, particularly from jazz--music you can dance to, or is mood music, or if you listen to it, it’s so complicated, so deep, so artful, that it is the kind of art form that demands the best of you. You can approach it on a less complicated--and I don’t mean superficial--level where you just taste it in a way, and I wanted my books to work like that. I know that some people’s acquaintance with the book is narrow or light and maybe even unreaderly in a sense, but those are the risks you take when you’re trying very hard to say: You read the book and the book reads you. And there is something going on in that process that is truly extraordinary.” - Toni Morrison

The Street
Romare Bearden, 1975

Practice.

Take notes or journal in response to the quote and art above and/or the questions below:

—Which music makes you want to dance?

—How does music affect your creative process and the writing and other art you make?

—How do you experience what Morrison says above, that “You read the book and the book reads you”?

—Which books have read you well?

Want More?
—Watch this short video clip about a Romare Bearden piece
—Read “Toni Morrison and Nina Simone, United in Soul”

Charlotte Donlon

Writer, Spiritual Director, & Founder of Spiritual Direction for Writers

spiritualdirectionforwriters.com

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