https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements daily 0.75 2026-04-06 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/spiritual-direction-for-writers-fall-2025-cohort monthly 0.5 2025-09-06 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/spiritual-direction-for-writers-trainees-who-offer-similar-services monthly 0.5 2026-04-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1705349032905-2HNC55TS0OLIY7KBC0W7/TWG+Holiday+Party+2023-112+-+TWG+Holiday+Party+2023+-+LeVernDanley+%28003%29.jpg News & Resources - Spiritual Direction for Writers® Certified Guides Who Offer Similar Services - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/7f9ea62e-ef06-4db0-99ed-f4abdcabda11/Ryan+Pelton+Pastor+and+Coach News & Resources - Spiritual Direction for Writers® Certified Guides Who Offer Similar Services - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/ffe3bdde-a41c-41a1-9142-97c7473e11a0/Holly+Porter+Phillips+Spiritual+Director News & Resources - Spiritual Direction for Writers® Certified Guides Who Offer Similar Services - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/spiritual-direction-for-writers-spring-2025-cohort monthly 0.5 2025-08-07 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/a-spiritual-direction-for-writers-book-update-in-the-form-of-a-shoutout-to-switchyards monthly 0.5 2025-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1736291094054-2K3Q4INMKL7KHV2LDIF4/IMG_2549.jpg News & Resources - A Spiritual Direction for Writers® Book Update in the Form of a Shoutout to Switchyards https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1736291077927-8GOW05VLK61R2XZ9R890/IMG_2530.jpg News & Resources - A Spiritual Direction for Writers® Book Update in the Form of a Shoutout to Switchyards https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1736291086347-35P7CFVTU880T2SPW4FK/IMG_2541.jpg News & Resources - A Spiritual Direction for Writers® Book Update in the Form of a Shoutout to Switchyards https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1736291166076-R95YZ8N2RCD03LTF9KYT/IMG_2874.jpg News & Resources - A Spiritual Direction for Writers® Book Update in the Form of a Shoutout to Switchyards https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1736291191338-6LD4RVEJPVNKJP8SXWG3/IMG_2976.jpg News & Resources - A Spiritual Direction for Writers® Book Update in the Form of a Shoutout to Switchyards https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1736291106346-3FKDF3NV315RYMP3BB6S/IMG_2879.jpg News & Resources - A Spiritual Direction for Writers® Book Update in the Form of a Shoutout to Switchyards https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1736291146542-QOG5V3NAODMVZIJ0SR6K/IMG_3001.jpg News & Resources - A Spiritual Direction for Writers® Book Update in the Form of a Shoutout to Switchyards https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1736291229152-URMWHOEKB5JM6S0VPFJS/IMG_3003.jpg News & Resources - A Spiritual Direction for Writers® Book Update in the Form of a Shoutout to Switchyards https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1736291251973-A1T7OJQ4FL85CH6I5XRM/IMG_2895.jpg News & Resources - A Spiritual Direction for Writers® Book Update in the Form of a Shoutout to Switchyards https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/all-of-life-is-the-writing-life monthly 0.5 2024-12-11 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-enneagram-for-creativity-featured-plenary-speaker-rev-nhien-vuong monthly 0.5 2024-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/9af11442-15b5-4039-acae-7cf368132875/Rev+Nhien+Vuong+author+photo.png News & Resources - SDW + Enneagram for Creativity Featured Plenary Speaker Rev Nhien Vuong Reverend Nhien Vuong, J.D., M.Div., is a contemplative Enneagram thought leader, international presenter, spiritual mentor, inspirational writer, and conscious community builder. A former Stanford Lawyer, Nhien left her San Francisco law career to pursue a calling to support the evolution of consciousness. An ordained Unity minister and Founder of Evolving Enneagram, Nhien offers a compassionate path of transformation without dogma—one that honors and is rooted in each person’s unique background, personality, and beliefs. Nhien has been studying the Enneagram since 2002 and teaching it since 2007. She is a certified Enneagram professional through the Awareness to Action Institute™, a Certified Somatic Enneagram™ Practitioner, and one of only 25 International Enneagram Association (IEA) Accredited Professionals with Distinction in the world. Committed to the greater good, Nhien regularly offers scholarships for Evolving Enneagram’s many transformational programs and volunteers to teach the Enneagram to non-profits, the incarcerated, and 12-step recovery groups. A published poet, Nhien served for six years on the writing teams for Unity’s two largest publications, Unity Magazine® and Daily Word® magazine. She is the author of the upcoming Enneagram of Soul, a 40-day companion guide to living a more authentic, inspired, and soulful life. Preorders open September 2024 (Hampton Roads). Learn more about Rev Nhien Vuong at evolvingenneagram.com Evolving Enneagram on YouTube Evolving Enneagram FB Business Page Enneagram FB Community Page Personal FB Account Instagram: @evolvingenneagram Linked In: Rev Nhien Vuong https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-enneagram-for-creativity-featured-speaker-robbin-brent monthly 0.5 2024-08-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d6afce15-ce88-4476-a550-2c953e08e8a9/Robbin+Brent.png News & Resources - SDW + Enneagram for Creativity Featured Speaker Robbin Brent Robbin Brent received her teaching certification in The Narrative Enneagram, an IEA Accredited Enneagram professional training program, with direct training from David Daniels, Helen Palmer, Tom Condon, Peter O'Hanrahan, and Sandra Smith. She served as the Executive Director of the Center for Spiritual Resources in the Episcopal Diocese of Western NC for five years, convening Circles of Trust discernment groups, facilitating clergy and lay-leader spiritual deepening programs and retreats, virtual small-group gatherings of wisdom leaders from around the globe, and hosting and filming Wisdom Schools with Cynthia Bourgeault. Two of the wisdom school courses she produced are now offered regularly through the Center for Action and Contemplation. Robbin is a graduate of Shalem Institute’s long-term programs: Leading Contemplative Groups and Retreats, and Spiritual Guidance. In her current vocational life, she serves as the director of publications and resource development for Living Compass: a spirituality and wellness-based initiative, a spiritual director, and as an Enneagram consultant focused on personal and professional growth and development. She leads spiritual retreats and programs, and facilitates gatherings of contemplative leaders. She loves spending time with her family, hiking, and enjoying early morning coffee with the wildlife that graces her backyard. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-enneagram-for-creativity-featured-speaker-andi-schrader monthly 0.5 2024-08-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d8582213-9e2b-4a13-ab15-a489cb6db78e/IMG_5764+-+Andi+Schrader.jpeg News & Resources - SDW + Enneagram for Creativity Featured Speaker Andi Schrader My happy place is being in nature or in my studio making art. As an avid traveler, creating transformational experiences at the intersection of art, self awareness and travel is my sweet spot. My coaching certification is through the Co-Active Training Institute, a global leader in coach training. My coaching practice adheres to the values and ethics of ICF (the International Coaching Federation.) I am an Enneagram coach with an introductory certification and use this tool in my coaching. I have a BSW from Valparaiso Univ and an M.Ed from Kent State Univ. Other certifications include The Leadership Circle Profile® and The Be Well Lead Well Pulse ®. My silver hair is accompanied by many stories from many countries and wilderness trips which I led while working with a campus ministry organization in my twenties. My favorite season is autumn and Dave and I have been married for 40 of those. I have two adult children, a son in law and two friendly grand pups. Gathering new friends into my tribe is a real treasure and I look forward to meeting you! Learn more about Andi and her work at forestlightcoaching.com. Follow Andi on Instagram at @2acorns Find her on Linked In as Andi Schrader, M.Ed., CPCC And here’s a short teaching on Saboteurs from one of her art retreats in France. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-enneagram-for-creativity-featured-speaker-roger-conville monthly 0.5 2024-08-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d9b2fbd2-a4f8-44a8-b21c-b0d1c9b05609/Roger+Conville.jpeg News & Resources - SDW + Enneagram for Creativity Featured Speaker Roger Conville Roger was born and reared in Birmingham, where he learned a love of fishing and nature from his dad and older brother. He gained Eagle Scout status with the Boy Scouts in 1967. After graduating from the University of Montevallo with a B.B.A. in business, Roger was employed in insurance and financial planning for 25 years before co-founding the Black Warrior Riverkeeper and taking up the cause of international water conservation. For years, he led Trib Treks, explorations of local river tributaries, which were featured on local media. Now as a real estate advisor, Roger’s Ego Type Seven takes delight in meeting new people in his business. On a more serious note, he is a trained Stephen Minister and a graduate of Education for Ministry (EfM). In his parish, St. Andrew’s, Birmingham, he is active in many volunteer roles. Having studied the Enneagram with Joe and Lark Howell for years, he completed The Institute for Conscious Being’s training in 2017, and now serves on the faculty leading movement and nature study. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-enneagram-for-creativity-featured-speaker-lori-ferrell monthly 0.5 2024-08-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/e1692fd1-539b-4dc9-8e23-9db3d2027aa7/IMG_1105+-+Lori+Ferrell.jpg News & Resources - SDW + Enneagram for Creativity Featured Speaker Lori Ferrell I began my journey with a spiritual director in 2013 after experiencing burnout in a cross-cultural context. My husband and I made a deliberate decision to take a Sabbatical year. This was a significant turning point in my life towards healing and wholeness as I met with a spiritual director and began to know my identity as God’s beloved—not marked by what I do (or don’t do). This was pivotal, and after returning to the states I pursued becoming a spiritual director. I entered Selah’s spiritual direction program (Leadership Transformation Inc.) and completed my certificate in 2018. Since then I have also gone on to get my 200 hr yoga teacher training through the Yoga Abbey and an Enneagram certificate through the Pax Center. My heart is to host safe sacred space to listen to the heart of the one I am sitting with as we sit in the presence of Divine Love. I believe we are all God’s beloved, and that knowing and believing this will be transformational in the way we live our lives. Currently I reside in Vero Beach, Florida with my husband, two teenage boys, and our dog Ruby. After living in Southeast Asia for more than half of our marriage, we are making our home near the beach. My soul is fed by one-on-one conversations with soul friends, beauty in nature, a good cup of coffee, walks and paddle-boarding. I also love adventures to new cultures—experiencing the diversity of the world we live in. But in the end, I love my home and creating “sanctuary” space where I live. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-enneagram-for-creativity-featured-plenary-speaker-dr-chelsea-brooke-yarborough monthly 0.5 2024-08-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/38d7ecce-86ef-4c31-8cca-fca3a52861c2/Headshot_+Yarborough+-+Chelsea+Yarborough.jpg News & Resources - SDW + Enneagram for Creativity Featured Plenary Speaker Dr. Chelsea Brooke Yarborough Dr. Chelsea Brooke Yarborough (she/her) is a friend, daughter, sister, professor, preacher, wonderer, ordained minister, poet, and Enneagram coach — and many roles that defy simple categorization. With a PhD in religion focusing on ritual and rhetoric, she centers her work on the rhythms and words that give meaning to life. Her research reimagines preaching and worship by exploring the rhetorical and ritual practices of Black women activists throughout history. Chelsea uses the Enneagram as a tool to uncover motivations, aiming to broaden individual authenticity and foster communal wellness. Her background allows her to help individuals and teams create rituals that will continue their growth and healing beyond their time with her. Her deepest hope is that her work guides others to reconnect with themselves through love and creativity, empowering them to share their unique spark with the world. Learn more at iamchelseabrooke.com Follow Chelsea on Instagram at @iamchelseabrooke https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-enneagram-for-creativity-featured-speaker-leah-everson monthly 0.5 2024-08-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/98d1cbe3-b830-4e2e-a719-3ee7460d9d9f/network-picture-portrait+-+Leah+Everson.png News & Resources - SDW + Enneagram for Creativity Featured Speaker Leah Everson Leah Everson is a certified Enneagram Coach based in Minnesota with 10+ years of experience and a passion for helping others discover hope and healing. She has a Masters of Divinity from Denver Seminary where she focused on pastoral counseling. After five years of pastoring in Denver and birthing two children, Leah and her family moved home to Minnesota. Since then, she has focused on caring for individuals and couples through Enneagram Coaching. She is a member of Redbud Writers Guild and her written work can be found on her Substack: Compassionate Enneagram. Learn more at leaheverson.com. Follow Leah on Instagram at @leahdeverson https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-enneagram-for-creativity-featured-speaker-dani-cooper monthly 0.5 2024-08-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/c8e3a75b-7dba-4033-8c05-3b488d3be6cc/new+headshot+2023+-+Dani+Cooper.jpg News & Resources - SDW + Enneagram for Creativity Featured Speaker Dani Cooper Dani Cooper is a Certified Enneagram Teacher, Coach and personal growth cheerleader for individuals, couples and teams who want to find out who they really are and grow beyond the armor of their Enneagram types. She is the author of the book, The Enneagram for Christian Couples, which came out in 2022. Her life's work is learning how to love herself as a messy, imperfect and absolutely enough human person. Learn more about Dani and her work at deepwatersenneagram.com and follow her on Instagram at @deepwatersenneagram https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-enneagram-for-creativity-featured-plenary-speaker-micky-scottbey-jones monthly 0.5 2024-08-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/dea12c11-e4c0-49da-bcac-cbb6534d5775/MickyJ+-+Micky+ScottBey+Jones.jpeg News & Resources - SDW + Enneagram for Creativity Featured Plenary Speaker Micky ScottBey Jones Micky ScottBey Jones (she/her) is a womanist, certified transformational leadership and certified and accredited Narrative enneagram coach and facilitator and with an international and intersectional understanding of social change and fierce dedication to cultivating personal transformation and resilience in social sector leaders. She authored Keep the Fires Burning: Conquering Stress and Burnout as a Mother-Baby Professional and contributed to multiple books including Becoming Like Creoles: Living and Leading at the Intersections of Injustice, Culture and Religion and Keep Watch With Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers, the Journal of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community and Center for Action and Contemplation’s Oneing Journal. She has contributed to several online and podcast communities, The Porch magazine, Love Period & more. You can learn more at mickyscottbeyjones.com. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/current-list-of-spiritual-direction-for-writers-offerings monthly 0.5 2026-02-02 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/an-online-seminar-for-writing-and-motherhood-guest-facilitators monthly 0.5 2024-01-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d40f1343-850d-4d7a-bc79-69ea225c8927/Tanya+Davis+Author+and+Philanthropist.jpg News & Resources - Highlights: Seminar for Motherhood and Writing Guest Teachers - Bio: Tanya Davis is a wife, mother, grandmother, philanthropist, and author whose life’s work is giving and pouring into the lives of others. Twenty years ago, Tanya, her husband Stephen and their seven children established the William & Mary Davis Foundation with the mission of providing opportunities to those who reside in under-resourced communities and advocating for those whose voices are not heard. They also support organizations that align with their mission. The foundation provides financial support, and educational experiences for individuals for the purpose of empowerment-financially, emotionally, spiritually. The foundation supports organizations that embody this mission including Daystar University (Nairobi, Kenya), Fox Valley Christian Action, Young Life Teen Mothers, Orange Hands, Women at Risk International, and By the Hands, Haymarket Center, MFS, GEMS of St. Sabina, East Tennessee Freedom Schools, Chicago Foundation for Women, DuSable Museum, and many others. Tanya’s desire to enrich the lives of others also led her to launch Purpose by Design, a mentoring retreat for girls in under-resourced communities, in 2010. Each year, Tanya and a group of volunteers host 10-20 girls for a long weekend of enrichment workshops – from health and wellness to college prep and goal planning. Recently, the organization formed a partnership with Foolproof to provide financial literacy empowerment for young women. Tanya has authored three books, May I Please Speak with My Father, I Don’t Want to Shame My Daddy’s Name, and Urban Monks and Mystics (co-author). She also has served as publisher for numerous other books on a variety of topics, and guest contributor for online organizations. Tanya holds a bachelor’s degree in counseling from DePaul University with an emphasis on Narrative and a master’s degree in Narrative Medicine from Lenoir-Rhyne University. She believes in the power of story and being an active listener in another person’s story is how we will grow in our empathy and love for each other. She has facilitated narrative workshops that bring people together to share their stories. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/7799375a-23f5-426c-8be5-98ee27ad44e2/Marlena+Graves+Headshot+copy.png News & Resources - Highlights: Seminar for Motherhood and Writing Guest Teachers - Bio: Marlena received her M.Div. from Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, New York and his pursuing her PhD in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH where she is researching the influence American culture has on Evangelicals’ view of immigration, race, and poverty. Are Evangelical views and behavior really ensconced in biblical teaching or are Evangelicals, white Evangelicals in particular, more influenced by cultural forces of which they are unaware? Marlena has been on the pastoral staff at several churches, worked at non-profits, been on the residence life staff at a university, and worked for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) – for and with migrant farmworkers in the Midwest and South and the minority community in Toledo, OH. She continues to labor alongside others for justice, for human rights. Since 2015, she has been an adjunct professor at Winebrenner Seminary in the areas of discipleship and spiritual formation. She has written for a wide variety of venues like Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics Blog (now CT Women), Womenleaders.com, and Our Daily Bread where she was a bylined regularly contributing writer. And also for places like, Think Christian, Faith Street, Relevant, and publications by (in) courage and the Zondervan Women’s Study Bible. Marlena is a former member and board member of the Redbud Writers Guild. Currently she is a board member of Evangelicals 4 Justice, works in partnership with Freedom Road, and also belongs to INK: A Creative Collective. As a Puerto-Rican influenced by many streams of the faith, she feels as if she dwells on the borderlands of Evangelicalism.Make it stand out Learn more at marlenagraves.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/e2c0bf69-34f7-4939-a1f7-d941a8e43bc6/Jamie+Quatro+by+%2BStephen%2BAlvarez.jpeg News & Resources - Highlights: Seminar for Motherhood and Writing Guest Teachers - Bio: Jamie Quatro’s novel Fire Sermon (Grove Press) published in 2018. Selected as one of the Top Seven Novels of 2018 by The Economist, and named a Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Bloomberg, and the Times Literary Supplement, Fire Sermon was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book, Indie Next pick, and New York Times Editors' Choice. Quatro's story collection, I Want To Show You More (Grove), was a New York Times Notable Book, NPR Best Book of 2013, and was chosen as a favorite book of 2013 by James Wood in The New Yorker. The collection was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award, the Townsend Fiction Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize. A contributing editor at Oxford American, her fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. Recent essays have appeared at The New Yorker, Oxford American, and as part of the Greenpeace Climate Visionaries series. Quatro is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo and teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program. She lives with her family in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Learn more at jamiequatro.com. © Stephen Alvarez https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d7374549-0a11-47bc-8ff2-bae381ef8b77/IMG_4895+-+Catherine+Ricketts.jpeg News & Resources - Highlights: Seminar for Motherhood and Writing Guest Teachers - Bio: Catherine Ricketts is an essayist, songwriter, and professor. Her nonfiction on the arts, grief, joy, and spirituality appears in the Kenyon Review Online, the Ploughshares blog, The Christian Century, Image, The Millions, Paste, and NPR-affiliate The Key. She studied writing at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MFA in nonfiction from Seattle Pacific University. Her first book, a work of literary nonfiction on motherhood and artistic practice, is forthcoming from Broadleaf Books in 2024. She teaches at Villanova University. Find her on Instagram at @bycatherinericketts, or stay in touch via her newsletter. Catherine is available for freelance writing in arts journalism, literary criticism, and personal essay. She regularly speaks on podcasts on the subjects of grief, addiction, faith, and the arts. She teaches workshops for new and experienced writers in spiritual nonfiction, writing about the arts, writing through grief, personal essay, and memoir. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/writerly-nourishment-with-catherine-ricketts monthly 0.5 2024-01-18 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/an-online-seminar-for-writing-and-motherhood monthly 0.5 2024-01-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d40f1343-850d-4d7a-bc79-69ea225c8927/Tanya+Davis+Author+and+Philanthropist.jpg News & Resources - An Online Seminar for Motherhood and Writing - Tanya Davis is a wife, mother, grandmother, philanthropist, and author whose life’s work is giving and pouring into the lives of others. Twenty years ago, Tanya, her husband Stephen and their seven children established the William & Mary Davis Foundation with the mission of providing opportunities to those who reside in under-resourced communities and advocating for those whose voices are not heard. They also support organizations that align with their mission. The foundation provides financial support, and educational experiences for individuals for the purpose of empowerment-financially, emotionally, spiritually. The foundation supports organizations that embody this mission including Daystar University (Nairobi, Kenya), Fox Valley Christian Action, Young Life Teen Mothers, Orange Hands, Women at Risk International, and By the Hands, Haymarket Center, MFS, GEMS of St. Sabina, East Tennessee Freedom Schools, Chicago Foundation for Women, DuSable Museum, and many others. Tanya’s desire to enrich the lives of others also led her to launch Purpose by Design, a mentoring retreat for girls in under-resourced communities, in 2010. Each year, Tanya and a group of volunteers host 10-20 girls for a long weekend of enrichment workshops – from health and wellness to college prep and goal planning. Recently, the organization formed a partnership with Foolproof to provide financial literacy empowerment for young women. Tanya has authored three books, May I Please Speak with My Father, I Don’t Want to Shame My Daddy’s Name, and Urban Monks and Mystics (co-author). She also has served as publisher for numerous other books on a variety of topics, and guest contributor for online organizations. Tanya holds a bachelor’s degree in counseling from DePaul University with an emphasis on Narrative and a master’s degree in Narrative Medicine from Lenoir-Rhyne University. She believes in the power of story and being an active listener in another person’s story is how we will grow in our empathy and love for each other. She has facilitated narrative workshops that bring people together to share their stories. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/7799375a-23f5-426c-8be5-98ee27ad44e2/Marlena+Graves+Headshot+copy.png News & Resources - An Online Seminar for Motherhood and Writing - Marlena received her M.Div. from Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, New York and his pursuing her PhD in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH where she is researching the influence American culture has on Evangelicals’ view of immigration, race, and poverty. Are Evangelical views and behavior really ensconced in biblical teaching or are Evangelicals, white Evangelicals in particular, more influenced by cultural forces of which they are unaware? Marlena has been on the pastoral staff at several churches, worked at non-profits, been on the residence life staff at a university, and worked for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) – for and with migrant farmworkers in the Midwest and South and the minority community in Toledo, OH. She continues to labor alongside others for justice, for human rights. Since 2015, she has been an adjunct professor at Winebrenner Seminary in the areas of discipleship and spiritual formation. She has written for a wide variety of venues like Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics Blog (now CT Women), Womenleaders.com, and Our Daily Bread where she was a bylined regularly contributing writer. And also for places like, Think Christian, Faith Street, Relevant, and publications by (in) courage and the Zondervan Women’s Study Bible. Marlena is a former member and board member of the Redbud Writers Guild. Currently she is a board member of Evangelicals 4 Justice, works in partnership with Freedom Road, and also belongs to INK: A Creative Collective. As a Puerto-Rican influenced by many streams of the faith, she feels as if she dwells on the borderlands of Evangelicalism.Make it stand out Learn more at marlenagraves.com https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/e2c0bf69-34f7-4939-a1f7-d941a8e43bc6/Jamie+Quatro+by+%2BStephen%2BAlvarez.jpeg News & Resources - An Online Seminar for Motherhood and Writing - Jamie Quatro’s novel Fire Sermon (Grove Press) published in 2018. Selected as one of the Top Seven Novels of 2018 by The Economist, and named a Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Bloomberg, and the Times Literary Supplement, Fire Sermon was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book, Indie Next pick, and New York Times Editors' Choice. Quatro's story collection, I Want To Show You More (Grove), was a New York Times Notable Book, NPR Best Book of 2013, and was chosen as a favorite book of 2013 by James Wood in The New Yorker. The collection was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award, the Townsend Fiction Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize. A contributing editor at Oxford American, her fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. Recent essays have appeared at The New Yorker, Oxford American, and as part of the Greenpeace Climate Visionaries series. Quatro is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo and teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program. She lives with her family in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Learn more at jamiequatro.com. © Stephen Alvarez https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d7374549-0a11-47bc-8ff2-bae381ef8b77/IMG_4895+-+Catherine+Ricketts.jpeg News & Resources - An Online Seminar for Motherhood and Writing - Catherine Ricketts is an essayist, songwriter, and professor. Her nonfiction on the arts, grief, joy, and spirituality appears in the Kenyon Review Online, the Ploughshares blog, The Christian Century, Image, The Millions, Paste, and NPR-affiliate The Key. She studied writing at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MFA in nonfiction from Seattle Pacific University. Her first book, a work of literary nonfiction on motherhood and artistic practice, is forthcoming from Broadleaf Books in 2024. She teaches at Villanova University. Find her on Instagram at @bycatherinericketts, or stay in touch via her newsletter. Catherine is available for freelance writing in arts journalism, literary criticism, and personal essay. She regularly speaks on podcasts on the subjects of grief, addiction, faith, and the arts. She teaches workshops for new and experienced writers in spiritual nonfiction, writing about the arts, writing through grief, personal essay, and memoir. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-catherine-ricketts-january-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-01-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d7374549-0a11-47bc-8ff2-bae381ef8b77/IMG_4895+-+Catherine+Ricketts.jpeg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Catherine Ricketts: January 8-12, 2024 - Catherine Ricketts writes about the arts, grief, joy, and spirituality. Her book about motherhood and artistic practice, titled The Mother Artist: Portraits of Ambition, Limitation, and Creativity, comes out April 16 and is available for preorder here and via our Thoughtful Readers Gathering scheduled for May 5. Find her on Instagram at @bycatherinericketts. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-erik-fuhrer-upcoming-thoughtful-readers-gatherings monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/ff7cb7de-bb44-4f4c-947e-b1143cf51231/HBP08010_hbp+-+Erik+Fuhrer.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment + Upcoming Thoughtful Readers Gathering with Erik Fuhrer - Erik Fuhrer is the author of the forthcoming play The Ocean and its Movers (Free Lines Press, 2023), poetry collection Gellar Studies (Spuyten Duyvil, 2023), and memoir, My Buffed Up Life (SD, 2024). They are the author of six other poetry collections and hold a PhD from The University of Glasgow. Learn more at erik-fuhrer.com and follow Erik on Instagram at @erikjfuhrer https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-upcoming-online-christmastide-retreat-with-lauren-f-winner monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/on-saint-teresa-of-avila-neurotic-writer monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-hannah-rowen-fry monthly 0.5 2024-08-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/74963fa5-4452-4876-b2a2-d9959fc7d97f/Hannah_Rowen_Fry_Headshot+-+Hannah+Rowen+Fry.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Hannah Rowen Fry: October 29-November 3, 2023 Hannah Rowen Fry is a writer and speaker passionate about helping people live into their God-purpose. Her thoughtful reflections on Scripture invite those who feel overwhelmed to slow down, choose simplicity, and experience greater joy in the present moment. Read more about Hannah and her work at www.hannahrowenfry.com. Website: hannahrowenfry.com Instagram: @hannahrowenfry https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-mary-mccampbell-october-2023 monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/4a681cdb-f65c-42d1-91b3-9adf5c8a620a/Mary_McCampbell_Headshot+-+Mary+McCampbell.png News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Dr. Mary McCampbell: October 23-October 27, 2023 Dr. Mary McCampbell is an associate professor of humanities at Lee University. Her publications span the worlds of literature, film, and popular music, and this interdisciplinary focus is also present in her book, Imagining Our Neighbors as Ourselves: How Art Shapes Empathy (Fortress Press). She was the Summer 2014 Writer-in-Residence at L’Abri Fellowship in Greatham, England and a 2018 Scholar-in-Residence at Regent Theological College in Vancouver, Canada. Website: marywmccampbell.com https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/coffee-and-crumbs-exhale-creativity-podcast monthly 0.5 2024-01-18 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-jenica-donahue-october-2023 monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/92b3a1e9-bdd2-4f60-8abc-6d24b8e01731/Jenica+Headshot+-+Jenica+Donahue.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Jenica Donahue: October 16-October 20, 2023 - Jenica Donahue is currently a stay-at-home mom to two little boys. When she isn't wrangling her kiddos, you can find her writing about faith and motherhood, reading a good book over a (usually cold) cup of coffee, or baking a mean tray of blondies. She is passionate about faith and home and practicing the art of welcome. Substack: jenicawrites.substack.com Instagram: @jenicadonahue https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-emily-hartford-september-2023 monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/9c61fe01-b251-4d41-81d9-c179ac6c41da/EJH%2Bheadshot%2B%281%29.jpeg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Emily Hartford: September 25-September 29, 2023 - A full-time mum living in Kansas, Emily Hartford is also a Babywearing and Birth Educator, photographer and swing dancer. Growing up in rural Illinois, Emily began creating when she was in junior high school, sharing joyful space with women from her community in their crafting, knitting and quilting groups. These formative skills and relationships inspire Emily’s creations today. Follow on Instagram: @emilyjoyous Website: emjoyembroidery.com https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-susan-cunningham-september-2023 monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/213ffea9-ccee-4ed2-97f4-fbd2eab1038d/shcunningham.jpeg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Susan Cunningham: September 18-September 22, 2023 - Susan Haroutunian Cunningham is a poet, therapist, soul coach and spiritual director. She specializes in counseling and training survivors of trauma and abuse to bring healing in personal stories of harm. Her poetry has been featured on various podcasts and included in the anthology Rumors Secrets & Lies: Poems about Pregnancy, Abortion & Choice. Susan is the granddaughter of four survivors of the Armenian genocide and mother of two adult children. She lives in Fresno, California with her husband. Learn more: susan-cunningham.com Follow on Instagram: @susanhcunningham https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-cara-meredith-august-2023 monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2f338170-75e1-4022-b81d-5c509b548b03/_93a4515+-+Cara+Meredith.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Cara Meredith: August 28-September 1, 2023 - Cara Meredith is a writer, editor and part-time minister. A former high school English teacher and nonprofit outreach director, she holds a master’s in theology and is author of The Color of Life (Zondervan) and the forthcoming Church Camp (Broadleaf). Cara lives with her family in Oakland, California. Learn more about Cara and her writing and work at carameredith.com. Subscribe to her Substack here. And follow her on Instagram here. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-nicole-parsons-august-2023 monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/0aa93737-f29c-4c23-bae0-360fa17ab271/41545B7E-A1ED-4851-93AF-B5CD9A560E57_1_201_a+-+Nicole+Parsons.jpeg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Nicole Parsons: August 21-August 25, 2023 - Nicole Parsons is a spiritual director with an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction, and almost everything she knows she learned from stories. She is a Co-prior of Associates in the Order of Julian of Norwich, an Episcopalian Benedictine monastic community. She calls Westcliffe, Colorado home. Learn more about Nicole and her writing and work at nicolepparsons.com. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-sarah-sanderson-august-2023 monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/46546108-466a-444e-8f4a-2d8379e3f904/Copy+of+DSC04969+-+Sarah+Sanderson.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Sarah Sanderson: August 7-August 11, 2023 - Sarah L. Sanderson's book, The Place We Make, releases from WaterBrook on August 15, 2023. Find more information at www.sarahlsanderson.com. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/two-sdw-updates-dont-write-alone monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-amy-hoppock-august-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-08-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/31497801-2182-4b1d-8ba7-4923b10eb79f/IMG-8769+-+Amy+Hoppock.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Amy Hoppock: July 31-August 4, 2023 - Amy Hoppock is a spiritual director who works with people who used to be sure but now aren't so sure. She lives in Boise, Idaho, and writes a weekly newsletter, Smaller & Deeper, to remind herself and others about the extraordinary value of small moments and deeper reflection. smallerdeeper.com | Substack https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-colette-eaton-july-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-07-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1690141423496-XGU2VAR0PI0CFVCEHW2P/Headshot+Close-up+-+Colette+and+Joshua+Eaton.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Colette Eaton: July 24-July 28, 2023 - Born in Alaska, Colette Eaton is a lover of wine, charcuterie boards, and hiking on the weekends. Currently living in Portland, she loves spending time with her husband, Joshua, and their dog, Ingrid. Colette is a writer addressing the messiness of faith and community with candor and grace. coletteeaton.com | Substack | Instagram https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-guest-contributors-updated-list monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/group-spiritual-direction-for-writers monthly 0.5 2023-11-01 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/five-ways-to-prepare-for-1000wordsofsummer-five-tips-for-1000wordsofsummer-participants-one-sdw-approved-alternative monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/6ab76194-2183-4b76-b55c-06a34bce0a67/Screenshot+2023-06-09+at+11.23.28+AM.png News & Resources - Five Ways to Prepare for #1000wordsofsummer + Five Tips for #1000wordsofsummer Participants + One SDW Approved Alternative - Make it stand out Here’s a photo of me from last June with my #1000wordsofsummer mug after finishing up #1000wordsofsummer and writing 16,935 new words for the book proposal for my Spiritual Direction for Writers book. This year I will be writing at least 14,000 new words for the book that’s now under contract with Eerdmans. How cool is that? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/1000-words-of-summer-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-06-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/6ab76194-2183-4b76-b55c-06a34bce0a67/Screenshot+2023-06-09+at+11.23.28+AM.png News & Resources - #1000wordsofsummer Starts Next Saturday! - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-katie-rouse-may-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-11-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/c9e1e6e3-0860-45d3-beb4-d11d34a7a852/ck-bride-and-groom-0005+-+Katie+Rouse.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Katie Rouse: May 22-May 26, 2023 and November 27-November 30, 2023 - Katie Rouse (she/her) is a marketing manager and freelance writer. She mostly posts on Instagram, @katie.rose.rouse, writing on faith, doubt, and deconstruction, as well as sharing poetry. She loves sending out weekly poems to email subscribers, occasionally writing blog posts at katierousewrites.com. Find her published or upcoming writing with Missive Mag, hyssop + laurel, The Unmooring, and Humankind Zine. She published her first book of poetry, Psalms of Deconstruction, in Fall 2021, and is working on her first memoir, which will recount her journey of deconstructing her faith while serving as a missionary in India. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-kelly-sauskojus-may-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-05-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/71dcac1c-eeec-4a61-94d3-89d0333a11f3/PXL_20220121_220345902_2+-+Kelly+Sauskojus.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Kelly Sauskojus: May 8-May 12, 2023 - Kelly Sauskojus is a PhD candidate in writing studies with interests in community engagement, grant writing, and food justice. In Knoxville, she's worked at several community gardens and farms, including BattleField Farm and Gardens, growing and distributing produce, teaching children, writing grants and organizing volunteers, and cussing on NPR. Follow Kelly on Twitter. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/new-for-sdw-members-poetry-and-prayer-with-ashley-m-jones monthly 0.5 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/5cc10edb-2206-41dd-a07c-4cc8d74a9693/dsc_0145-edit.png News & Resources - New for SDW Members: Poetry and Prayer with Ashley M. Jones - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-four-hour-retreat-recap-birmingham-retreat-with-javacia-harris-bowser-tamara-harper-and-holly-carlisle monthly 0.5 2023-04-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1681251919957-V0PU77DY9XY6XFHNB7JX/IMG_3665.jpg News & Resources - SDW Four-Hour Retreat Recap: Birmingham Retreat with Javacia Harris Bowser, Tamara Harper, and Holly Carlisle https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1681251926833-76AYEOEXF6WLP76VTKPY/IMG_3687.jpg News & Resources - SDW Four-Hour Retreat Recap: Birmingham Retreat with Javacia Harris Bowser, Tamara Harper, and Holly Carlisle https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1681251933035-VHYWJU75KFQ0749JVX6F/IMG_3689.jpg News & Resources - SDW Four-Hour Retreat Recap: Birmingham Retreat with Javacia Harris Bowser, Tamara Harper, and Holly Carlisle https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1681251966668-IJF9WU0MGNJ4YTCO1NRI/IMG_3696.jpg News & Resources - SDW Four-Hour Retreat Recap: Birmingham Retreat with Javacia Harris Bowser, Tamara Harper, and Holly Carlisle https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1681251974818-K93XKF93ZC4Q0S7O6ORF/IMG_3738.jpg News & Resources - SDW Four-Hour Retreat Recap: Birmingham Retreat with Javacia Harris Bowser, Tamara Harper, and Holly Carlisle https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1681251979177-CJ2C1L17BITDRIL2RNK9/IMG_3758.jpg News & Resources - SDW Four-Hour Retreat Recap: Birmingham Retreat with Javacia Harris Bowser, Tamara Harper, and Holly Carlisle https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-catherine-ricketts-april-2023 monthly 0.5 2024-06-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d7374549-0a11-47bc-8ff2-bae381ef8b77/IMG_4895+-+Catherine+Ricketts.jpeg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Catherine Ricketts: April 10- April 14, 2023 - Catherine Ricketts is an essayist, songwriter, and writing instructor. Her nonfiction on the arts, grief, joy, and spirituality appears in the Kenyon Review Online, the Ploughshares blog, Electric Literature, The Christian Century, Image, The Millions, Paste, and the music blog for the NPR-affiliate WXPN. She studied writing at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MFA in nonfiction from Seattle Pacific University. Her first book is The Mother Artist, a work of literary nonfiction on motherhood and artistic practice. Find her on Instagram at @bycatherinericketts, or stay in touch via her newsletter. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-lauren-winner-march-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-03-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/63e51f61-ebcd-4c14-a3cd-1e240bf56df9/IMG_1930+%282%29.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Lauren Winner: March 27- March 31, 2023 - Lauren F. Winner writes and lectures widely on Christian practice, the history of Christianity in America, and Jewish-Christian relations. Her books include Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith, Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis, Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God, and most recently, The Dangers of Christian Practice: On Wayward Gifts, Characteristic Damage, and Sin. Dr. Winner, an Episcopal priest, is vicar of St. Joseph's Episcopal Church in Durham, N.C. She is also a spiritual director and partners with Spiritual Direction for Writers providing one-on-one spiritual direction and leading portions of our Four-Hour Retreats. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/confused-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-spiritual-direction-for-writers-sdw monthly 0.5 2023-07-26 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-annelise-jolley-march-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-03-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1b7303dc-3a4a-4b9c-b51b-ea52d87b0906/Annie-22+-+Annelise+Jolley.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Annelise Jolley: March 20-March 24, 2023 - Annelise Jolley is an essayist and journalist who writes about place, faith, food, and ecology. Her work appears in The Rumpus, The Atavist, National Geographic, The Millions, Brevity, and EcoTheo Review, among other publications. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Seattle Pacific University. Learn more about Annie’s writing and work at annelisejolley.com Read and subscribe to her Substack: annelisejolley.substack.com Follow her on Instagram: instagram.com/annelisejolley Follow her on Twitter: twitter.com/annelisejolley https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-michelle-ortega-march-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-03-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/fadf6da7-fd47-4726-8360-9bc9541a6f97/77A120A2-E5A4-4C98-AC69-FACC67979EE7+-+Michelle+Ortega.JPG News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Michelle Ortega: March 13-March 17, 2023 - Michelle Ortega has been published at Tweetspeak Poetry, Tiferet Journal, Exit 13, The Platform Review, Shot Glass Journal, Paterson Literary Review, Rust + Moth, and elsewhere. Her other publications include the chapbook, Don’t Ask Why (Seven Kitchens Press, 2020) and a microchap, Tissue Memory (Porkbelly Press, 2022). Learn more about Michelle Ortega’s writing and work at michelleortegawrites.com. Follow her on Instagram: @michellebelleslp Follow her on Twitter: @curlygirlSLP https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-lent-solo-writing-retreat-guides-are-ready monthly 0.5 2023-03-08 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-march-2023-cowriting-sessions monthly 0.5 2023-04-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/0aa88b69-bf86-431c-8423-9b32cefa13b6/IMG_3056+%281%29.jpg News & Resources - SDW March Co-Writing Schedule AND a Couple of Announcements - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-hallie-waugh-february-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/6bea4476-ec9d-40a1-afe9-c30824c0a0b0/Waugh+-+Hallie+Waugh.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Hallie Waugh: February 20-February 24, 2023 - Hallie Waugh is a copywriter by day, poet and essayist by night. She holds an MFA in Poetry, and her works have been published with or are forthcoming from New York Quarterly, Windhover, MER Literary, Fathom, Ekstasis, and more. She lives with her husband and two sons in Oklahoma City. You can subscribe to Hallie’s Substack, Weekend Exhale, here. Learn more about Hallie at halliewaugh.com and follow her on Instagram here. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/sdw-membership-information-sessions monthly 0.5 2023-02-17 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-lauren-winner-february-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-02-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/63e51f61-ebcd-4c14-a3cd-1e240bf56df9/IMG_1930+%282%29.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Lauren Winner: February 13-February 17, 2023 - Lauren F. Winner writes and lectures widely on Christian practice, the history of Christianity in America, and Jewish-Christian relations. Her books include Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith, Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis, Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God, and most recently, The Dangers of Christian Practice: On Wayward Gifts, Characteristic Damage, and Sin. Dr. Winner, an Episcopal priest, is vicar of St. Joseph's Episcopal Church in Durham, N.C. She is also a spiritual director and partners with Spiritual Direction for Writers providing one-on-one spiritual direction and leading portions of our Four-Hour Retreats. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-tanya-davis-february-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-02-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/3b9cdb24-86ca-485c-a8fb-55de39154b2b/PBD+Headshot+-+Tanya+Davis..jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Tanya Davis: February 6-February 10, 2023 - Tanya Davis is a Narrative Writer who believes stories connect and create waves of empathy and love so we can bear witness with each other. She is the co-author of Urban Monks and Mystics: Find Inner Peace without Joining a Monastery (protocols for inner peace); May I Please Speak with My Father? and Don't Want to Shame My Fathers Name. In the father books, people share their stories about their relationship with their earthly father and how it impacts their relationship with the Heavenly Father. Tanya is also the founder of A Purpose by Design, a thirteen year old non-profit dedicated to helping young women discover their purpose. You can follow Tanya on Instagram here and connect with her on Facebook here. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/spiritual-direction-for-writers-february-co-writing-sessions-schedule monthly 0.5 2023-02-09 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/news-announcements/daily-nourishment-with-lauren-winner-january-23-january-27-2023 monthly 0.5 2023-02-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/63e51f61-ebcd-4c14-a3cd-1e240bf56df9/IMG_1930+%282%29.jpg News & Resources - Daily Nourishment with Lauren Winner: January 23-January 27, 2023 - Lauren F. Winner writes and lectures widely on Christian practice, the history of Christianity in America, and Jewish-Christian relations. Her books include Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath, A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith, Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis, Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God, and most recently, The Dangers of Christian Practice: On Wayward Gifts, Characteristic Damage, and Sin. Dr. Winner, an Episcopal priest, is vicar of St. Joseph's Episcopal Church in Durham, N.C. 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Daily Nourishment for April 7: Poetry, Play, and Creating New Endings - Pause. Read “Pan Dulce” by Jose Hernandez Diaz https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 7: Poetry, Play, and Creating New Endings - Prompt. Jose Hernandez Diaz also writes poems that have a lot of surrealism. Let’s use the poem above and Diaz’s use of surrealism in several of his other poems as inspiration. Set a timer for eight minutes.Write about a recent phone call or text exchange with a family member or friend. Then write a new ending. Experiment! Play! What else could’ve been said? What could’ve been left unsaid? Make stuff up. Make it weird. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 7: Poetry, Play, and Creating New Endings - Practice. Add one sentence to three more conversations today. After each phone call, text, or email exchange is complete, create something new. Don’t overthink it. Let your imagination extend what seems to be finished. Then see what happens next. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-6 monthly 0.5 2026-04-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 6: The State of Being Alone with James Baldwin - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read this poem by James Baldwin. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 6: The State of Being Alone with James Baldwin - Prompt. Here’s more from James Baldwin: “That all men are, when the chips are down, alone, is a banality—a banality because it is very frequently stated, but very rarely, on the evidence, believed. Most of us are not compelled to linger with the knowledge of our aloneness, for it is a knowledge that can paralyze all action in this world. There are, forever, swamps to be drained, cities to be created, mines to be exploited, children to be fed. None of these things can be done alone. But the conquest of the physical world is not man’s only duty. He is also enjoined to conquer the great wilderness of himself. The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 6: The State of Being Alone with James Baldwin - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write in response to the quotes above. Write whatever comes to mind or use one or more of the following questions/prompts: Describe your relationship with solitude. Do you have enough solitude for your spiritual life and creative practice? If so, how? If not, what do you want to do differently Which writers and artists illuminate the darkness for you? Which books, songs, paintings, TV shows, and other forms and genres of art help “make this world a more human dwelling place”? What are you doing to put yourself in the way of the art that helps you inhabit this world? What do you want to do more of so you can put yourself in the way of the art that helps you inhabit this world? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/easter-sunday monthly 0.5 2026-04-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Easter Sunday: Frederick Buechner, Dandelions, and More Art - Pause. Take several deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art or this art or this art. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Easter Sunday: Frederick Buechner, Dandelions, and More Art - Prompt. Read some words on Easter by Frederick Buechner Here’s an excerpt: “The symbol of Easter is the empty tomb. You can't depict or domesticate emptiness. You can't make it into pageants and string it with lights. It doesn't move people to give presents to each other or sing old songs. It ebbs and flows all around us, the Eastertide. Even the great choruses of Handel's Messiah sound a little like a handful of crickets chirping under the moon. He rose. A few saw him briefly and talked to him. If it is true, there is nothing left to say. If it is not true, there is nothing left to say. For believers and unbelievers both, life has never been the same again. For some, neither has death. What is left now is the emptiness. There are those who, like Magdalen, will never stop searching it till they find his face.” * AND/OR Read the poem “Dandelions” by Peter Campion https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Easter Sunday: Frederick Buechner, Dandelions, and More Art - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and freewrite in response to one or more links above. Or pick a few sentences from the essay or a few lines from the poem to copy down three or four times. You can treat it like a meditative practice. Go slow. Notice how your hand makes each letter, each shape. Pay attention. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-30-a-revision-exercise-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2026-04-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Holy Saturday: A Revision Exercise from Lauren Winner - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Holy Saturday: A Revision Exercise from Lauren Winner - Prompt. The words below and in the Practice section are from a revision exercise designed by Lauren Winner. This is an example of what will be offered during today’s Revision Stations gathering. “We know how Holy Saturday ends - that it leads to, and turns to, Easter Sunday. But the story’s original “characters” did not know what would follow from Holy Saturday. On Saturday, they only knew the present tense - Jesus in the ground.” - Lauren Winner https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Holy Saturday: A Revision Exercise from Lauren Winner - Practice. A Revision Exercise for a Work-in-Progress: “Take a moment to consider how your piece of writing plays with present and future knowledge. Pick a character from your piece and write that character in a scene two ways - in the present tense with no knowledge about what comes later, no knowledge of possible reversals, and incomplete knowledge of the stakes; and then in the long future, retrospectively, with many different knowledges about the scene than the character had when the scene actually happened.” - Lauren Winner https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/good-friday-with-padraig-o-tuama monthly 0.5 2026-04-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Good Friday with a Poem and Essay by Pádraig Ó Tuama - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to “Go to Hell” by Pádraig Ó Tuama. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Good Friday with a Poem and Essay by Pádraig Ó Tuama - Prompt. Read this essay by Pádraig Ó Tuama. Here are the last two paragraphs: “Years later, when studying theology, I came across Hans Urs Von Balthasar. Von Balthasar is noted for many things, one of which is his poetic retelling of Christ’s descent into hell. He said, “Jesus descended into hell. He is dead with us, and disturbs our loneliness. … God, in the weakness of love enters into solidarity with us who find ourselves damning ourselves, in the form of the crucified brother abandoned by God…and in such a way that is clear to the sinner that God-the-Forsaken is so for my sake.” Each year on Easter Sunday I find myself moved. Not because there is a happy ever after ending to all of our stories. It is quite clear that there is not. I am moved because of a sacred echo of a hope that there is solidarity for those who feel like we inhabit a small hell of our own experience. The hope of Easter doesn’t damn this hell with a bleaching light. Rather this hope enters and squats with us. The celebrations of Holy Week for me are not about cataclysmic resurrections, but about being moved to follow in the life of the Nazarene, bravely entering into loneliness with a small spring of consoling company.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Good Friday with a Poem and Essay by Pádraig Ó Tuama - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write in response to the poem above, the essay above, and/or one or more of the questions below. What do you want to receive from Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Eastertide this year? How do you want hope to enter your life? This world? What makes the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus worthy of following, observing, celebrating? What gaps do you wish a savior would fill in this world? What bad things do you wish could be undone? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/cb4f897e-7184-49a5-8483-566685f9a61e/1c92766a-e42c-4fe8-a6b3-fb757f768f0b_3000+%281%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Good Friday with a Poem and Essay by Pádraig Ó Tuama - Make it stand out [Good Friday by Paul Delaroche] Artist Unknown about 1870–1890 Learn more here. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/maundy-thursday-washing-feet-and-loving-one-another monthly 0.5 2026-04-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Maundy Thursday: Washing Feet and Loving One Another - Pause. On this night, Jesus gathers with his friends, breaks bread, and kneels to wash their feet. He loves them to the very end. Linger over the art by Laura James below while taking slow, deep breaths. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d63269be-8063-4479-9bc9-2d05fe9d5a5d/laura-james-jesus-washing-the-disciples-feet-2000_u-l-q1hfjq50.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Maundy Thursday: Washing Feet and Loving One Another - Make it stand out Washing Feet by Laura James https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Maundy Thursday: Washing Feet and Loving One Another - Prompt. Read “The Feet of Judas” by George Marion McLellan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Maundy Thursday: Washing Feet and Loving One Another - Practice. For 10 minutes, respond to the art and poem. How have you received unconditional love from God or a person? How have you shown others love over the past several weeks? How do you want to love others better? How do you want others to love you better? You can take notes or make lists or draw a picture. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/wednesday-of-holy-week-on-betrayal monthly 0.5 2026-04-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Wednesday of Holy Week: On Betrayal - Pause. Take deep breaths while looking at the art below— A medieval panel painting showing Judas betraying Christ with a kiss accompanied by snarling soldiers and St Peter. In the background, birds sweep dramatically through the glowering sky. The Betrayal of Christ, by Guercino—from The Christian Century: “The Baroque artist Guercino (1591–1666) depicts the moment Judas betrays Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Judas cowers in the left foreground with a bag of silver as the soldiers lay hands on Jesus. Typically, artists of the scene depict the kiss of Judas. Guercino instead focuses on the emotional exchange between Judas and Christ, as Jesus says, “Friend, do what you are here to do” (Matt. 26:50). Judas watches, horrified, as the soldier to his left drops a rope around Christ’s neck. Only Matthew’s Gospel mentions Judas’s later remorse (27:3–10). “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” Judas told the religious authorities. He threw the pieces of silver in the temple, then went and hanged himself. Like Matthew, Guercino portrays Judas’s painful loathing for what he has done. Guercino invites viewers not only to recognize their selfish motivations but to return to the compassionate and forgiving Christ.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/f2b56628-9fb1-4fd1-a245-271c0e328713/1707.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Wednesday of Holy Week: On Betrayal - Make it stand out The Kiss of Judas. Infrared photography revealed that the painting must have been turned around in the 16th century. Photograph: HKI Institute/The Fitzwilliam Museum, Image Library https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/b4d7ffe6-9272-4870-874a-34ddaab613bc/1131_lrg.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Wednesday of Holy Week: On Betrayal - Make it stand out Photo © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge / Art Resource, NY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Wednesday of Holy Week: On Betrayal - Prompt. Read “Betrayal” by By Frances Kitchell Lamar and read “Betrayal” by Patricia Clark. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Wednesday of Holy Week: On Betrayal - Practice. Take 10 minutes to respond to the art and poems. Take notes, journal, draw a picture. Or freewrite about a betrayal you have experienced. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/tuesday-of-holy-week-who-shall-deliver-me monthly 0.5 2026-04-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Tuesday of Holy Week: Who Shall Deliver Me? - Pause. In a comfortable position of rest, take a couple of deep breaths, then add a breath prayer using phrases from Psalm 6, one of today’s appointed Psalms: Inhale: Have pity on me Lord, for I am weak Exhale: heal me, Lord, for my bones are racked Or Inhale: My spirit shakes with terror Exhale: How long, O Lord, how long? Or Inhale: Turn, O Lord, and deliver me Exhale: Save me for your mercy’s sake Silently name and give your attention to the first phrase as you inhale. Silently name and give your attention the second phrase as you exhale. Repeat the breath prayer as many times as you like. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Tuesday of Holy Week: Who Shall Deliver Me? - Prompt. Read the poem below then take a few minutes to look at the painting that’s inspired by the poem. Who Shall Deliver Me? By Christina Rossetti God strengthen me to bear myself; That heaviest weight of all to bear, Inalienable weight of care. All others are outside myself; I lock my door and bar them out The turmoil, tedium, gad—about. I lock my door upon myself, And bar them out; but who shall wall Self from myself, most loathed of all? If I could once lay down myself, And start self—purged upon the race That all must run! Death runs apace. If I could set aside myself, And start with lightened heart upon The road by all men overgone! God harden me against myself, This coward with pathetic voice Who craves for ease and rest and joys Myself, arch—traitor to mysel ; My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe, My clog whatever road I go. Yet One there is can curb myself, Can roll the strangling load from me Break off the yoke and set me free https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/a4c968be-2de7-438f-8e11-7a38003efb35/art-fernand-khnopff-i-lock-my-door-upon-myself-X.2014.431-web-1024x523.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Tuesday of Holy Week: Who Shall Deliver Me? - Make it stand out Fernand Khnopff, I Lock My Door Upon Myself, 1891 (Neue Pinakothek, Munich) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Tuesday of Holy Week: Who Shall Deliver Me? - Practice. Take 10 minutes to respond to the breath prayer, poem, and painting. You can take notes, freewrite, draw a picture, and/or consider these questions: What do you want to be delivered from? What might deliverance look like? Which characters from books or films show you what it looks like for someone to be delivered from suffering, pain, hardship? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-30-monday-holy-week monthly 0.5 2026-03-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Monday of Holy Week: Stations of the Cross and Stabat Mater - Pause. According to the Episcopal Church, The Way of the Cross or Stations of the Cross are “a devotion to the Passion of Christ which recalls a series of events at the end of Jesus' life from his condemnation to his burial. The Way of the Cross imitates the practice of visiting the places of Jesus' Passion in the Holy Land by early Christian pilgrims. The first stations outside Palestine were built in Bologna in the fifth century. This devotion was encouraged by the Franciscans, and it became common in the fifteenth century. The number of stations for prayer and meditation in the Way of the Cross has varied, but it typically includes fourteen stations. Each station may have a cross and an artistic representation of the scene. The stations may be erected inside a church or outdoors.” Take slow deep breaths while listening to “Stabat Mater, P.77: I. Duet.Stabet Mater dolorosa and reviewing the list below tbat describes what’s represented by each of the Stations of the Cross. 1) Jesus is condemned to death; 2) Jesus takes up his cross; 3) Jesus falls the first time; 4) Jesus meets his afflicted mother; 5) the cross is laid on Simon of Cyrene; 6) a woman wipes the face of Jesus; 7) Jesus falls a second time; 8) Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem; 9) Jesus falls a third time; 10) Jesus is stripped of his garments; 11) Jesus is nailed to the cross; 12) Jesus dies on the cross; 13) the body of Jesus is placed in the arms of his mother; 14) Jesus is laid in the tomb. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Monday of Holy Week: Stations of the Cross and Stabat Mater - Prompt. Read about some Stations of the Cross created by Allan Rohan Crite below, excerpted from The Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion’s website: “The brush and ink drawings in our Stations of the cross were originally created by Allan Rohan Crite for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the city of St. Louis (since closed). They depict Jesus as a black man, walking through an African-American neighborhood. On close examination the newspapers in each drawing give clues as to the station depicted. Holy Communion’s stations are a copy of the originals, made with the gracious permission of the vestry of All Saints and Ascension Episcopal Church, the inheritors of the artwork. The originals are on display in their sanctuary in Northwoods. Holy Communion is thankful for their gift. Allan Rohan Crite has been described as “artist-reporter of the African American community.” Born in 1910, Crite grew up and continued to live in Boston. As stated by one art historian: “Crite viewed his work as a vehicle of communication, daring to span the gulf between the ordinary and the extraordinary, the secular, and the divine.” His paintings tell a simple story about the quality of one day, a small activity, or an historic holy event. Rohan Crite was a lifelong Episcopalian.” * Take a few minutes to do a close looking of Station 1 by Allan Rohan Crite below. If you like, take notes about what captures your attention, what makes you curious, what happens in your body, mind, and soul as you look at this art. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/67f7e252-db91-426a-a9a4-1841123d6c82/condemned-Station.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Monday of Holy Week: Stations of the Cross and Stabat Mater - Make it stand out Station 1 Jesus is Condemned to Die Allan Rohan Crite https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Monday of Holy Week: Stations of the Cross and Stabat Mater - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and have five minutes of silence and stillness. After the silence, write three sentences about your five minutes of silence. Write three sentences in response to today’s Pause and Prompt. Write three more sentences about anything that comes to mind. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-for-palm-sunday monthly 0.5 2026-04-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Palm Sunday: Finding Our Way to God - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the art below. (Learn more about this art at artandtheology.org.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/4ce509fa-a4ef-4fd0-b102-5dcfe6be1a37/dfm_13_f43v.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Palm Sunday: Finding Our Way to God - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Palm Sunday: Finding Our Way to God - Prompt. Read this sonnet by Malcolm Guite. You can listen to Guite read it here on his website. Palm Sunday Now to the gate of my Jerusalem, The seething holy city of my heart, The saviour comes. But will I welcome him? Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start; They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing, And think the battle won. Too soon they’ll find The challenge, the reversal he is bringing Changes their tune. I know what lies behind The surface flourish that so quickly fades; Self-interest, and fearful guardedness, The hardness of the heart, its barricades, And at the core, the dreadful emptiness Of a perverted temple. Jesus come Break my resistance and make me your home. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Palm Sunday: Finding Our Way to God - Practice. Set a ten-minute timer and respond to the visual art and poem shared in today’s Daily Nourishment. You can respond in any way you like. Take notes or freewrite or draw a picture. Here are a few questions to respond to, if helpful: What do the art and poem make you more curious about? What do the art and poem show you about yourself and the divine? How do you want to inhabit today and the coming week? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-28 monthly 0.5 2026-04-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 28: Long, long, long ago with Anonymous 4 and Lauren Winner - Pause. Listen to “Abbeville” by Anonymous 4. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 28: Long, long, long ago with Anonymous 4 and Lauren Winner - Prompt. Among my favorite cds (yes, that’s still how I listen to music) are those by Anonymous 4, a now-disbanded quartet (obviously) of women who first sang medieval music, and then, in 2004, began interweaving American music into their recording repertoire. After the release of their first American-flavored album, Anonymous 4 was interviewed on NPR. In that interview Marsha Genensky says that long before Anonymous 4 even existed, she was studying traditional folk music with a woman in the Ozarks. Genensky’s teacher took her to church, where she heard “Abbeville.” “I was moved beyond anything and I just had to know more.” That was the beginning of the many-years-later American Angels. “Sometimes you just get a sound in your head and you, you just have to follow it,” said Genensky. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 28: Long, long, long ago with Anonymous 4 and Lauren Winner - Practice. Write for 7-10 minutes about something you heard in the past that you just had to follow. If nothing comes to mind, see if you can write your way into a memory of something you heard and followed. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-27 monthly 0.5 2026-04-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 27: Read Poetry Regularly - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read a favorite poem (or any poem you can find without too much trouble). Then do a breath prayer/meditation using single words or phrases from the poem. Inhale a word or phrase and exhale a word or phrase. Repeat the breath prayer five or so times. When I do breath prayers, I usually inhale a word or phrase that corresponds to or names something I want to receive and exhale a word or phrase that corresponds to or names something I want to let go of. If this particular breathing practice doesn’t work well for your poem, or if it feels awkward, skip it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 27: Read Poetry Regularly - Prompt. Here’s more from Lydia Davis: “Be sure to read poetry, regularly, whether you are a poet or a writer of prose. I hope, of course, that if you’re a poet, you are already reading a lot of poetry. You will not develop, as a writer, if you don’t read. You won’t write as well, if you’re a prose writer, if you don’t read poetry.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 27: Read Poetry Regularly - Practice. Use a website like poetryfoundation.org or read a book of poems. Set a 10-minute timer and read some poems. Make Lydia Davis proud and take some notes while reading the poems or after you’re done. Want more direction? Read this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. Then read them again and again. And. If you don’t own any books of poetry, consider buying one, two, or three! https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-26 monthly 0.5 2026-03-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 26: Read the Best Writers from All Different Periods because You Already Belong to Your Time - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read or listen to “The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm” by Wallace Stevens. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 26: Read the Best Writers from All Different Periods because You Already Belong to Your Time - Prompt. Here’s more from Lydia Davis: “You should be reading a lot—reading different kinds of books but also reading in different ways: sometimes fast, and sometimes slowly. Sometimes just absorbing what you are reading, losing yourself; at other times analyzing as you read, developing your awareness of how a writer achieves an effect; sometimes stopping to analyze closely just one sentence or one paragraph.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 26: Read the Best Writers from All Different Periods because You Already Belong to Your Time - Practice. Set a 10-minute minute timer and read one paragraph from a favorite book. Stay with that same paragraph for the entire 10 minutes and take notes on how the writer “achieved an effect.” Then take notes for a few more minutes on how you experienced the 10-minute exercise. What did you notice beyond the page? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-25 monthly 0.5 2026-03-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 25: Try Not Knowing - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then look at “The Silence” by Carel Weight for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 25: Try Not Knowing - Prompt. In “The Silence,” Carel Weight “wished to convey his belief that although people come together in rituals, their experience is essentially solitary. To emphasise this, the three figures never met and were painted separately.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 25: Try Not Knowing - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and have five minutes of silence and stillness. Write three sentences about your five minutes of silence. Write three sentences of fiction about a character’s experience of a brief period of silence. Write three more sentences about someone’s silence. These three sentences can be fiction, nonfiction, memoir, a prose poem, a letter to a friend, anything. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-24-write-from-your-own-interest monthly 0.5 2026-03-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 24: Write from Your Own Interest - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then look at this painting by John Fabian Carlson for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 24: Write from Your Own Interest - Prompt. Here’s more from Lydia Davis: “My interest may pass. But for the moment I follow it and enjoy it, not knowing where it will go. Let your interest, and particularly what you want to write about, be tested by time, not by other people—either real other people or imagined other people.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 24: Write from Your Own Interest - Practice. Set a ten-minute timer and write about one thing you’re interested in that you’ve never written about. Write what you know. Write what you don’t know. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-23-be-mostly-self-taught monthly 0.5 2026-03-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 23: Be Mostly Self Taught - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Prayer at Sunrise” by James Weldon Johnson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 23: Be Mostly Self Taught - Prompt. Here’s more from Lydia Davis: “I have found that pursuing my own interests in various directions and to various sources of information can take me on fantastic adventures: I have stayed up till the early hours of the morning poring over old phone books; or following genealogical lines back hundreds of years; or reading a book about what lies under a certain French city; or comparing early maps of Manhattan as I search for a particular farmhouse. These adventures become as gripping as a good novel.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 23: Be Mostly Self Taught - Practice. Make a list of five things you want to explore about the craft of writing. Make a list of five topics you want to research. Make a list of five things you will do in the coming weeks that will help you become a better writer. Make a list of five things you will do in the coming hours and days that will nourish you so you can do the writing and work you want to do. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-22 monthly 0.5 2026-03-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 22: Blessed Are Those Who Seek - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while reading “A Word” by Scott Cairns. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 22: Blessed Are Those Who Seek - Prompt. Set a timer for 10 minutes and begin taking notes using the prompts below. —Make a list of five thoughts/ideas you have about the season of Lent. —Find and write down three quotes about Lent from others that help you feel seen and known. —Make a list of five things worthy of grief. —With any remaining time, take notes about the items on your lists or anything else that comes to mind. Those who aren’t Christians are welcome to use these prompts: —Make a list of five thoughts/ideas you have about the reality of suffering. —Find and write down three quotes about suffering from others that help you feel seen and known. —Make a list of five things worthy of grief. —With any remaining time, take notes about the items on your lists or anything else that comes to mind. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 22: Blessed Are Those Who Seek - Practice. Return to these prompts and your notes daily during the next few days. Notice how your thoughts on Lent or suffering develop after taking and reviewing these notes. Be curious and see what happens next. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-21-more-blank-space monthly 0.5 2026-03-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 21: More Blank Space - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to a song that helps you feel less alone in the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 21: More Blank Space - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and respond to one or more of the questions below: How have recent or past tragedies shaken your reality? What specific things, events, circumstances do you wish could be undone? How have you noticed God’s presence in your creative work and beyond during the past week? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 21: More Blank Space - Practice. Schedule some blank space in your day today. At least 15 minutes. An hour is great. Two hours are better. Just be. No agenda. Do something that feels frivolous or rest your eyes or sit in a cozy spot and let your mind wander. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-20-with-charlotte-donlon monthly 0.5 2026-03-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 20: At the Center of Life with Eugene Peterson, Toni Morrison, and More - Pause. Set a timer for three minutes and set an intention to pray or hold space for anyone who comes to mind. As you think of a person’s name or face, say their first name aloud, pray the name in silence, or write it down on a piece of paper or in your journal. Try to clear any additional thoughts from your mind and let the names be the prayer or meditation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 20: At the Center of Life with Eugene Peterson, Toni Morrison, and More - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and write about the prayer/meditation exercise above. Freewrite or respond to one or more of the following questions: —How did you experience that prayer/meditation practice? —Which names surprised you? Why? —What else did you notice about the names that came to mind? —Who do you want to add to your prayer/meditation/list? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 20: At the Center of Life with Eugene Peterson, Toni Morrison, and More - Practice. Schedule one or two more rounds of the name prayer/meditation for later today. Go ahead and add it to your calendar or set a reminder. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-19-with-charlotte-donlon monthly 0.5 2026-03-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 19: What Do YOU Need Today? - Pause. Set a timer for three minutes and pause in a way that’s helpful for you right now. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 19: What Do YOU Need Today? - Prompt. Set a timer for five minutes and make a list of five to then things you want to write about one day soon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 19: What Do YOU Need Today? - Practice. Check in with yourself a few times throughout the day. How can you determine what your body, mind, and soul need today? How can you give yourself what you need today? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-18-bring-a-poem-alive-with-robert-haas-maura-stanton-and-more monthly 0.5 2026-03-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 18: Bring a Poem Alive with Robert Haas, Maura Stanton, and More - Pause. Do a few rounds of box breathing. “Box breathing refers to the fact that a box has four sides, a concept represented here by breathing while you slowly count to four for a total of four times — four counts of breathing in, four counts of holding your breath, four counts of exhaling, and four more counts of holding after your exhale.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 18: Bring a Poem Alive with Robert Haas, Maura Stanton, and More - Prompt. Read the poem “Spring” by Maura Stanton aloud three times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 18: Bring a Poem Alive with Robert Haas, Maura Stanton, and More - Practice. Using the poem above as a guide, set a timer for 10 minutes and explore an abstraction like love or goodness or power by asking questions, making observations, and giving commands that incorporate elements of the natural world. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-17-the-poems-always-know-with-ashley-m-jones monthly 0.5 2026-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 17: The Poems Always Know with Ashley M. Jones - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 17: The Poems Always Know with Ashley M. Jones - Prompt. Watch this 7(ish)-minute video of Ashley M. Jones on poetry and prayer from an online SDW Four-Hour Retreat a few years ago. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 17: The Poems Always Know with Ashley M. Jones - Practice. Journal for five or more minutes in response to Ashley’s poems and the questions she asks. What do these poems seem to know and what are they telling you? What have you learned about yourself from the poems you’ve just heard? What comes up in a meditation on them? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-16-move-towards-peace monthly 0.5 2026-03-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 16: Move Away from Chaos and Towards Peace - Pause. Close your eyes. During your next inhale, say “receive peace” to yourself and imagine inhabiting a peaceful scene in your personal and daily life. During your next exhale, say “release chaos,” and visualize chaos leaving your personal and daily life. Breathe in peace and breathe out chaos 10 times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 16: Move Away from Chaos and Towards Peace - Prompt. List five things that bring peace to your life and writing practice. List five things that bring chaos to your life and writing practice. Take notes for seven minutes about your lists and anything else that comes to mind. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 16: Move Away from Chaos and Towards Peace - Practice. Be intentional and put yourself in the way of things that bring you peace today and in the coming days—even while global peace is not a reality. More than one thing can be true at the same time. We can seek peace where possible throughout our typical days in our roles and responsibilities while acknowledging the very real wars, systems of oppression, and harmful power plays happening all around us. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-15-what-the-body-knows monthly 0.5 2026-03-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 15: What the Body Knows - Pause. Sit or stand and take three slow breaths. On each exhale, scan for where you are holding tension — jaw, shoulders, chest, hands. Don't try to fix it. Just say hello to it. Ask the tension: What are you trying to tell me? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 15: What the Body Knows - Prompt. Begin a piece of writing from the body's perspective—not your perspective, but your body's. Let your body narrate one scene from your week: "This morning she sat at the desk and I felt…" Stay in that voice for ten minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 15: What the Body Knows - Practice. This week, before each writing session, allow for two minutes in physical stillness with your eyes closed. Notice where in your body the desire to write lives. Give that place a name—just between you and the page. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-14 monthly 0.5 2026-03-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 14: Spend It All - Pause. Take a few slow deep breaths. Then think of the one idea, image, or memory you've been saving for the right time, the right project, the right version of yourself. Sit with the question: What am I hoarding? Notice any resistance that arises. That resistance is good information to have. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 14: Spend It All - Prompt. Write about the thing you've been saving. Use it up. Don't be precious. Spend it as if you found out today was your last writing day. Write for ten minutes without stopping. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 14: Spend It All - Practice. At the end of the next three days or your next three writing sessions, ask yourself: Did I hold anything back today? If the answer is yes, that held-back thing becomes your next journaling prompt or the opening line of your next writing session. Keep spending. The account, it turns out, refills. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-13 monthly 0.5 2026-03-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 13: What Adam Zagajewski Didn't Write - Pause. Read “Transformation” slowly, aloud if you can. (And/or listen to Pádraig Ó Tuama read it aloud.) Take a few deep breaths. Read it again. Notice what the poem’s narrator was doing while he wasn't writing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 13: What Adam Zagajewski Didn't Write - Prompt. Write your own version. If you like, you can begin with "I haven't written in ______." Then list—honestly, specifically—everything you have been doing while not writing. The ordinary things. The hard things. The long walks. The watching. Don't worry about making anything sound poetic. Just name what you’ve been doing while not writing. See what's there. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 13: What Adam Zagajewski Didn't Write - Practice. Throughout the rest of the day (or for the next few days) keep a "what I did instead of writing" list. No judgment, just observation. At the end of each day, read back through the list and respond to the questions below: What has this life been trying to give me? What have I received? What have I offered? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-12-the-season-you-called-an-interruption monthly 0.5 2026-03-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 12: The Season You Called an Interruption - Pause. Sit with the question above for one full minute. Don't answer it yet. Just let it move through you. Notice where it lands. In your chest, your gut, your throat. If something tightens, that tightening is information. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 12: The Season You Called an Interruption - Prompt. Write at the top of a piece of paper or page in your journal: "The season I've been calling an interruption." Then name it. A job, a loss, a long silence, a caregiving season, a year of not-writing? Then write for eight minutes in response to this question: What might this season have been forming in me that I couldn't have gotten any other way? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 12: The Season You Called an Interruption - Practice. For the next five days, choose one recurring moment from your ordinary life that you have privately resented as a thief of your writing time. The commute, the dishes, the school pickup, the insomnia. Each time you encounter it, whisper: All of life is the writing life. This is forming me. At the end of each day (or at the end of most days), write one sentence about what it might have been forming. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-11-catherine-ricketts monthly 0.5 2026-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 11: On Tears with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes and meditate on Weeping Man by Leonard Baskin. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 11: On Tears with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Prompt. In the Christian year, it is the season of Lent--a season of lament and reflection. This week, we will meditate on tears. It’s difficult to write about tears without slipping into sentimentality, so our prompts will give us ideas for writing about tears with fresh language, while inviting us to reflect on the things that grieve us and provoke this fundamental human response. Heather Christle writes, “I suppose some people can weep softly and become more beautiful, but after a real cry, most people are hideous, as if they’ve grown a spare and diseased face beneath the one you know, leaving very little room for the eyes.” Prose about emotion that is grounded in the physical body can prevent us from slipping into abstraction and sentimentality. What do you look like when you cry? Free-write on this for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 11: On Tears with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Practice. Study your face in the mirror for two whole minutes. Later today, study it again. Notice whether your face changes from one time of day to the next. Consider writing about this. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-10 monthly 0.5 2026-03-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 10: Spring Again with Maggie Smith, Mindful Walking, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art, Nanakusa (Seven Herbs of Early Spring), from Momoyogusa (A World of Things), Volume 3. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 10: Spring Again with Maggie Smith, Mindful Walking, and More - Prompt. Read or listen to “Not everything is a poem” by Maggie Smith. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 10: Spring Again with Maggie Smith, Mindful Walking, and More - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and freewrite in response to the poem, the art, and spring. Set a timer for five minutes and draw a sketch of the art. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-9-posture-of-gratitude-nicole-parsons monthly 0.5 2026-03-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 9: A Posture of Gratitude with Nicole Parsons - Pause. Find a quiet place with some privacy. Find a way that feels comfortable for you to kneel or bow. Then repeat the words “thank you” at your own pace, silently or out loud. Spend two minutes in this attitude and posture of gratefulness. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 9: A Posture of Gratitude with Nicole Parsons - Prompt. Take five minutes to write a whole bunch of very short thank you notes to the things you see in your immediate environment. Be direct and specific (“Thank you pen for not being out of ink.”). This will feel silly, but write as many thanks to as many different things as you can in five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 9: A Posture of Gratitude with Nicole Parsons - Practice. Pick one of the objects you just thanked, one that feels like you just now really notice it. Write about it for 8 minutes. Observe it closely. How is it made? What does it look like, feel like? What can you imagine about the person who dreamed it up, designed it? How much intention and work, trial and error might have been put into this object before it came to your space? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-8-anne-sexton-more-god-everywhere monthly 0.5 2026-03-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 8: More God Everywhere with Anne Sexton - Pause. Listen to this short Bach Trio. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 8: More God Everywhere with Anne Sexton - Prompt. Read “The Fury of Sunrises” by Anne Sexton. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 8: More God Everywhere with Anne Sexton - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and take notes on new beginnings, sunrises, and any thoughts that the poem “The Fury of Sunrises” brings to mind. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-7 monthly 0.5 2026-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 7: A Quiet Aura with Charlotte Brontë - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read the poem “Pleasure” by Charlotte Brontë. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 7: A Quiet Aura with Charlotte Brontë - Prompt. Do visio divina for seven minutes using this art and these instructions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 7: A Quiet Aura with Charlotte Brontë - Practice. Sit outside in silence for 10 minutes today. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-6-more-water monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 6: Lots of Water with Brian Doyle, Frederick Buechner, and More - Pause. Watch (or listen if it’s too foggy!) this Niagara Falls webcam or this Lisbon Falls webcam for two minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 6: Lots of Water with Brian Doyle, Frederick Buechner, and More - Prompt. Read “Twice More to the Lake” by Brian Doyle. Begin a new story, poem, or letter to a friend inspired by a memory connected to water. Write for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 6: Lots of Water with Brian Doyle, Frederick Buechner, and More - Practice. Do three slow silent readings of this poem or this Scripture passage. Choose a few lines to write down by hand. Read those same lines aloud twice. Put both hands under running water for two minutes. Take notes or journal about water, the Pause, the Prompt, and this Practice for four minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-5-charlie-kaufman-our-art-needs-to-reflect-our-world monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 5: Reflecting the World in Our Work with Charlie Kaufman - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to “I Shall Not Walk Alone” by The Blind Boys of Alabama. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 5: Reflecting the World in Our Work with Charlie Kaufman - Prompt. Read the quotes below from a speech Charlie Kaufman gave last year. “We are trained to do the bidding of people who are motivated not by curiosity but by protecting their jobs.” ”Our work is to reflect the world, say what is true in the face of so much lying.” ”I do know that art means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of the power which holds it hostage.” (Adrienne Rich) ”The world is a mess. The world is beautiful. The world is impossibly complicated. And we have the opportunity to explore that.” ”Be nervous. Be vulnerable. Just make your story honest and tell it.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 5: Reflecting the World in Our Work with Charlie Kaufman - Practice. At the end of the speech quoted above, Kaufman expressed gratitude for the opportunity to reflect on screenwriters' work and why it's important. I invite you to reflect on your writing and why it’s important. Set a timer for seven minutes and journal or take notes on the importance of your writing and work. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-4-therapy-and-novel-writing monthly 0.5 2026-03-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 4: Making Maps, Therapy, and Novel Writing - Pause. Read “The Map” by Elizabeth Bishop. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 4: Making Maps, Therapy, and Novel Writing - Prompt. “Making a Map: On Therapy and Novel Writing” by Erin Griffin Collum: “Writing my novel became its own parallel track to my therapy sessions and to living in a pandemic. It helped me uncover what I wanted and thought and felt throughout a year that shoved us all out of our windows of tolerance. It helped me understand what I find fun, and it helped me validate myself. I wrote for the right reasons: because I wanted to, because it felt good, and because it was a project I cared about. Now, when the “before times” confusion sets in, it’s still hard. There’s still hurt and grit and darkness. There’s still news in my inbox about death tolls and division that knocks the breath out of me. Nothing about the last year and a half has been easy or simple. And yet. Now I know how to find my way. I know how to make a map.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 4: Making Maps, Therapy, and Novel Writing - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the quote above. Use one or more of these questions if you like: How do you know if you’re writing for the right reasons? What are some of the wrong reasons? How is writing a form of play for you? How does writing help you know more of yourself? How does writing help you find your way through difficulty? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-3-hoping-for-hope-with-mary-karr monthly 0.5 2026-03-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 3: Hoping for Hope with Mary Karr - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 3: Hoping for Hope with Mary Karr - Prompt. Read this quote by Mary Karr: “No life is all bleak… That’s what’s so gorgeous about humanity. It doesn’t matter how bleak our daily lives are, we still fight for the light. I think that’s our divinity. We lean into love, even in the most hideous circumstances. We manage to hope.” —Mary Karr, The Paris Review https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 3: Hoping for Hope with Mary Karr - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the quote above. How is life not bleak right now? What’s gorgeous about humanity right now? How do you put yourself in the way of light? How do you lean into love? What are you hoping for? Or, how do you hope for hope? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-2-rain-in-literature monthly 0.5 2026-03-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 2: Rain in Literature with Kazim Ali, Colson Whitehead, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Rain” by Kazim Ali. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 2: Rain in Literature with Kazim Ali, Colson Whitehead, and More - Prompt. Here’s more writing on rain from Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York: “Out on the street they hardly notice the clouds before it starts raining. The rain comes down in sheets. Drenched all at once, not drop by drop. The first drop is the pistol at the start of the race and at that crack people move for shelter, any ragtag thing, they huddle under ripped awnings, the doorway of the diner, suddenly an appetite for coffee. Pressed up against buildings as if on the lam. Little sprints and dashes between horizontal cover. Dry here. Surely it will stop soon, they think. They can wait it out. It cannot last forever.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 2: Rain in Literature with Kazim Ali, Colson Whitehead, and More - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write about rain. Write what you know and what you don’t know. Write a prayer. Write the truth or make up some stuff. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-1 monthly 0.5 2026-03-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 1: Places and Their Stories with Toni Morrison and Megan Dohm - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and six-count exhale while reading this quote from Beloved by Toni Morrison: “Some things you forget. Other things you never do… Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place--the picture of it--stays, and not just in my remory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don't think if, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 1: Places and Their Stories with Toni Morrison and Megan Dohm - Prompt. Here’s an excerpt from “The Lost Midwives of Ocracoke” by Megan Dohm: “Ocracoke is a small slip of an island off the North Carolina coast. It’s a place where some of the houses were built with timber stripped from shipwrecks, a place with countless stories of lost sailors, of German U-boats dangerously close to shore, of a beheaded pirate swimming laps around the wreckage of his ship. The memory of storms has soaked into the roots of trees, into people, and into the low tide silt — the kind of storms that demolish two churches, two schools, and 30 houses in less than a day, and leave drowned chickens up in the trees.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 1: Places and Their Stories with Toni Morrison and Megan Dohm - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and begin writing about a familiar place. Using the quotes above as guides, describe the place with unique and specific details. Maybe some of these questions will help you determine what to include: What sets this place apart? Which stories does this place hold? What does this place remember? What has this place forgotten? What do you see in this place that others might not see? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-28-word-offerings-divine-encounters-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2026-02-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 28: Word Offerings and Divine Encounters with Lauren Winner - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to NPR’s Guy Raz interview Lauren Winner. Give particular attention to a story about how she met God in a particular way during a church service. The story begins 3 minutes and 15 seconds into the interview. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 28: Word Offerings and Divine Encounters with Lauren Winner - Prompt. After listening to this story, set a timer for eight minutes and use the scene described as a prompt to begin a prayer, new fiction, a new essay, or a new poem. What happens next? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 28: Word Offerings and Divine Encounters with Lauren Winner - Practice. Here are more questions to consider in the coming hours and days: How have you met the divine in a way you weren’t expecting? How do you wish you could notice the divine today or one day soon? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-27-ada-limon-forsythia-taking-notes-outside monthly 0.5 2026-02-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 27: Ada Limón, Forsythia, and Taking Notes Outside - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art. Then read the art description below the image in the link. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 27: Ada Limón, Forsythia, and Taking Notes Outside - Prompt. Listen to Ada Limón read the poem “Forsythia.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 27: Ada Limón, Forsythia, and Taking Notes Outside - Practice. Go outside, set a timer for seven minutes, and take notes on some of the things you can see, hear, touch, and notice today, right now. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-26-mark-jarman monthly 0.5 2026-02-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 26: Marveling at Poems with Mark Jarman - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Unholy Sonnet 11” by Mark Jarman. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 26: Marveling at Poems with Mark Jarman - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and begin a response to this prompt from Mark Jarman: “Take a poem you wish you had written—a poem you love and marvel at—and go ahead and try to write your version of it. This occurs in poetry more often than you might think. “Sailing to Byzantium” is W. B. Yeats’s version of John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale,” for example, and “The Windhover” is clearly Gerard Manley Hopkins’ version of the Keats poem. I had long admired and marveled at “Home Burial” by Robert Frost. But it was not until I began to write “Questions for Ecclesiastes” that I was able to recognize that it was my version of Frost’s great poem. This might seem like a tall order and much more than an exercise. But it’s worth it, even if it takes you a lifetime.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 26: Marveling at Poems with Mark Jarman - Practice. In the coming hours or days, read three of the poems Jarman mentions in the prompt above: “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Sailing to Byzantium”, and “The Windhover”. Study the similarities, differences, and influences. Take notes. See what happens next. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-25-breath-and-prayer monthly 0.5 2026-02-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 25: Breath, Uncertainty, and a Prayer by Gertrude the Great - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. This six-count inhale and six-count exhale will help integrate your body+mind+soul. All religions from the beginning of time have prayers that use a six count inhale and six count exhale structure. (Read more in Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 25: Breath, Uncertainty, and a Prayer by Gertrude the Great - Prompt. Read “a brief meditation on breath” by Yesenia Montilla. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 25: Breath, Uncertainty, and a Prayer by Gertrude the Great - Practice. Here’s a quote by Montilla about the poem above: “I started this poem at the beginning of the pandemic. I am part of an incredible women’s writing group led by the incomparable Cheryl Boyce Taylor and she had tasked us to write through the uncertainty. I could not help but make the correlation between the inability to take in breath—a symptom of COVID-19 and the loss of breath at the hands of the police—a reality of being Black in America. This was before we knew that this virus would take us in such higher numbers compared to white folks. This was before George Floyd and all that has happened and continues to happen and will continue to happen as we try to get free.” Set a timer for seven minutes and respond to these questions: What were you uncertain of during March of 2020? What are you uncertain of now? What will you be uncertain of in four years? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-24-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2026-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 24: Anna Atkins, Cyanotypes, and Figuring It Out with Lauren Winner - Pause. For one minute, look at this cyanotype by Anna Atkins. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 24: Anna Atkins, Cyanotypes, and Figuring It Out with Lauren Winner - Prompt. Atkins (1799-1871) was one of cyanotype’s early adopters; she used the method (which was invented in 1842) to capture plant life. The Public Domain Review explains how cyanotypes are made: an “object is placed on paper which has been treated with ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, after which it is exposed to sunlight and then washed in water, leading to the uncovered areas of the paper turning a dark blue.” Here’s another cyanotype by Anna Atkins. And here’s another one. Photography dealer Jeffrey Fraenkel has said, about cyanotyopes, “The color blue strikes some chord in us that goes beyond words.” For three minutes, brainstorm the blue objects in your life, past and present, that have been important to you. Then, if you wish, write toward one of them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 24: Anna Atkins, Cyanotypes, and Figuring It Out with Lauren Winner - Practice. Click on the cyanotype here to call up five images by five different people (Atkins is one), and take a minute or two with each image. Make a cyanotype (you will not need a camera; you will need cyanotype paper). https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-23 monthly 0.5 2026-02-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 23: Hallie Waugh on Scent, Memory, Paying Attention, and More - Pause. When you get a chance, step outside. Breathe in deeply through your nose for five breaths. What do you smell? What does that scent tell you about the world around you? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 23: Hallie Waugh on Scent, Memory, Paying Attention, and More - Prompt. Set a timer for five minutes and write a list of scents that have formed you, starting with your childhood. Choose one of the scents and flesh it out into a paragraph or longer piece for five more minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 23: Hallie Waugh on Scent, Memory, Paying Attention, and More - Practice. Immerse yourself in an aroma that is meaningful to you this week. Maybe it’s the scent of fresh-baked bread, your favorite perfume, or the smell of clean laundry. Return to your list of scents from the prompt above. Write vignettes for as many scents as you’d like, or use this list for future writing prompts and ideas. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-22 monthly 0.5 2026-02-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 22: Hallie Waugh with Full Bellies, Poetry, and More - Pause. Take a sip or a bite of something you love that’s readily available. Practice mindful eating (or drinking) by sitting in silence, chewing slowly, and noticing how the taste makes you feel. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 22: Hallie Waugh with Full Bellies, Poetry, and More - Prompt. Set a timer for ten minutes and write about a meal you will never forget. Use as many sensory descriptors as you can. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 22: Hallie Waugh with Full Bellies, Poetry, and More - Practice. Read this poem. Go to the supermarket this week and purchase a fruit or vegetable you typically don’t use—I’m thinking starfruit, dragonfruit, or leeks. Do a quick search on how to cook it, or enjoy it fresh. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-21-hidden-silence-with-hallie-waugh-quieting-yourself monthly 0.5 2026-02-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 21: Hidden Silence with Hallie Waugh, Quieting Yourself, Music, and More - Pause. For five minutes, practice “quieting.” Sit still and listen for the quietest sound you can hear. Then, listen for the next quietest sound, and the next, and so on. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 21: Hidden Silence with Hallie Waugh, Quieting Yourself, Music, and More - Prompt. Choose a favorite piece of music—anything will do, whether a classical arrangement or your favorite pop song from high school. Write a few paragraphs describing the song to someone as if they’ve never heard it before. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 21: Hidden Silence with Hallie Waugh, Quieting Yourself, Music, and More - Practice. Try the practice of quieting several times throughout your day, or incorporate it into your daily routine. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-20-hallie-waugh-david-linden monthly 0.5 2026-02-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 20: When Touch Transcends Language with Hallie Waugh, David Linden, the Science of Touch, and More - Pause. Sit in a comfortable position and set a timer for three minutes. Notice what sensations you feel on your skin: the way your body rests on the chair beneath you, the temperature of the air, the feel of your feet on the ground. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 20: When Touch Transcends Language with Hallie Waugh, David Linden, the Science of Touch, and More - Prompt. Think of a time when touch transcended language or created intense emotions. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write that scene using as many sensory descriptors as possible. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 20: When Touch Transcends Language with Hallie Waugh, David Linden, the Science of Touch, and More - Practice. Use some time throughout your day mindfully touching your surroundings and observing what you feel—the knit blanket on your couch, the fur of your dog, cool stones by the water, or the grass in your lawn. Practice “grounding” by sitting with your bare feet on the earth for three to five minutes. Try the 20-second hug with someone in your life. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-19-jack-whitten-abstraction-sending-out-scouts monthly 0.5 2026-02-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 19: Jack Whitten, Abstraction, Sending out Scouts, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 19: Jack Whitten, Abstraction, Sending out Scouts, and More - Prompt. Read this quote about Jack Whitten’s art and look at the image below. “To become familiar with Whitten’s art is to realise that the terms ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’ need no foundation in religion, nor need they reduce to literary metaphors. Whitten gave soul a visual presence, a reality. He constructed his later works, many of them grand in scale, by accumulating small units of cast acrylic paint, often translucent, and organising them like the tesserae of ancient Mediterranean mosaics. He canted the units slightly, so they absorbed light from multiple directions and reflected it back in expanding waves of luminescence. His method expressed – or perhaps liberated – the soul of the material, of the colour, of the light. He did not depict something that possessed soul; rather, he established soul itself within the matter of his painting.” Quote from https://www.apollo-magazine.com/the-art-and-wisdom-of-jack-whitten/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/7db526d2-52d3-4c1b-81d2-a019a1e34b85/Black+Monolith+I%2C+A+Tribute+to+James+Baldwin+%281988%29+by+Jack+Whitten.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 19: Jack Whitten, Abstraction, Sending out Scouts, and More - Make it stand out Black Monolith I, A Tribute to James Baldwin (1988) By Jack Whitten https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 19: Jack Whitten, Abstraction, Sending out Scouts, and More - Practice. Read this quote from Jack Whitten then set a timer for 5-7 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the quotes, art, and questions below. “I tend to do a bunch of drawings before the painting season starts. And I call the drawings—I call them scouts. As a kid—I grew up in Alabama—as a kid I grew up with cowboy and Indian movies, where you would send a scout to see what was going on. I think of the drawings that way. When I do the drawings, I have the material, and I’m just sending the material out, looking for stuff. But the stuff that comes back from the drawings, I can deal with in the paintings. So there is no specific drawing for a specific painting…” What are the “scouts” for your writing and creative process? What do you send out in the earlier phases of a new project? What do you hope to receive? Quote from https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/03/01/quantum-wall-an-interview-with-jack-whitten/ https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-18-hallie-waugh monthly 0.5 2026-02-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 18, 2024: Unmixed Attention with Hallie Waugh, Colors, Matisse, and More - Pause. Close your eyes for six slow breaths. Then, open them and look at your surroundings. What stands out as interesting? What is your eye drawn to? Where is the light? The shadow? Notice how it feels in your body to pay close visual attention to your surroundings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 18, 2024: Unmixed Attention with Hallie Waugh, Colors, Matisse, and More - Prompt. Use your thumbs and forefingers to frame something in your environment. Take 7-10 minutes to write about what you see in the frame. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 18, 2024: Unmixed Attention with Hallie Waugh, Colors, Matisse, and More - Practice. Sketch your surroundings. Spend some time observing the colors and shapes in this painting by Matisse. Read this poem by Mary Oliver. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-17-lauren-winner- monthly 0.5 2026-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 17: Longer Endings with Lauren Winner, Portraits, Women’s Suffrage, and More - Pause. For one minute, gaze at this 1913 lithograph by B. M. Boye. Let your eyes linger where they linger. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 17: Longer Endings with Lauren Winner, Portraits, Women’s Suffrage, and More - Prompt. We recently met Kate Clarke Lemay, a curator and historian at the National Portrait Gallery. She curated the 2019-2020 exhibition Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence, in which the lithograph appeared. Women whose portraits were featured in the exhibition include Ida B. Wells, Alice Paul, and Mary McLeod Bethune. Votes for Women also included images made as recently as 1965, such as a photograph of activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Explaining why she included images and objects created after 1920, Lemay told the Washington Post “The 19th Amendment didn’t wrap things up in a pretty bow…It didn’t resolve the disenfranchisement of women for everybody. Black women, Native American women — any minority woman — still had all of these impediments to their voting rights until” the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The story of woman suffrage, in other words, is a story that in fact unfolds for many years after the event that some people might have thought its conclusion. What are other stories that extend long beyond the event that many might mistakenly think their end? Brainstorm for three minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 17: Longer Endings with Lauren Winner, Portraits, Women’s Suffrage, and More - Practice. Call up an older relative—your sister, your aunt, your grandmother—and try to learn as much as you can about woman suffrage in your family. Who was the first woman in your family to vote? Under what circumstances? What voting barriers, if any, have women in your family faced in the past few generations? If no one in your family knows, try piece together what’s plausible: who, likely, were the first women in your family to vote? Where were they likely living when they voted, and in what election might they have cast their first ballots? In response to what you learn, or what you suppose, write a scene that places one of your foremothers in an electoral context. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-16 monthly 0.5 2026-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 16: The Abundant Life, Deep Breaths, Divine Drawing, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. This six-count inhale and six-count exhale will help integrate your body+mind+soul. All religions from the beginning of time have prayers that use a six count inhale and six count exhale structure. (Read more in Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 16: The Abundant Life, Deep Breaths, Divine Drawing, and More - Prompt. Set a timer for five minutes. Think about the past week and the coming week and answer these questions: What abundance did you experience this week? (The good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful) What abundance do you want in the coming week? What do you want to write about next week? What do you want to skip writing about next week? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 16: The Abundant Life, Deep Breaths, Divine Drawing, and More - Practice. Pick one contemplative practice to do today that will help you honor where you are right now. You know what you need. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/lauren-winner-february-24 monthly 0.5 2026-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 15: “Direct Your Heart Upward” with Flowers, Death, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the art on this Instagram post at @art_and_theology. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 15: “Direct Your Heart Upward” with Flowers, Death, and More - Prompt. The German text in the folk artwork linked above translates to “Flowers are not all red. All men hasten toward death. Man cannot remain here, so direct your heart upward, 1802.” Set a timer for five minutes and take notes in response to that quote. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 15: “Direct Your Heart Upward” with Flowers, Death, and More - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the questions below. Google images of flowers. Which are your favorites? Describe them. What colors are they? Which red flowers catch your attention? Write a few lines of prose or poetry about the flowers you’ve looked at online. Now think a bit about how your hastening toward death intersects with your creative work and take notes. How can knowing death’s reality be motivation to write or motivation to skip writing? What are some specific ways you can “direct your heart upward”? How can this idea nourish your soul and help you notice how you belong to yourself, your creative work, and the divine? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/charlotte-donlon-february-14 monthly 0.5 2026-02-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 14: “No Remedy for Time” with Octavio Paz, “Between Going and Staying,” and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 14: “No Remedy for Time” with Octavio Paz, “Between Going and Staying,” and More - Prompt. Read the poem below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 14: “No Remedy for Time” with Octavio Paz, “Between Going and Staying,” and More - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the poem and the questions below. What happens between a day’s going and staying? What does this poem tell you about time? How are you a pause? Here’s another quote by Octavio Paz: ”We are time and cannot escape its dominion. We can transfigure it but not deny it or destroy it. This is what the great artists, poets, philosophers, scientists, and certain men of action have done.” How does time maintain its power in your life? How do you transfigure time? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/charlotte-donlon-february-13 monthly 0.5 2026-02-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 13: “Like Most Miracles” with Leila Chatti, the Sound of Silence, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 13: “Like Most Miracles” with Leila Chatti, the Sound of Silence, and More - Prompt. What does quiet sound like? Set a timer for seven minutes and freewrite. See what you come up with. What metaphors capture the sound of silence? Which images? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 13: “Like Most Miracles” with Leila Chatti, the Sound of Silence, and More - Practice. Read or listen to “I Went Out to Hear” by Leila Chatti. Then take more notes about the sound of silence in this poem, in life, in nature. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/charlotte-donlon-february-12 monthly 0.5 2026-02-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 12: “Art Is Long” with Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 12: “Art Is Long” with Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, and More - Prompt. Read “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/cd8a66ec-777f-40d1-b5a6-d8bc87190820/Ernest+Longfellow+View+of+Sailboat+1856.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 12: “Art Is Long” with Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, and More - Make it stand out “View of Sailboat” by Ernest Lonfellow (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s son), 1856 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 12: “Art Is Long” with Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, and More - Practice. Read “A Psalm of Life” one more time. Make a list of 10 words from the poem that have energy for you right now. Copy down five lines that are interesting to you for some reason. Sit with your lists for a few minutes and take notes of observations and anything that comes to mind. Then write a response to the poem or freewrite for seven minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/charlotte-donlon-february-11 monthly 0.5 2026-02-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 11: We Don’t Have to Make It More Complicated Than It Is - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while gazing at the art below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/50d700de-34d3-41ad-b15c-a650019c7860/Pheobe+Beaslety+Yellow+Legal+Pad%2C+%232+.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 11: We Don’t Have to Make It More Complicated Than It Is - Make it stand out Yellow Legal Pad, #2, Phoebe Beasley,1994 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/96c7af60-7ff4-47e7-b998-c54155d1d2a7/Phoebe+Beasley+Yellow+Pad+with+Rabbit+Ears.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 11: We Don’t Have to Make It More Complicated Than It Is - Make it stand out Yellow Pad with Rabbit Ears, Phoebe Beasley, 2008 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 11: We Don’t Have to Make It More Complicated Than It Is - Prompt. Make a list of all of the reasons you don’t write as often as you’d like. Then make a list of things you think you need to have or do before you can do the writing you want to do. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1e67110f-86ec-4d6f-bfd0-e4f294371cd5/Spiritual+Direction+for+Writers%C2%AE+Writing+Is+Not+Complicated.PNG Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 11: We Don’t Have to Make It More Complicated Than It Is - If you want to write, pick up a pen and start writing. If you want to become a better writer, write more words and read more books. If you want some help along the way, get some help. But please ignore the voices that say you're incapable of writing until you do X or buy Y or follow Z. You have everything you need right now. Promise. We don’t have to make this more complicated than it is. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 11: We Don’t Have to Make It More Complicated Than It Is - Practice. What do you need to cross of the lists you made? Can you grab a pen and paper and write a sentence, a phrase, a word? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/lauren-winner-february-10 monthly 0.5 2026-02-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 10: “Figuring It Out” with Lauren Winner, Martha Mitchell, and More - Pause. For one minute, gaze at this 1970 portrait of Martha Mitchell, and allow Mitchell to gaze at you. What does your face do in response to her gaze? (I find myself beginning to smile.) What begins to happen between you and her as you look at one another? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 10: “Figuring It Out” with Lauren Winner, Martha Mitchell, and More - Prompt. Kate Clarke Lemay was the curator for the National Portrait Gallery’s 2022 exhibit Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue, in which the portrait of Mitchell appeared. In an interview about her work as a curator and art historian, Lemay was asked “What are five words that come to mind when you think about the idea of living an artful life?” She said: “Openness, motivation, curiosity, discipline, and time. ….I think two of the words go together: openness and time. Often I have my best ideas when I have the space and time to open up, observe the world, and make connections…. My creative brainstorming happens best when I have time and space to listen to my hunches — those little voices in the corner of my mind that all too often get squashed out by everyday responsibilities.” How do you respond to Lemay’s insights into an artful life? (Yesterday, they made me feel irritated and stressed. Today they make me feel curious and hopeful.) Write in response for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 10: “Figuring It Out” with Lauren Winner, Martha Mitchell, and More - Practice. Lemay (whom we’ll hear from again soon) also said: “When has art made me stop in my tracks? When have I really felt moved, and why was that?” How do you respond to those questions? Write for eight minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/sarah-sanderson-stones-of-remembrance-pam-houston-and-more-february-9 monthly 0.5 2026-02-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 9: “Stones of Remembrance” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Pam Houston, and More - Pause. Scroll through this photo essay on stone carving in Mexico. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 9: “Stones of Remembrance” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Pam Houston, and More - Prompt. Artists throughout human history and all around the world have used stone as a medium. Many times, the impulse to work in stone stems from a desire to create something lasting. What do you hope to create—whether through your writing or another aspect of your life—that will last beyond your lifetime? What has been passed on to you from those who came before? Take five minutes to write a response to these questions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 9: “Stones of Remembrance” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Pam Houston, and More - Practice. Stone can be used for elaborate sculptures, or something as simple as a stone pile of remembrance. Take a moment to make your own stone pile of remembrance. What good things do you want to remember and celebrate—from the past week, from this year, or from your whole life? Draw a pile of stones on a piece of blank paper, and label each one with something to remember and celebrate. Or, create a pile of actual stones in your house or yard for this purpose. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-8-sarah-sanderson-calming-music-move-toward-healing monthly 0.5 2026-02-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 8: “More Healing” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Calming Music, and More - Pause. Take a minute or two to relax. Use a heating pad or heated stone if you can, or listen to some calming music. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 8: “More Healing” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Calming Music, and More - Prompt. In many cultures, stones are used for healing. Hot stone massage originated in China, and it has also been used in Africa, India, and the Americas. Think about a time when you were warm and relaxed. Set a timer for eight minutes and write about that experience. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 8: “More Healing” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Calming Music, and More - Practice. Healing comes in all kinds of ways. Often, we can choose whether to cooperate with our healing or work against it. Notice the ways you are being invited into healing today—whether through rest, laughter, conversation, solitude, community, intentionality, curiosity, or any other way. Choose to cooperate with healing if you can. Write about these experiences when you get a chance. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/sarah-sanderson-abigail-thomas-the-mission-and-more-2026 monthly 0.5 2026-02-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 7: “Weighed Down” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Abigail Thomas, The Mission, and More - Pause. Watch this clip from the movie The Mission. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 7: “Weighed Down” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Abigail Thomas, The Mission, and More - Prompt. In the clip, a former slave trader is attempting to do penance by dragging the weight of his previous life wherever he goes. What is weighing you down today? Maybe past regrets, or lies you’ve internalized, or simply the stresses and burdens of the present. Set a timer for five minutes and begin writing or drawing these feelings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 7: “Weighed Down” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Abigail Thomas, The Mission, and More - Practice. Now, watch the next clip from The Mission, in which Rodrigo is released from his burden. What would it feel like for the things that are weighing you down to simply be cut off and flung away? Who do you need to ask to do this for you? Write a letter to someone—yourself, God, or another person in your life—asking for the release you need. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-6-sarah-sanderson-clint-smith-and-more monthly 0.5 2026-02-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 6: “Stumbling Stones” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Clint Smith, Slips, Trips, Falls, and More - Pause. Take a few moments to watch some of this humorous video with slips, trips, and falls. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 6: “Stumbling Stones” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Clint Smith, Slips, Trips, Falls, and More - Prompt. When was the last time you tripped over something? Take five minutes to write about that experience. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 6: “Stumbling Stones” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Clint Smith, Slips, Trips, Falls, and More - Practice. Now think about a “stumbling stone” as a metaphor. Despite the painful experience of tripping or stumbling, sometimes, when an unexpected idea trips us up, it can end up moving us in a positive direction. As you go about your day, be watching for surprises—in your writing and in your life—that you may at first stumble over. How can those surprises move you to a place you didn’t expect to go? Write about them. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/for-february-5-sarah-sanderson-annie-dillard-william-steig monthly 0.5 2026-02-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 5: “Grounded in the World” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Annie Dillard, William Steig, and More - Pause. If you can, find a rock or stone to hold in your hand. Feel its texture, temperature, and weight. Keep it nearby all week. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 5: “Grounded in the World” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Annie Dillard, William Steig, and More - Prompt. If rocks could speak, what would they say? If you became a rock, what would you experience? How does noticing rocks or stones keep you grounded in the world? Take nine minutes to write your response to one of these questions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 5: “Grounded in the World” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Annie Dillard, William Steig, and More - Practice. Over the next few days, notice the physical world around you and the way you feel being in it. Whenever you can, notice the sensation of your feet on the ground, or the feeling of air on your skin, or the way the physical world, with all its rocks and soil and grass and bark, presents itself to your touch. Capture those sensations in words. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-4 monthly 0.5 2026-02-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 4: Wake Up to the Coming Days - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. This six-count inhale and six-count exhale will help integrate your body+mind+soul. All religions from the beginning of time have prayers with a six count inhale/six count exhale structure. (Read more in Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 4: Wake Up to the Coming Days - Prompt. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Think about the past couple of weeks and the coming days and answer these questions: What do you want more of? What do you want less of? What do you want to write about in the coming days? What do you want to stop writing about in the coming days? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 4: Wake Up to the Coming Days - Practice. Pick one contemplative practice to do today that will help you honor where you are right now as a writer and a whole person. You know what you need. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-3-what-is-art-for monthly 0.5 2026-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 3: What Is Art For? - Pause. For one minute, look at this cyanotype by Anna Atkins. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 3: What Is Art For? - Prompt. Atkins (1799-1871) was one of cyanotype’s early adopters; she used the method (which was invented in 1842) to capture plant life. The Public Domain Review explains how cyanotypes are made: an “object is placed on paper which has been treated with ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, after which it is exposed to sunlight and then washed in water, leading to the uncovered areas of the paper turning a dark blue.” Here’s another cyanotype by Anna Atkins. And here’s another one. Photography dealer Jeffrey Fraenkel has said, about cyanotyopes, “The color blue strikes some chord in us that goes beyond words.” For three minutes, brainstorm the blue objects in your life, past and present, that have been important to you. Then, if you wish, write toward one of them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 3: What Is Art For? - Practice. Click on the cyanotype here to call up five images by five different people (Atkins is one), and take a minute or two with each image. Make a cyanotype (you will not need a camera; you will need cyanotype paper). https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-2 monthly 0.5 2026-02-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 2: Yes, You’re a Real Writer - Pause. Rest for three minutes. While seated or lying down in a spot in that feels safe and comfortable, set a timer, close your eyes, and rest. If you like, begin this time of rest with six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale and/or pray this prayer by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 2: Yes, You’re a Real Writer - Prompt. Watch this 52-second video that will encourage you to let go of the writing rules that aren’t serving you. Then start a list of “writing rules” you want to break. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 2: Yes, You’re a Real Writer - Practice. Give your attention to the thoughts you have about your writing practice. What do you say to yourself when you realize you aren’t writing as often as you prefer? What unnecessary or unrealistic expectations do you have that make you feel like you aren’t a “real writer”? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-1 monthly 0.5 2026-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 1: What Do You Want to Celebrate? - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 1: What Do You Want to Celebrate? - Prompt. Read “Ode to Dirt” by Sharon Olds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 1: What Do You Want to Celebrate? - Practice. Take notes on something ordinary that you tend to overlook. Look around your house or yard. What do you want to appreciate more? What do you want to celebrate? Use your notes to write an ode, if you like. Here’s more on odes from poetryfoundation.org. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-31 monthly 0.5 2026-01-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 31: The Important and Unimportant Share Space - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 31: The Important and Unimportant Share Space - Prompt. Read “In Leticia's Kitchen Drawer” by Peggy Robles-Alvarado Then look at the photographs below by Elżbieta Jabłońska. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/a7683cf6-ff4d-4d1e-b887-954ae50530c6/Kitchen%2B1.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 31: The Important and Unimportant Share Space - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/331f2bcf-819c-41a9-abae-d9c19db802c8/Kitchen%2B2.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 31: The Important and Unimportant Share Space - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/af67fde2-48c4-48e6-819e-beb3a6a845c5/kitchen%2B3.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 31: The Important and Unimportant Share Space - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 31: The Important and Unimportant Share Space - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and make a list of things that are in your kitchen junk drawer or a fictional character’s kitchen junk drawer. Pick three items from the list and write true or fictional details and stories about each. Use a photograph above as inspiration, if you like. In the coming hours and days, use your list and additional details to begin writing a new story, essay, poem, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-30 monthly 0.5 2026-01-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 30: Fuel Your Creativity with Play - Pause. Read “Pan Dulce” by Jose Hernandez Diaz https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 30: Fuel Your Creativity with Play - Prompt. Jose Hernandez Diaz also writes poems that have a lot of surrealism. Let’s use the poem above and Diaz’s use of surrealism in several of his other poems as inspiration. Set a timer for eight minutes. Write about a recent phone call or text exchange with a family member or friend. Then write a new ending. Experiment! Play! What else could’ve been said? What could’ve been left unsaid? Make stuff up. Make it weird. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 30: Fuel Your Creativity with Play - Practice. Add one sentence to three more conversations today. After each phone call, text, or email exchange is complete, create something new. Don’t overthink it. Let your imagination extend what seems to be finished. Then see what happens next. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-29-move-toward-creative-resistance monthly 0.5 2026-02-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 29: Move Toward Creative Resistance - Pause. Read “Not Writing” by Anne Boyer. (It’s the first section.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 29: Move Toward Creative Resistance - Prompt. List five things you’ve done recently instead of writing. List five things you can see right now. List five things you can hear right now. List five things you want to write about one day soon. Take notes for seven minutes about your lists and anything else that comes to mind. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 29: Move Toward Creative Resistance - Practice. For an entire day, keep a list of the things you do instead of writing. Then see what patterns emerge and which insights you receive. See what happens next. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-28-in-a-creative-rut monthly 0.5 2026-01-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 28: In a Creative Rut? - Pause. Look at this artwork, Starry Night June, for two minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 28: In a Creative Rut? - Prompt. 1. Read this flash CNF piece over at River Teeth’s Beautiful Things 2. Write about stars for five minutes. Write about what you know. Write about what you don’t know. Take notes with bullet point phrases or write real sentences. Journal or pray or begin a new essay or a story or a letter to a friend. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 28: In a Creative Rut? - Practice. Go outside and look at the sky tonight or one night soon. What can you see? What can’t you see? What do you want to see? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-27 monthly 0.5 2026-01-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 27: Something Forces You Anyway - Pause. Close your eyes and rest for a few minutes. Sit in silence and solitude and stillness. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 27: Something Forces You Anyway - Prompt. Read the James Baldwin quote below. Then look at the Federico Faruffini painting for a few minutes. “When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know. The whole language of writing for me is finding out what you don’t want to know, what you don’t want to find out. But something forces you to anyway.” - James Baldwin https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/b1ecf370-98b3-4c0d-acea-0de67b74a93a/The%2BReader%2B%28Clara%29.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 27: Something Forces You Anyway The Reader (Clara) Federico Faruffini 1865 c. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 27: Something Forces You Anyway - Practice. Take notes or journal in response to the quote and art above and/or the questions below: —What are you trying to discover that you don’t know? —What do you not want to know? —Which ideas, topics, questions haunt you? —Which books do you want to be surrounded by? —What reading do you keep putting off? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-26-poetry-searches-for-radiance monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 26: Poetry Searches for Radiance - Pause. Close your eyes and rest for a few minutes. Sit in silence and solitude and stillness. Focus your gaze on the painting below, if you like—Rain by Vincent Van Gogh https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/7b574c9a-7c90-4ed6-8cb6-5b9eb9164f02/Rain+by+Vincent+van+Gogh.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 26: Poetry Searches for Radiance - Make it stand out Rain, Vincent van Gogh, ca. 1889 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 26: Poetry Searches for Radiance - Prompt. Read “Poetry Searches for Radiance” by Adam Zagajewski. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 26: Poetry Searches for Radiance - Practice. Take notes or journal in response to the quote and art above and/or the questions below: —Where do you search for radiance? —What do you want to see today? —How do you need to persist today? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-25 monthly 0.5 2026-01-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 25: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - Pause. Do a few rounds of Box Breathing while looking at the image of The Street by Romare Bearden, 1975: Inhale for a count of four, hold for a count or four, exhale for a count of four, hold for a count of four. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/f78803cc-f877-4d3f-8ab6-a73f18059d3a/the-street-1975.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 25: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 25: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - 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 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 25: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - 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? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-24 monthly 0.5 2026-01-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 24: Praise to the Light That Is Not Yet - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 24: Praise to the Light That Is Not Yet - Prompt. “Why must I learn the same lessons over and over again? That both life and art atrophy if they are not communing with each other. That it means nothing to make a space for the miraculous in one’s work if one can’t recognize some true intrusion in one’s life.” - Christian Wiman, Zero at the Bone https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 24: Praise to the Light That Is Not Yet - Practice. Take notes or journal in response to the quote above and the questions below: —Which miracles have you noticed in your art and others’ art, in your life, and others’ lives? —Which lessons do you keep having to learn again and again? —How can you tell when your art and life aren’t communing with each other? What does that atrophy look like for you? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-23-a-more-human-dwelling-place monthly 0.5 2026-01-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 23: A More Human Dwelling Place - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 23: A More Human Dwelling Place - Prompt. “Art invites us to know beauty and to solicit it from even the most tragic of circumstances. Art reminds reminds us that we belong here. And if we serve, we last.” - Toni Morrison https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 23: A More Human Dwelling Place - Practice. Take notes on how art helps you belong. What art has helped you belong over the past few weeks? All of it counts, not just the fancy art. All forms and genres of high art, low art, and all of the in between art. Also: What happens when you go too long without artful encounters with music, film, TV, paintings? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-22-what-if-it-is-all-a-waste-of-time monthly 0.5 2026-01-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 22: What If It’s All a Huge Waste of Time? - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 22: What If It’s All a Huge Waste of Time? - Prompt. Do you ever wonder if your writing or other creative endeavors are all a huge waste of time? It’s not. Trust me. I have seen (and experienced!) what happens when people don’t honor their creativity. That book you’ve been stealing time to write, the painting you’ve been working on for months, or the new business you’re planning in the spaces between your day job and family responsibilities and all of the other roles you fulfill day after day will probably not be your ticket to a brand new life of riches and riches, but the creative work you’re doing still matters. It’s true. Your art matters. Your writing matters. Your ideas matter. All of it matters. The creative process. The stuff we make that no one knows about. The stuff we make that a few people know about. How making art transforms us. The lessons we learn when we don’t make the art we need to make. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 22: What If It’s All a Huge Waste of Time? - Practice. Take notes on why your creative practice sometimes feels like a waste of time, why it’s not, and how you move through to the other side of those feelings if/when they arise. Also: What happens when you go too long without making the art you need and want to make? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-21 monthly 0.5 2026-01-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 21: What Have You Forgotten? - Pause. Read “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 21: What Have You Forgotten? - Prompt. Read the poem two more times. Use your imagination to enter the scenes in both stanzas. Take notes for three minutes and describe what you see. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 21: What Have You Forgotten? - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write or journal about something you’ve forgotten. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-20-reconnect-to-the-present-moment-with-drawing monthly 0.5 2026-01-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 20: Reconnect to the Present Moment - Pause. Look at this photo of Georgia O’Keeffe’s studio by Laura Gilpin for two minutes. Zoom in and wander around the image. Notice what catches your attention. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 20: Reconnect to the Present Moment - Prompt. Set a timer for four minutes and draw a picture of your desk or writing space. Include one or two details that you don’t typically notice. The point is not to draw a perfect picture. The point is to see in a new way while inhabiting the present moment. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 20: Reconnect to the Present Moment - Practice. Make a new drawing of the same desk or writing space two more times in the coming hours or days. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-19-martin-luther-king-jr-birthday monthly 0.5 2026-01-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 19, 2026: Let Another World Be Born - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale, then read “Amos, 1963” and “For My People” by Margaret Walker. Then read the quote below by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: “We have lived so long with this idea, of people saying it takes time, and wait on time, that I find it very difficult to adjust to this. I mean, I get annoyed almost when I hear it, although I know it takes time. But the people that use this argument have been people so often who really didn’t want the change to come, and the gradualism for them meant a do-nothingism, you know, and a stand-stillism. So that it has been a revolt I think against the idea of a feeling on the part of some that you can just sit around and wait on time when actually time is neutral. It can be used either constructively or destructively.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 19, 2026: Let Another World Be Born - Prompt. Watch this short video (it’s only 1:34) showing a rare book with artwork by Elizabeth Catlett and the poem “For My People” by Margaret Walker. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/be6bdc31-fea3-4562-8c2b-4bd77ab70dea/For%2BMy%2BPeople%2B2.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 19, 2026: Let Another World Be Born - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/08c2bc20-a09b-4729-b6b4-8c3f739d813d/For%2BMy%2BPeople.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 19, 2026: Let Another World Be Born - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 19, 2026: Let Another World Be Born - Practice. Take notes or journal in response to the quote above by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the poems by Margaret Walker, and/or reflect on how different genres and forms of art can explore themes of injustice and justice. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-18-when-poems-help-you-pray monthly 0.5 2026-01-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 18: When Poems Help You Pray - Pause. Rest for three minutes. While seated or lying down in a spot in that feels safe and comfortable, set a timer, close your eyes, and rest. If you like, begin this time of rest with six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale and/or read Matthew 11:28-30. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 18: When Poems Help You Pray - Prompt. Listen to What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade by Brad Aaron Modlin. Then set a timer and write a response for seven minutes. (There are so many things to respond to in this poem!) Journal, pray, take notes, or start a new poem, essay, story, or letter to a friend. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 18: When Poems Help You Pray - Practice. Here’s a quote from Pádraig Ó Tuama about the poem above: “And I found myself, when I read this poem, thinking, what was the day we were taught that gay boys are boys too? What was the day that you were taught that loving poetry was enough? What was the day we were taught that feeling desperately lonely, even when you’re 10, was OK? How could we be brought into the consolation that as you looked at your own family and felt like everybody else’s family is more together than mine — that that’s OK? How could any of these things be wrapped into the story of a life?” Keep a running list throughout the rest of the day of the things no one taught you but are wrapped into the story of your life. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-17 monthly 0.5 2026-01-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 17: Be Here Now - Pause. Use the inhale and exhale prompts below for a few rounds of a breath prayer or meditation. Inhale: I’m here now. Exhale: Be here now. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 17: Be Here Now - Prompt. Read the quote below and take notes for a few minutes on whatever thoughts come to mind. “You can’t write what you’re going to write tomorrow or next week or next year without being who you are today.” - Charlotte Donlon https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 17: Be Here Now - Practice. 1. Make a list of five things you need or want to do today that have little to do with writing. 2. Make a list of five things someone else needs or wants you to do today that have little to do with writing. 3. Make a list of five things you did yesterday instead of writing. 4. Make a list of five things you wish were true for you today so you could do more writing. 5. Make a list of five things you can do today to help you have more time to write tomorrow. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-16 monthly 0.5 2026-01-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 16: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Pause. Use the inhale and exhale prompts below for a few rounds of a breath prayer or meditation. Inhale: My imagination expands. Exhale: I expand with it. - Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 16: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Prompt. Read the quotes below from Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/a00f61bd-a0d2-4f7d-8f79-876d480ca232/Thoughtful%2BBooks%2BEtc.%2BCole%2BArthur%2BRiley%2Band%2BBlack%2BLiturgies.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 16: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/91a16425-623c-4e0f-862d-cc40706e3a85/Thoughtful%2BBooks%2BEtc.%2BCole%2BArthur%2BRiley%2Band%2BBlack%2BLiturgies%2B2.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 16: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/ccb2a537-d3e1-44d2-8a60-d24e2e7e5754/Thoughtful%2BBooks%2BEtc.%2BCole%2BArthur%2BRiley%2Band%2BBlack%2BLiturgies%2B5.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 16: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 16: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Practice. Pick one quote from the images above to sit with for three or four minutes. Write it down a few times in your journal or on a piece of paper. Say it out loud a few times. Take notes or freewrite using the quote as a prompt. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-15-martin-luther-king-jr-birthday monthly 0.5 2026-01-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 15: Let Another World Be Born - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale, then read “Amos, 1963” and “For My People” by Margaret Walker. Then read the quote below by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: “We have lived so long with this idea, of people saying it takes time, and wait on time, that I find it very difficult to adjust to this. I mean, I get annoyed almost when I hear it, although I know it takes time. But the people that use this argument have been people so often who really didn’t want the change to come, and the gradualism for them meant a do-nothingism, you know, and a stand-stillism. So that it has been a revolt I think against the idea of a feeling on the part of some that you can just sit around and wait on time when actually time is neutral. It can be used either constructively or destructively.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 15: Let Another World Be Born - Prompt. Watch this short video (it’s only 1:34) showing a rare book with artwork by Elizabeth Catlett and the poem “For My People” by Margaret Walker. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/be6bdc31-fea3-4562-8c2b-4bd77ab70dea/For%2BMy%2BPeople%2B2.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 15: Let Another World Be Born - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/08c2bc20-a09b-4729-b6b4-8c3f739d813d/For%2BMy%2BPeople.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 15: Let Another World Be Born - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 15: Let Another World Be Born - Practice. Take notes or journal in response to the quote above by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the poems by Margaret Walker, and/or reflect on how different genres and forms of art can explore themes of injustice and justice. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-14-what-good-is-silence monthly 0.5 2026-01-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 14: What Good Is Silence? - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then sit in silence for a few more minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 14: What Good Is Silence? - Prompt. Listen to Episode 1039 of The Slowdown: What Good Is Silence? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 14: What Good Is Silence? - Practice. Take notes or journal in response to the following questions: —What does your silence give you? —What do you hear? —What do you pray? —What good is silence? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-13-more-peace-less-chaos monthly 0.5 2026-01-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 13: Too Much Chaos These Days - Pause. 1. Close your eyes. 2. While you inhale, say “receive peace” to yourself, and imagine inhabiting a peaceful scene. 3. While you exhale, say “release chaos,” and visualize chaos leaving. 4. Breathe in peace and breathe out chaos 10 times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 13: Too Much Chaos These Days - Prompt. 1. List five things that bring peace to your life and writing practice. 2. List five things that bring chaos to your life and writing practice. 3. Take notes for seven minutes about your lists and anything else that comes to mind. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 13: Too Much Chaos These Days - Practice. Be intentional and put yourself in the way of things that bring you peace (through action and/or visualization!) in the coming hours and days. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-12 monthly 0.5 2026-01-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 12: The People Who Shape Us - Pause. Watch this video of Catherine Repko in the studio. Then set a timer for five minutes and write on the question, “Who are the people who have most shaped you?” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 12: The People Who Shape Us - Prompt. As the day progresses, notice ways that your thoughts and behaviors are shaped by the people you wrote about. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 12: The People Who Shape Us - Practice. Write an acrostic poem using the name of one of the people who has most shaped you. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-11 monthly 0.5 2026-01-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 11: It Isn’t Easy - Pause. Set at timer for two minutes and look at the painting Honeysuckle by Catherine Repko. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 11: It Isn’t Easy - Prompt. In her book Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency, Olivia Lang writes about the difficulty of capturing the essence of a person in a work of art: “How essential it is to allow the people you depict to keep their secrets, their strangeness and their separateness from you. That’s a kind of moral code I can get behind. Look again at Degas’s scarlet woman. Is she frowning in pain or is she stretching her white neck in ecstasy? It remains opaque. Her body is recorded, and yet she remains unbreached, a private red presence in a public red room.” Write five sentences characterizing someone very close to you in as much detail as possible. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 11: It Isn’t Easy - Practice. Reread what you’ve written. What has been disclosed? What remains private? Revise as you see fit to characterize more fully or to leave some things opaque. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-10 monthly 0.5 2026-01-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 10: Stay Close to the Body - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes and look at the painting It Was a Season of Change, and In Retrospect, I Knew by Catherine Repko. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 10: Stay Close to the Body - Prompt. Writers, journalers, and creative souls can learn from painters like Repko, grounding emotion the imagery of the body—sensation, gesture, touch. In the memoir Stranger Care by Sarah Sentilles, the author recalls her grief after being separated from the infant she’d fostered and expected to adopt. She writes with bodily language as she remembers, “Day after day, my teeth ached. My jaw ached. I walked into a door and a bruise bloomed on my cheek. Somehow I bruised my forearm and both shinbones. My hips hurt. My eyelids swelled. My eyeballs were tender. My back knotted. Eric refused to wash Coco’s clothes. He put them in a bag in his closet. He carried them around.” Recall a time of intense emotion. Write about how this moment felt in your body. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 10: Stay Close to the Body - Practice. Sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and establish a comfortable rhythm of breath. Then scan your body, beginning with your toes and moving slowly to the top of your head, noticing how each part of your body is feeling right now. When you have finished, take three deep breaths and open your eyes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-9-with-guidance-from-catherine-ricketts monthly 0.5 2026-01-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 9: Reduce It - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes and look at Catherine Repko’s painting Summers in Connecticut. Notice what comes into focus in this minimalist image. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 9: Reduce It - Prompt. Write down ten things that you need to do this season or the rest of this month. Then cross things out, reducing this list by at least half. What comes into focus? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 9: Reduce It - Practice. Set an intention for this month or this season based on the exercise above. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-8-on-nostalgia-with-guidance-from-catherine-ricketts monthly 0.5 2026-01-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 8: On Nostalgia - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes and look the painting Spring’s Harvest by the London-based American artist Catherine Repko. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 8: On Nostalgia - Prompt. Next, look at Repko's painting Godhead. Then set a timer for five minutes and write on the following questions: - What do these paintings make you feel? - What do these paintings make you remember? - What do these paintings make you long for? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 8: On Nostalgia - Practice. Catherine Repko’s body of work focuses on childhood memories with her three sisters. Much of her work channels feelings of nostalgia, which may at times be, as she puts it, “missing something that wasn’t even ever there.” Call to mind a sibling or childhood friend. This week, write that person a letter describing what you miss, whether it was there or it wasn’t. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-7 monthly 0.5 2026-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 7: “May you open your eyes to water” - Pause. Watch this Niagara Falls webcam or this Sandy Channel Underwater Reef Cam for two minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 7: “May you open your eyes to water” - Prompt. Journal about what you know about water. Or begin writing a new story or a poem about magical waters. What happens when someone touches or drinks the magical water? How does it heal? How does it harm? Write for four minutes. Take notes with bullet points or or write full sentences. Either works. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 7: “May you open your eyes to water” - Practice. 1. Do three slow silent readings of this poem or this Scripture passage. 2. Choose a few lines to write down by hand. 3. Read those same lines aloud twice. 4. Put both hands under running water for two minutes. 5. Take notes or journal about water, the Pause, the Prompt, and this Practice for four minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/c7943fb9-945d-42b4-81a0-53fea3b97016/Sailboat%2C+Buildings+in+Background+by+Lucille+Douglass.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 7: “May you open your eyes to water” - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/january-6-journey-of-the-magi monthly 0.5 2026-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 6 & Epiphany: “Journey of the Magi” by T. S. Eliot - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 6 & Epiphany: “Journey of the Magi” by T. S. Eliot - Prompt. Listen to T. S. Eliot read his poem, “Journey of the Magi.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 6 & Epiphany: “Journey of the Magi” by T. S. Eliot - Practice. Read the words below from poets.org. Then take notes on the poem, Epiphany, journeys, or anything else that comes to mind. “Journey of the Magi” was published as a pamphlet in August 1927 by Faber & Gwyer, being the first of T. S. Eliot’s contributions to a series called “the Ariel Poems.” In Critical Companion to T. S. Eliot: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work (Facts on File, 2007), Russell Elliott Murphy, a professor at the University of Arkansas, writes, “For all of their acquaintance with mystery, its human dimensions, Eliot offers the suggestion that the magi could not possibly have understood the profundities of the unfolding mystery that they were to witness in its initial manifestation. [. . .] The speaker seems to know, or at the very least intuit, that his age and his kind, and all the wisdom of his world, is coming to an end and that [the birth of Christ] is the signal of their death. [. . .] The speaker confesses that his long-ago experience has forever unsettled his life; he is ‘no longer at ease here’ in his familiar surroundings, but to what purpose he neither puzzles nor supposes. Like Eliot’s hollow men, he appears to have seen the light but is unable to either recognize its source or to follow it, so he shall die in the wilderness that, for Eliot, is a world without a coherent belief in a singular creation that serves a singular purpose.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/353c7bb7-faf8-4277-864b-53d626b76a26/The%2BJourney%2Bof%2Bthe%2BMagi.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for January 6 & Epiphany: “Journey of the Magi” by T. S. Eliot - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-twelfth-day-of-christmas monthly 0.5 2026-01-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Twelfth Day of Christmas: Where Everything Begins - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Twelfth Day of Christmas: Where Everything Begins - Prompt. Read the short chapter below from Fifty Words for Snow by Nancy Campbell then look at the painting, The Magpie, by Claude Monet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/db18ea1d-a840-4999-9efa-af0def02f592/IMG_6921.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Twelfth Day of Christmas: Where Everything Begins - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/866c3fa4-b1dd-4d9b-9902-00fd79b9d3e1/The%2BMagpie%2Bby%2BClaude%2BMonet.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Twelfth Day of Christmas: Where Everything Begins - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Twelfth Day of Christmas: Where Everything Begins - Practice. Begin writing a story, poem, essay, or letter to a friend about a weather event that may or may not have happened. Make It Christmastide: Situate your story, poem, essay, or letter within this year’s Christmas season or one from the past or future. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-eleventh-day-of-christmas monthly 0.5 2026-01-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Eleventh Day of Christmas: Again and Again for the Last Time - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Eleventh Day of Christmas: Again and Again for the Last Time - Prompt. Read the poem below by Alex Dimitrov. (Found online here.) Impermanence The first ending. And knowing it would end I wanted another. Lover, summer, pen with which to write it all down. The first disappointment. Which is not remembered but lives in the body. And how familiar it became. To take the same walk home or lean over ledges, to say my own name when meeting someone. Again and again for the last time: the taste of salt in the afternoon. Flowers for no one—alive and sold on the street. What did I think was promised in being? The way a stranger can finish you off. Once only. And never the same after that. After knowledge. How people are being detained and shot with our money. All of which cannot prepare us for death of which I am a student and which is this country’s business: the permanence of others. Even our cruelty toward one another. Will end. And I know that looking at the night sky is me looking at the past. At light that’s long escaped and travels alone but won’t always. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Eleventh Day of Christmas: Again and Again for the Last Time - Practice. Choose seven words, phrases, or lines in the poem above that have the most energy for you right now. Write them down in your notebook or journal. Read your collection of words slowly a few times aloud and a few times in silence. Then doodle or take notes for five minutes. Try to respond to whatever comes to mind without judgment. Make It Christmastide: Follow the instructions above while meditating on what you have experienced and encountered during this Christmas season. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-tenth-day-of-christmas monthly 0.5 2026-01-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Tenth Day of Christmas: Advice for the Nature Writer - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Look at this photo of Lake Vostok in Antarctica. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/6a68e638-cc66-4940-b5d9-252b07fd48fc/lake%2Bvostok.webp Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Tenth Day of Christmas: Advice for the Nature Writer - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Tenth Day of Christmas: Advice for the Nature Writer - Prompt. Read the poem below by Nancy Campbell. The Vostok Ice Core gives a creative writing lesson (first published in The Rialto) Be complete. Tell the whole story: every day in every season, summer and winter, from the present until the beginning of time. Be discrete. Record events in one location only; preserve the unities of space, if not of time. Be precise. Do not get distracted by your own fears, the imminence of extinction. Never decide your results in advance. Be concise. Do not use too many words. Do use a language that everyone can understand. Air is invisible, but it holds just as much information as ice. By the time they reach your readers, the events you describe will seem infinitesimal. That faint grey line left by a volcanic eruption that grounded all the world’s planes? It’s nothing to them. Remember that ice is the frozen state of water. Your document may take on other forms. If you want to find ice, go to the cold places, but keep your own temperature constant. The work will not be quick. Anticipate seven seasons. Keep going deeper. The story is already there: extraction is the reader’s art. Reading in the cold, drilling through the dark. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Tenth Day of Christmas: Advice for the Nature Writer - Practice. Pick something from nature and make a list poem with instructions. Or take notes for what might become a list poem one day. Make It Christmastide: Pick an event or encounter from this year’s Christmas season and make a list poem with instructions. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-ninth-day-of-christmas monthly 0.5 2026-01-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Ninth Day of Christmas: We Are Unfinished - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Ninth Day of Christmas: We Are Unfinished - Prompt. Read this quote by John O’Donohue a few times: “To live a truly creative life, we always need to cast a critical look at where we presently are, attempting always to discern where we have become stagnant and where new beginning might be ripening. There can be no growth if we do not remain open and vulnerable to what is new and different. I have never seen anyone take a risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Ninth Day of Christmas: We Are Unfinished - Practice. Here’s another quote from O’Donohue: “Part of the art of living wisely is to learn to recognize and attend to such profound openings in one’s life.” Make a list of things that feel closed or stagnant. Make a list of things that feel open, like they are growing or becoming something new. Take notes or journal about the lists you made with any thoughts that come to mind or in response to the questions below. —If something feels stagnant, is there an equal and opposite energy somewhere else, in a different area of life? —If you wish things were different—if you want more energy around your creative work or another area of life—is there anything you can do to create that energy, to open things up a bit? Can you take some small steps toward more of what you want? —Can you give more attention to the current openings more regularly? Perhaps there are opportunities to give more time and energy to areas that are already opening up. What comes to mind? Make It Christmastide: Respond to the prompts above but focus on experiences and encounters related to this year’s Christmas season. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-eighth-day-of-christmas monthly 0.5 2026-01-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Eighth Day of Christmas and New Year’s Day: Memory Will Ground Our Dreaming - Pause. Read (or reread) this Instagram post by Cole Arthur Riley. Make sure you read all of the slides! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Eighth Day of Christmas and New Year’s Day: Memory Will Ground Our Dreaming - Prompt. Write down this quote by Zora Neale Hurston: “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” If you like, copy it a few times into your notebook or journal. Set a timer for three minutes and sit with this sentence in silence. Then take notes on 2023. Was it a year of questions or answers? Why? How? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Eighth Day of Christmas and New Year’s Day: Memory Will Ground Our Dreaming - Practice. Use one of the breath prayers from the Instagram post. Do a few rounds of the breath prayer/breath meditation using words Cole Arthur Riley has provided for the inhale and exhale. Then write your own breath prayer for a new year. What do you want to receive? What do you want to release? Choose your words or phrases and do a few rounds of inhales and exhales. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-seventh-day-of-christmas monthly 0.5 2025-12-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Seventh Day of Christmas and New Year’s Eve: Memory Will Ground Our Dreaming - Pause. Read (or reread) this Instagram post by Cole Arthur Riley. Make sure you read all of the slides! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Seventh Day of Christmas and New Year’s Eve: Memory Will Ground Our Dreaming - Prompt. Write down this quote by Zora Neale Hurston: “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” If you like, copy it a few times into your notebook or journal. Set a timer for three minutes and sit with this sentence in silence. Then take notes on 2025. Was it a year of questions or answers? Why? How? Take more notes on Advent and Christmastide 2025. What do you want to remember? What do you want more of for the rest of Christmastide? What do you want less of? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Seventh Day of Christmas and New Year’s Eve: Memory Will Ground Our Dreaming - Practice. Use one of the breath prayers from the Instagram post. Do a few rounds of the breath prayer/breath meditation using words Cole Arthur Riley has provided for the inhale and exhale. Then write your own breath prayer for a new year. What do you want to receive? What do you want to release? Choose your words or phrases and do a few rounds of inhales and exhales. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-sixth-day-of-christmas monthly 0.5 2026-01-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Sixth Day of Christmas: Establish More Rituals to Broaden Your Belongings - Pause. Light a candle. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Sixth Day of Christmas: Establish More Rituals to Broaden Your Belongings - Prompt. Read one poem. Any poem. Read it aloud or silently. Need a poem? Make It Christmastide: Here’s “In the bleak midwinter” by Christina Rossetti And here’s “the mississippi river empties into the gulf” by Lucille Clifton and the gulf enters the sea and so forth, none of them emptying anything, all of them carrying yesterday forever on their white tipped backs, all of them dragging forward tomorrow. it is the great circulation of the earth’s body, like the blood of the gods, this river in which the past is always flowing. every water is the same water coming round. everyday someone is standing on the edge of this river, staring into time, whispering mistakenly: only here. only now. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Sixth Day of Christmas: Establish More Rituals to Broaden Your Belongings - Practice. Try to do this ritual every day or most days at the same time of day. Try different poems or choose one to use again and again that suits this particular natural season, liturgical season, or season of life. Feel free to tweak this ritual however you like. It’s your ritual. This is just a suggestion to get you started. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-fifith-day-of-christmas-with-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-12-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fifth Day of Christmas: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Feast upon this choral rendition of the song. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fifth Day of Christmas: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. The hymn, whose writer is unknown, picks up on a centuries’ old reading of this passage from the second chapter of Song of Songs: Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love. Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love. The church has long construed the apple tree mentioned in that passage as Jesus (and has long construed the speaker of the words about the apple tree as you or me, or as the church). The reading is doubly poetic - the beloved, who is poetically understood by the church as Jesus, is poetically understood by the speaker of the Song as an apple tree, sweet and delightful among the trees of the forest. What are your associations with apples? Think not of the mealy, average apple you might eat in July. Try instead to summon the first delicious juicy tart sweet apple you ate last fall. Who might Jesus be if Jesus is an apple tree? Do you have a childhood memory of an apple tree? If so, what do you discover — about Jesus, or about the memory — when you receive that memory as disclosing something about who Jesus is? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fifth Day of Christmas: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Here are the song’s words: The tree of life my soul hath seen, Laden with fruit and always green; The trees of nature fruitless be, Compared with Christ the Apple Tree. His beauty doth all things excel, By faith I know but ne'er can tell The glory which I now can see, In Jesus Christ the Appletree. For happiness I long have sought, And pleasure dearly I have bought; I missed of all but now I see 'Tis found in Christ the Appletree. I'm weary with my former toil - Here I will sit and rest awhile, Under the shadow I will be, Of Jesus Christ the Appletree. With great delight I’ll make my stay, There’s none shall fright my soul away; Among the sons of men I see There’s none like Christ the Appletree. I’ll sit and eat this fruit divine, It cheers my heart like spirit’al wine; And now this fruit is sweet to me, That grows on Christ the Appletree. This fruit doth make my soul to thrive, It keeps my dying faith alive; Which makes my soul in haste to be With Jesus Christ the Appletree. Is there a stanza in which you especially find yourself? (I always seem to find myself in stanzas three and four.) Write for seven minutes in response. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-fourth-day-of-christmas-with-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-12-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Day of Christmas: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Listen to the carol here. Let your body sway to the music. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Day of Christmas: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. “Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella” opens by instructing Jeanette and Isabella to bring light to the birthplace of Jesus. I love this image: bringing light to the Light of the World. I see Jeanette and Isabella as forerunners of the woman at the well, who, as described in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, went to spread the news of her encounter with Jesus to the people in her town. Bring a torch, Jeanette, Isabella! Bring a torch to the stable call! Christ is born, tell the folk of the village: Jesus is born, and Mary's calling. Ah! Ah! Beautiful is the Mother! Ah! Ah! Beautiful is her Son! Here are three different pictures of women with candles: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/db195e2b-b7a9-4e32-ba13-460f0f87cf3b/John%2BCollier.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Day of Christmas: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out John Collier, All Hallow’s Eve, ca. 1895 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/615a23e9-9e64-4ad8-b6dc-417b3f3e10dc/dhgdhgd.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Day of Christmas: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Phillip Lindsay Mason, Maiden Voyage, ca. 1969 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/c5cf27e3-4a3a-4a71-9d72-9d132dcc71a9/The%2BMagdalen.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Day of Christmas: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Georges de la Tour, The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, ca. 1635-37 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Day of Christmas: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. What happens when you put either the Collier, Mason, or de la Tour in conversation with the hymn? For six minutes, write the two - a lyric and musical text, and a visual image - into relationship with one another. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-third-day-of-christmas-with-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-12-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Day of Christmas: The Snow Lay on the Ground with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Here is a 1929 image of snow by Kawase Hasui 川瀬 巴水. Gaze at it for two minutes, three, four. Allow your breath to slow as you gaze. Where does your eye want to linger? What surprises you about putting this image together with the hymn? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/abb173aa-6bb8-4ec7-b5b3-5c5b41b0c41b/Snow%2Bat%2BInokashira.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Day of Christmas: The Snow Lay on the Ground with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Day of Christmas: The Snow Lay on the Ground with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. The nativity story according to the Gospel of St. Luke does not mention snow, or stars - but “The Snow Lay on the Ground” does, right there in the first line. Like so many hymns, “The Snow Lay on the Ground” sings the church’s imagination of the story - it’s full details not there in the biblical text. Christians are always doing this - valuing not just the Scriptures, but also valuing the ways the church has embroidered the Scriptures over time. We especially have embroidered the Christmas story. In the church’s Christmas songs, we add to the nativity scene a little drummer boy who plays his best for the infant; we give the angels harps of gold; we sing our way to the bleak midwinter when frosty wind made moan - there’s no moaning wind in the Gospel according to St. Luke. We add all these things because the birth of Jesus is one of our pivotal moments and pivotal moments attract all the energy we’ve got. Pivotal moments inspire us to a cornucopia of literary and musical and visual representation. And we add all these things becuase all these things, all this thing’d context — animals and harps and snow — constitute the very world Jesus comes into, thing’d himself; flesh himself. His presence in the flesh world transfigures everything, and we want to represent in our hymns and our art how all the cosmos becomes centered upon the flesh of this one baby. “The Snow Lay on the Ground” begins with snow and stars because he’s born into an already adoring universe. And the animals! The oxen and ass shared a roof with them - there are no oxen or asses in Luke’s account, though since at least the 4th century, the church has been placing them there. The animals show, again, that the entirety of the cosmos is recentered, refocused by the incarnation. It’s interesting, though, that it’s so often an ox and an ass - and maybe some birds. The hymn doesn’t say ‘all the animals of the vicinity’ shared a roof. Our hymn doesn’t sing us up any pigs—pigs with whom the prodigal son was living when he’d sunk to his lowest; pigs who figure in the biblical idiom for wastefulness (“cast your pearls before swine”). I don’t know of any swine at the manger, in any hymns, or snakes either for that matter. Jesus comes to heal the whole of the cosmos, but it is we who do the embroidering, and there are bits we we have a hard time embroidering in. The hymn tells us, too, that Jesus is born into a family - it sings of his family and goes beyond Scripture in naming his grandmother, Anne, who is nowhere named in the Bible. We also get Jesus’ earthly father: Saint Joseph, too, was by To tend the Child; To guard him, and protect His mother mild; That “too” is really revealing - “St. Joseph, too, was by.” It sounds like the hymn-writer really had to work at finding a way to mention Joseph and this was the best the writer could come up with. Joseph is at first given a typically feminine-scripted role - tending the child. That is, the hymn seems to be suggesting that this Jesus will not only come into and transform the cosmos, the stars and the snow and the oxen - Jesus will even, immediately, transform the social order; Jesus will undercut the things we think we know about, in this case, the roles men and women are supposed to play in the family. But then the hymn undercuts its own undercutting, next depicting Joseph doing something typically masculine, guarding and protecting. The hymn-writer can’t quite get there, just as the hymn writer can’t quite get to the pig. Jesus may upend the social order but we’re only halfway to figuring out what that upending means. Or maybe a quarter of the way. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Day of Christmas: The Snow Lay on the Ground with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. One: The “prompt” above suggests that “pivotal moments attract all the energy we’ve got. Pivotal moments inspire us to a cornucopia of literary and musical and visual representation.” What’s a pivotal moment in the Scriptures that attracts your energy and creative attention? What embroidery would you like to add to Scripture’s account? Or, what’s a pivotal moment in your family history and family lore that attracts your energy and creative attention? What embroidery would you like to add to the account you’ve received? Two: The “prompt” suggests that, although God wants to heal everything, we falter - we are unable to embroider into the story of healing those things we find most repugnant. How do you respond to that suggestion? What might you have trouble embroidering in? Three: Write your own poem or hymn that embroiders the Gospel of Luke’s nativity story. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-second-day-of-christmas monthly 0.5 2025-12-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Day of Christmas: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Listen to one of these recordings of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” —Choir of King’s College, Cambridge —The Roches Sing along or move your body if you wish. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Day of Christmas: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. Read this poem (my very favorite Christmas poem) by Barbara Hamby. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Day of Christmas: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Write a poem in which a narrator (who might or might not be based on you) sings a Christmas carol in one setting and reflects on or interacts with that carol in a second setting. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-25-the-first-day-of-christmas-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-12-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Christmas Day: What Child Is This? with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. A key image in “What Child Is This?” is the “Child….On Mary's lap…sleeping” For two, three, four minutes gaze at this image of Jesus sleeping on Mary’s lap — Virginie Demont-Breton’s Alma mater which is also included below. Let your breath slow as you gaze. If your attention wanders, bring it back to the gold halo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/ad96ae9a-a9b0-4f53-a683-6ac51bb54313/Virginie_Demont-Breton_Alma_mater+%281%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Christmas Day: What Child Is This? with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Christmas Day: What Child Is This? with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. Listen to this recording of “What Child Is This?” If, as you listen, you feel moved to write or sketch in response to the sound, do so. If inclined, notice how your body feels while listening. Then, listen to this second recording. Again, if, as you listen, you feel moved to write or sketch in response to the sound, do so. If inclined, notice how your body feels while listening. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Christmas Day: What Child Is This? with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Jot down three topics you are currently writing about, or might like to write about; three stories you are in the middle of trying to tell on the page, or that you’d like to tell on the page. Stop reading ‘til you’ve done that. Now, pick one item from your list. If you’re in a prose mood, write a paragraph that tells your story or unfolds your topic in a way consonant with or responsive to the first recording of “What Child Is This?” If you’re in a poetry mood, write a poem that tells your story or unfolds your topic in a way consonant with or responsive to the first recording of “What Child Is This?” Stop reading ‘til you’ve done that. Now, write a paragraph or poem that tells your story or unfolds your topic in a way consonant with or responsive to the second recording of “What Child Is This?” What do you notice about the two versions? What’s different? What’s at stake in the difference? Which felt more pleasurable to write? Which felt harder? Why? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/fourth-wednesday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Wednesday of Advent: Start Close In - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Start Close In” by David Whyte. I first read this poem in David Whyte: Essentials. Start Close In by David Whyte Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take. Start with the ground you know, the pale ground beneath your feet, your own way to begin the conversation. Start with your own question, give up on other people’s questions, don’t let them smother something simple. To hear another’s voice, follow your own voice, wait until that voice becomes an intimate private ear that can really listen to another. Start right now take a small step you can call your own don’t follow someone else’s heroics, be humble and focused, start close in, don’t mistake that other for your own. Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Wednesday of Advent: Start Close In - Prompt. Listen to this Start Close In video using David Whyte’s poem and additional thoughts. It’s about nine and a half minutes long. I recommend listening with your eyes closed. (Thanks, Bre Strobel, for sharing this link!) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Wednesday of Advent: Start Close In - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and respond to the poem and/or the video. Answer some of the questions he asks in the video: What is the conversation you don’t want to have? What is the question you don’t want to answer? How can you start with the first thing close in? Make It Advent: If you observe the season of Advent, what would it look like to start close in on the Fourth Wednesday of Advent as you prepare to celebrate Christmas? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-fourth-tuesday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Tuesday of Advent: Sliences between Human Beings - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the art below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/681775b3-f892-4d89-a44d-7cef3320c3c5/hPiction_Repository_3db_photod0283u353028331966111_01_p01_o2.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Tuesday of Advent: Sliences between Human Beings - Make it stand out Night Snow at Ikegami Japan 1930s, early Showa period (1926-1989) https://www.artsbma.org/collection/snowy-landscape-with-figures/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Tuesday of Advent: Sliences between Human Beings - Prompt. Read the poem “Snow” by Naomi Shihab Nye and choose a few words or a phrase to meditate on for a bit. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Tuesday of Advent: Sliences between Human Beings - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and journal or take notes on anything that comes to mind. Or write about a recent period of silence you noticed in the presence of another person. Or sit in silence and look at more art below that features snow. Make It Advent: Write about a recent period of Advent silence that you’ve noticed and experienced while in the presence of another person. Or write about any periods of silence from God that you’ve experienced this Advent. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d1a0f9ca-3046-4447-bfc9-917c11e94130/SAN_VOL2BMA_Repositorydb_photod5578u10655782198332_01_p01_o2.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Tuesday of Advent: Sliences between Human Beings - Make it stand out Horseneck Brook John Henry Twachtman 1890s https://www.artsbma.org/collection/horseneck-brook/ https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-fourth-monday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Monday of Advent: Feel Less Lonely During the Holidays - Pause. Prepare and sip a warm beverage. Learn more about why this helps in Chapter 13 of The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. “Our social experiences are not always separate from our bodily experiences. In other words, we feel in our bodies what we experience in our relationships. It's as if our bodies are thermometers, registering in bone and skin and muscle the temperature of our lives and the condition of our inclusion.” —The Great Belonging https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Monday of Advent: Feel Less Lonely During the Holidays - Prompt. Conduct a Quick Belonging Checkup. “The things that offer me the greatest relief from loneliness are also the things that bring me into the moment, and remind me of my senses. My children’s laughter. Petting my puppy. Listening to birdsong in the woods. Baking.”—Natalie Eve Garrett Additional Resources: Read more from Garrett in the Lit Hub interview, “How the Pandemic Has Changed the Way We Think About Solitude and Loneliness.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Monday of Advent: Feel Less Lonely During the Holidays - Practice. Listen to music that helps you feel less alone and make a playlist to return to over the next several days. Learn more about why this helps in Chapter 35 of The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. “Sarah Vaughan singing ‘Lullaby of Birdland’ feels like the touch of worn cotton; a rotation of old T-shirts my mother wears when she’s cooking… And when I hear Mingus’s ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat’—that pendulous elegy, sad but sleuthing, like a gloomy gumshoe’s anthem—I smell my father’s plaid shirt. Its collar has since lost its stiff. One button snaps with less snap! It hangs in my closet in Brooklyn, sharing a hanger with two other shirts—an indignity I should fix.” — Durga Chew Bose, Too Much and Not the Mood If you like, take a few minutes to write about how music helps you belong. Additional Resources: “How Can Music Engagement Address Loneliness?” by Frederic Kiernan and Jane W. Davidson, International Journal of Environmental Research and Mental Health Make It Advent: Listen to an Advent playlist or your favorite Christmas carols. Add more layers to create a ritual of belonging. Sit in the same spot in your home or car while listening to the same music. Do a breath prayer before and after: Inhale: I belong here. Exhale: I belong now. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-fourth-sunday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Sunday of Advent: Wake Up to the Coming Week - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. This six-count inhale and six-count exhale will help integrate your body+mind+soul. All religions from the beginning of time have prayers with a six count inhale/six count exhale structure. (Read more in Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Sunday of Advent: Wake Up to the Coming Week - Prompt. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Think about the past week and the coming week and answer these questions: What do you want more of? What do you want less of? What do you want to write about this week? What do you want to stop writing about this week? Make It Advent: What do you want more of and less of from these last days of Advent? What do you want more of and less of from Christmastide? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Fourth Sunday of Advent: Wake Up to the Coming Week - Practice. Pick one contemplative practice to do today that will help you honor where you are right now as a writer and a whole person. You know what you need. (But it might be helpful for me to encourage you to think about it and make a plan right now!) Make It Advent: What’s one nourishing rhythm you can do each day between now and Christmas Day that will help you honor and inhabit where you are right now as a writer and a whole human? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-third-saturday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Saturday of Advent: The Landscape of Winter - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the painting below. If you like, pray this prayer, In the Midst of Winter by Cal Wick: Lord: In the midst of Winter, when the days are cold and wind can pierce remind us of the warmth of your love. In the midst of Winter, when days are short, dawn comes late, and dusk arrives early remind us that in the darkness your light still shines. In the midst of Winter, when the flowers of spring still lie hidden in the earth, when leaves are off the trees, and the world can seem bleak remind us that Easter is but a short time away. And when in our lives we feel as if we are experiencing a season of winter, reach out to us with the power of your resurrection so that we may feel the warmth of your love and see your light that alone can take away the darkness of our soul. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/29535cac-b622-4334-9a9b-754161bda4ce/Winter+Landscape+Jacob+van+Ruisdael+1660s.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Saturday of Advent: The Landscape of Winter - Make it stand out Winter Landscape Jacob van Ruisdael 1660s Birmingham Museum of Art https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Saturday of Advent: The Landscape of Winter - Prompt. Read the poem “Winter Sentence” by Dutch traslator, poet, and writer H.C. ten Berge. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Saturday of Advent: The Landscape of Winter - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the prayer, poem, and/or painting above or the questions and statements below. —Write one sentence about winter. —How does the weather you notice on a daily basis affect your writing and creative practice? —How do you notice and honor the changing of the seasons? How do you want to notice and honor the changing of the seasons? —Begin writing a new poem, story, essay, or letter using today’s weather where you are as the beginning. Include themes connected to Advent if you like. Make It Advent: Journal or take notes on lightness and darkness and shorter days and longer days and how Advent intersects with those things. And/or use the prompts above specifically for Advent: —Write one sentence about Advent. —How does the weather you notice on a daily basis during Advent affect your writing and creative practice? —How do you notice and honor the changing of the seasons of the church year? How do you want to notice and honor the changing of the seasons of the church year? —Begin writing a new poem, story, essay, or letter using today’s weather where you are as the beginning. Include themes connected to Advent if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-third-friday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for the Third Friday of Advent: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for the Third Friday of Advent: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - 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 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/41afd52a-f9b7-4c25-94fe-9b7482aba589/the-street-1975.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for the Third Friday of Advent: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for the Third Friday of Advent: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - 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? Make It Advent: —Which music reminds you of Advent? How does this music affect your body, mind, soul, and creative practice? —How does the season of Advent read you? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-third-thursday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Thursday of Advent: When You Let Go of the Rules - Pause. Rest for three minutes. While seated or lying down in a spot in that feels safe and comfortable, set a timer, close your eyes, and rest. If you like, begin this time of rest with six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale and/or pray this prayer by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Thursday of Advent: When You Let Go of the Rules - Prompt. Watch this 52-second video that will encourage you to let go of the writing rules that aren’t serving you. Then start making a list of “writing rules” you want to break. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Thursday of Advent: When You Let Go of the Rules - Practice. Give your attention to the thoughts you have about your writing practice. What do you say to yourself when you realize you aren’t writing as often as you prefer? What unnecessary or unrealistic expectations do you have that make you feel like you aren’t a “real writer”? Make It Advent: What thoughts about your writing life and writing practice have come to mind over the past few weeks? What does it look like to wait for certain aspects of the writing life and/or for your writing goals to come to fruition? How has your soul been nourished or depleted since the beginning of Advent and which rules can you let go of to have more nourishment? How does a larger perspective that includes your faith and spiritual beliefs affect your views of your own writing practice and process? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-third-wednesday-in-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Wednesday in Advent: Personal Saints and Saviors with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Pause. Take a few deep breaths, then. Read my essay, “Emmanuel.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Wednesday in Advent: Personal Saints and Saviors with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Prompt. Buffy functioned as a type of saint and savior for me and enabled me to tell my story. What historical or fictional character (from film, TV, literature, etc.) plays a similar role for you that Buffy played for me? If you don’t have one, start brainstorming a few on paper. Once you have someone in mind, use five minutes writing a short letter to them. Make It Advent: How can you weave in Advent themes like waiting, light, hope for all to be made well into your letter? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Wednesday in Advent: Personal Saints and Saviors with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Practice. Read over what you wrote. Throughout the day, collect three items you would want to send this person as a gift if you could. Why these objects? Find time to explore this question in your journal for at least three minutes. Make It Advent: How can you weave in Advent themes like waiting, light, hope for all to be made well into your list? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-third-tuesday-in-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Tuesday in Advent: Feel Even More Loved with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Pause. Listen to Lizzo’s “2 Be Loved”, “ME!” by Taylor Swift, “Brave” by Sara Bareilles, or another song that helps you embrace self love. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Tuesday in Advent: Feel Even More Loved with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Prompt. Write down at least 10 things that currently make you feel loved and 10 things you want or need to feel even more loved, adored, and fulfilled. Make It Advent: Write down at least 10 Advent(ish) things that currently make you feel loved and 10 Advent(ish) things you want or need to feel even more loved, adored, and fulfilled. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Tuesday in Advent: Feel Even More Loved with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Practice. Read over what you wrote. Choose one item from the lists and use it to complete the following sentence: “I am ready for (or I will soon be ready for) __________. Write that sentence down using a pen and paper. Write at least four more sentences using one or more items from your list of things that you have, want, or need. You may repeat the first sentence if you like or choose new items from your list. Make It Advent: Be mindful of this season as you complete this exercise. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-third-monday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Monday of Advent: Writing the Unexpressed with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Pause. Read Jane Kenyon’s poem, “Briefly it Enters and Briefly Speaks.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Monday of Advent: Writing the Unexpressed with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Prompt. Write for five minutes to someone or something (this can be an object, an animal, or a particular place) that you spiritually or emotionally hold close to you, but is not physically near to you. What would you like to say or be able to speak to or do with this person, place, or thing that you can’t express directly because of the distance? Don’t worry if the writing gets messy or meanders. Let it flow naturally. If you end up switching who or what you are writing to in the middle of the exercise, no worries. Let it happen. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Monday of Advent: Writing the Unexpressed with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Practice. Think of the subject of your writing at least once more today. If the subject you wrote to could write back to you, what do you think it would say? Journal about this question for three minutes. Make It Advent: What would tgis subject tell you about Advent so far this year? What about the coming season of Christmastide? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-third-sunday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Sunday of Advent: When One Foot Is Outside the Door with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Pause. Listen to Laura Veirs’ “Little Deschutes” at least one time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Sunday of Advent: When One Foot Is Outside the Door with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Prompt. Focus on the space around you. Observe how your body feels where you are (are you sitting/standing? what else?). Observe some of the objects closest to you. What do they look like? Feel like? Do they remind you of anyone? If so, who? What is their relationship to the room? To you? Freewrite for at least five minutes. Alternatively, you may make a list, a word cloud, or draw pictures. The main goal is to get your observations about the room and your feelings on the page. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Third Sunday of Advent: When One Foot Is Outside the Door with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Practice. Read over what you wrote/drew. Did these last five minutes of close observation change how you felt about the space you were in? Why or why not? Did it teach you anything new about the space? If so, what? Write about what you learned for about three minutes. Return to this space at least once more today. Try sitting/standing in a slightly different area. Note your observations in your journal. Make It Advent: Listen to some songs from one or more of the playlists from below while repeating the entire Prompt & Practice. How was this Pause & Practice different from the previous round? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-second-saturday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Saturday of Advent: Start with What You’ve Forgotten - Pause. Read “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Saturday of Advent: Start with What You’ve Forgotten - Prompt. Read the poem two more times. Use your imagination to enter the scenes in both stanzas. Take notes for three minutes to describe what you see. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Saturday of Advent: Start with What You’ve Forgotten - Practice. Write for seven minutes about something you’ve forgotten. Make It Advent: Write for seven minutes about what you’ve forgotten about Advent 2024 and what you don’t want to forget about Advent 2025. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/for-the-second-friday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Friday of Advent: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Pause. Use the inhale and exhale prompts below for a few rounds of a breath prayer or meditation. Inhale: My imagination expands. Exhale: I expand with it. - Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Friday of Advent: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Prompt. Read the quotes below from Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/ac856f4a-5db6-48be-b5c5-ccfeb9737e88/Thoughtful%2BBooks%2BEtc.%2BCole%2BArthur%2BRiley%2Band%2BBlack%2BLiturgies.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Friday of Advent: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/3030b1d2-7512-4f32-bd6a-260bca374ea4/Thoughtful%2BBooks%2BEtc.%2BCole%2BArthur%2BRiley%2Band%2BBlack%2BLiturgies%2B2.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Friday of Advent: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d695e041-39f7-4e52-9a72-c54c817cd055/Thoughtful%2BBooks%2BEtc.%2BCole%2BArthur%2BRiley%2Band%2BBlack%2BLiturgies%2B5.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Friday of Advent: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Friday of Advent: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Practice. Pick one quote from the images above to sit with for three or four minutes. Write it down a few times in your journal or on a piece of paper. Say it out loud a few times. Take notes or freewrite using the quote as a prompt. Make It Advent: How do these words intersect with this season’s Advent experience? How do these words stir longings or magnify wounds? What do you want to wait for during this season? What do you want to receive on the other side of Advent? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourshment-for-the-second-thursday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for the Second Thursday of Advent: It’s a Good Idea to Sit Anyway - Pause. Rest for three minutes. While seated or lying down in a spot in that feels safe and comfortable, set a timer, close your eyes, and rest. If you like, begin this time of rest with six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale and/or read Psalm 31 Here’s a portion of Psalm 31: In you, O Lord, I seek refuge; do not let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me. Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for the Second Thursday of Advent: It’s a Good Idea to Sit Anyway - Prompt. Read these good words: “Neither I nor the poets I love found the keys to the kingdom of prayer and we cannot force god to stumble over us where we sit. But I know that it's a good idea to sit anyway. So every morning I sit, I kneel, waiting, making friends with the habit of listening, hoping that I'm being listened to. There, I greet God in my own disorder. I say hello to my chaos, my unmade decisions, my unmade bed, my desire and my trouble. I say hello to distraction and privilege, I greet the day and I greet my beloved and bewildering Jesus. I recognize and greet my burdens, my luck, my controlled and uncontrollable story. I greet my untold stories, my unfolding story, my unloved body, my own love, my own body. I greet the things I think will happen and I say hello to everything I do not know about the day. I greet my own small world and I hope that I can meet the bigger world someday. I greet my story and hope that I can forget my story during the day, and hope that I can hear some stories, and greet some surprising stories during the long day ahead. I greet God, and I greet the God who is more God than the God I greet. Hello to you all, I say, as the sun rises above the chimneys of North Belfast. Hello.” ― Pádraig Ó Tuama, In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for the Second Thursday of Advent: It’s a Good Idea to Sit Anyway - Practice. Set a timer and write a response to the rest or Scripture or quote for seven minutes. Journal, pray, take notes, or start a new poem, essay, story, or letter to a friend. Make It Advent: Explore how Advent themes of waiting, mystery, and unknowing intersect with the ideas in the quote above. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-11-2024-a-more-human-dwelling-place-gpx7s monthly 0.5 2025-12-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Wednesday of Advent: A More Human Dwelling Place - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Wednesday of Advent: A More Human Dwelling Place - Prompt. Read the Toni Morrison quote a few times. Read it aloud a couple of times, too. “Art invites us to know beauty and to solicit it from even the most tragic of circumstances. Art reminds reminds us that we belong here. And if we serve, we last.” - Toni Morrison https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Wednesday of Advent: A More Human Dwelling Place - Practice. Take notes on how art helps you belong. What art has helped you belong over the past few weeks? (All of it counts, not just the fancy art. All forms and genres of high art, low art, and all of the in between art.) What happens when you go too long without artful encounters with music, film, TV, paintings? Make It Advent: How does engaging with art help you belong to Advent? How does engaging with various forms of art broaden your Advent belongings? Do you have any personal, family, or community Advent traditions that include encounters with art? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-second-tuesday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Tuesday of Advent: In Memory of Nikki Giovanni with Her Poem “Dreams” and The Raelettes - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to “I Believe to My Soul” by Ray Charles and The Raelettes https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Tuesday of Advent: In Memory of Nikki Giovanni with Her Poem “Dreams” and The Raelettes - Prompt. Read “Dreams” by Nikki Giovanni. Read it a few times. Read it aloud once or twice if you like. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Tuesday of Advent: In Memory of Nikki Giovanni with Her Poem “Dreams” and The Raelettes - Practice. Write for 10 minutes about a childhood music memory. What sensory details do you remember? What do you remember thinking at the time? How did you feel the music in your body? What do you feel in your body now? How does thinking about your childhood help you connect to this present moment? Make It Advent: How does thinking about your childhood December memories help you connect to the season of Advent? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-9-2024-be-here-now-cmzkt monthly 0.5 2025-12-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Monday of Advent: Be Here Now - Pause. Use the inhale and exhale prompts below for a few rounds of a breath prayer or meditation. Inhale: I’m here now. Exhale: Be here now. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Monday of Advent: Be Here Now - Prompt. Read the quote below and take notes for a few minutes on whatever thoughts come to mind. “You can’t write what you’re going to write tomorrow or next week or next year without being who you are today.” - Charlotte Donlon https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Monday of Advent: Be Here Now - Practice. 1. Make a list of five things you need or want to do today that have little to do with writing. 2. Make a list of five things someone else needs or wants you to do today that have little to do with writing. 3. Make a list of five things you did yesterday instead of writing. 4. Make a list of five things you wish were true for you today so you could do more writing. 5. Make a list of five things you can do today to help you have more time to write tomorrow. Make It Advent: Think through how the lists above intersect with your desires for how you prefer to inhabit this Advent season and your creative practice during this time. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-second-sunday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Sunday of Advent: To Never Look Away - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for two minutes and close your eyes and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Sunday of Advent: To Never Look Away - Prompt. Read “The Kitchen, Indexed” by Ira Goga https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Second Sunday of Advent: To Never Look Away - Practice. Gather five things from your kitchen that hold memories of belonging. Hold them. Look closer. Take notes or journal about why these objects help you feel less alone. Keep them nearby today, this week, this month. Make It Advent: Gather five things from your kitchen or other rooms in your home that hold memories of belonging. Hold them. Look closer. Take notes or journal about why these objects help you feel less alone. Keep them nearby today, this week, this month. If you like, begin writing a new story, essay, poem, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-first-saturday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Saturday of Advent: Praise to the Light That Is Not Yet - 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 while looking at the art below. The Gare St-Lazare Claude Monet, 1877 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/6242a85f-3708-4af5-9729-9613cc242bcf/The%252BGare%252BSt%252BLazare%252Bby%252BClaude%252BMonet.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Saturday of Advent: Praise to the Light That Is Not Yet - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Saturday of Advent: Praise to the Light That Is Not Yet - Prompt. “Why must I learn the same lessons over and over again? That both life and art atrophy if they are not communing with each other. That it means nothing to make a space for the miraculous in one’s work if one can’t recognize some true intrusion in one’s life.” - Christian Wiman, Zero at the Bone https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Saturday of Advent: Praise to the Light That Is Not Yet - Practice. Take notes or journal in response to the quote above and the questions below: —Which miracles have you noticed in your art and others’ art, in your life, and others’ lives? —Which lessons do you keep having to learn again and again? —How can you tell when your art and life aren’t communing with each other? What does that atrophy look like for you? Make It Advent: How is Advent an intrusion in your art and life each year? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-first-friday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Friday of Advent: The Silences between Human Beings - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Friday of Advent: The Silences between Human Beings - Prompt. Read the poem “Snow” by Naomi Shihab Nye and choose a few words or a phrase to meditate on for a bit. Make it Advent: Watch this guided breath prayer practice for the First Friday of Advent, too. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Friday of Advent: The Silences between Human Beings - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and journal or take notes on anything that comes to mind. Or sit in silence. Sitting in silence is always a nice option. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-first-thursday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Thursday of Advent: What If It’s All a Huge Waste of Time? - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Thursday of Advent: What If It’s All a Huge Waste of Time? - Prompt. Do you ever wonder if your writing or other creative endeavors are all a huge waste of time? It’s not. Trust me. I have seen (and experienced!) what happens when people don’t honor their creativity. That book you’ve been stealing time to write in the spaces between your day job and family responsibilities and all of the other roles you fulfill day after day will probably not be a breakout bestseller, but the creative work you’re doing still matters. It’s true. Your art matters. All of it matters. The creative process. The art we make that no one knows about. The art we make that a few people know about. How making art transforms us. The lessons we learn when we don’t make the art we need to make. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Thursday of Advent: What If It’s All a Huge Waste of Time? - Practice. Take notes on why your creative practice sometimes feels like a waste of time, why it’s not, and how you move through to the other side of those feelings if/when they arise. Also: What happens when you go too long without making the art you need and want to make? Want to make it Advent? Which Advent lessons and themes can you apply to this idea of your creativity mattering? Maybe explore the ideas of waiting, darkness, waiting in darkness… https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-first-wednesday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Wednesday of Advent: A World of Different Creatures - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then take a few minutes to sit by a window or sit outside. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Wednesday of Advent: A World of Different Creatures - Prompt. “In one large study, researchers used smartphones to collect data from more than 20,000 people in real time comparing how they felt at different points during their day and using GPS to determine where they were. The researchers found that, overall, people felt happier when they were outdoors in green or natural spaces compared to urban spaces, regardless of the weather, activity, or who was with them. Another study surveyed people living in Puget Sound, Washington, and found that they were more satisfied with life if they engaged with nature more.” - “Four Ways Nature Can Protect Your Well-Being During a Pandemic” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Wednesday of Advent: A World of Different Creatures - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and begin writing a true (or mostly true or sort of true) story about a person who experiences some sort of transformation when they go outside and engage with nature. * Want to make it Advent? Set a timer for 10 minutes and begin writing a true (or mostly true or sort of true) story about a person who experiences some sort of transformation when they go outside and engage with nature during the first week of Advent. Do some quick research on a particular place and the weather there this week. Find an outdoor setting to use in your writing or as inspiration for a place in your piece. A Christmas tree farm? A Christmas lights walking tour? A blow-up nativity display in a suburban front yard? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/first-tuesday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Tuesday of Advent: The Bones and Skeletons of Language - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then give your attention to your body. Where do you notice imbalance, pain, tension, energy? Can you breathe into those places and try to release anything you’re holding on to? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Tuesday of Advent: The Bones and Skeletons of Language - Prompt. Set a five-minute timer and begin collecting words to use for a found poem. Collect words from mail stacked on your kitchen counter, email, text messages, notes, book titles from any books nearby, whatever. Find at least 30-40 words. OR Make it Advent: Collect words that you associate with Advent or words from various Advent resources—book titles, song titles, song lyrics, essays, poems, Instagram posts, etc. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Tuesday of Advent: The Bones and Skeletons of Language - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes. Then write all of the words down. Play with the words, rearrange them, put some together, and see what happens next. Don’t worry about writing a perfect poem. Play and give attention to any connections that emerge and surprises that appear. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/the-first-monday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Monday of Advent: Be More Fully Awake - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then take a few minutes to sit by a window or sit outside. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Monday of Advent: Be More Fully Awake - Prompt. Establish a new 10-minute Advent or December ritual to push away the winter blues or feelings of loneliness. Brainstorm for two or three minutes on what to include. Incorporate nourishing rhythms, encounters with art, good words, beauty, delicious food, comforting drinks, and whatever consoles and inspires. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Monday of Advent: Be More Fully Awake - Practice. Take 10 minutes to begin experimenting with a new Advent or December Ritual for Belonging. What helps you feel comfortable, safe, and connected? What do you want to remember? What do you want to engage with? What do you want to return to? How do you want to tweak this ritual moving forward? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/first-sunday-of-advent monthly 0.5 2025-12-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Sunday of Advent: Start Close In - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Start Close In” by David Whyte. I first read this poem in David Whyte: Essentials. Start Close In by David Whyte Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take. Start with the ground you know, the pale ground beneath your feet, your own way to begin the conversation. Start with your own question, give up on other people’s questions, don’t let them smother something simple. To hear another’s voice, follow your own voice, wait until that voice becomes an intimate private ear that can really listen to another. Start right now take a small step you can call your own don’t follow someone else’s heroics, be humble and focused, start close in, don’t mistake that other for your own. Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Sunday of Advent: Start Close In - Prompt. Listen to this Start Close In video using David Whyte’s poem and additional thoughts. It’s about nine and a half minutes long. I recommend listening with your eyes closed. (Thanks, Bre Strobel, for sharing this link!) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The First Sunday of Advent: Start Close In - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and respond to the poem and/or the video. Answer some of the questions he asks in the video: What is the conversation you don’t want to have? What is the question you don’t want to answer? How can you start with the first thing close in? If you observe the season of Advent, what would it look like to start close in on the First Sunday of Advent? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-and-announcements-for-november monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-and-announcements-for-october monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-and-announcements-for-september monthly 0.5 2025-10-08 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-and-announcements-for-august monthly 0.5 2025-09-06 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-and-announcements-for-july monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-and-announcements-for-june monthly 0.5 2025-07-08 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-and-announcements-for-may monthly 0.5 2025-06-05 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-and-announcements-for-april-2025 monthly 0.5 2025-05-01 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-and-announcements-for-march monthly 0.5 2025-04-01 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-and-announcements-for-february-2025 monthly 0.5 2025-03-03 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/daily-nourishment-and-announcements-for-january-2025 monthly 0.5 2025-02-01 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-31-2024-memory-will-ground-our-dreaming monthly 0.5 2025-12-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 31, 2024: Memory Will Ground Our Dreaming - Pause. Read (or reread) this Instagram post by Cole Arthur Riley. Make sure you read all of the slides! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 31, 2024: Memory Will Ground Our Dreaming - Prompt. Write down this quote by Zora Neale Hurston: “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” If you like, copy it a few times into your notebook or journal. Set a timer for three minutes and sit with this sentence in silence. Then take notes on 2023. Was it a year of questions or answers? Why? How? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 31, 2024: Memory Will Ground Our Dreaming - Practice. Use one of the breath prayers from the Instagram post. Do a few rounds of the breath prayer/breath meditation using words Cole Arthur Riley has provided for the inhale and exhale. Then write your own breath prayer for a new year. What do you want to receive? What do you want to release? Choose your words or phrases and do a few rounds of inhales and exhales. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-30-2024-establish-more-rituals-to-broaden-your-belongings monthly 0.5 2025-12-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Sixth Day of Christmas: Establish More Rituals to Broaden Your Belongings - Pause. Light a candle. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Sixth Day of Christmas: Establish More Rituals to Broaden Your Belongings - Prompt. Read one poem. Any poem. Read it aloud or silently. Need a poem? Here’s “In the bleak midwinter” by Christina Rossetti Here’s “the mississippi river empties into the gulf” by Lucille Clifton and the gulf enters the sea and so forth, none of them emptying anything, all of them carrying yesterday forever on their white tipped backs, all of them dragging forward tomorrow. it is the great circulation of the earth’s body, like the blood of the gods, this river in which the past is always flowing. every water is the same water coming round. everyday someone is standing on the edge of this river, staring into time, whispering mistakenly: only here. only now. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for The Sixth Day of Christmas: Establish More Rituals to Broaden Your Belongings - Practice. Try to do this ritual every day or most days at the same time of day. Try different poems or choose one to use again and again that suits this particular natural season, liturgical season, or season of life. Feel free to tweak this ritual however you like. It’s your ritual. This is just a suggestion to get you started. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-29-2024-jesus-christ-the-apple-tree-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-12-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 29, 2024: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Feast upon this choral rendition of the song. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 29, 2024: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. The hymn, whose writer is unknown, picks up on a centuries’ old reading of this passage from the second chapter of Song of Songs: Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love. Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love. The church has long construed the apple tree mentioned in that passage as Jesus (and has long construed the speaker of the words about the apple tree as you or me, or as the church). The reading is doubly poetic - the beloved, who is poetically understood by the church as Jesus, is poetically understood by the speaker of the Song as an apple tree, sweet and delightful among the trees of the forest. What are your associations with apples? Think not of the mealy, average apple you might eat in July. Try instead to summon the first delicious juicy tart sweet apple you ate last fall. Who might Jesus be if Jesus is an apple tree? Do you have a childhood memory of an apple tree? If so, what do you discover — about Jesus, or about the memory — when you receive that memory as disclosing something about who Jesus is? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 29, 2024: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Here are the song’s words: The tree of life my soul hath seen, Laden with fruit and always green; The trees of nature fruitless be, Compared with Christ the Apple Tree. His beauty doth all things excel, By faith I know but ne'er can tell The glory which I now can see, In Jesus Christ the Appletree. For happiness I long have sought, And pleasure dearly I have bought; I missed of all but now I see 'Tis found in Christ the Appletree. I'm weary with my former toil - Here I will sit and rest awhile, Under the shadow I will be, Of Jesus Christ the Appletree. With great delight I’ll make my stay, There’s none shall fright my soul away; Among the sons of men I see There’s none like Christ the Appletree. I’ll sit and eat this fruit divine, It cheers my heart like spirit’al wine; And now this fruit is sweet to me, That grows on Christ the Appletree. This fruit doth make my soul to thrive, It keeps my dying faith alive; Which makes my soul in haste to be With Jesus Christ the Appletree. Is there a stanza in which you especially find yourself? (I always seem to find myself in stanzas three and four.) Write for seven minutes in response. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-28-2024-bring-a-torch-jeanette-isabella-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-12-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 28, 2024: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Listen to the carol here. Let your body sway to the music. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 28, 2024: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. “Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella” opens by instructing Jeanette and Isabella to bring light to the birthplace of Jesus. I love this image: bringing light to the Light of the World. I see Jeanette and Isabella as forerunners of the woman at the well, who, as described in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John, went to spread the news of her encounter with Jesus to the people in her town. Bring a torch, Jeanette, Isabella! Bring a torch to the stable call! Christ is born, tell the folk of the village: Jesus is born, and Mary's calling. Ah! Ah! Beautiful is the Mother! Ah! Ah! Beautiful is her Son! Here are three different pictures of women with candles: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/db195e2b-b7a9-4e32-ba13-460f0f87cf3b/John%2BCollier.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 28, 2024: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out John Collier, All Hallow’s Eve, ca. 1895 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/615a23e9-9e64-4ad8-b6dc-417b3f3e10dc/dhgdhgd.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 28, 2024: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Phillip Lindsay Mason, Maiden Voyage, ca. 1969 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/c5cf27e3-4a3a-4a71-9d72-9d132dcc71a9/The%2BMagdalen.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 28, 2024: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Georges de la Tour, The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, ca. 1635-37 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 28, 2024: Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. What happens when you put either the Collier, Mason, or de la Tour in conversation with the hymn? For six minutes, write the two - a lyric and musical text, and a visual image - into relationship with one another. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-27-2024-the-snow-lay-on-the-ground-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-12-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 27, 2024: The Snow Lay on the Ground with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Here is a 1929 image of snow by Kawase Hasui 川瀬 巴水. Gaze at it for two minutes, three, four. Allow your breath to slow as you gaze. Where does your eye want to linger? What surprises you about putting this image together with the hymn? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/abb173aa-6bb8-4ec7-b5b3-5c5b41b0c41b/Snow%2Bat%2BInokashira.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 27, 2024: The Snow Lay on the Ground with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 27, 2024: The Snow Lay on the Ground with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. The nativity story according to the Gospel of St. Luke does not mention snow, or stars - but “The Snow Lay on the Ground” does, right there in the first line. Like so many hymns, “The Snow Lay on the Ground” sings the church’s imagination of the story - it’s full details not there in the biblical text. Christians are always doing this - valuing not just the Scriptures, but also valuing the ways the church has embroidered the Scriptures over time. We especially have embroidered the Christmas story. In the church’s Christmas songs, we add to the nativity scene a little drummer boy who plays his best for the infant; we give the angels harps of gold; we sing our way to the bleak midwinter when frosty wind made moan - there’s no moaning wind in the Gospel according to St. Luke. We add all these things because the birth of Jesus is one of our pivotal moments and pivotal moments attract all the energy we’ve got. Pivotal moments inspire us to a cornucopia of literary and musical and visual representation. And we add all these things becuase all these things, all this thing’d context — animals and harps and snow — constitute the very world Jesus comes into, thing’d himself; flesh himself. His presence in the flesh world transfigures everything, and we want to represent in our hymns and our art how all the cosmos becomes centered upon the flesh of this one baby. “The Snow Lay on the Ground” begins with snow and stars because he’s born into an already adoring universe. And the animals! The oxen and ass shared a roof with them - there are no oxen or asses in Luke’s account, though since at least the 4th century, the church has been placing them there. The animals show, again, that the entirety of the cosmos is recentered, refocused by the incarnation. It’s interesting, though, that it’s so often an ox and an ass - and maybe some birds. The hymn doesn’t say ‘all the animals of the vicinity’ shared a roof. Our hymn doesn’t sing us up any pigs—pigs with whom the prodigal son was living when he’d sunk to his lowest; pigs who figure in the biblical idiom for wastefulness (“cast your pearls before swine”). I don’t know of any swine at the manger, in any hymns, or snakes either for that matter. Jesus comes to heal the whole of the cosmos, but it is we who do the embroidering, and there are bits we we have a hard time embroidering in. The hymn tells us, too, that Jesus is born into a family - it sings of his family and goes beyond Scripture in naming his grandmother, Anne, who is nowhere named in the Bible. We also get Jesus’ earthly father: Saint Joseph, too, was by To tend the Child; To guard him, and protect His mother mild; That “too” is really revealing - “St. Joseph, too, was by.” It sounds like the hymn-writer really had to work at finding a way to mention Joseph and this was the best the writer could come up with. Joseph is at first given a typically feminine-scripted role - tending the child. That is, the hymn seems to be suggesting that this Jesus will not only come into and transform the cosmos, the stars and the snow and the oxen - Jesus will even, immediately, transform the social order; Jesus will undercut the things we think we know about, in this case, the roles men and women are supposed to play in the family. But then the hymn undercuts its own undercutting, next depicting Joseph doing something typically masculine, guarding and protecting. The hymn-writer can’t quite get there, just as the hymn writer can’t quite get to the pig. Jesus may upend the social order but we’re only halfway to figuring out what that upending means. Or maybe a quarter of the way. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 27, 2024: The Snow Lay on the Ground with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. One: The “prompt” above suggests that “pivotal moments attract all the energy we’ve got. Pivotal moments inspire us to a cornucopia of literary and musical and visual representation.” What’s a pivotal moment in the Scriptures that attracts your energy and creative attention? What embroidery would you like to add to Scripture’s account? Or, what’s a pivotal moment in your family history and family lore that attracts your energy and creative attention? What embroidery would you like to add to the account you’ve received? Two: The “prompt” suggests that, although God wants to heal everything, we falter - we are unable to embroider into the story of healing those things we find most repugnant. How do you respond to that suggestion? What might you have trouble embroidering in? Three: Write your own poem or hymn that embroiders the Gospel of Luke’s nativity story. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-26-2024-god-rest-ye-merry-gentlemen-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-12-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 26, 2024: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Listen to one of these recordings of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” —Choir of King’s College, Cambridge —The Roches Sing along or move your body if you wish. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 26, 2024: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. Read this poem (my very favorite Christmas poem) by Barbara Hamby. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 26, 2024: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Write a poem in which a narrator (who might or might not be based on you) sings a Christmas carol in one setting and reflects on or interacts with that carol in a second setting. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-25-2024-what-child-is-this-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2024-12-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 25, 2024: What Child Is This? with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. A key image in “What Child Is This?” is the “Child….On Mary's lap…sleeping” For two, three, four minutes gaze at this image of Jesus sleeping on Mary’s lap — Virginie Demont-Breton’s Alma mater which is also included below. Let your breath slow as you gaze. If your attention wanders, bring it back to the gold halo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/ad96ae9a-a9b0-4f53-a683-6ac51bb54313/Virginie_Demont-Breton_Alma_mater+%281%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 25, 2024: What Child Is This? with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 25, 2024: What Child Is This? with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. Listen to this recording of “What Child Is This?” If, as you listen, you feel moved to write or sketch in response to the sound, do so. If inclined, notice how your body feels while listening. Then, listen to this second recording. Again, if, as you listen, you feel moved to write or sketch in response to the sound, do so. If inclined, notice how your body feels while listening. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 25, 2024: What Child Is This? with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Jot down three topics you are currently writing about, or might like to write about; three stories you are in the middle of trying to tell on the page, or that you’d like to tell on the page. Stop reading ‘til you’ve done that. Now, pick one item from your list. If you’re in a prose mood, write a paragraph that tells your story or unfolds your topic in a way consonant with or responsive to the first recording of “What Child Is This?” If you’re in a poetry mood, write a poem that tells your story or unfolds your topic in a way consonant with or responsive to the first recording of “What Child Is This?” Stop reading ‘til you’ve done that. Now, write a paragraph or poem that tells your story or unfolds your topic in a way consonant with or responsive to the second recording of “What Child Is This?” What do you notice about the two versions? What’s different? What’s at stake in the difference? Which felt more pleasurable to write? Which felt harder? Why? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-24-2024-sliences-between-human-beings monthly 0.5 2025-12-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 24, 2024: Sliences between Human Beings - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the art below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/681775b3-f892-4d89-a44d-7cef3320c3c5/hPiction_Repository_3db_photod0283u353028331966111_01_p01_o2.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 24, 2024: Sliences between Human Beings - Make it stand out Night Snow at Ikegami Japan 1930s, early Showa period (1926-1989) https://www.artsbma.org/collection/snowy-landscape-with-figures/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 24, 2024: Sliences between Human Beings - Prompt. Or read the poem “Snow” by Naomi Shihab Nye and choose a few words or a phrase to meditate on for a bit. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 24, 2024: Sliences between Human Beings - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and journal or take notes on anything that comes to mind. Or write about a recent period of silence you noticed in the presence of another person. Or sit in silence and look at more art below that features snow. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d1a0f9ca-3046-4447-bfc9-917c11e94130/SAN_VOL2BMA_Repositorydb_photod5578u10655782198332_01_p01_o2.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 24, 2024: Sliences between Human Beings - Make it stand out Horseneck Brook John Henry Twachtman 1890s https://www.artsbma.org/collection/horseneck-brook/ https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-23-2024-feel-less-lonely-during-the-holidays monthly 0.5 2025-12-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 23, 2024: Feel Less Lonely During the Holidays - Pause. Prepare and sip a warm beverage. Learn more about why this helps in Chapter 13 of The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. “Our social experiences are not always separate from our bodily experiences. In other words, we feel in our bodies what we experience in our relationships. It's as if our bodies are thermometers, registering in bone and skin and muscle the temperature of our lives and the condition of our inclusion.” —The Great Belonging https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 23, 2024: Feel Less Lonely During the Holidays - Prompt. Conduct a Quick Belonging Checkup. “The things that offer me the greatest relief from loneliness are also the things that bring me into the moment, and remind me of my senses. My children’s laughter. Petting my puppy. Listening to birdsong in the woods. Baking.”—Natalie Eve Garrett Additional Resources: Read more from Garrett in the Lit Hub interview, “How the Pandemic Has Changed the Way We Think About Solitude and Loneliness.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 23, 2024: Feel Less Lonely During the Holidays - Practice. Listen to music that helps you feel less alone and make a playlist to return to over the next several days. Learn more about why this helps in Chapter 35 of The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. “Sarah Vaughan singing ‘Lullaby of Birdland’ feels like the touch of worn cotton; a rotation of old T-shirts my mother wears when she’s cooking… And when I hear Mingus’s ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat’—that pendulous elegy, sad but sleuthing, like a gloomy gumshoe’s anthem—I smell my father’s plaid shirt. Its collar has since lost its stiff. One button snaps with less snap! It hangs in my closet in Brooklyn, sharing a hanger with two other shirts—an indignity I should fix.” — Durga Chew Bose, Too Much and Not the Mood If you like, take a few minutes to write about how music helps you belong. Additional Resources: “How Can Music Engagement Address Loneliness?” by Frederic Kiernan and Jane W. Davidson, International Journal of Environmental Research and Mental Health https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-22-2024-wake-up-to-the-coming-week monthly 0.5 2025-12-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 22, 2024: Wake Up to the Coming Week - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. This six-count inhale and six-count exhale will help integrate your body+mind+soul. All religions from the beginning of time have prayers with a six count inhale/six count exhale structure. (Read more in Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 22, 2024: Wake Up to the Coming Week - Prompt. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Think about the past week and the coming week and answer these questions: What do you want more of? What do you want less of? What do you want to write about this week? What do you want to stop writing about this week? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 22, 2024: Wake Up to the Coming Week - Practice. Pick one contemplative practice to do today that will help you honor where you are right now as a writer and a whole person. You know what you need. (But it might be helpful for me to encourage you to think about it and make a plan!) https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-21-2024-the-landscape-of-winter monthly 0.5 2025-12-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 21, 2024: The Landscape of Winter - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the painting below. If you like, pray this prayer, In the Midst of Winter by Cal Wick: Lord: In the midst of Winter, when the days are cold and wind can pierce remind us of the warmth of your love. In the midst of Winter, when days are short, dawn comes late, and dusk arrives early remind us that in the darkness your light still shines. In the midst of Winter, when the flowers of spring still lie hidden in the earth, when leaves are off the trees, and the world can seem bleak remind us that Easter is but a short time away. And when in our lives we feel as if we are experiencing a season of winter, reach out to us with the power of your resurrection so that we may feel the warmth of your love and see your light that alone can take away the darkness of our soul. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/29535cac-b622-4334-9a9b-754161bda4ce/Winter+Landscape+Jacob+van+Ruisdael+1660s.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 21, 2024: The Landscape of Winter - Make it stand out Winter Landscape Jacob van Ruisdael 1660s Birmingham Museum of Art https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 21, 2024: The Landscape of Winter - Prompt. Read the poem “Winter Sentence” by Dutch traslator, poet, and writer H.C. ten Berge. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 21, 2024: The Landscape of Winter - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the prayer, poem, and/or painting above or the questions and statements below. —Write one sentence about winter. —How does the weather you notice on a daily basis affect your writing and creative practice? —How do you notice and honor the changing of the seasons? How do you want to notice and honor the changing of the seasons? —Begin writing a new poem, story, essay, or letter using today’s weather where you are as the beginning. Include themes connected to Advent if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-20-2024-you-read-the-book-and-the-book-reads-you monthly 0.5 2024-12-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 20, 2024: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 20, 2024: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - 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 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/41afd52a-f9b7-4c25-94fe-9b7482aba589/the-street-1975.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 20, 2024: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 20, 2024: You Read the Book and the Book Reads You - 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? Make It Advent: —Which music reminds you of Advent? How does this music affect your body, mind, soul, and creative practice? —How does the season of Advent read you? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-19-2024-when-you-let-go-of-the-rules monthly 0.5 2025-12-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 19, 2024: When You Let Go of the Rules - Pause. Rest for three minutes. While seated or lying down in a spot in that feels safe and comfortable, set a timer, close your eyes, and rest. If you like, begin this time of rest with six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale and/or pray this prayer by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 19, 2024: When You Let Go of the Rules - Prompt. Watch this 52-second video that will encourage you to let go of the writing rules that aren’t serving you. Then start making a list of “writing rules” you want to break. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 19, 2024: When You Let Go of the Rules - Practice. Give your attention to the thoughts you have about your writing practice. What do you say to yourself when you realize you aren’t writing as often as you prefer? What unnecessary or unrealistic expectations do you have that make you feel like you aren’t a “real writer”? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-18-2024-personal-saints-and-saviors-with-guidance-from-erik-fuhrer monthly 0.5 2025-12-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 18, 2024: Personal Saints and Saviors with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Pause. Take a few deep breaths, then. Read my essay, “Emmanuel.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 18, 2024: Personal Saints and Saviors with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Prompt. Buffy functioned as a type of saint and savior for me and enabled me to tell my story. What historical or fictional character (from film, TV, literature, etc.) plays a similar role for you that Buffy played for me? If you don’t have one, start brainstorming a few on paper. Once you have someone in mind, use five minutes writing a short letter to them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 18, 2024: Personal Saints and Saviors with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Practice. Read over what you wrote. Throughout the day, collect three items you would want to send this person as a gift if you could. Why these objects? Find time to explore this question in your journal for at least three minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-17-2024-feel-even-more-loved-with-guidance-from-erik-fuhrer-1 monthly 0.5 2025-12-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 17, 2024: Feel Even More Loved with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Pause. Listen to Lizzo’s “2 Be Loved”, “ME!” by Taylor Swift, “Brave” by Sara Bareilles, or another song that helps you embrace self love. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 17, 2024: Feel Even More Loved with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Prompt. Write down at least 10 things that currently make you feel loved and 10 things you want or need to feel even more loved, adored, and fulfilled. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 17, 2024: Feel Even More Loved with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Practice. Read over what you wrote. Choose one item from the lists and use it to complete the following sentence: “I am ready for (or I will soon be ready for) __________. Write that sentence down using a pen and paper. Write at least four more sentences using one or more items from your list of things that you have, want, or need. You may repeat the first sentence if you like or choose new items from your list. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-16-2024-writing-the-unexpressed-with-guidance-from-erik-fuhrer monthly 0.5 2025-12-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 16, 2024: Writing the Unexpressed with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Pause. Read Jane Kenyon’s poem, “Briefly it Enters and Briefly Speaks.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 16, 2024: Writing the Unexpressed with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Prompt. Write for five minutes to someone or something (this can be an object, an animal, or a particular place) that you spiritually or emotionally hold close to you, but is not physically near to you. What would you like to say or be able to speak to or do with this person, place, or thing that you can’t express directly because of the distance? Don’t worry if the writing gets messy or meanders. Let it flow naturally. If you end up switching who or what you are writing to in the middle of the exercise, no worries. Let it happen. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 16, 2024: Writing the Unexpressed with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Practice. Think of the subject of your writing at least once more today. If the subject you wrote to could write back to you, what do you think it would say? Journal about this question for three minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-15-2024-when-one-foot-is-outside-the-door-with-guidance-from-erik-fuhrer monthly 0.5 2024-12-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 15, 2024: When One Foot Is Outside the Door with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Pause. Listen to Laura Veirs’ “Little Deschutes” at least one time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 15, 2024: When One Foot Is Outside the Door with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Prompt. Focus on the space around you. Observe how your body feels where you are (are you sitting/standing? what else?). Observe some of the objects closest to you. What do they look like? Feel like? Do they remind you of anyone? If so, who? What is their relationship to the room? To you? Freewrite for at least five minutes. Alternatively, you may make a list, a word cloud, or draw pictures. The main goal is to get your observations about the room and your feelings on the page. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 15, 2024: When One Foot Is Outside the Door with Guidance from Erik Fuhrer - Practice. Read over what you wrote/drew. Did these last five minutes of close observation change how you felt about the space you were in? Why or why not? Did it teach you anything new about the space? If so, what? Write about what you learned for about three minutes. Return to this space at least once more today. Try sitting/standing in a slightly different area. Note your observations in your journal. Make It Advent: Listen to some songs from one or more of the playlists from below while repeating the entire Prompt & Practice. How was this Pause & Practice different from the previous round? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-14-2024-start-with-what-youve-forgotten monthly 0.5 2025-12-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 14, 2024: Start with What You’ve Forgotten - Pause. Read “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 14, 2024: Start with What You’ve Forgotten - Prompt. Read the poem two more times. Use your imagination to enter the scenes in both stanzas. Take notes for three minutes to describe what you see. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 14, 2024: Start with What You’ve Forgotten - Practice. Write for seven minutes about something you’ve forgotten. Make It Advent: Write for seven minutes about what you’ve forgotten about Advent 2023. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-13-2024-it-will-sound-like-freedom monthly 0.5 2025-12-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 13, 2024: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Pause. Use the inhale and exhale prompts below for a few rounds of a breath prayer or meditation. Inhale: My imagination expands. Exhale: I expand with it. - Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 13, 2024: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Prompt. Read the quotes below from Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/ac856f4a-5db6-48be-b5c5-ccfeb9737e88/Thoughtful%2BBooks%2BEtc.%2BCole%2BArthur%2BRiley%2Band%2BBlack%2BLiturgies.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 13, 2024: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/3030b1d2-7512-4f32-bd6a-260bca374ea4/Thoughtful%2BBooks%2BEtc.%2BCole%2BArthur%2BRiley%2Band%2BBlack%2BLiturgies%2B2.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 13, 2024: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/d695e041-39f7-4e52-9a72-c54c817cd055/Thoughtful%2BBooks%2BEtc.%2BCole%2BArthur%2BRiley%2Band%2BBlack%2BLiturgies%2B5.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 13, 2024: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 13, 2024: It Will Sound Like Freedom - Practice. Pick one quote from the images above to sit with for three or four minutes. Write it down a few times in your journal or on a piece of paper. Say it out loud a few times. Take notes or freewrite using the quote as a prompt. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-12-2024-it-is-a-good-idea-to-sit-anyway monthly 0.5 2025-12-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 12, 2024: It’s a Good Idea to Sit Anyway - Pause. Rest for three minutes. While seated or lying down in a spot in that feels safe and comfortable, set a timer, close your eyes, and rest. If you like, begin this time of rest with six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale and/or read Psalm 31 Here’s a portion of Psalm 31: In you, O Lord, I seek refuge; do not let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me. Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 12, 2024: It’s a Good Idea to Sit Anyway - Prompt. Read these good words: “Neither I nor the poets I love found the keys to the kingdom of prayer and we cannot force god to stumble over us where we sit. But I know that it's a good idea to sit anyway. So every morning I sit, I kneel, waiting, making friends with the habit of listening, hoping that I'm being listened to. There, I greet God in my own disorder. I say hello to my chaos, my unmade decisions, my unmade bed, my desire and my trouble. I say hello to distraction and privilege, I greet the day and I greet my beloved and bewildering Jesus. I recognize and greet my burdens, my luck, my controlled and uncontrollable story. I greet my untold stories, my unfolding story, my unloved body, my own love, my own body. I greet the things I think will happen and I say hello to everything I do not know about the day. I greet my own small world and I hope that I can meet the bigger world someday. I greet my story and hope that I can forget my story during the day, and hope that I can hear some stories, and greet some surprising stories during the long day ahead. I greet God, and I greet the God who is more God than the God I greet. Hello to you all, I say, as the sun rises above the chimneys of North Belfast. Hello.” ― Pádraig Ó Tuama, In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 12, 2024: It’s a Good Idea to Sit Anyway - Practice. Set a timer and write a response to the rest or Scripture or quote for seven minutes. Journal, pray, take notes, or start a new poem, essay, story, or letter to a friend. Make It Advent: Explore how Advent themes of waiting, mystery, and unknowing intersect with the ideas in the quote above. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-11-2024-a-more-human-dwelling-place monthly 0.5 2025-12-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 11, 2024: A More Human Dwelling Place - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 11, 2024: A More Human Dwelling Place - Prompt. Read the Toni Morrison quote a few times. Read it aloud a couple of times, too. “Art invites us to know beauty and to solicit it from even the most tragic of circumstances. Art reminds reminds us that we belong here. And if we serve, we last.” - Toni Morrison https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 11, 2024: A More Human Dwelling Place - Practice. Take notes on how art helps you belong. What art has helped you belong over the past few weeks? (All of it counts, not just the fancy art. All forms and genres of high art, low art, and all of the in between art.) What happens when you go too long without artful encounters with music, film, TV, paintings? Make It Advent: How does engaging with art help you belong to Advent? How does engaging with various forms of art broaden your Advent belongings? Do you have any personal, family, or community Advent traditions that include encounters with art? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-10-2024-in-memory-of-nikki-giovanni-with-her-poem-dreams-and-the-raelettes monthly 0.5 2024-12-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 10, 2024: In Memory of Nikki Giovanni with Her Poem “Dreams” and The Raelettes - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to “I Believe to My Soul” by Ray Charles and The Raelettes https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 10, 2024: In Memory of Nikki Giovanni with Her Poem “Dreams” and The Raelettes - Prompt. Read “Dreams” by Nikki Giovanni. Read it a few times. Read it aloud once or twice if you like. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 10, 2024: In Memory of Nikki Giovanni with Her Poem “Dreams” and The Raelettes - Practice. Write for 10 minutes about a childhood music memory. What sensory details do you remember? What do you remember thinking at the time? How did you feel the music in your body? What do you feel in your body now? How does thinking about your childhood help you connect to this present moment? Make It Advent: How does thinking about your childhood December memories help you connect to the season of Advent? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-9-2024-be-here-now monthly 0.5 2025-12-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 9, 2024: Be Here Now - Pause. Use the inhale and exhale prompts below for a few rounds of a breath prayer or meditation. Inhale: I’m here now. Exhale: Be here now. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 9, 2024: Be Here Now - Prompt. Read the quote below and take notes for a few minutes on whatever thoughts come to mind. “You can’t write what you’re going to write tomorrow or next week or next year without being who you are today.” - Charlotte Donlon https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 9, 2024: Be Here Now - Practice. 1. Make a list of five things you need or want to do today that have little to do with writing. 2. Make a list of five things someone else needs or wants you to do today that have little to do with writing. 3. Make a list of five things you did yesterday instead of writing. 4. Make a list of five things you wish were true for you today so you could do more writing. 5. Make a list of five things you can do today to help you have more time to write tomorrow. Make It Advent: Think through how the lists above intersect with your desires for how you prefer to inhabit this Advent season and your creative practice during this time. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-8-2024-to-never-look-away monthly 0.5 2025-12-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 8, 2024: To Never Look Away - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for two minutes and close your eyes and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 8, 2024: To Never Look Away - Prompt. Read “The Kitchen, Indexed” by Ira Goga https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 8, 2024: To Never Look Away - Practice. Gather five things from your kitchen that hold memories of belonging. Hold them. Look closer. Take notes or journal about why these objects help you feel less alone. Keep them nearby today, this week, this month. Make It Advent: Gather five things from your kitchen or other rooms in your home that hold memories of belonging. Hold them. Look closer. Take notes or journal about why these objects help you feel less alone. Keep them nearby today, this week, this month. If you like, begin writing a new story, essay, poem, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-7-2024-praise-to-the-light-that-is-not-yet monthly 0.5 2025-12-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 7, 2024: Praise to the Light That Is Not Yet - 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 while looking at the art below. The Gare St-Lazare Claude Monet, 1877 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/6242a85f-3708-4af5-9729-9613cc242bcf/The%252BGare%252BSt%252BLazare%252Bby%252BClaude%252BMonet.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 7, 2024: Praise to the Light That Is Not Yet - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 7, 2024: Praise to the Light That Is Not Yet - Prompt. “Why must I learn the same lessons over and over again? That both life and art atrophy if they are not communing with each other. That it means nothing to make a space for the miraculous in one’s work if one can’t recognize some true intrusion in one’s life.” - Christian Wiman, Zero at the Bone https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 7, 2024: Praise to the Light That Is Not Yet - Practice. Take notes or journal in response to the quote above and the questions below: —Which miracles have you noticed in your art and others’ art, in your life, and others’ lives? —Which lessons do you keep having to learn again and again? —How can you tell when your art and life aren’t communing with each other? What does that atrophy look like for you? Make It Advent: How is Advent an intrusion in your art and life each year? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-6-2024-the-silences-between-human-beings monthly 0.5 2025-12-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 6, 2024: The Silences between Human Beings - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 6, 2024: The Silences between Human Beings - Prompt. Read the poem “Snow” by Naomi Shihab Nye and choose a few words or a phrase to meditate on for a bit. Make it Advent: Watch this guided breath prayer practice for the First Friday of Advent, too. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 6, 2024: The Silences between Human Beings - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and journal or take notes on anything that comes to mind. Or sit in silence. Sitting in silence is always a nice option. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-5-2024-what-if-its-all-a-huge-waste-of-time monthly 0.5 2024-12-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 5, 2024: What If It’s All a Huge Waste of Time? - 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. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 5, 2024: What If It’s All a Huge Waste of Time? - Prompt. Do you ever wonder if your writing or other creative endeavors are all a huge waste of time? It’s not. Trust me. I have seen (and experienced!) what happens when people don’t honor their creativity. That book you’ve been stealing time to write in the spaces between your day job and family responsibilities and all of the other roles you fulfill day after day will probably not be a breakout bestseller, but the creative work you’re doing still matters. It’s true. Your art matters. All of it matters. The creative process. The art we make that no one knows about. The art we make that a few people know about. How making art transforms us. The lessons we learn when we don’t make the art we need to make. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 5, 2024: What If It’s All a Huge Waste of Time? - Practice. Take notes on why your creative practice sometimes feels like a waste of time, why it’s not, and how you move through to the other side of those feelings if/when they arise. Also: What happens when you go too long without making the art you need and want to make? Want to make it Advent? Which Advent lessons and themes can you apply to this idea of your creativity mattering? Maybe explore the ideas of waiting, darkness, waiting in darkness… https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-4-2024-a-world-of-different-creatures monthly 0.5 2025-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 4, 2024: A World of Different Creatures - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then take a few minutes to sit by a window or sit outside. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 4, 2024: A World of Different Creatures - Prompt. “In one large study, researchers used smartphones to collect data from more than 20,000 people in real time comparing how they felt at different points during their day and using GPS to determine where they were. The researchers found that, overall, people felt happier when they were outdoors in green or natural spaces compared to urban spaces, regardless of the weather, activity, or who was with them. Another study surveyed people living in Puget Sound, Washington, and found that they were more satisfied with life if they engaged with nature more.” - “Four Ways Nature Can Protect Your Well-Being During a Pandemic” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 4, 2024: A World of Different Creatures - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and begin writing a true (or mostly true or sort of true) story about a person who experiences some sort of transformation when they go outside and engage with nature. * Want to make it Advent? Set a timer for 10 minutes and begin writing a true (or mostly true or sort of true) story about a person who experiences some sort of transformation when they go outside and engage with nature during the first week of Advent. Do some quick research on a particular place and the weather there this week. Find an outdoor setting to use in your writing or as inspiration for a place in your piece. A Christmas tree farm? A Christmas lights walking tour? A blow-up nativity display in a suburban front yard? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-3-2024-the-bones-and-skeletons-of-language monthly 0.5 2025-12-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 3, 2024: The Bones and Skeletons of Language - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then give your attention to your body. Where do you notice imbalance, pain, tension, energy? Can you breathe into those places and try to release anything you’re holding on to? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 3, 2024: The Bones and Skeletons of Language - Prompt. Set a five-minute timer and begin collecting words to use for a found poem. Collect words from mail stacked on your kitchen counter, email, text messages, notes, book titles from any books nearby, whatever. Find at least 30-40 words. OR Make it Advent: Collect words that you associate with Advent or words from various Advent resources—book titles, song titles, song lyrics, essays, poems, Instagram posts, etc. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 3, 2024: The Bones and Skeletons of Language - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes. Then write all of the words down. Play with the words, rearrange them, put some together, and see what happens next. Don’t worry about writing a perfect poem. Play and give attention to any connections that emerge and surprises that appear. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-2-2024-be-more-fully-awake monthly 0.5 2025-12-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 2, 2024: Be More Fully Awake - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then take a few minutes to sit by a window or sit outside. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 2, 2024: Be More Fully Awake - Prompt. Establish a new 10-minute Advent or December ritual to push away the winter blues or feelings of loneliness. Brainstorm for two or three minutes on what to include. Incorporate nourishing rhythms, encounters with art, good words, beauty, delicious food, comforting drinks, and whatever consoles and inspires. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 2, 2024: Be More Fully Awake - Practice. Take 10 minutes to begin experimenting with a new Advent or December Ritual for Belonging. What helps you feel comfortable, safe, and connected? What do you want to remember? What do you want to engage with? What do you want to return to? How do you want to tweak this ritual moving forward? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/december-1-2024-start-close-in monthly 0.5 2025-12-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 1, 2024: Start Close In - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Start Close In” by David Whyte. I first read this poem in David Whyte: Essentials. Start Close In by David Whyte Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take. Start with the ground you know, the pale ground beneath your feet, your own way to begin the conversation. Start with your own question, give up on other people’s questions, don’t let them smother something simple. To hear another’s voice, follow your own voice, wait until that voice becomes an intimate private ear that can really listen to another. Start right now take a small step you can call your own don’t follow someone else’s heroics, be humble and focused, start close in, don’t mistake that other for your own. Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 1, 2024: Start Close In - Prompt. Listen to this Start Close In video using David Whyte’s poem and additional thoughts. It’s about nine and a half minutes long. I recommend listening with your eyes closed. (Thanks, Bre Strobel, for sharing this link!) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for December 1, 2024: Start Close In - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and respond to the poem and/or the video. Answer some of the questions he asks in the video: What is the conversation you don’t want to have? What is the question you don’t want to answer? How can you start with the first thing close in? If you observe the season of Advent, what would it look like to start close in on the First Sunday of Advent? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-30-2024-when-its-time-to-play-featuring-poems-by-jose-hernandez-diaz monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 30, 2024: When It’s Time to Play Featuring Poems by Jose Hernandez Diaz - Pause. Read “Pan Dulce” by Jose Hernandez Diaz https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 30, 2024: When It’s Time to Play Featuring Poems by Jose Hernandez Diaz - Prompt. Jose Hernandez Diaz also writes poems that incorporate a lot of surrealism. Let’s use the poem above and Diaz’s use of surrealism in several of his other poems as inspiration. Set a timer for 8 minutes. Write about a recent phone call or text exchange with a family member or friend. Then write a new ending. Experiment! Play! What else could’ve been said? What could’ve been left unsaid? Make stuff up. Make it weird. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 30, 2024: When It’s Time to Play Featuring Poems by Jose Hernandez Diaz - Practice. Add one sentence to three more conversations today. After each phone call, text, or email exchange is complete, create something new. Don’t overthink it. Let your imagination extend what seems to be finished. Then see what happens next. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-29-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 29, 2024: When the Writer Becomes a Lover with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. As you slow your breath, linger over these words and phrases from L’Engle’s poem “Word” I, who live by words, am wordless all language turns to silence take my words reveal their emptiness the stilled voice adoration this strange patterned time of contemplation silence healed and mended returned to language I see through words https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 29, 2024: When the Writer Becomes a Lover with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. “The approach to each book is different, as your approach to each person you speak to is different. If you’re a teacher, your approach to each child is different. But you have a basic approach, which is the same no matter what you’re writing. I have slowly emerged into my approach. When I was first writing, I was much more conscious of what I was doing. I was much less willing to relinquish my control. And here, of course, we get again into this incredible paradox of control and letting go, of having to have technique—because because if you do not have technique, nothing can speak through you—but then letting go so that the spirit of the work can move through you.” What do L’Engle’s words about approach help you see about your own writing life? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 29, 2024: When the Writer Becomes a Lover with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. In a 2004 interview with Newsweek, L’Engle was asked “Have you read the Harry Potter books?” Her reply: “I read one of them. It's a nice story but there's nothing underneath it. I don't want to be bothered with stuff where there's nothing underneath. Some people say, ‘Why do you read the Bible?'’I say, ‘Because there's a lot of stuff underneath.’” Write an account of your past week with nothing underneath; then rewrite with a lot of stuff underneath. Or, realize that something you’ve lately written has an insufficient undercarriage, and rewrite it with more underneath. Or “It's a nice story but there's nothing underneath it”: L’Engle damns with faint praise and then makes a stinging criticism. The criticism is insightful—it shows us something about the novel being criticized. And it is generative—it shows us something about what’s important, what’s good, what we might look for in our own reading as aspire to in our own writing. Think of something you deem really useless and lame, and write a sentence that formally imitates L’Engle’s; that is, damn with faint praise, and then make a specific, insightful criticism. Postscript: “In the end, the real writer becomes a lover.” https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-28-2024-writerly-desires-and-more-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 28, 2024: Writerly Desires and More with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. On the page (I’ve no idea what she’s like in the flesh), Brown is brassy and spiky and bold; direct. She isn’t contemplative, but something about her directness also suggests a quietness at her core - there’s no dissipation of energy, no distraction. Here’s a short reflection about Brown’s writerly ambitions. Read it and let it energize you. “Time had not teased me. I thought eternity was mine in which to live and in which to write. Thinking myself amazingly intelligent, I saw no reason to hide my light under a bushel basket. My youthful poetry paraded my stuff. I imitated Horace shamelessly; he still remains one of my favorite poets in the original Latin but I have grown up enough not to imitate him. Who could?….Anyway, as I learned more and more about language and literature I also learned more and more about my own limitations. I wanted to write a perfect poem. I was soon humbled and wanted to write a great poem. I eventually became realistic: I wanted to write a good poem.” What writerly desire of your own do you find quickened by Brown’s reflection on her literary ambitions? Has learning about a limitation ever usefully clarified and focused your desire? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 28, 2024: Writerly Desires and More with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. The first book I ever read about the craft and the writing life was Brown’s Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers’ Manual (1988). One topic Brown addresses is embodiment. Writing is an embodied act, so part of writing well is caring for your body: “You need to eat properly and great enough sleep. If you’re working at an outside job to support yourself while writing, something’s got to give. Don’t let it be sleep.” (It’s your social life you’ll probably need to sacrifice, she goes on to say.) “The beginning of all literature,” she writes, is “…your body.” Brown also addresses politics. “Some writers maintain that they are apolitical. A worm is apolitical; human beings are not. If you live in a political system and do not seek to make it better you are still a product of that system. Your lack of involvement is a political statement. All Art reason a political foundation but it need not concern itself with politics.” She then teases out the political basis of The Iliad and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. People read those books still today with deep pleasure, she writes, because literature “lives…if it is morally true.” If you wish, pause to think for a moment about either the ways your writing life is embodied, or the political foundations of your writing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 28, 2024: Writerly Desires and More with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. An exercise from Starting from Scratch: How many words can you come up with for death? Write them down, and don’t read on til you’ve exhausted your stock. Now, how many words can you come up with for love? Again, write them down, and don’t read on til you’ve exhausted your stock. Brown reflects on the exercise thus: “Passed away, crossed over, bit the dust…gave up the ghost….[In turn, love:] Admiration, adoration, attachment, devotion, infatuation, passion, tenderness, yearning….While there are many love terms none of them quite seems as powerful or as pure as the word love [and] none of the euphemisms for death are as powerful as the word death. If anything, these counter terms rob the event of its shattering power. Perhaps we are trying to slide away from love and death. What does this tell you? How deeply engrained in our language is the fear of emotional life.” How deeply engrained in our language is the fear of emotional life! This is quite a claim; and one worth pondering. Brown continues: “A Russian speaker can indicate to a listener the nature of his/her relationship with, say, Mary. By altering Mary to Marushka or Marushkaya or Marushinka, or whatever, he tells you if he is a friend, a family member, a lover, and so on….[By contrast,] English is weak in describing emotional states or intensities of interpersonal relationships.” (If you wish, take that last declaration as a challenge: write for another seven or eight minutes, trying to describe “emotional states or intensities of interpersonal relationships” as well as you possibly can.) https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-27-2024-the-mixture-of-piety-and-blasphemy-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 27, 2024: The Mixture of Piety and Blasphemy with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Take a quiet moment with this extract from a letter from Agee (on the evening of his twenty-eight birthday) to Father Flye, the Episcopal priest who’d been chaplain at the school Agee attended from ages nine to 15, and with whom Agee kept up a correspondence until his death at 45: “The world (and myself) seem to me this morning, in light of recent context, evil, exhausting and hopeless, not to mention nauseating and infuriating and incurable, yet I am thoroughly glad I am in it and alive.” Read Agee’s words again, as you breathe; receive them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 27, 2024: The Mixture of Piety and Blasphemy with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. Here is the opening of Agee’s novel A Death in the Family: “We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself as a child. It was a little bit mixed sort of block, fairly solidly lower middle class, with one or two juts apiece on either side of that. The houses corresponded: middle-sized gracefully fretted wood houses built in the late nineties and early nineteen hundreds, with small front and side and more spacious back yards, and trees in the yards, and porches. These were softwooded trees, populars, tulip trees, cottonwoods. There were fences around one or two of the houses, but mainly the yards ran into each other with only now and then a low hedge that wasn’t doing very well. There were few good friends among the grown people, and they were not poor enough for the other sort of intimate acquaintance, but everyone nodded and spoke, and even might talk short times, trivially, and at the two extremes of the general or the particular, and ordinarily nextdoor neighbors talked quite a bit when they happened to run into each other, and never paid calls. The men were mostly small businessmen, one or two very modestly executives, one or two worked with their hands, most of them clerical, and most of them between thirty and forty-five. But it is of these evenings, I speak.” (The novel goes on very beautifully and lyrically to indeed speak of the evenings.) I find the opening of this novel particularly beautiful, and like to sit and savor the words. But you may wish to write in response to them. In the novel, Agee drew on his own Tennessee childhood. You might write of your childhood, beginning with a line of Agee’s, either “We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee [or Asheville, North Carolina, or Ames, Iowa, or wherever your childhood summers were]” or “But it is of these evenings, I speak” and continuing to write for seven or ten minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 27, 2024: The Mixture of Piety and Blasphemy with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. In a 2006 essay about Agee in The New Yorker, David Denby wrote: “The mixture of piety and blasphemy is what makes Agee’s fiction so moving, for here is a Christian author of self-punishing temperament who, at the same time, was awed by creation and could not allow a single aspect of sensuous experience to go unadmired—which meant, necessarily, loving what was raw and degraded as much as what was seemly and fine.” Brainstorm a few objects, circumstances, places that are “raw and degraded,” and then a few that are “seemly and fine.” Then, for seven minutes, write your way toward loving both. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-26-2024-what-do-we-choose-not-to-know-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 26, 2024: What Do We Choose Not to Know with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Allowing your breath to slow, consider these words by novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson: Beauty is…everywhere to be found. The pitch of a voice, the gesture of a hand, can be very beautiful. I need hardly speak of daylight, warmth, silence. Breathe for a moment. Now deeply inhale and then deeply exhale at every comma, as you read: The pitch of a voice, the gesture of a hand, can be very beautiful….daylight, warmth, silence. The pitch of a voice the gesture of a hand daylight warmth silence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 26, 2024: What Do We Choose Not to Know with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. Today is the birthday of Robinson (1943) and of artist Kara Walker (1969). Both work in explicit conversation with American history, and both reflect on which historical narratives get told by whom, where, under what circumstances. As we approach Thanksgiving — and with apologies to writers outside the US — take a moment with: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/316c42ed-8e6c-4692-a57d-0ac32bbd9092/Slaughter%2Bof%2Bthe%2BInnocents%2Bby%2BKara%2BWalker%2BSMALLER.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 26, 2024: What Do We Choose Not to Know with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Kara Walker, Slaughter of the Innocents (They Might be Guilty of Something) (2016) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 26, 2024: What Do We Choose Not to Know with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. For five minutes, write in response to Robinson’s two questions, or to Walker’s meditation on illusion and distancing. Or Walker works in many forms, but perhaps best known are her silhouettes. She has said “The silhouette lends itself to avoidance of the subject. You know, not being able to look at it directly.” Again, avoidance, what we choose not to know; indirection. (What is the difference between chosen not-knowing, and indirection?) What, in your family history, has your family chosen not to know? What, in your local history, has your local community chosen not to know? What, in your individual, personal history, have you chosen not to know? Write for five minutes. Or Again, “The silhouette lends itself to avoidance of the subject. You know, not being able to look at it directly.” What is the verbal equivalent of a silhouette? Consider one of the family stories or local history stories most important to you (“most important” could mean beloved of you, or reviled by you, or ignored by you); write it silhouette. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-25-2024-you-communicate-a-lot-by-the-objects-you-choose-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 25, 2024: You Communicate a Lot by the Objects You Choose with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Allowing your breath to slow, take a moment to look: Milk Bath, 1979 Untitled, [Hand and Honey] from Early Color Portfolio, Circa 1976 Man on Bed with Crumbs, 1979 Untitled, [man in window] from the Early Black and White Portfolio, Circa Early 1970's Raven and Cake, 1980 How did your body feel when gazing at these images? Which did you wish to longer over? Which move quickly away from? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/6749963c-e608-4790-8da7-441867072727/rosegallery-jo-ann-callis-milk-bath-1979.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 25, 2024: You Communicate a Lot by the Objects You Choose with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/ed1752b6-0a38-47c6-afe3-e7454b050f7c/rosegallery-jo-ann-callis-untitled-hand-and-honey-from-early-color-portfolio-circa-1976.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 25, 2024: You Communicate a Lot by the Objects You Choose with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/669ce14a-3814-4b3b-b160-11744a953452/rosegallery-jo-ann-callis-man-on-bed-with-crumbs-1979.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 25, 2024: You Communicate a Lot by the Objects You Choose with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/8159f0a2-2ccb-48ab-aa7a-6834b97a3057/rosegallery-jo-ann-callis-untitled-man-in-window-from-the-early-black-and-white-portfolio-circa-early-1970-s.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 25, 2024: You Communicate a Lot by the Objects You Choose with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/c7c92bfa-511c-4aee-938f-987516b4b115/rosegallery-jo-ann-callis-raven-and-cake-1980.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 25, 2024: You Communicate a Lot by the Objects You Choose with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 25, 2024: You Communicate a Lot by the Objects You Choose with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. Callis, who characteristically explores domestic space — or studio space staged to look like domestic space, has spoken about her work in lectures and interviews: “The images are more about the routine of life, the actions in which we partake every day. I set my photos in a home because having a home is something for which I’m so grateful and consider a backbone to my life. It is the stage for so many crucial things that occur in a lifetime.” “[Home] is a place of comfort and discomfort. There is a parallel between the two in most everything. I wanted to make work that represented that dichotomy.” She aims to do “anything to disrupt the normal, a little bit.” “You communicate a lot by the objects you choose. Picture the house you grew up in. All the places I’ve lived, I remember them, the feelings I had about them. I looked at those rooms and I thought, ‘There’s my life.’“ “If you set the stage well enough, you will communicate something.” “We come and we go,” Callis has said, “but our things last.” (This seems to me mistaken. Our things break, decay, rust, crumble.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 25, 2024: You Communicate a Lot by the Objects You Choose with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. In several of the quotations above, Callis speaks about objects: “You communicate a lot by the objects you choose” and “If you set the stage well enough, you will communicate something” and “our things last.” Recall the most interesting thing that happened to you yesterday. Then brainstorm eight objects that were part and parcel of that happening. Then decide which two or three of the eight communicate the most about the happening. Then, for five minutes, in a paragraph or poem, write the interesting happening, including those two or three objects and allowing them to communicate whatever about the happening most urgently needs to be communicated. Or Write a poem or paragraph set in your home, communicating both comfort and discomfort. An additional practice to carry with you into the day, or week: When asked by an interviewer about her “process,” Callis said “It is hard to explain what my creative process is. The process of getting ideas is the most important part of the process for me, and it is often elusive. Where do ideas come from? When I am in the creative mode, I try to become especially sensitive and aware of life and relationships around me. I become attuned to visual and intellectual stimuli, and I try to see how my art can reflect those observations and feelings.” As you go through the day or week," be especially sensitive and aware of life and relationships around” yourself, and “attuned to visual and intellectual stimuli.” If ideas for future writing come, jot them down or voice-memo them. Perhaps find a 20- or 30-minute window to follow one of the ideas. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-24-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 24, 2024: When We’ve Survived Childhood - Pause. Read “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 24, 2024: When We’ve Survived Childhood - Prompt. Read “Those Winter Sundays” aloud twice. Take notes for three minutes. Jot down the words and phrases that captured your attention and anything else that comes to mind. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 24, 2024: When We’ve Survived Childhood - Practice. Write about a childhood memory for seven minutes. What did you know back then? What do you wish you knew? What do you know now? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-23-2024-when-a-writer-reminds-you-of-who-you-are-with-guidance-from-ashley-m-jones monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 23, 2024: When a Writer Reminds You of Who You Are with Guidance from Ashley M. Jones - Pause. Read “what the mirror said” by Lucille Clifton. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 23, 2024: When a Writer Reminds You of Who You Are with Guidance from Ashley M. Jones - Prompt. Here’s a quote from Ashley M. Jones about “what the mirror said”: “There is urgency and meditation within those one-word lines. The reader must slow down to read them, but in each breath of line, they are all we can consume. The caesuras created by the line breaks give pause and purpose. This is a poem that was crafted, yes, but the content of the poem is what keeps me coming back. It’s why I have this poem framed and hung above my desk in my classroom. It’s there to remind me of who I am, of what poetry can be, of the way a Black woman can speak life over me even from the page, even from the Great Beyond. Lucille Clifton is a masterful poet. But she is more than the craft. She is the story.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 23, 2024: When a Writer Reminds You of Who You Are with Guidance from Ashley M. Jones - Practice. Read “what the mirror said” two more times aloud. Then read the quote above again and sit with it for a few minutes. Take notes or journal for five minutes in response to the poem and the quote. What do these words stir in you? Which writers, poems, essays, or stories remind you of who you are? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-22-2024-become-more-of-your-full-self-with-guidance-from-tanya-davis monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 22, 2024: Become More of Your Full Self with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Pause. Take six deep breaths. Then add the following breath prayer/meditation with your breath: Inhale: I become more than myself Exhale: By being myself Repeat several times with each inhale and exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 22, 2024: Become More of Your Full Self with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Prompt. Set a timer for five minutes then write into the question below using the template: Who are you? answer Who are you? answer Keep answering this question for the full five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 22, 2024: Become More of Your Full Self with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Practice. Choose one or more exercises from the list below to do in the coming hours or days. Write about what you discovered about yourself in the exercise above. Write a list of affirmations and tape them to your mirror. Recite them out loud as a way to start and end your day. Write a gratitude letter to yourself. Express gratitude for who you are, your strengths, etc. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-21-2024-dont-postpone-joy-with-guidance-from-tanya-davis monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 21, 2024: Don’t Postpone Joy with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Pause. Think about a joyous memory for three minutes while smiling intentionally. (Even if it feels like a fake smile!) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 21, 2024: Don’t Postpone Joy with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Prompt. Write a list poem of things that bring you joy. Keep your pen or pencil moving for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 21, 2024: Don’t Postpone Joy with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Practice. Make a list of things you have wanted to do for joy and pleasure but have postponed. Come up with a few steps to ensure you do something from the list soon https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-20-2024-a-creative-life-is-an-amplified-life-with-guidance-from-tanya-davis monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 20, 2024: A Creative Life Is an Amplified Life with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Pause. As a meditative practice, take a piece of paper and use a crayon, a pencil, or a marker, and doodle for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 20, 2024: A Creative Life Is an Amplified Life with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Prompt. Pick out an object, inside or outside. Begin writing a creative story for five minutes about what that object could be saying or doing. Use your imagination and have fun with it! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 20, 2024: A Creative Life Is an Amplified Life with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Practice. Make plans to do something creative and playful that you don’t typically do. Color in an adult coloring book or mandala book. Paint using a paint by number for adults. Do some reflective/narrative writing. Turn on some music dance like no one is watching. Pick out a day and time and add it to your calendar. Or do it now! https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-19-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 19, 2024: In Quiet You Will Find Peace with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Pause. Sit in silence and solitude for five minutes. When thoughts come to mind that pull you away from this quiet space, notice them and let them pass. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 19, 2024: In Quiet You Will Find Peace with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Prompt. "I think for me, listening to music is a very solitary thing."— Becky Albertalli Write about your "solitary thing" for five minutes. How do you create space for it? How does it help you remember yourself? What feelings does it bring? Or write about why sitting by yourself is hard to do. Why is it uncomfortable? What does it make you feel in your body? What thoughts go through your mind? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 19, 2024: In Quiet You Will Find Peace with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Practice. Do a slow reading of the poem “Sometimes” by David Whyte. Read, listen to, and meditate on the poem for three-to-five minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-18-2024-when-proximity-and-memory-increase-empathy-with-guidance-from-tanya-davis monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 18, 2024: When Proximity and Memory Increase Empathy with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Pause. Send prayers (or positive vibes or light, etc.) to someone whose name comes to mind and to whom you feel connected right now. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 18, 2024: When Proximity and Memory Increase Empathy with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and write about a memory that includes the person who came to mind during the Pause above. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 18, 2024: When Proximity and Memory Increase Empathy with Guidance from Tanya Davis - Practice. If you’re able, call the person who came to mind, let them know how much they mean to you, and express gratitude to them. Then handwrite a letter to someone else with whom you’d like to reconnect. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-17-2024-when-you-arent-sure-how-to-pray monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 17, 2024: When You Aren’t Sure How to Pray - Pause. Rest for three minutes. While seated or lying down in a spot in that feels safe and comfortable, set a timer, close your eyes, and rest. If you like, begin this time of rest with six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale and/or read Matthew 11:28-30. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 17, 2024: When You Aren’t Sure How to Pray - Prompt. Listen to What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade by Brad Aaron Modlin. Then set a timer and write a response for seven minutes. (There are so many things to respond to in this poem!) Journal, pray, take notes, or start a new poem, essay, story, or letter to a friend. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 17, 2024: When You Aren’t Sure How to Pray - Practice. Here’s a quote from Pádraig Ó Tuama about the poem above: “And I found myself, when I read this poem, thinking, what was the day we were taught that gay boys are boys too? What was the day that you were taught that loving poetry was enough? What was the day we were taught that feeling desperately lonely, even when you’re 10, was OK? How could we be brought into the consolation that as you looked at your own family and felt like everybody else’s family is more together than mine — that that’s OK? How could any of these things be wrapped into the story of a life?” Keep a running list throughout the rest of the day of the things no one taught you but are wrapped into the story of your life. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-16-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 16, 2024: Develop Your Somatic Vocabulary - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then give your attention to your body. Where do you notice imbalance, pain, tension, energy? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 16, 2024: Develop Your Somatic Vocabulary - Prompt. Read this IG post from Aundi Kolber and her list for developing a Somatic Vocabulary for yourself (AND your writing!). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 16, 2024: Develop Your Somatic Vocabulary - Practice. Which words from the list help you accurately describe how you feel now or in the recent past? Which words from the list work well for a current work-in-progress? Which words make you curious? Which words feel familiar to you? Journal, take notes, or make lists for 5-7 minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-15-2024-start-with-what-youve-forgotten monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 15, 2024: Start with What You’ve Forgotten - Pause. Read “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 15, 2024: Start with What You’ve Forgotten - Prompt. Read the poem two more times. Use your imagination to enter the scenes in both stanzas. Take notes for three minutes to describe what you see. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 15, 2024: Start with What You’ve Forgotten - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write about something you’ve forgotten. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-14-2024-when-the-rain-comes-down monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 14, 2024: When the Rain Comes Down - Pause. Read “Rain” by Don Paterson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 14, 2024: When the Rain Comes Down - Prompt. Write about something that begins in the rain. Set a timer for five minutes and keep your pen moving. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 14, 2024: When the Rain Comes Down - Practice. In the coming hours or days, write about a recent personal experience with the rain. Set a timer for seven minutes and take notes with bullet point phrases or write sentences. Journal or pray or begin a new essay or a story or a letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-13-2024-doses-of-art-for-nourishment-and-inspiration monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 13, 2024: Doses of Art for Nourishment and Inspiration - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Close your eyes and rest for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 13, 2024: Doses of Art for Nourishment and Inspiration - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and make a list of all of the books, poems, stories, visual art, films, TV shows, and all other genres and forms of art that you’ve engaged with over the past few days. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 13, 2024: Doses of Art for Nourishment and Inspiration - Practice. How was exercise for you? Did you have trouble coming up with items to add to your list? Were you overwhelmed because you had too many items to add? If you were to make a list one week from now, how do you want that list to be different from the one you just made? Take notes or journal for seven minutes on how engaging with others’ art nourishes your heart, soul, mind, body, and creative practice. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-12-2024-layers-of-fragments-and-stories-and-dates-with-guidance-from-edmund-de-waal monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 12, 2024: Layers of Fragments and Stories and Dates with Guidance from Edmund de Waal - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at some of the art made by Edmund de Waal. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 12, 2024: Layers of Fragments and Stories and Dates with Guidance from Edmund de Waal - Prompt. Watch the first three minutes and 20 seconds of this video featuring Edmund de Waal and a porcelain project he did. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 12, 2024: Layers of Fragments and Stories and Dates with Guidance from Edmund de Waal - Practice. Find an object nearby to use as your source material/inspiration. Set a timer for seven minutes then take notes and/or draw in response to your object to capture fragments, stories, dates, and other pertinent information about your object. Some questions to consider while doing this exercise: Where did this object come from? How old is it? What people, places, things, and ideas are associated with it? Who and what can you research to find more stories that are tangentially related to this object or anything that’s come to mind during this exercise? In the coming days and weeks, use your notes, drawings, and research ideas to begin writing a new story, poem, essay, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-11-2024-for-veterans-day monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 11, 2024: For Veterans Day - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then make a list of any veterans you know as a sort of meditation of remembering. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 11, 2024: For Veterans Day - Prompt. Read this short article about an overlooked memorial honoring the local Washington residents who died in World War I. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 11, 2024: For Veterans Day - Practice. “Television Academy Foundation’s The Interviews: An Oral History of Television (formerly the Archive of American Television) has been conducting in-depth, videotaped oral history interviews with television professionals, including actors, writers, editors, and journalists. These interviews explore the lives and careers of the interviewees, and often touch on important historical moments and movements.” Take a few minutes to listen to one or more of the interviews here. Then set a timer for seven minutes and journal or take notes in response to the article above and the interviews. If you like, write a micro fan fiction story using the article or an interview as your inspiration. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-10-2024-when-writing-helps-you-discover-what-you-know monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 10, 2024: When Writing Helps You Discover What You Know - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to a song that helps you feel less alone. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 10, 2024: When Writing Helps You Discover What You Know - Prompt. Most writers write because they can’t not write. Most writers write because that’s one way they discover what they know or believe. What’s one thing you’ve discovered through writing during the past month or so? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 10, 2024: When Writing Helps You Discover What You Know - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and make a stream of consciousness list of questions. Try to keep your pen or pencil moving (or fingers typing) for the full seven minutes. Capture any questions that come to mind. All questions count. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-9-2024-when-art-helps-you-belong monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 9, 2024: When Art Helps You Belong - Pause. Look at this art, A Lady Writing by Johannes Vermeer, for two minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 9, 2024: When Art Helps You Belong - Prompt. Return your gaze to the Vermeer painting and consider these two questions: What is your relationship with the woman in this painting? What is she asking of you? Write a response to these questions for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 9, 2024: When Art Helps You Belong - Practice. Sit with a favorite work of art or a favorite book or song and consider similar questions: What is your relationship with a primary component of this favorite work of art? What is it asking of you? Write a response to these questions for five minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-8-2024-yes-your-writing-matters monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 8, 2024: Yes, Your Writing Matters - Pause. Take some deep breaths and meditate on this sentence for a minute or two: “The practice of spirituality is a way of looking at a world where you’re not alone.” —Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 8, 2024: Yes, Your Writing Matters - Prompt. How does writing help you belong to yourself, others, the divine, and the world? How does writing intersect with your spirituality? Take seven minutes to answer these questions by making lists, taking notes, journaling, or starting a new essay, poem, or story. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 8, 2024: Yes, Your Writing Matters - Practice. When you’re deciding whether or not to write on a particular day at a particular time, think about how writing helps you feel less alone. Strengthen the connections that already exist between the act of writing and having a greater sense of belonging. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-7-2024-a-helpful-two-minute-writing-exercise monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 7, 2024: A Helpful Two-Minute Writing Exercise - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 7, 2024: A Helpful Two-Minute Writing Exercise - Prompt. Grab a pen or pencil and a piece of paper. Then write down 10 things you’d write about if you were to sit down and write. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 7, 2024: A Helpful Two-Minute Writing Exercise - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write about one item from your list. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-6-2024-more-blank-space-again monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 6, 2024: More Blank Space (Again) - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to a song that helps you feel less alone in the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 6, 2024: More Blank Space (Again) - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and respond to one or more of the questions below: How have recent or past tragedies shaken your reality? How have recent or past joys given you opportunities for delight and celebration? What specific things, events, circumstances do you wish could be undone? What’s one soul hope for the coming month? How have you noticed God’s presence in your creative work and other areas of life during the past week or two? How do you want to notice God in the coming days and weeks? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 6, 2024: More Blank Space (Again) - Practice. Schedule some blank space in your day today. At least 15 minutes. An hour is great. Two hours are better. Just be. No agenda. Do something that feels frivolous or rest your eyes or sit in a cozy spot and let your mind wander. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-5-2024-election-day monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 5, 2024: Election Day - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking through this online exhibit on US Presidential Elections. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 5, 2024: Election Day - Prompt. Here’s a quote from The Making of a President: 1960 by Theodore H. White: It was invisible, as always. They had begun to vote in the villages of New Hampshire at midnight, as they always do, seven and a half hours before the candidate rose. His men had canvassed Hart’s Location in New Hampshire days before, sending his autographed picture to each of the twelve registered voters in the village. They knew that they had five votes certain there, that Nixon had five votes certain—and that two were still undecided. Yet it was worth the effort, for Hart’s Location’s results would be the first flash of news on the wires to greet millions of voters as they opened their morning papers over coffee. But from there on it was unpredictable—invisible. By the time the candidate left his Boston hotel at 8:30, several million had already voted across the country—in schools, libraries, churches, stores, post offices. These, too, were invisible, but it was certain that at this hour the vote was overwhelmingly Republican. On election day America is Republican until five or six in the evening. It is in the last few hours of the day that working people and their families vote, on their way home from work or after supper; it is then, at evening, that America goes Democratic if it goes Democratic at all. All of this is invisible, for it is the essence of the act that as it happens it is a mystery in which millions of people each fit one fragment of a total secret together, none of them knowing the shape of the whole. What results from the fitting together of these secrets is, of course, the most awesome transfer of power in the world—the power to marshal and mobilize, the power to send men to kill or be killed, the power to tax and destroy, the power to create and the responsibility to do so, the power to guide and the responsibility to heal—all committed into the hands of one man. Heroes and philosophers, brave men and vile, have since Rome and Athens tried to make this particular manner of transfer of power work effectively; no people has succeeded at it better, or over a longer period of time, than the Americans. Yet as the transfer of this power takes place, there is nothing to be seen except an occasional line outside a church or school, or a file of people fidgeting in the rain, waiting to enter the booths. No bands play on election day, no troops march, no guns are readied, no conspirators gather in secret headquarters. The noise and the blare, the bands and the screaming, the pageantry and oratory of the long fall campaign, fade on election day. All the planning is over, all effort spent. Now the candidates must wait. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 5, 2024: Election Day - Practice. Take 10-12 minutes to journal or take notes in response to the prompt above and/or the questions below: —What are you waiting for today? —How is the waiting going? How do you notice the effects of waiting in your body, mind, and soul? —Which invisible things do you wish were more concrete? —What happens at the intersection of the invisible and waiting? —How can you engage with more concrete activities and practices to help you inhabit the waiting and navigate the invisible? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-4-2024-does-life-seem-super-boring monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 4, 2024: Does Life Seem Super Boring? - Pause. Watch this Niagara Falls webcam or this Lisbon Falls webcam for two minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 4, 2024: Does Life Seem Super Boring? - Prompt. Begin a new story or a poem about magical waters. What happens when someone touches or drinks the magical water? How does it heal? How does it harm? Write for four minutes. Take notes or write full sentences. Either works. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 4, 2024: Does Life Seem Super Boring? - Practice. Do three slow silent readings of this poem or this Scripture passage. Choose a few lines to write down by hand. Read those same lines aloud twice. Put both hands under running water for two minutes. Take notes or journal about water, the Pause, the Prompt, and this Practice for four minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-3-2024-getting-closer-and-closer-day-by-day monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 3, 2024: Getting Closer and Closer, Day by Day - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for two minutes and close your eyes and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 3, 2024: Getting Closer and Closer, Day by Day - Prompt. “Writing is a way of questioning for me. I don’t try to find an answer, but to complete the question, or to stay within the question as long as I can. In a sense, writing fiction can be compared with pacing back and forth. You go forward and then come back again, pondering questions that both sear and chill you internally.” - Han Kang https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 3, 2024: Getting Closer and Closer, Day by Day - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the questions below. What questions have you been asking and exploring in your recent writing projects? What questions are you asking and exploring in your spiritual life? Which questions do you not want to stay with? Which ones do you wish you could ignore or move past? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-2-2024-all-souls-day-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 2, 2024: All Souls’ Day with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Today is All Souls’ Day, the day on which the church celebrates all of our dead beloveds. It is a day of remembering. Close your eyes and for a moment breathe deeply, and invite remembrance forward. Then, when you are ready, open your eyes and keep reading. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 2, 2024: All Souls’ Day with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. A First Prompt: Eating the Cookies By Jane Kenyon The cousin from Maine, knowing about her diverticulitis, left out the nuts, so the cookies weren’t entirely to my taste, but they were good enough; yes, good enough. Each time I emptied a drawer or shelf I permitted myself to eat one. I cleared the closet of silk caftans that slipped easily from clattering hangers, and from the bureau I took her nightgowns and sweaters, financial documents neatly cinctured in long gray envelopes, and the hairnets and peppermints she’d tucked among Lucite frames abounding with great-grandchildren, solemn in their Christmas finery. Finally the drawers were empty, the bags full, and the largest cookie, which I had saved for last, lay solitary in the tin with a nimbus of crumbs around it. There would be no more parcels from Portland. I took it up and sniffed it, and before eating it, pressed it against my forehead, because it seemed like the next thing to do. * A Second Prompt: Patrica Hampl on memory: We trust memory against all evidence: it is selective, subjective, cannily defensive, unreliable as fact. But a single red detail remembered - a hat worn in 1952, the nail polish applied one summer day by an aunt to her toes, separated by balls of cotton, as we watched - has more real blood than the creatures around us on a bus as, for some reason, we think of that day, that hat, those bright feet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 2, 2024: All Souls’ Day with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. A First Practice: Complete the clause “there would be no more…” * A Second Practice: Whom do you most want to remember? Fairly quickly, not lingering, write down a picture you carry in your mind that includes a vivid color a bodily memory of the person (dancing with her in your father’s living room to “A Fugue for Tinhorns” at Thanksgiving) a memory that includes both the person and a plant Jot down the beginnings of three more memories. Talk to the person. Aloud. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/november-1-2024-all-saints-day-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-11-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 1, 2024: All Saints’ Day with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Today is All Saints’ Day, the day on which the church celebrates those people who have manifested holiness in particular and peculiar ways. Slowly, silently or aloud, in honor of All Saints’, read Natasha Trethewey’s poem about Saint Gertrude: Articulation — After Miguel Cabrera’s portrait of Saint Gertrude, 1763 In the legend, Saint Gertrude is called to write after seeing, in a vision, the sacred heart of Christ. Cabrera paints her among the instruments of her faith: quill, inkwell, an open book, rings on her fingers like Christ’s many wounds— the heart emblazoned on her chest, the holy infant nestled there as if sunk deep in a wound. Against the dark backdrop, her face is a wafer of light. How not to see, in the saint’s image, my mother’s last portrait—the dark backdrop, her dress black as a habit, the bright edge of her afro ringing her face with light? And how not to recall her many wounds: ring finger shattered, her ex-husband’s bullet finding her temple, lodging where her last thought lodged? Three weeks gone, my mother came to me in a dream, her body whole again but for one perfect wound, the singular articulation of all of them: a hole, center of her forehead, the size of a wafer—light pouring from it. How, then, could I not answer her life with mine, she who saved me with hers? And how could I not, bathed in the light of her wound, find my calling there? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/6d7cac0c-485a-491a-a781-0d2100495b13/original.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 1, 2024: All Saints’ Day with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 1, 2024: All Saints’ Day with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. An excerpt from a wonderful interview with Trethewey: In your poem “Articulation,” you describe a painting of Saint Gertrude, and the piece also seems to become a tribute to your mother. Trethewey: [Saint Gertrude’s] calling was to be a religious writer. She had a vision of the sacred heart of Christ, and that’s what called her to devotion, and to devote her life to writing religious text. Obviously, I’m making a connection to her, her call to devotion, and to the kinds of writing that I do. The poem ends, “How could I not, bathed in the light / of her wound, find my calling there?” My calling is to answer my mother’s life with mine. That is my highest devotion. Christ gave his life for us, and the faithful are supposed to be devoted. That’s how I feel about my mother. The whole interview is here. Trethewey connects her calling wrote with both her mother and with St. Gertrude. If you were to write a poem that connected your writing life to both a long-dead person you’ve not met in the flesh and to a member of your family of origin (or to another adult who was of key importance to your childhood), about whom would you write? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for November 1, 2024: All Saints’ Day with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Here are four paintings of saints. Which painting most intrigues or arrests you? Write a poem in response to it. Perhaps include a person to your early life in the poem. Here are four paintings of saints. Which painting most intrigues or areests you? Write a poem in response to it. Perhaps include a person important to your early life in the poem. St. Joseph (by Kehinde Wiley) St. Jerome (by Caravaggio) Saint Sebastian (by Euan Uglow) Saints Christina and Ottilia (by Lucas Cranach the elder) https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-31-2024-ghost-encounters-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 31, 2024: Ghost Encounters with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Inhale. Upon exhaling, make the sound of a ghost. Repeat. Repeat again. Stand up and flap about like a ghost. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 31, 2024: Ghost Encounters with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. In addition to be a chronicler of old New York, Edith Wharton also wrote ghost stories. About the genre, she wrote: [A] ghost-story….must depend for its effect solely on what one might call its thermometrical quality; if it sends a cold shiver down one’s spine, it has done its job and done it well. But there is no fixed rule as to the means of producing this shiver, and many a tale that makes others turn cold leaves me at my normal temperature. The doctor who said there were no diseases but only patients would probably agree that there are no ghosts, but only tellers of ghost-stories, since what provides a shudder for one leaves another peacefully tepid. Therefore one ought, I am persuaded, simply to tell one’s ghostly adventures in the most unadorned language, and ‘leave the rest to Nature,’ as the New York alderman said when, many years ago, it was proposed to import ‘a couple of gondolas’ for the lake in the Central Park. The only suggestion I can make is that the teller of supernatural tales should be well frightened in the telling; for if he is, he may perhaps communicate to his readers the sense of that strange something undreamt of in the philosophy of Horatio. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 31, 2024: Ghost Encounters with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. When did you most recently, or first, encounter a ghost? Describe the encounter in the “most unadorned language.” Or: what was your experience of ghost stories as a child? Write for ten minutes. Bonus Practice: Wharton also wrote that “What the ghost really needs is not echoing passages and hidden doors behind tapestry, but only continuity and silence. For where a ghost has once appeared it seems to hanker to appear again; and it obviously prefers the silent hours, when at last the wireless has ceased to jazz.” I love the surprising (to me; perhaps less so in 1937) use of “jazz” as a verb. Write a sentence about ghosts that uses a word that’s foremost a noun as a verb. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-30-2024-invitations-to-observe-and-write-from-eliza-brightwen-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 30, 2024: Invitations to Observe and Write from Eliza Brightwen with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. At the beginning of one of her books, Brightwen wrote: “Precluded as I am, by the measure of my health and strength, from travelling widely and from visiting fresh scenes, I am yet indisposed to regret my limitation. It is to this, perhaps, that I owe the ceaseless enjoyment which I gain from being obliged to look to my own surroundings for those sources of interest in animal, bird, and insect life, which an English country is ready to supply, in an inexhaustible degree, to the patient and willing observer.” Wherever one is, of course, where the English country or elsewhere, one can practice patient and willing observation to a good end. Pause and consider: what in your “own surroundings” is a source of interest? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/719d1e57-f080-486d-975c-cd053d4882a2/unnamed+%2810%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 30, 2024: Invitations to Observe and Write from Eliza Brightwen with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 30, 2024: Invitations to Observe and Write from Eliza Brightwen with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. Brightwen uses relaxed, relational metaphors to describe her essays and the ways she hopes readers encounter her essays: the essays are “quiet talks” Brightwen has with her readers; they are “stroll[s]” she takes with her readers. What metaphors describe the experience you hope readers have of your writing? From Wild Nature Won By Kindness: “There is all the difference between taking a walk simply for exercise, for some special errand, or to enjoy conversation with one's friends, and the sort of quiet observant stroll I am going to ask my kind readers to take with me to-day.” Think of three strolls on which you’d like to invite a reader. If you wish, write one such stroll. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 30, 2024: Invitations to Observe and Write from Eliza Brightwen with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. In “Early Morning Nature-Study,” Brightwen writes: “In my garden there is a little dell embowered by trees, where I often spend an hour or two before breakfast for the special purpose of enjoying the company of my pet wild creatures. On one side are five arches, formed possibly some hundreds of years ago, since the great stones are grey with age and picturesquely moss-grown and ivy-clad. Young trees, too, are growing here and there out of the crevices into which the wind has wafted their seeds….Under one of the arches the birds always find an abundance of food, which I strew for them several times in the day. There I see young blackbirds, chaffinches, hedge-sparrows, wrens, and titmice feasting and flitting about, quite regardless of my presence…The quietness and peace of this secluded spot is in marked contrast to the scenes I witness near the house. There sparrows reign supreme. They come down in flocks to gorge themselves and their offspring upon the sopped bread, rudely driving away many other kinds of birds that I would fain encourage.” Brainstorm three pairs of locations in your home or neighborhood (a secluded grey stone arch/a spot closer to the house)— each pair should include a “marked contrast” (calm flitting blackbirds/rude, aggressive sparrows). Then write a scene that showcases one of the contrasts. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-29-2024-words-for-autumn-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 29, 2024: Words for Autumn with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. For a minute or so, let your breath slow as you gaze on this image. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 29, 2024: Words for Autumn with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. I recently learned that Japanese haiku often include a word to indicate the season. Some of the words that most often indicate autumn are (once translated into English) moon, and names of various fall fruits, like persimmons. Mushroom gathering — the heads are full as the peak of the moon (Buson, translated by Allan Persinger) persimmon leaves turn Buddha-colored… then fall (Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue) How do these poems make your body feel? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 29, 2024: Words for Autumn with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Part One: Brainstorm five or six objects, not necessarily from the natural world, that could serve as an autumnal keyword in a short poem. Part Two: A haiku is a short poem that typically juxtaposes two images or two sensory evocations. (Contra what many of us learned in grade school, haiku don’t necessarily hew to a five-seven-five syllable count.) autumn is cool: let each hand set to peeling melons and eggplants. (Basho, translated by David Landis Barnhill) water in the vase on our daughter's grave— a passing car (Lenard D. Moore) Write an autumn haiku, or two. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-28-2024-let-go-as-trees-let-go-their-leaves-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 28, 2024: Let Go as Trees Let Go Their Leaves with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Slowly read this poem from May Sarton’s “The Autumn Sonnets,” pausing and taking a deep breath at every comma, semi-colon, dash, or period. If I can let you go as trees let go Their leaves, so casually, one by one; If I can come to know what they do know, That fall is the release, the consummation, Then fear of time and the uncertain fruit Would not distemper the great lucid skies This strangest autumn, mellow and acute. If I can take the dark with open eyes And call it seasonal, not harsh or strange (For love itself may need a time of sleep), And, treelike, stand unmoved before the change, Lose what I lose to keep what I can keep, The strong root still alive under the snow, Love will endure – if I can let you go. If you wish, read the poem a second time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 28, 2024: Let Go as Trees Let Go Their Leaves with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. Part One: What does the invitation to let go “as trees let go their leaves” stir in you? What, or whom, might you need to thus let go? Write for about five minutes. (Stop reading till you’ve done that.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 28, 2024: Let Go as Trees Let Go Their Leaves with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Look for a tree unleaving today, and stop before it, considering how you are or are not, can or cannot be, like the tree. (If you’re nowhere near any unleaving trees, stop before this one or this one or this one. (Or watch the video Charlotte recorded last week below.) https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-27-2024-how-do-you-want-to-inhabit-election-season-and-beyond monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 27, 2024: How Do You Want to Inhabit Election Season and Beyond? - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at art from the Democracy exhibit at the Athens National Gallery. (You’ll need to scroll down to see multiple options) Journal or take notes in response, if you like. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 27, 2024: How Do You Want to Inhabit Election Season and Beyond? - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and make a list of the hard things you have experienced around this election or previous elections. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 27, 2024: How Do You Want to Inhabit Election Season and Beyond? - Practice. Then pick one or two items from the list and answer these questions: How has this experience changed me? How has this experience negatively affected my writing and other work? How has this experience kept me from loving others (or being a loving presence to others)? How has this experience helped me know how to better love others (or be a loving presence to others)? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-26-2024-calm-the-stormy-seas-with-guidance-from-colette-eaton monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 26, 2024: Calm the Stormy Seas with Guidance from Colette Eaton - Pause. Take a moment and listen to this song on the Spotify playlist, Music for Writing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 26, 2024: Calm the Stormy Seas with Guidance from Colette Eaton - Prompt. What thoughts came to mind as you listened? Did a scene appear in your mind? A memory? What desires arose within you as you listened? Freewrite for at least 10 minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 26, 2024: Calm the Stormy Seas with Guidance from Colette Eaton - Practice. Pick a line or two from your free write above that inspired fuller exploration and begin writing a micro essay (300 words or less). If a scene appeared, what characters were in it? If a memory, how did it make you feel? Is there a universal lesson to share as a memoir? Describe in more detail any desires that rose to the surface. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-25-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 25, 2024: Breath’s Cool Descent with Guidance from Colette Eaton - Pause. Spend one full minute for deep breathing. Take six deep breaths: Inhale for a count of six, and exhale for a count of six. Pay attention to any smells in the room and the feel of the air flowing through your nose. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 25, 2024: Breath’s Cool Descent with Guidance from Colette Eaton - Prompt. Breath is neither past nor future. It is what binds us to the now. Take seven minutes to freewrite about breath. What comes to mind when you think of breathing? Perhaps it is the feeling of the air or a pleasant smell that awakens your mind. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 25, 2024: Breath’s Cool Descent with Guidance from Colette Eaton - Practice. Take three breaks throughout the day to practice deep breathing. If you can, do these breaks outside and breathe in some fresh air. Take six deep breaths, with a six-second inhale and a six-second exhale. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-24-2024-receive-what-it-has-to-offer monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 24, 2024: Receive What It Has to Offer - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for two minutes and close your eyes and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 24, 2024: Receive What It Has to Offer - Prompt. Take a few minutes to make a list of your favorite streets in your favorite places. You can include streets in your hometown and other places you lived or visited. The streets don’t have to be fancy. Which streets hold meaning for you? Beauty? Great trees? Storefronts that make you happy? Abandoned buildings and plenty of silence? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 24, 2024: Receive What It Has to Offer - Practice. Set a timer for nine minutes, pick one street from your list, and take notes, write a letter to a friend, or begin a new short story, essay, or poem using the questions below. —How does this street help you feel less alone in the world? —What details from this street stand out the most? What is easiest to remember? —What are some of your memories from your interactions with this street? —How are you different after you visit this street? —What have you learned from this street, its people, its places? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-23-2024-read-your-life-again monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 23, 2024: Read Your Life (Again) - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 23, 2024: Read Your Life (Again) - Prompt. Read your life. Scroll through your text messages and find one text from the past couple of weeks that stirs your emotions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 23, 2024: Read Your Life (Again) - Practice. Use that text message as inspiration for a flash fiction story. It can be autofiction, inspired by your reality. But throw in something extra—include at least a splash of fiction. Set a timer for 10 minutes and take notes or start writing a story with no more than 1000 words. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-22-2024-feel-alive-to-yourself-and-your-art monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 22, 2024: Feel Alive to Yourself and Your Art - Pause. Listen to “When We Were 13, Jeff’s Father Left The Needle Down On A Journey Record Before Leaving The House One Morning And Never Coming Back” by Hanif Abdurraqib (This poem! Oh my goodness.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 22, 2024: Feel Alive to Yourself and Your Art - Prompt. “Music in this poem is music that’s used for comfort, but also music that’s turned up loud to blare from a car radio on a highway, to listen to when alone, to listen to with memories, and to listen to in order to come back to the emotional landscape that we still carry in us.” –Pádraig Ó Tuama, Poetry Unbound podcast Write about a song that helps you return to the emotional landscape tied to a significant memory you still carry in you. Set a timer and write for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 22, 2024: Feel Alive to Yourself and Your Art - Practice. Pick one song that helps you connect with your current emotions and circumstances. Listen to it twice. Take notes and see if you have any insights or ideas for a new essay, story, poem, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-21-2024-gathering-momentum-with-guidance-from-maggie-smith monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 21, 2024: Gathering Momentum with Guidance from Maggie Smith - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read or listen to “First Fall” by Maggie Smith. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 21, 2024: Gathering Momentum with Guidance from Maggie Smith - Prompt. Read the quote below by Maggie Smith. “Revision is my favorite part of the writing process. I relish the creative problem-solving more than the rush of getting it down. If you’re like me, your poem might go through anywhere from two to two hundred drafts before you’re satisfied enough with it to call it ‘done’ and send it out. Each revision, ideally, gets us closer to the poem we sense is there, waiting. The poem that will do the psychic or spiritual work we want it to do. But each revision can also pull us farther away from the initial spark of the poem. This tension, this push and pull, is what makes revision dynamic and exciting: we are hunting something but are not quite clear about what it looks like or how to find it. My poems almost always begin as scraps of language scrawled in a notebook or on a legal pad. If I’m lucky, one image or metaphor will lead to another, and before I know it, the draft is picking up speed down the page, gathering momentum as I try to keep up and see what it’s doing. I never learned to properly type, so I try not to put my two index fingers to work until I’ve done all I can longhand and need to see the shape of the thing on screen.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 21, 2024: Gathering Momentum with Guidance from Maggie Smith - Practice. Choose one essay, poem, story, or sentence that still needs some work. Set a timer for seven minutes and revise. Change one verb. Or pick a different noun. Be more specific. Then notice what happens next. Did you pull it away from the initial spark or help it become more of what it is supposed to be? How can you tell if it’s doing more of the psychic or spiritual work you want it to do? Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale and try to determine what else it needs. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-20-2024-come-in-cold-with-guidance-from-david-baker monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 20, 2024: Come in Cold with Guidance from David Baker - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for two minutes and close your eyes and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 20, 2024: Come in Cold with Guidance from David Baker - Prompt. Read “Childhood” by David Baker. Read it one more time then write down the entire poem by hand. While you’re writing down this poem, notice where the energy is for you. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 20, 2024: Come in Cold with Guidance from David Baker - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and respond to “Childhood” and/or the statements and questions below. —Write what you remember about being cold as a child. —Write what you don’t remember about being cold as a child. —What’s one way a parent or caregiver helped you be warm? —What are some of your warmest memories as an adult? If you like, use your notes and responses to begin a new essay, poem, story, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-19-2024-be-mostly-self-taught monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 19, 2024: Be Mostly Self Taught - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Prayer at Sunrise” by James Weldon Johnson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 19, 2024: Be Mostly Self Taught - Prompt. Here’s more from Lydia Davis: “I have found that pursuing my own interests in various directions and to various sources of information can take me on fantastic adventures: I have stayed up till the early hours of the morning poring over old phone books; or following genealogical lines back hundreds of years; or reading a book about what lies under a certain French city; or comparing early maps of Manhattan as I search for a particular farmhouse. These adventures become as gripping as a good novel.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 19, 2024: Be Mostly Self Taught - Practice. Write a list of five things you want to explore about the craft of writing. Write a list of five topics you want to research. Write a list of five things you will do in the coming weeks that will help you become a better writer. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-18-2024-the-important-and-the-unimportant monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 18, 2024: The Important and the Unimportant - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 18, 2024: The Important and the Unimportant - Prompt. Read “In Leticia's Kitchen Drawer” by Peggy Robles-Alvarado https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 18, 2024: The Important and the Unimportant - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and make a list of things that are in your kitchen “junk drawer” or a fictional character’s kitchen junk drawer. Pick three items from the list and write true or fictional details and stories about each. In the coming hours and days, use your list and additional details to begin writing a new story, essay, poem, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-17-2024-more-world-everywhere-with-guidance-from-anne-sexton monthly 0.5 2025-10-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 17, 2024: More World Everywhere with Guidance from Anne Sexton - Pause. Listen to this short Bach Trio. And look at this painting by Fairfield Porter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 17, 2024: More World Everywhere with Guidance from Anne Sexton - Prompt. Read “The Fury of Sunrises” by Anne Sexton. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/cdd179ac-e1b6-4a4b-8d4b-1b99cfac86f6/The+Fury+of+Sunrises+1.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 17, 2024: More World Everywhere with Guidance from Anne Sexton - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/4c685b9d-cf4f-4892-847c-eb5eca36abf1/The+Fury+of+Sunrises+2.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 17, 2024: More World Everywhere with Guidance from Anne Sexton - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 17, 2024: More World Everywhere with Guidance from Anne Sexton - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and sit in silence. Take notes if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-16-2024-sweet-thing-there-she-was monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 16, 2024: Sweet Thing, There She Was - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 16, 2024: Sweet Thing, There She Was - Prompt. Read this quote by Toni Morrison: “I have an ideal writing routine that I’ve never experienced, which is to have, say, nine uninterrupted days when I wouldn’t have to leave the house or take phone calls. And to have the space—a space where I have huge tables. I end up with this much space [she indicates a small square spot on her desk] everywhere I am, and I can’t beat my way out of it. I am reminded of that tiny desk that Emily Dickinson wrote on and I chuckle when I think, Sweet thing, there she was. But that is all any of us have: just this small space and no matter what the filing system or how often you clear it out—life, documents, letters, requests, invitations, invoices just keep going back in. I am not able to write regularly. I have never been able to do that—mostly because I have always had a nine-to-five job. I had to write either in between those hours, hurriedly, or spend a lot of weekend and predawn time. . . . I’ve tried to overcome not having orderly spaces by substituting compulsion for discipline, so that when something is urgently there, urgently seen or understood, or the metaphor was powerful enough, then I would move everything aside and write for sustained periods of time.” –from a 1993 interview with Elissa Schappell in The Paris Review https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 16, 2024: Sweet Thing, There She Was - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and sit down in a space that’s good for writing and write something. Anything. A letter, a to-do list, a complaint, or begin a new essay, story, or poem. What’s urgent? If there’s nothing urgently there, pretend something is. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-15-2024-when-we-write-around-the-corners-of-life monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 15, 2024: When We Write around the Corners of Life - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to a song that helps you feel less alone in the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 15, 2024: When We Write around the Corners of Life - Prompt. The quote above by Gordon Bals is evergreen, and that makes me sad. But I keep writing. Here’s an excerpt from a 2023 IG post about how and why I keep writing: “A year ago I began to understand in more depth how we write around the corners of life because that’s how creativity works. Our creative practice only exists alongside the individual and collective events of our days that unfold in real places among real people. As all writers have done from the beginning of words, we write amid the delight and despair and wonder and sorrow. We write to make sense of life and to hold space for those things that will never make sense. A few months ago I began again with a new vision for this book because that’s how creativity works. Creativity exists alongside the individual and collective events of our days that unfold in real places among real people. And one day you realize the book you’re writing needs to be a different sort of container. And you think about the past year and how the book you’re writing has been becoming *this book* for a very long time. You have been filling this particular container for a very long time.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 15, 2024: When We Write around the Corners of Life - Practice. Take 10 minutes to think about what you’ve been writing or not writing over the past year. Is it time to quit doing it the way you’ve been doing it? Is it time for a new container? May we keep writing and seeing and questioning and trying to find meaning in this beautiful and devastating life, work, and world. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-14-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 14, 2024: Our Dreams Drink Coffee with Us - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then allocate a few minutes to viewing these photos from The Kitchen Table Series by Carrie Mae Weems. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 14, 2024: Our Dreams Drink Coffee with Us - Prompt. Read or listen to “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 14, 2024: Our Dreams Drink Coffee with Us - Practice. —Sit at your current kitchen table or recall an image of a kitchen table from your past. Then set a timer for 10 minutes and begin making a few lists: —Make a list of five memories that are somehow connected to the kitchen table you’re using for this exercise. —Make a list of five joyful things that are connected to the kitchen table you’re using for this exercise. —Make a list of five sorrowful things that are connected to the kitchen table you’re using for this exercise. If you like, begin writing a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend using these lists. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-13-2024-words-that-may-or-may-not-remain-in-the-world monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 13, 2024: Words That May, or May Not, Remain in the World - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for three minutes, close your eyes, and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 13, 2024: Words That May, or May Not, Remain in the World - Prompt. Read “Working“ by Jamie Quatro. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 13, 2024: Words That May, or May Not, Remain in the World - Practice. —Make a list of some of the things you worry about while you’re writing. —Make a list of the things you need to do right now instead of writing. —Make a list of things you should’ve done a week ago or a month ago and haven’t done yet because, in part, you chose to write. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-12-2024-part-of-it-remains-mysterious monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 12, 2024: Part of It Remains Mysterious - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to a song that helps you feel less alone. (Here's one of my favorites!) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 12, 2024: Part of It Remains Mysterious - Prompt. Read the Megan Abbott quote above (that I’m so glad I captured before the article disappeard) one or two more times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 12, 2024: Part of It Remains Mysterious - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and journal or take notes using the following questions as prompts: What are your thoughts on Abbott’s quote? Do you agree or disagree? Why? What conditions usually help you do the writing you want to do? What conditions usually keep you from doing the writing you want to do? When did you last write words on paper or a screen for at least 15 minutes? What conditions led to that writing session? What are three things you can do that usually help you write? (Here are three of mine: 1. Read Essays One by Lydia Davis 2. Read one poem, or a few poems 3. Go to a museum.) If you don’t know the answer to this question, I encourage you to experiment! Use your notes to begin writing a new essay, story, poem, or letter if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-11-2024-something-weirder-more-interesting monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 11, 2024: Something Weirder, More Interesting - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 11, 2024: Something Weirder, More Interesting - Prompt. Read this quote from a New York Times piece on author Jenny Offill: “While teaching a class called Unhinged Narrators, she finally abandoned the book that had so stymied her — about a student who has an affair with a professor. She strode out of her office one day and announced to her husband that she was going to write something weirder, more interesting, told instead from the wife’s point of view, never mind if it didn’t sell; she’d keep writing children’s books to make money. For years the draft that became ‘Dept. of Speculation’ was saved in her computer as a file marked ‘Bad Novel.’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 11, 2024: Something Weirder, More Interesting - Practice. How can you be inspired by this quote? What is stymying you? What do you really want to write even if no one reads it? Something weird? Something super interesting? Set a timer for five minutes and take notes or journal in response to the quote and questions above. Then set a timer for eight minutes, open a brand new file on your computer, name it “Bad Novel,” “Bad Poems,” “Bad Essay,” or “Bad Writing of Some Sort,” and write at least ten new words of something you want to write even if it’s terrible, even if it never turns into anything lasting, even if no one ever reads it. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-10-2024-the-pauses-prompts-and-practices-for-this-week-are-from-mary-mccampbell-and-were-originally-shared-before-daily-nourishment-offerings-were-posted-online monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 10, 2024: Music and Memory with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Pause. Sit silently for a few moments, letting your mind wander back to your childhood. Try to remember your first concert experience, your first favorite song, or the first love song that captured your teenage heart and imagination. If you can locate a song, quietly hum it, remembering how it used to make you feel. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 10, 2024: Music and Memory with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Prompt. Look on YouTube to find one of the songs that sprung into your mind and listen to it, letting it color your memories of a particular time and place. Take a few minutes to write down any details that you can remember about the younger self that loved this song: what you wore, what you smelled, who your friends were, what you loved to eat, who you had a crush on. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 10, 2024: Music and Memory with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Practice. Write one short paragraph of a scene of your younger self listening to and enjoying this music. SHOW how it was a part of the tapestry of your life. Then write a short paragraph describing the current version of you as you listen to the music. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-9-2024-the-act-of-lament-with-guidance-from-mary-mccampbell monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 9, 2024: The Act of Lament with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Pause. Watch the video for “Hurt” by Johnny Cash. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 9, 2024: The Act of Lament with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Prompt. In The Prophetic Imagination, theologian Walter Brueggemann argues that the act of lament, crying out to God and humanity with an open acknowledgement of grief and pain, is a subversive act. We often feel pressured to pretend that the status quo, the “way things are” is okay. When reading about abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s unimaginably dehumanizing experience of enslavement, we see the way lament can lead to hope and reality in the midst of the most extreme, unreal circumstances. He tells us that the lament-filled spirituals of his fellow enslaved brothers and sisters were “tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.” A lament can speak reality to our often-airbrushed surroundings. Brueggemann references the Old Testament prophets crying out in the wilderness, speaking truth to power when those in earthly charge–gorged on power and mammon– exhibited a kind of “royal numbness” when faced with the reality of suffering around them. Brueggemann claims that the “language of grief,” the practice of lament and mourning, “is the ultimate form of criticism.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 9, 2024: The Act of Lament with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Practice. Write about the experience of hearing a song of lament that has become your heart’s song. Or take some time to write a lament of your own. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-8-2024-mining-your-memories-with-guidance-from-mary-mccampbell monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 8, 2024: Mining Your Memories with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Pause. Watch this short scene from Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical movie Almost Famous. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 8, 2024: Mining Your Memories with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Prompt. Take five minutes to write about the way that the music played in the tour bus seemed to affect the mood of the group. Focus on remembered body language, facial expressions, images of sadness and joy. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 8, 2024: Mining Your Memories with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Practice. Take ten minutes to brainstorm on paper, mining your memories for a time when a work of art (a song, a story, a painting, a film) impacted a relationship. Did you share a joyful or painful moment when listening to a song together with a person or a group? Did a conversation after a movie strike up a new friendship? Did the exhibition you went to with someone help you to see their perspective on reality a bit more clearly? Write about it! https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-7-2024-as-if-you-were-there-with-guidance-from-mary-mccampbell monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 7, 2024: As If You Were There with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Pause. Watch and feel this live performance from Bon Iver and Taylor Swift. Allow yourself to get totally wrapped up in it, as if you were there. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 7, 2024: As If You Were There with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Prompt. If you grew up going to church, you are used to singing communally, together focusing all your attention, energy, and worship on one divine being. This habitual intentionality–these commonplace moments of Sunday worship–are, of course, not commonplace to everyone. But, as David Foster Wallace notes in “This is Water:” “Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” In this context, a football stadium or performance hall can also be places of collective worship. It is easy to see the passionate devotion of Swifties as a sort of secular religion, but can every concert be a collective religious experience? Have you ever felt the religiosity, the power of aligning yourself with a crowd that has a singular purpose? This may be a concert, a sporting event, even a protest. And the object of the worship might be the divine creator of the sport, the music, the call for justice–or, for some, the object of worship is not transcendent but immanent: the athletes, the musicians, the cause itself. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 7, 2024: As If You Were There with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Practice. Sit for a few moments and consider a time when you have felt a sense of religious unity, a collective focus on worship, outside of a church space. Have you ever felt this way at a concert? At a game? At a protest? If so, write for ten minutes about this experience. Although you are talking about an abstract/ metaphysical experience, it is grounded in the concrete details of reality and the senses. Remember details. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-6-2024-to-change-perceptions-with-guidance-from-mary-mccampbell monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 6, 2024: To Change Perceptions with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Pause. Sit still, listen to, and observe this live performance from Sigur Rós. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 6, 2024: To Change Perceptions with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Prompt. Watch the video again, this time paying attention to the way that the music impacts how you feel about the visuals (people in the crowd, the natural setting, the band performing). Does it change your perception? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 6, 2024: To Change Perceptions with Guidance from Mary McCampbell - Practice. After you have watched this video a second time, take five minutes to write down the particulars that struck you: —How did the music feel? —What images are lingering in your mind? —Did the music transform the way you looked at the things that you were watching? —What connections were made between feeling, sound, and image? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-5-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 5, 2024: It Seems Like They're Almost Rhyming with Guidance from NASA Satellite Images - Pause. Take a few quiet minutes to view the NASA satellite image below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/db693e7e-0433-4829-aedf-f141a9fa1d11/10-102-703154main_earth_art-ebook_custom-a796ff238b5973a66ccf09a8a597a4d4adaee764-s1600-c85%2Bcopy%2B2.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 5, 2024: It Seems Like They're Almost Rhyming with Guidance from NASA Satellite Images - Make it stand out Phytoplankton Bloom, Baltic Sea, 2005 Massive congregations of greenish phytoplankton swirl in the dark water around Gotland, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. Phytoplankton are microscopic marine plants that form the first link in nearly all ocean food chains. Blooms of phytoplankton, occur when deep currents bring nutrients up to sunlit surface waters. NASA https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 5, 2024: It Seems Like They're Almost Rhyming with Guidance from NASA Satellite Images - Prompt. Use the photo above or a different photo from this PDF of NASA Earth as Art book of satellite images and begin making three lists: Ten things you see in the photo Five ideas/thoughts that come to mind that may or may not be related to the photo Five people who might appreciate seeing this photo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 5, 2024: It Seems Like They're Almost Rhyming with Guidance from NASA Satellite Images - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and take notes in response to the questions below. What’s everything you know about this photo? What are three things you don’t know about this photo? If this photo were framed, where should it hang? Which real or fictional house? Which real or fictional building? Why? If you like, begin writing a new work of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, or a letter to a friend using your notes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-4-2024-honoring-our-pets-who-bring-us-joy monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 4, 2024: Honoring Our Pets Who Bring Us Joy - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this painting by Mary Cassatt. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 4, 2024: Honoring Our Pets Who Bring Us Joy - Prompt. Read this poem by Howard Nemerov. And this one by Cesare Pavese. And this one by Langston Hughes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 4, 2024: Honoring Our Pets Who Bring Us Joy - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the art and poems above and/or freewrite about pets you have now, have had in the past, or hope to have in the future. Write about how animals help you belong to yourself, others, and the broader world. How can you incorporate some of what you’ve written today in a new or existing poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-3-2024-be-sure-to-read-poetry-with-guidance-from-lydia-davis-on-national-poetry-day monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 3, 2024: Be Sure to Read Poetry with Guidance from Lydia Davis on National Poetry Day - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read a favorite poem (or any poem you can find without too much trouble) and do a breath prayer/meditation using single words or phrases from the poem. Inhale a word or phrase and exhale a word or phrase. Repeat the breath prayer five or so times. If you need some poems to choose from, here are a few I love: Hymn of Our Jesus & the Holy Tow Truck by Ashley M. Jones Despite My Efforts Even My Prayers Have Turned into Threats by Kaveh Akbar Transformation by Adam Zajewski Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo How to Triumph Like a Girl by Ada Limon Untitled by James Baldwin When I do breath prayers, I usually inhale a word or phrase that corresponds to or names something I want to receive and exhale a word or phrase that corresponds to or names something I want to let go of. If this particular breathing practice doesn’t work well for your poem, or if it feels awkward, skip it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 3, 2024: Be Sure to Read Poetry with Guidance from Lydia Davis on National Poetry Day - Prompt. Here’s more from Lydia Davis: “Be sure to read poetry, regularly, whether you are a poet or a writer of prose. I hope, of course, that if you’re a poet, you are already reading a lot of poetry. You will not develop, as a writer, if you don’t read. You won’t write as well, if you’re a prose writer, if you don’t read poetry.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 3, 2024: Be Sure to Read Poetry with Guidance from Lydia Davis on National Poetry Day - Practice. Set an eight-minute timer and read some poems. Use a website like poetryfoundation.org or a book of poetry. Make Lydia Davis (and me!) proud by taking notes while reading the poems. Begin keeping a list of favorite poems that you can add to and return to often. (I use a google doc for this because when in doubt create a new google doc.) If you don’t own any books of poetry, consider buying one, two, or three! If you aren’t sure which poets you like, read Poetry Unbound book and listen to the Poetry Unbound podcast. I also love the Slowdown podcast. So so good. AND. There’s a new podcast from Susan Cunningham called Living Poetry which is just wonderful. (I was invited to be a guest on this podcast, so be on the lookout for my episode soon!) Many different poems are shared and explored in this book and these podcasts, so they are great ways to discover new-to-you poets and poems. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-2-2024-voyage-of-discovery monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 2, 2024: Voyage of Discovery - Pause. Take a few quiet minutes to view last year’s winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 2, 2024: Voyage of Discovery - Prompt. Use the photo below or a different photo using the link above and make three lists: Ten things you see in the photo Five ideas/thoughts that come to mind that may or may not be related to the photo Five people who might appreciate seeing this photo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/609c3309-5b6b-44ca-a0af-103e26e2fe1c/-carmel-bechler-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-8729ef5ee232adf6ee857257c2ca19b101585f4e-s2600-c85%2Bcopy.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 2, 2024: Voyage of Discovery Owls' road house. Hof HaSharon, Israel. The photographer snapped this shot of several barn owls in the window of an abandoned building, using long exposure times to capture the light of passing traffic. Carmel Bechler/Wildlife Photographer of the Year https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 2, 2024: Voyage of Discovery - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and begin writing a new work of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, or a letter to a friend in response to a question below: What events have unfolded in this building over the years? When did the owls arrive and where will they go? Someone is walking toward this building. What will happen next? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/october-1-2024-dawn-comes-later-now monthly 0.5 2025-10-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 1, 2024: Dawn Comes Later Now - Pause. Read or listen to “A Letter in October” by Ted Kooser. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 1, 2024: Dawn Comes Later Now - Prompt. Look at this photograph for three or four minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for October 1, 2024: Dawn Comes Later Now - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and take notes on the coming month. What do you want more of? What do you want less of? What do you want to do to move toward the writing life you want? How do you want to inhabit October? How do you want to honor this month? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-30-2024-when-you-feel-disconnected-from-the-present-moment monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 30, 2024: When You Feel Disconnected from the Present Moment - Pause. Look at this photo of Georgia O’Keeffe’s studio by Laura Gilpin for two minutes. Zoom in and wander around the image. Notice what catches your attention. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 30, 2024: When You Feel Disconnected from the Present Moment - Prompt. Set a timer for four minutes and draw a picture of your desk or writing space. Include one or two details that you don’t typically notice. The point is not to draw a perfect picture. The point is to see in a new way while inhabiting the present moment. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 30, 2024: When You Feel Disconnected from the Present Moment - Practice. Make a new drawing of the same desk or writing space two more times in the coming hours or days. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-29-2024-send-your-demons-to-the-back-of-the-bus-with-guidance-from-allison-russell monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 29, 2024: Send Your Demons to the Back of the Bus with Guidance from Allison Russell - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while listening to “Demons” by Allison Russell. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 29, 2024: Send Your Demons to the Back of the Bus with Guidance from Allison Russell - Prompt. Read the quote below from Allison Russell: "Being a returner is stealing joy from the teeth of turmoil and coming back from difficult things. But we do, all of us, come back from, return from, difficult things. That fierce, hard-won joy is part of our human birthright, and it's something that we can claim at any time and that, even in the hardest of times, we can celebrate being in these bodies. That in and of itself is an act of resistance." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 29, 2024: Send Your Demons to the Back of the Bus with Guidance from Allison Russell - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and journal or take notes in response to the questions below and the quotes above: —What are your thoughts on Russell’s song “Demons” and her words above? —What difficult things from your past have you returned from? What difficult things are you navigating now? —What are some of your personal demons that are related to your writing life? What lies do you believe? What unwanted patterns and habits keep you from having the writing life you want? —How do writing and everything connected to your writing life give you joy anyway? —How can you send your personal demons related to your writing life to the back of the bus? What would that look like? If you like, use your notes to begin writing a new essay, story, poem, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-28-2024-the-places-that-form-us-and-hold-us monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 28, 2024: The Places That Form Us and Hold Us - Pause. Take some deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale then do a few rounds of of a breath prayer or breath meditation using the inhale and exhale prompts below: Inhale: My places form me Exhale: My places hold me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 28, 2024: The Places That Form Us and Hold Us - Prompt. Read this excerpt from The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other: “Memories—ordinary and extraordinary—are hard for me to separate from their birthplaces. The four homes I’ve lived in as an adult are chalices, of sorts, from whose rims I taste the memories of my marriage, children, friends, and neighbors. I drink in the streets and landscapes that unfurl from front doors; spiritual consolations and desolations; seasons of mental illness and seasons of health; twists and turns along my vocational path; shared meals, celebrations, and conversations; times of heartache, loneliness, and sorrow.” * And read this Instagram caption: Place attachment is a real thing. The places we belong to form us and hold us. Asheville has been one of my favorite places for a few years now and I’m heartbroken over the devastation and loss for those who call this place home and those of us who don’t. This place and its people, art, food, culture, and nature have given me, my son, and my creative work so many good things for which I’ll always be grateful. Much love to all affected in large ways and small ways and everything in between. May every place and all people affected by Helene be supported well and loved well and find a way forward. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 28, 2024: The Places That Form Us and Hold Us - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and respond to the Pause and Prompt above and/or the questions and statements below. —Make a list of 10 places that have formed you and held you. —Make a list of 10 memories and the places that birthed them. —Take notes or journal about one or two places that are connected to current and recent creative work. If you like, use your lists and notes to begin writing a new essay, poem, story, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-27-2024-one-way-to-move-through-creative-resistance-with-guidance-from-leah-everson monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 27, 2024: One Way to Move through Creative Resistance with Guidance from Leah Everson - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while reading the quote above a a few times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 27, 2024: One Way to Move through Creative Resistance with Guidance from Leah Everson - Prompt. Think about a recent or current experience of creative resistance—when you wanted to make your art but you just couldn’t bring yourself to do it. Take notes for five minutes about the scenario, your circumstances, etc. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 27, 2024: One Way to Move through Creative Resistance with Guidance from Leah Everson - Practice. Now, pause, take a few deep breaths, then think about your motivations. Why do you want to make art, write, plant new flowers in containers, etc.? (Take a few notes, if you like.) Then observe your thoughts and feelings about making art, the resistance, and your motivations. Be curious and examine the experience from various angles. Then make a choice to pivot towards more of what you want to make or create, or describe what it would be like to make a choice to pivot towards more of what you want to make or create. Take more notes and visualize yourself making the choice and acting on it. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-26-2024-how-to-care-for-your-body-mind-and-soul-during-online-workshops-and-gatherings monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 26, 2024: How to Care for Your Body, Mind, and Soul During Online Workshops and Gatherings - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then do a few rounds of the breath prayer using the inhale and exhale prompts below: Inhale: I want to notice what I need Exhale: I want to receive what I need https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 26, 2024: How to Care for Your Body, Mind, and Soul During Online Workshops and Gatherings - Prompt. This week I’ve shared several ideas for those who want to be more intentional about caring for themselves during online workshops and classes. (These ideas are also great for in-person workshops, classes, work meetings, etc.) A few ideas can be found in this IG Live video and caption. I shared three more ideas in this email newsletter. And here are a couple of more ideas: Make it a solo writing retreat. Use ideas from the At-Home Solo Writing Retreat Guide to set apart the online workshop or class as a time to focus more on yourself while logging out of other work responsibilities, minimizing interruptions, and letting everyone else fend for themselves. If you’re participating in an online workshop or class at home while other people are in the house with you, try incorporating some of these tips to reduce disruptions and honor your body, soul, and mind. Pause and check in before, during, and after. There are many befores, durings, and afters to choose from. See the Practice section below for additional guidance on this. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 26, 2024: How to Care for Your Body, Mind, and Soul During Online Workshops and Gatherings - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write in response to the Pause and Prompt above and/or the questions below. —How and when can you check in with your body, mind, and soul adequately to notice what you want and need for an upcoming online workshop or class? —What are the different befores, durings, and afters that might be good times for you to check in with yourself and give attention to what your body, mind, and soul need and want in the moment? For example: there’s the day before the online workshop, the week before, the hour before, five minutes before, etc. —How can you set apart some time after workshop sessions and after the entire event is over to process what you learned, take notes about insights you had, and jot down questions for further study, research, or contemplation? —How can you be more mindful of helping others pause before, during, and after meetings and gatherings you host online or in person? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-25-2024-creating-as-an-act-of-gratitude-with-guidance-from-dr-chelsea-brooke-yarborough monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 25, 2024: Creating as an Act of Gratitude with Guidance from Dr. Chelsea Brooke Yarborough - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at and meditating on the images of moth and butterfly wings in this article. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 25, 2024: Creating as an Act of Gratitude with Guidance from Dr. Chelsea Brooke Yarborough - Prompt. Read this quote from Dr. Chelsea Brooke Yarborough on how she can learn from other writers and their creative practices while still doing what she needs to do for herself (from the IG Live we did on the upcoming Spiritual Direction for Writers + Enneagram for Creativity Gathering on Sept 27-28): “For so long in my life, I realized that creativity for me actually was how do I create an image for someone else? How do I get to a place where I'm projecting something? But when I began to learn the Enneagram and began to learn that my impulse is actually towards this win, towards this image that I've decided is winning, that creativity actually allows for me to decide what the win is for myself. So, I'm a poet—I'm a writer as well—and so instead of writing towards, and this takes discipline to do, instead of writing towards the affirmations of others, of course people have audiences, et cetera, but instead of writing towards the affirmation applause, I really began to write for my own healing. And for me, that journey through the Enneagram allowed me to see there's not an issue when your motivation is the win. The issue is when you let others dictate what the win is for you. And so I feel like through all the numbers, there's some type of connectivity towards our healing that allows for our creativity to be a balm for ourself, even as it is something for someone else.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 25, 2024: Creating as an Act of Gratitude with Guidance from Dr. Chelsea Brooke Yarborough - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and take notes or journal in response to the quotes above and/or questions below. —How has writing and other creative practices helped you have more healing? —What have you learned from healing from the creative life? —When do you notice yourself making art for someone else or to create an image you want to project? —How can you let go of writing (and doing other things) to gain affirmations from other people? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-24-2024-drop-down-into-the-core-of-your-being-with-guidance-from-rev-nhien-vuong monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 24, 2024: Drop Down into the Core of Your Being with Guidance from Rev. Nhien Vuong - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while meditating on the quote above. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 24, 2024: Drop Down into the Core of Your Being with Guidance from Rev. Nhien Vuong - Prompt. Read the excerpt below from a recent IG Live I did with Rev. Nhien Vuong about the Spiritual Direction for Writers + Enneagram for Creativity Gathering: “There is an ongoing lived creative expression that we are intimately connected to. It's happening anyway. And so we recognize it as a creative act when we're actually connected to what's already happening, the effortlessness of the flow of your own personal being that is expressing in a unique way… To me, there's a distinct you that is unique that you don't have to try to be. And in that creative movement, I would say, or expression in the world, everything in the world is different because you exist. So then again, then we don't have to be like, ‘how do I make something unique? How do I design something genius?’ It's sort of like genius is embedded in who you are, that it's a dropping again, that dropping into the soul, not up and out. It's not out there. It's not in the comparison world, but something so natural that most people, it's almost like, ‘really? Can it be that easy?’” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 24, 2024: Drop Down into the Core of Your Being with Guidance from Rev. Nhien Vuong - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the Pause and Prompt above and/or the questions below. —What would it look like to create from dropping down into your soul instead of worrying about the world, voices, distractions, around you? —How is your creative process happening anyway? Even when you aren’t sitting down and actively writing or creating? —How can these ideas give you more rest and freedom and less anxiety and stress in your creative practice? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-23-2024-incorporate-more-blank-space-into-your-days monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 23, 2024: Incorporate More Blank Space into Your Days - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale then do a few rounds of a breath prayer or meditation using the inhale and exhale prompts below: Inhale: Help me be here now Exhale: Help me honor what I need now https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 23, 2024: Incorporate More Blank Space into Your Days - Prompt. Watch the short video clip about blank space below from a recent Instagram Live about how to care for your body, mind, and soul during online workshops and classes: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 23, 2024: Incorporate More Blank Space into Your Days - Practice. Set a timer for ten minutes and take notes or journal in response to the short video above or the questions below: —How much blank space (as defined above) do you typically have during a weekday? What about on Saturdays and Sundays? —What can you reschedule, re-allocate, or cancel altogether to give yourself more blank space throughout your typical days and weeks? —When you think about having more blank space in your schedule, how do you feel in your body? —What are the three biggest obstacles to having more blank space? —What hopes do you have for more blank space in the future? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-22-2024-give-your-attention-to-the-natural-world-to-discover-what-you-need-to-remember-today monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 22, 2024: Give Your Attention to the Natural World to Discover What You Need to Remember Today - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while reading “End of Summer” by Stanley Kunitz. Then walk outside and give your attention to the natural world around you. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 22, 2024: Give Your Attention to the Natural World to Discover What You Need to Remember Today - Prompt. I first noticed green acorns in August 2020 after my dad died. At the time, I was in the habit of walking down and back on the street behind our home. In this season of intense grief, I only had the mental energy to walk in a straight line for several blocks, then turn around and return to where I came from. Because I walked up and down the same street repeatedly, sometimes multiple times each day, I saw many things I hadn’t seen before. A quick Google search told me that the oaks near my house were stressed because they were dropping acorns earlier than usual. The early acorns from anxious trees are a beautiful mossy lime green. I picked up a few green acorns while walking on a Memphis trail this morning. I have them sitting on the table during my work and writing session at a local coffee shop to remind me that we are connected to the natural world. I still wonder whose stress came first—ours or the trees’? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/72518181-cf6a-4e9e-a18f-b8fc60c6603d/Green+Acorns+Charlotte+Donlon+and+Spiritual+Direction+for+Writers.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 22, 2024: Give Your Attention to the Natural World to Discover What You Need to Remember Today - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 22, 2024: Give Your Attention to the Natural World to Discover What You Need to Remember Today - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and take notes or journal in response to the Pause and Prompt above or the questions below. - What do you want to notice on this first day of fall? - What do you want to remember about the summer that has come to a close? - What do the trees and other natural elements near your home tell you about yourself and the world around you? - What reminders does the natural world hold for you and your creative practice today? If you like, use your notes or journal entry to write a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend in the coming days. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-21-2024-let-go-of-what-doesnt-serve-you-and-your-creativity-with-guidance-from-micky-scottbey-jones monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 21, 2024: Let Go of What Doesn’t Serve You and Your Creativity with Guidance from Micky ScottBey Jones - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then do a few rounds of a breath prayer or meditation using the following: Inhale: Be here now. Exhale: Be who I am now. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 21, 2024: Let Go of What Doesn’t Serve You and Your Creativity with Guidance from Micky ScottBey Jones - Prompt. Read this quote from Micky ScottBey Jones on how she can learn from other writers and their creative practices while still doing what she needs to do for herself (from the IG Live we did on the upcoming Spiritual Direction for Writers + Enneagram for Creativity Gathering on Sept 27-28): “I can appreciate that's how that person got it done. And maybe there's a little gem in there I can pick for myself, but I don't have to be them… Our personalities are just different. I can read that profile [of a writer] and be like, oh, they're really different from me. Or, oh, this was interesting. I can see myself there and maybe I could pull that little piece… But I don't feel like I need to morph into them, and that is really helpful.” * And here’s more from Jones on the same topic: “We have our writers that we love and we want to be like them. We even might think we're kind of like them in a lot of ways. I love Alice Walker and I've met Alice Walker. She's brilliant. She's very spicy, the way she shows up in her journals and all of that. She's the same person today as when you read through her journals, but she's one of those—she got up 5:00 AM to write before her daughter got up. She would sit under a tree and the characters from The Color Purple came and spoke to her. And I was like, that is wonderful and not me. It's probably not going to be me, and that's okay, but are there other pieces that I can glean from her? Great, I'll do those things. But if it's going to take me getting up at 5:00 AM I'm probably, I'm never going to do it.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 21, 2024: Let Go of What Doesn’t Serve You and Your Creativity with Guidance from Micky ScottBey Jones - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and take notes or journal in response to the quotes above and/or questions below. Which writers, artists, and musicians inspire you in your creative practice? What have you learned from them about the creative life? What are some examples of advice you’ve heard from others that help you make the art you want to make? What are some examples of advice that keep you from moving forward in your creative practice? What’s one thing that you keep trying to do with regard to your writing or other creative work that you might need to let go of because it’s not serving you or your creativity? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-20-2024-leaving-summer-with-guidance-from-aarik-danielsen monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 20, 2024: Leaving Summer with Guidance from Aarik Danielsen - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read the words below from “Summer Scenes, No. 1-5” by Aarik Danielsen: 4. Fretboard Coffee, Columbia, Missouri I test a theory on my friend Donald. Every writer, I think, is only ever working out one problem, one passion or sentiment a thousand different ways. I wonder aloud if he agrees and what his one thing might be. I will leave it to him to tell you himself; in person or on the page, he does so with clarity and generosity When the question inevitably comes back to me, I exhale and say, “I think I’m always testing how much weight the word sacred can bear.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 20, 2024: Leaving Summer with Guidance from Aarik Danielsen - Prompt. Read the entire piece here: “Summer Scenes, No. 1-5” by Aarik Danielsen https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 20, 2024: Leaving Summer with Guidance from Aarik Danielsen - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and take notes or journal about five scenes from this summer that you want to remember, hold onto, or ask questions about. If you like, use your notes or journal entry to write a new essay, poem, story, or a letter to a friend in the coming days or weeks. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-19-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 19, 2024: What Have You Forgotten? with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Read “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 19, 2024: What Have You Forgotten? with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. Read the poem two more times. Use your imagination to enter the scenes in both stanzas. Take notes for three minutes and describe what you see. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 19, 2024: What Have You Forgotten? with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write about something you’ve forgotten. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-18-2024-on-quitting-and-not-quitting monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 18, 2024: On Quitting and Not Quitting - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for two minutes and close your eyes and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 18, 2024: On Quitting and Not Quitting - Prompt. Make a list of 10 things you could quit. You aren’t committing to stopping anything. You’re just listing things you could stop if you ever decide you want to quit them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 18, 2024: On Quitting and Not Quitting - Practice. Set a timer for nine minutes and take notes on things you’ve quit and haven’t quit over the past few years. —What have you quit and why? —What did you quit that you didn’t want to quit? —How do you decide when to quit and when not to quit? —How are you different after you quit? —What have you learned from quitting and not quitting? If you like, use your notes to begin a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-17-2024-exactly-here-today monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 17, 2024: Exactly Here, Today - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for three minutes, close your eyes, and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 17, 2024: Exactly Here, Today - Prompt. “We may be halfway through a novel, an essay, a story, or a memoir or we may be nearing the finish line on a piece that has taken us years. But wherever we are in our work, we have never been exactly here, today. Today, we need to relearn what it is that we do. We have to remind ourselves to be patient, gentle with our foibles, ruthless with our time, withstanding of our frustrations. We remember what it is that we need. The solitude of an empty home, a walk through the woods, a bath, or half an hour with a good book—the echo of well-formed sentences in our ears. Whatever it takes to begin again.” - Dani Shapiro https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 17, 2024: Exactly Here, Today - Practice. Set a timer for nine minutes and write about beginning again using the quote above and/or the questions below. —What are your thoughts on the quote above? —What do you want to begin again today? —What do you need to remember about your writing and creative practice today? —How do you want to honor your body, mind, and soul today? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-16-2024-which-stories-have-been-omitted-with-guidance-from-matthew-salesses monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 16, 2024: Which Stories Have Been Omitted with Guidance from Matthew Salesses - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes, close your eyes, and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 16, 2024: Which Stories Have Been Omitted with Guidance from Matthew Salesses - Prompt. Here’s more from Matthew Salesses: “Craft is the history of which kind of stories have typically held power—and for whom—so it also is the history of which stories have typically been omitted. That we have certain expectations for what a story is or should include means we also have certain expectations for what a story isn’t or shouldn’t include. Any story relies on negative space, and a tradition relies on the negative space of history. The ability for a reader to fill in white space relies on that reader having seen what could be there. Some readers are asked to stay always, only, in the negative. To wield craft responsibly is to take responsibility for absence.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 16, 2024: Which Stories Have Been Omitted with Guidance from Matthew Salesses - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and begin completing the writing exercise below from Craft in the Real World: In five minutes, write as many sentences as you can that follow this format: If s/h/t hadn’t __________, __________ wouldn’t have ___________. (For example: “If she hadn’t tried to cross the road, her boyfriend’s car wouldn’t have flipped over.”) Expand one of the sentences into a paragraph, including a full set of actions and character(s). Expand the paragraph into a scene. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-15-2024-connect-to-the-present-moment-through-drawing monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 15, 2024: Connect to the Present Moment through Drawing - Pause. Look at this photo of Georgia O’Keeffe’s studio by Laura Gilpin for two minutes. Zoom in and wander around the image. Notice what catches your attention. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 15, 2024: Connect to the Present Moment through Drawing - Prompt. Set a timer for four minutes and draw a picture of your desk or writing space. Include one or two details that you don’t typically notice. The point is not to draw a perfect picture. The point is to see in a new way while inhabiting the present moment. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 15, 2024: Connect to the Present Moment through Drawing - Practice. Make a new drawing of the same desk or writing space two more times in the coming hours or days. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-14-2024-running-on-empty-with-guidance-from-emily-hartford monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 14, 2024: Running on Empty with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Pause. Raise your shoulders up toward your ears and squeeze. Take them backward. And then drop them. Match these movements with your breath - Raise your shoulders (inhale), Back (hold breath), Drop (exhale). Repeat this pattern for six breaths, each one slower than the last. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 14, 2024: Running on Empty with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Prompt. Read this poem - “Running on Empty” from Let the Spirit Breathe by Danny A. Belrose: My mind is empty this morning as I contemplate this psalm. How odd to be concerned about an empty mind. Emptiness is a major achievement in this day and age when a mind must be full to the brim, crowded with yesterdays, todays and tomorrows. Always on the run, Lord. Running desperately to catch up or keep up, Scrambling a step ahead of the competition. Running through moments of leisure, propped up in front of the TV, peering at the internet, pouring through a novel, thumbing magazines. Always on the run - running on empty. Desperately filling space. Anything to occupy a mind. One must not sit idle. Perish the thought a mind should be empty. Perish the thought? Good God, it’s only when we do perish our thoughts we find a moment’s peace; a quiet time, an empty time, a time to just “be.” Help me, God, to not fear emptiness. Help me to stop running - to stop filing every moment and allow moments to fill me! Help me find you in the quiet. Help me celebrate the past, live the present, and anticipate the future as friend. Mute the voices vying in my head. Take me to a safer place where quiet can be fed. Grant me pause. Stop my feverish searching. Allow me to be found by you. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 14, 2024: Running on Empty with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Practice. Read the poem again, this time paying attention to what stands out to you. Where is your attention drawn? As you take six more deep breaths, mull this portion of the poem over in your mind and heart. Write for five minutes on what this poem is inviting you toward today. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-13-2024-invite-joy-in-today-with-guidance-from-emily-hartford monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 13, 2024: Invite Joy in Today with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Pause. “Joy was not made to be a crumb…” - Mary Oliver Repeat this mantra to yourself as you take six deep breaths, each one slower than the last. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 13, 2024: Invite Joy in Today with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Prompt. Joy and Flavor Blasted Goldfish Invite joy in today. Watch your favorite comedy sketch. Cackle at a kids’ show joke. Swoon over the flavor of your dinner, or that flavor blasting on the Goldfish. Put on some music and have a dance party. Play. Sing. Explore. Embody God’s Joyful Spirit! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 13, 2024: Invite Joy in Today with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Practice. Joyful Companion, Look over my day with me and let us delight in the moments I welcomed joy! Look again with me. This time open my heart to the moments I turned joy away. God, remind me that joy isn’t just for the littles. I want to be open to the moments of joy that invite me in. Your desire for my joy meets mine, and conspires to show up again and again. Being joy takes practice. Every sacred yes moment matters. Each joy experienced nourishes. Help me to invite, welcome, embrace, and embody joy today and all of my tomorrows. Amen. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-12-2024-take-an-imaginary-voyage-with-guidance-from-emily-hartford monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 12, 2024: Take an Imaginary Voyage with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Pause. Heat up some water to make a hot drink. While it’s heating, take six deep breaths, each one slower than the one before. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 12, 2024: Take an Imaginary Voyage with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Prompt. Make a cuppa - will you have tea, coffee, hot chocolate, just water? Choose with intention, both the drink and the mug or cup you’ll drink from. I love bringing items into my day that carry stories. My cuppa this morning was in a small cup with roses that I chose for myself after a really tough period in my life. The teapot and tea came from my sweet children, who thrifted it for my birthday. It reminds me to seek out beauty and live out love. Use a few minutes while your tea steeps to think about the stories you’ve invited into your day with the items around you. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 12, 2024: Take an Imaginary Voyage with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Practice. As you sip your cuppa, sink into the memories, stories, and feelings associated with the vessel and drink you’ve chosen. Take 7-10 minutes to remember and write about what comes up for you. As you finish your cuppa, rinse out the cup, expressing gratitude for the memories and warmth it held for you today. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-11-2024-the-art-of-remembering-9/11 monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 11, 2024: The Art of Remembering 9/11 - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the art below by Manju Shandler or by looking at the images on her website. If you scroll down to near the bottom of that page, you can see several of the individual 4x9 paintings. * GESTURE, 2001-2003, by Manju Shandler, is a painting installation with one painting for each person who died, based on the information she had at the time, and paying tribute to the victims. * Here’s more from Shandler’s website: “GESTURE is a memorial installation comprised of almost 3000 individual paintings, one for each person lost on September 11, 2001. In the years since then GESTURE has been shown frequently throughout the United States. In honor of the 20th Anniversary GESTURE was exhibited at The Pelham Art Center. All 2,977 painting were exhibited for this solo exhibition. Eight hundred and fifty GESTURE paintings were exhibited at The National September 11th Memorial Museum for close to two years in honor of the 15th anniversary of the attacks in the exhibition Rendering The Unthinkable:Artists Respond to 9/11. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/f2f6fa54-7b04-4313-8ef5-796d2aa1dbf6/Gesture+by+Manju+Shandler.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 11, 2024: The Art of Remembering 9/11 - Make it stand out Photo by Manju Shandler https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 11, 2024: The Art of Remembering 9/11 - Prompt. Here’s an excerpt from “How memorials to 9/11 help us remember and mourn” Compared with realistic, figurative memorials commissioned by previous generations, these three 9/11 tributes can feel abstract, personal, even puzzling. Why the shift? “This new set of memorial makers is engaging in metaphor, trying to evoke complexity,” says Spencer Bailey, author of the new book, In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials. He and other experts suggest that creators of memorials now recognize that collective trauma transforms over time. As pain changes, so do the edifices we construct to remember it. It’s an approach that lends itself not only to the shared grief of 9/11, but also to other tragedies. Here’s how such tributes in metal, stone, water, and fire are helping people mourn and move forward.” Look at images of the 9/11 Reflection Pool Memorial for a few minutes. One thing to note about the two Reflection Pools: The names of those lost that day are engraved in this structure, not in alphabetical order, but each name was placed next to someone that person knew. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 11, 2024: The Art of Remembering 9/11 - Practice. Here’s more from and about Shandler and her GESTURE series: “The simplicity of paying tribute to those who I would never meet but whose lives were so close mine in our shared city gave me purpose. It was a way of directing all the feelings of rage, sadness, and fear into something proactive using the tools of my life as an artist.– Manju Shandler (https://rendering.911memorial.org/artists/manju-shandler/) * Freewrite for seven minutes on any feelings and memories you have of 9/11 and how making art or engaging with art can help you navigate those feelings. Or take notes or journal in response to the quotes and art above. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-10-2024-we-walk-sightless-among-miracles-with-guidance-from-emily-hartford monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 10, 2024: We Walk Sightless Among Miracles with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Pause. Step outside (even if it’s raining!), close your eyes, and take six deep breaths, each one slower than the one before. When you open your eyes, look around you and see what in nature catches your attention. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 10, 2024: We Walk Sightless Among Miracles with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Prompt. Read “Praying” by Mary Oliver here or listen to “Praying” by Mary Oliver here. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 10, 2024: We Walk Sightless Among Miracles with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Practice. Return to what caught your attention outside, picking it up or finding a comfortable place where you can observe it up close. Set a timer for seven minutes. Examine it closely - look from angles you haven’t seen before. Explore the colors, textures, smells. What are you being invited to notice? When your timer ends, find some paper (or digital means of writing) and use three minutes taking notes on your experience. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-9-2024-taking-care-with-guidance-from-emily-hartford monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 9, 2024: Taking Care with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Pause. Take six deep breaths in and out, breathing more slowly with each breath. Tune into your body - what is asking for your attention? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 9, 2024: Taking Care with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Prompt. Read the poem, “Taking Care” by Callista Buchen. Read it through two more times, paying attention to what shimmers or grabs your attention. Spend 5-7 minutes reflecting through writing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 9, 2024: Taking Care with Guidance from Emily Hartford - Practice. Welcoming Prayer from Mary Mrozowski —With a few deep breaths, tune into what emotion you are feeling right now, and where in your body it is present. Don’t analyse or try to change, but sink into the sensations as fully as you can. Stay present. —When you are ready, begin to welcome what you are feeling. “Welcome, fear.” “Welcome, joy.” Remember, to stay present to what you are feeling, not a particular situation. If you are unable to name what you’re feeling, simply say, “Welcome.” Repeat this process as many times as you need. —Begin the third step, when you are ready, of letting go. “I let go of this fear.” “I let go of this feeling.” Add, “I let go of my desire to change this feeling or this situation.” Stay here for a few moments, repeating if needed, until you’re ready to let go. —Spend 5 minutes journaling about your experience with Welcoming Prayer https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-8-2024-you-will-forget-much-if-not-everything monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 8, 2024: You Will Forget Much, If Not Everything - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read the poem “After Arguing against the Contention That Art Must Come from Discontent” by William E. Stafford. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 8, 2024: You Will Forget Much, If Not Everything - Prompt. Here’s more from Lydia Davis: “Revise notes constantly—try to develop the ability to read them as though you had never seen them before, to see how well they communicate. Constant revision, whether or not you’re going to ‘do’ anything with what you’ve written, also teaches you to write better in the first place, when you first write something down.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 8, 2024: You Will Forget Much, If Not Everything - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and revise some of your existing notes. Write one good sentence. Or two. Or three. Then set a five-minute timer and take new notes about something from yesterday before you forget. Before it becomes uninteresting or incomplete. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-7-2024-a-blessing-for-presence monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 7, 2024: A Blessing for Presence - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while listening to this Blessing by John O’Donohue. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 7, 2024: A Blessing for Presence - Prompt. Spiritual Direction for Writers® Co-Writing is going away in a few months, but I’ll carry so many good memories forward of our shared liturgies and writing (and not writing) with others who care about the intersection of faith and art and doubt and mystery. I love this blessing by John O’Donohue and use it often during SDW co-writing sessions. Right now, these lines are my favorite: “May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention. May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul. May you experience each day as a sacred gift, Woven around the heart of wonder.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 7, 2024: A Blessing for Presence - Practice. Listen to the blessing a few more times and take notes or journal in response. What are your favorite lines right now? Which words do you want to tweak? (Notice how I use the word “seldom” instead of “always” in that line about anxiety. Many thanks to Maria for giving me the word seldom to use during a co-writing session last year when I said I don’t love the use of “never.”) How does this blessing make you want good things for yourself and others? How does this blessing make you disappointed? How does it make you hopeful for the future? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-6-2024-just-one-more-try-with-guidance-from-susan-cunningham monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 6, 2024: Just One More Try with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Pause. Read “Say Uncle” by Kay Ryan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 6, 2024: Just One More Try with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Prompt. Read this poem aloud two more times. What are your favorite sounds? How do they bring whimsy and meaning to the poem? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 6, 2024: Just One More Try with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Practice. Write a poem in the style of Kay Ryan. Make a list of your own words with kindred sounds; play and create. Reflect on where might you consider saying uncle? Why won’t you? Go as deep as you can bear to engage the question for yourself. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-5-2024-the-day-misspent-with-guidance-from-susan-cunningham monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 5, 2024: The Day Misspent with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Pause. Read “Read “Waste” by Kay Ryan: Not even waste is inviolate. The day misspent, the love misplaced, has inside it the seed of redemption. Nothing is exempt from resurrection. It is tiresome how the grass re-ripens, greening all along the punched and mucked horizon once the bison have moved on, leaning into hunger and hard luck. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 5, 2024: The Day Misspent with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Prompt. Read the poem again or read this passage from John 11:25-26 (MSG) slowly: “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 What do you notice in your heart, mind, or body when you read words like “redemption,” “resurrection” and “re-ripening?” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 5, 2024: The Day Misspent with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Practice. In the middle of the poem we read Nothing is exempt from resurrection. Agree or Disagree? Write an argument or counterarguement for six minutes. Notice how you feel. Notice the impact of the title of this piece on you. Choose an alternative title for this poem and/or write your own poem or paragraph entitled “Waste”. Write a prayer or meditation inspired by this poem. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-4-2024-the-nutrients-in-failure-with-guidance-from-susan-cunningham monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 4, 2024: The Nutrients in Failure with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Pause. Read “Failure 2” by Kay Ryan: There could be nutrients in failure–– deep amendments to the shallow soil of wishes. Think of the dark and bitter flavors of black ales and peasant loaves. Think of licorices. Think about the tales of how Indians put fishes under corn plants. Next time hope relinquishes a form, think about that https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 4, 2024: The Nutrients in Failure with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Prompt. Read the poem aloud three times. What sensory image catches your attention? “Think” is used four times. What is this poem inviting you to think about? What is your relationship with failure and/or hope? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 4, 2024: The Nutrients in Failure with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Practice. What do you notice about your thoughts, feelings or bodily sensations as you consider this poem or failure and hope? Write for seven minutes about anything unexpected or surprising to you. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-3-2024-know-through-writing-with-guidance-from-susan-cunningham monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 3, 2024: Know through Writing with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Pause. Read and/or Listen to “Why We Must Struggle” by Kay Ryan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 3, 2024: Know through Writing with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Prompt. Read the poem again and ponder: Write about the shape of one of your losses or what is sustaining you. Where is one sector of your self stepping in for another in trouble? To what degree is there a sense that you might feed upon need as upon nectar? Write about what comes up for you. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 3, 2024: Know through Writing with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Practice. Write a poem or a paragraph about struggle or need. Write your perspective on the question of Why? or whether We Must Struggle https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-2-2024-to-live-very-quietly-with-guidance-from-susan-cunningham monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 2, 2024: To Live Very Quietly with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Pause. Read “Sharks’ Teeth” by Kay Ryan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 2, 2024: To Live Very Quietly with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Prompt. Set a timer for five to 10 mintes and write on your relationship with silence and/or noise. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 2, 2024: To Live Very Quietly with Guidance from Susan Cunningham - Practice. Write your own expressions of silence and noise. Add places where you experience both. Write for one minute about either a city or a park. Write for three minutes about how the language of "small shark’s-tooth shaped fragments of rest or compact and dangerous as a shark" impact you as a reader. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/september-1-2024-to-the-light-of-september monthly 0.5 2025-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 1, 2024: To the Light of September - Pause. Take a few deep breaths and read “To the Light of September” by W. S. Merwin. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 1, 2024: To the Light of September - Prompt. “The poet Edward Hirsch has described the poems of the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner W.S. Merwin as ‘concerned not only with what to renounce in the metropolis but also what to preserve in the country.’ Mr. Merwin, whose writing is often connected to nature and the environment, has noted that ‘The world is still here…there is a need to pay attention to the things around us while they are still around us.’ - NYT https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for September 1, 2024: To the Light of September - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and freewrite in response to the poem and quote above and/or the questions below. What is in this world today that you need and want to pay attention to while it’s still here? What do you want to remember after it’s gone? What do you want to pay attention to in September that you missed during August? What do you want to remember about August now that it’s September? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-31-2024-more-blank-space monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 31, 2024: More Blank Space - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to a song that helps you feel less alone in the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 31, 2024: More Blank Space - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and respond to one or more of the questions below: How have recent or past tragedies shaken your reality? How have recent or past joys given you opportunities for delight and celebration? What specific things, events, circumstances do you wish could be undone? What’s one soul hope for the coming month? How have you noticed God’s presence in your creative work and other areas of life during the past week or two? How do you want to notice God in the coming days and weeks? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 31, 2024: More Blank Space - Practice. Schedule some blank space in your day today. At least 15 minutes. An hour is great. Two hours are better. Just be. No agenda. Do something that feels frivolous or rest your eyes or sit in a cozy spot and let your mind wander. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-30-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 30, 2024: Start Close In - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while reading the words by David Whyte above. And/or do a few rounds of this breath prayer: Inhale “Start close in” Exhale “Start with the first thing” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 30, 2024: Start Close In - Prompt. Read “Start Close In” by David Whyte https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 30, 2024: Start Close In - Practice. Here’s a note David Whyte wrote about the poem above: “Inspired by the first lines of Dante's Comedia: written in the midst of exile from his beloved Florence: the difficult act we all experience, of trying to make a home in the world again when everything has been taken away; the necessity of stepping bravely again, into the dark wood, when the outer world as we know it has disappeared and has to be met, and in some ways made again, from no outer ground but from the very center of our being. The temptation is to take the second or third step, not the first, to finesse the grief and the absolutely necessary understanding at the core of the pattern, to forgo the radical and almost miraculous simplification into which we are being invited. Start Close In.” What’s one first step that you need or want to take today? What other first steps do you need or want to take in the coming weeks as you transition to a new month? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-29-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 29, 2024: What It Meant to Us with Lauren Winner - Pause. For one minute, gaze at Bo Bartlett’s “Dominion.” If you are looking via a small screen, enlarge and focus on the bear’s face; then enlarge and focus on the claw furthest away from the bear’s face, the patch of ice on which the claw rests, and the water surrounding the ice. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 29, 2024: What It Meant to Us with Lauren Winner - Prompt. In March 2022, The New York Times ran a piece titled “How Should Art Reckon with Climate Change?” The article quoted a 2005 op-ed by Bill McKibben: [In 2005], the environmentalist Bill McKibben…railed against the culture’s perceived indifference. “Where are the books? The poems? The plays? The goddamn operas?” he wrote in an op-ed for Grist. “Compare it to, say, the horror of AIDS … which has produced a staggering outpouring of art that, in turn, has had real political effect.” For future generations looking back on the present, “the single most significant item will doubtless be the sudden spiking temperature. But they’ll have a hell of a time figuring out what it meant to us.” Return to Bartlett’s “Dominion.” Sit with it for 8 minutes — long enough to get bored and twitchy, and long enough to return from the twitch to the image. What does the painting say to you? Write in response, if you wish. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 29, 2024: What It Meant to Us with Lauren Winner - Practice. “Dominion,” which is 82 x 100 inches, hangs prominently in the Asheville Art Museum — it interrupts you as you walk up the stairs to the museum’s main galleries, and whenever I am there, I stop and take some time with it, rarely having the same thoughts or feelings as I did the time before. This week, go to a local museum, if you live near one, and identify a piece of art that is on relatively-permanent display with which you might develop a relationship over time. Or, identify a piece of art in your home that you often pass by but rarely look at with focus and intention, and pass 15 minutes gazing at it. Then make a date, written in your calendar, to look again in one month. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-28-2024-strike-some-chord-that-goes-beyond-words-with-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 28, 2024: Strike Some Chord That Goes beyond Words with Lauren Winner - Pause. For one minute, look at this cyanotype by Anna Atkins. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 28, 2024: Strike Some Chord That Goes beyond Words with Lauren Winner - Prompt. Atkins (1799-1871) was one of cyanotype’s early adopters; she used the method (which was invented in 1842) to capture plant life. The Public Domain Review explains how cyanotypes are made: an “object is placed on paper which has been treated with ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, after which it is exposed to sunlight and then washed in water, leading to the uncovered areas of the paper turning a dark blue.” Here’s another cyanotype by Anna Atkins. And here’s another one. Photography dealer Jeffrey Fraenkel has said, about cyanotyopes, “The color blue strikes some chord in us that goes beyond words.” For three minutes, brainstorm the blue objects in your life, past and present, that have been important to you. Then, if you wish, write toward one of them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 28, 2024: Strike Some Chord That Goes beyond Words with Lauren Winner - Practice. Click on the cyanotype here to call up five images by five different people (Atkins is one), and take a minute or two with each image. Make a cyanotype (you will not need a camera; you will need cyanotype paper). https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-27-2024-longer-endings-with-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 27, 2024: Longer Endings with Lauren Winner - Pause. For one minute, gaze at this 1913 lithograph by B. M. Boye. Let your eyes linger where they linger. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 27, 2024: Longer Endings with Lauren Winner - Prompt. Yesterday, we met Kate Clarke Lemay, a curator and historian at the National Portrait Gallery. She curated the 2019-2020 exhibition Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence, in which the lithograph appeared. Women whose portraits were featured in the exhibition include Ida B. Wells, Alice Paul, and Mary McLeod Bethune. Votes for Women also included images made as recently as 1965, such as a photograph of activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Explaining why she included images and objects created after 1920, Lemay told the Washington Post “The 19th Amendment didn’t wrap things up in a pretty bow…It didn’t resolve the disenfranchisement of women for everybody. Black women, Native American women — any minority woman — still had all of these impediments to their voting rights until” the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The story of woman suffrage, in other words, is a story that in fact unfolds for many years after the event that some people might have thought its conclusion. What are other stories that extend long beyond the event that many might mistakenly think their end? Brainstorm for three minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 27, 2024: Longer Endings with Lauren Winner - Practice. Call up an older relative—your sister, your aunt, your grandmother—and try to learn as much as you can about woman suffrage in your family. Who was the first woman in your family to vote? Under what circumstances? What voting barriers, if any, have women in your family faced in the past few generations? If no one in your family knows, try piece together what’s plausible: who, likely, were the first women in your family to vote? Where were they likely living when they voted, and in what election might they have cast their first ballots? In response to what you learn, or what you suppose, write a scene that places one of your foremothers in an electoral context. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-26-2024-figuring-it-out-with-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 26, 2024: Figuring It Out with Lauren Winner - Pause. For one minute, gaze at this 1970 portrait of Martha Mitchell, and allow Mitchell to gaze at you. What does your face do in response to her gaze? (I find myself beginning to smile.) What begins to happen between you and her as you look at one another? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 26, 2024: Figuring It Out with Lauren Winner - Prompt. Kate Clarke Lemay was the curator for the National Portrait Gallery’s 2022 exhibit Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue, in which the portrait of Mitchell appeared. In an interview about her work as a curator and art historian, Lemay was asked “What are five words that come to mind when you think about the idea of living an artful life?” She said: “Openness, motivation, curiosity, discipline, and time. ….I think two of the words go together: openness and time. Often I have my best ideas when I have the space and time to open up, observe the world, and make connections…. My creative brainstorming happens best when I have time and space to listen to my hunches — those little voices in the corner of my mind that all too often get squashed out by everyday responsibilities.” How do you respond to Lemay’s insights into an artful life? (Yesterday, they made me feel irritated and stressed. Today they make me feel curious and hopeful.) Write in response for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 26, 2024: Figuring It Out with Lauren Winner - Practice. Lemay (whom we’ll hear from again tomorrow) also said: “When has art made me stop in my tracks? When have I really felt moved, and why was that?” How do you respond to those questions? Write for eight minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-25-2024-what-is-art-for-with-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 25, 2024: What Is Art for with Lauren Winner - Pause. For one minute, gaze at this 1972 painting by Alma Thomas, Late Night Reflections. Where does your gaze land? How does your body feel as you gaze? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 25, 2024: What Is Art for with Lauren Winner - Prompt. Alma Thomas (1891-1978) studied art at Howard University, and then, for many years, alongside her career as a junior high teacher, she worked in gouache, watercolor, oil— and sometimes even made marionettes. She was able to commit herself wholly to her own painting once she retired from teaching, near the age of 70. Once (in fact, only months before she died), Thomas gave an interview to the Washington Post, in which she recalled: “In 1964, I had a terrific attack of arthritis. I thought, This is the end, I'll never be able to move my arms again, or walk. Just then I was offered retrospective of my paintings, at Howard University. I thought about it. I recovered my health. And I said, 'I'll try.' I decided to try to paint something different from anything I'd ever done. Different from anything I'd ever seen. I thought to myself, That must be accomplished. So I sat down right in that chair, that red chair here in my living room, and I looked at the window. And you can see exactly what I saw, right before my eyes, from where I was sitting in the chair. Why, the tree! The holly tree! I looked at the tree in the window, and that became my inspiration. There are six patterns in there right now that I can see. And every morning since then, the wind has given me new colors through the windowpanes. I got some watercolors and some crayons, and I began dabbling. And that's how it all began. The works have changed in many ways, but they are still all little dabs of paint that spread out very free. So that tree changed my whole career, my whole way of thinking. I never even go to the other windows anymore.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 25, 2024: What Is Art for with Lauren Winner - Practice. Look out a window. Can you imagine what you see becoming the basis, the inspiration, of years of work? Begin writing toward those years, right now, for ten minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-24-2024-the-things-i-cant-speak-with-guidance-from-melissa-febos monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 24, 2024: The Things I Can’t Speak with Guidance from Melissa Febos - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then re-read the quote above. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 24, 2024: The Things I Can’t Speak with Guidance from Melissa Febos - Prompt. Read the words below from Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos: “The most common question that I have gotten over the years at readings, in classrooms, and from friends is how I deal with the fallout of including living people in my work. I usually first respond by telling them that there are no living people in my work, only characters, which are figments animated by imagination plus a small number of qualities shared by the person on whom they are based. They are a process and a product of radical reduction. The trouble is that almost no one likes to be reduced, even to their most cherished qualities.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 24, 2024: The Things I Can’t Speak with Guidance from Melissa Febos - Practice. Take notes or journal for for 10-12 minutes in response to the quotes above and the questions below. —What are some ways you can honor others and yourself in your writing even though you're working with characters, "figments animated by imgination plus a small number of qualities shared by the person on whom they are based?" —Which things do you not want to do? What would dishonor the characters in your writing? —When writing about yourself, which qualities can you want focus on? Include the good, the bad, the weird, the beautiful. —Which qualities would someone who adores you focus on? —What about someone who doesn’t like you? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-23-2024-hope-is-never-wasted-with-guidance-from-ashley-m-jones monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 23, 2024: Hope Is Never Wasted with Guidance from Ashley M. Jones - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then give your attention to your body. Where do you notice imbalance, pain, tension, energy? Can you breathe into those places and try to release anything you’re holding on to? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 23, 2024: Hope Is Never Wasted with Guidance from Ashley M. Jones - Prompt. Read this quote by poet Ashley M. Jones: America from a very young age. I saw the way my own parents worked tirelessly so we could be set up in the future. Now, in that future, I am endlessly grateful for what it must have cost to make a “fair” chance for Black children in the Deep South. My poetry reflects that gratefulness, and it reflects the truth of my existence, and I am always honored to be a part of any projects that value authenticity and the real humans who make this world work.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 23, 2024: Hope Is Never Wasted with Guidance from Ashley M. Jones - Practice. Set a timer for six minutes and begin making a list of the people and experiences that have helped you have chances to make art and do good work over the years. Then set a timer for six minutes and respond to the following questions through journaling or taking notes: How did those who came before you contribute to or hinder your ability to make art and do other work? How do your writing and other creative work honor the people, places, and things that helped form your present reality? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-22-2024-doodling-towards-memories-with-guidance-from-nicole-parsons monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 22, 2024: Doodling towards Memories with Guidance from Nicole Parsons - Pause. On a fresh sheet of paper, “doodle” while you listen to this five-minute recording. Keep your hand moving. If you’re not a doodler, try slowly, steadily writing the letters of the alphabet over and and over while you listen, or make along series of dashes or dots or circles. Just keep your hand moving while you listen. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 22, 2024: Doodling towards Memories with Guidance from Nicole Parsons - Prompt. Without re-listening to the recording, pick any noun (any person, place, or thing) that you remember from it. Write the noun down on top of a fresh sheet of paper, and beside it write: “That reminds me of…” now write for five minutes, at your own pace, but keep your hand moving. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 22, 2024: Doodling towards Memories with Guidance from Nicole Parsons - Practice. Read your prompted memory back to yourself out loud (no editing). On a clean sheet of paper, jot down one line or sentence you really like. Notice the virtuosity in that line, your own style and way of capturing something. Notice what’s pleasing, where your preferences shine. Now write down one line or sentence from what you just wrote that you cringe at. Look gently at this less than satisfying line. What is hidden in that line that you didn’t see at first? What might be hidden in it? Spend 5 minutes re-seeing and working with this line however you want (expand, re-word, cut, rearrange, whatever). Make it into a sentence you love, or two or three. What do you notice about doing this? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-21-2024-gentle-repetition-with-guidance-from-nicole-parsons monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 21, 2024: Gentle Repetition with Guidance from Nicole Parsons - Pause. In a quiet place with some privacy, settle into a comfortable place (standing or sitting) where you can spend 3 minutes in a gentle repetitive movement. You might sway or rock, twist your torso left and right while swinging your arms — even breathing intentionally is a gentle repetitive movement. Take three minutes to enjoy some rhythm. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 21, 2024: Gentle Repetition with Guidance from Nicole Parsons - Prompt. For three minutes, write down all the one-syllable words you can think of. Keep your hand moving. You might say the words out loud as you write them, feel the consonants and vowels in your mouth. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 21, 2024: Gentle Repetition with Guidance from Nicole Parsons - Practice. With these rhythms and cadences still stirring in you, write for 10 minutes about rhythm. Where do you feel rhythm and how do you experience cadences in your body and world. Where are the places in your life that have a strong rhythm? Where are the places in your life that have no rhythm? What is the difference like? Try to keep your hand moving at a steady pace, maybe even a rhythm. See what comes up. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-20-2024-listen-and-respond monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 20, 2024: Listen and Respond with Guidance from Nicole Parsons - Pause. Listen to THIS with your eyes closed. Headphones might enhance the experience. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 20, 2024: Listen and Respond with Guidance from Nicole Parsons - Prompt. Take five minutes and describe the music you just heard as if for someone who is unable to hear it. Keep your hand moving for the entire five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 20, 2024: Listen and Respond with Guidance from Nicole Parsons - Practice. Listen to the song again, and then take five minutes and try to describe it as if it were edible. Turn what you hear into something that can be tasted, chewed, swallowed. What sort of food does it “taste” like to you? What is the experience of eating it? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-19-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 19, 2024: Asking the Way with Guidance from Annelise Jolley - Pause. Read the short poem “Asking the Way” by Ko Un. Read it again, more slowly. Read it once more, this time out loud. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 19, 2024: Asking the Way with Guidance from Annelise Jolley - Prompt. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Freewrite a list of questions to ask instead of asking “what god is,” as the poet suggests. Get as abstract or specific as you like. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 19, 2024: Asking the Way with Guidance from Annelise Jolley - Practice. Pick a question that is currently haunting you. Hold the question during your daily times of prayer, meditation, or reflection. Notice where the question leads you. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-18-2024-release-what-no-longer-serves-you-with-guidance-from-katie-rouse monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 18, 2024: Release What No Longer Serves You with Guidance from Katie Rouse - Pause. Listen to this chanting, calming song for at least three minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 18, 2024: Release What No Longer Serves You with Guidance from Katie Rouse - Prompt. How did the music make your body feel? What sensations came up, and where did you feel them in your body? How did the words strike you? Did they bring up specific thoughts, problems, or feelings that you want and are ready to release? Did they show you anything that you are still holding onto? Journal for at least five minus on this song and these questions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 18, 2024: Release What No Longer Serves You with Guidance from Katie Rouse - Practice. - Make a list of things you want or need to release. Start with the line: “I am ready to release…” - What do you want or need to release with regard to your writing life and creative practice? Add those things to your list. - Go through the list. Does anything feel like something you “should” do instead of a natural release? -See if you can rework it into something with less “should-ing” for yourself. - Listen to the song again if any negative emotions come up. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-17-2024-is-there-any-other-way monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 17, 2024: Is There Any Other Way? - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the image below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/657bff6d-cfba-4aa6-b897-68ba38c1fc04/Work_DicFascicles_04+%281%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 17, 2024: Is There Any Other Way? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 17, 2024: Is There Any Other Way? - 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) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 17, 2024: Is There Any Other Way? - 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? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-16-2024-go-into-yourself monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 16, 2024: Go into Yourself - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 16, 2024: Go into Yourself - Prompt. Read the quote below. Then reread it. Read it one more time aloud. “I ask you, dear sir, to have patience with all that is unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves, like closed rooms, like books written in a foreign language. Don’t try to find the answers now. They cannot be given anyway, because you would not be able to live them. For everything is to be lived. Live the questions now. Perhaps you then may gradually, without noticing, one day in the future, live into the answers. Perhaps you bear within yourself the capacity to imagine and shape a sacred way of life. Prepare yourself for that. Trust what comes to you.” - Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 16, 2024: Go into Yourself - Practice. Journal, take notes, or begin writing a new poem, story, or essay using the quote above and the questions below. —Which questions do you want answers to right now? —Which questions do you want to ignore? —What might it look like to live your questions instead of finding answers to them? What would you do differently today? Tomorrow? Next week? —What sacred way of life do you want to shape? What would you let go of? What would you hold onto? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-15-2024-the-gift-will-shine monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 15, 2024: The Gift Will Shine - Pause. Walk outside if you’re able to do so. Then take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then take six more deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 15, 2024: The Gift Will Shine - Prompt. Here’s a poem from Gregory Orr’s Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/33a51443-b7c3-43f2-b894-c594573fd8f7/IMG_3122+%282%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 15, 2024: The Gift Will Shine - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 15, 2024: The Gift Will Shine - Practice. Which poems (or single lines from poems) have moved you in the past? Set a timer for five minutes and begin making a list. Then keep your list nearby. In the coming days and weeks, return to the poems and lines that move you. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-14-2024-grief-and-beauty monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 14, 2024: Grief and Beauty - Pause. Meditate on Georgia O’Keeffe Red Hills and Bones for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 14, 2024: Grief and Beauty - Prompt. Writing can help us attend to the light that remains even in our darkest moments. Draft a scene from your experience of loss, but look for the light. Was there a flower on the sill, a trill of a child’s laughter, kindness exchanged? Did you find relief and release through a moment of dark humor? Set a timer for five minutes and write this. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 14, 2024: Grief and Beauty - Practice. Take no more than five minutes to gather a sheet of paper, glue/tape scissors, and scraps of spare or discarded material from your home: wrapping paper, tissue paper (or just tissues), rubber bands, found objects from your giveaway pile awaiting its lift to the Goodwill. Using these materials, make a collage. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-13-2024-grief-and-the-body monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 13, 2024: Grief and the Body - Pause. Meditate on Negro Lament by Hélène Sardeau for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 13, 2024: Grief and the Body - Prompt. Grief can feel abstract, surreal, and overwhelming. It can help to write not about its emotional contours but about its concrete expressions in the body. How does it feel on your face? In your chest? Your belly? Your limbs? What do you do with your body when you grieve? Where do you go? Our emotions always take up residence in our bodies, but we so infrequently speak of how we feel in corporeal terms. What does grief feel like in your body? Set a timer for five minutes and write how grief feels in your body in a style/form of your choice. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 13, 2024: Grief and the Body - Practice. Practice a body scan. Take three deep breaths and notice the rhythm of your breath. Then beginning with the top of your head and working your way down your face, neck, shoulders, etc. to the tips of your toes, notice each body part–does it feel relaxed? Tense? Heavy? Light? Scan from head to toe at an even pace noticing the different sensations within your body at this moment. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-12-2024-on-eulogy monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 12, 2024: On Eulogy - Pause. Meditate on “Remembering JJ” by Reginald Gammon for a few minutes. (Click on the four arrows in the top right corner to expand the image.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 12, 2024: On Eulogy - Prompt. My father was a minister, and when he officiated funerals, he always said this: “Imagine this person on his best day. Think back to that time when the person was most himself. Most full of life, most loving, most creative, most grace-filled.” My dad, whose hope was fixed on life after death, would say, “This is only a glimpse of what we will find when we meet this person in God’s presence.” Set a timer for seven minutes and write a scene about a person you’ve lost on their best day. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 12, 2024: On Eulogy - Practice. Light a candle and pray for or meditate on a person you love who has died. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-11-2024-objects-of-grief monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 11, 2024: Objects of Grief - Pause. Listen to Tundra by Ola Gjeilo performed by Tenebre. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 11, 2024: Objects of Grief - Prompt. Set a timer for five minutes and write about an object given to you by someone you don’t see anymore. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 11, 2024: Objects of Grief - Practice. Throughout your day today, notice the objects you interact with in your home. Which of them have been given to you? Which would you like to give away–today? Tomorrow? On your child’s 25th birthday? On the day of your nephew’s wedding? At the end of your life? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-10-2024-joy-and-sorrow-together monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 10, 2024: Joy and Sorrow Together - Pause. Mediate on Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. (Click on the box in the upper right corner to expand the image.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 10, 2024: Joy and Sorrow Together - Prompt. Journal for ten minutes on the following questions: What are you grieving right now? What are you celebrating? How might holding both grief and joy at the same time draw you closer to the heart of God? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 10, 2024: Joy and Sorrow Together - Practice. In four hours, do the writing prompt again, noticing the griefs and joys, both small and large, you’ve experienced since your first time doing the exercise. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-9-2024-the-art-of-seeing-with-virginia-woolf-and-georgia-okeeffe monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 9, 2024: The Art of Seeing with Virginia Woolf and Georgia O’Keeffe - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art by Georgia O’Keeffe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 9, 2024: The Art of Seeing with Virginia Woolf and Georgia O’Keeffe - Prompt. Read the following quote by O’Keeffe and then look at the painting below. “A flower is relatively small. Everyone has many associations with a flower — the idea of flowers. You put out your hand to touch the flower — lean forward to smell it — maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking — or give it to someone to please them. Still — in a way — nobody sees a flower — really — it is so small — we haven’t time — and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small. So I said to myself — I’ll paint what I see — what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it — I will make even busy New-Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers. Well — I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower, you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower — and I don’t.” - Georgia O’Keeffe: The Poetry of Things https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/16f5fcc5-3df7-41f9-bfff-adbadda2a192/GeorgiaOkeeffe1925.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 9, 2024: The Art of Seeing with Virginia Woolf and Georgia O’Keeffe - Make it stand out Georgia O’Keeffe, Grey Lines with Black, Blue and Yellow, 1923 (Georgia O’Keeffe Museum) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 9, 2024: The Art of Seeing with Virginia Woolf and Georgia O’Keeffe - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write in response to the Pause and Prompt above and/or the items below. Make a list of five things you want to attentively see today. Make a list of five things you want to attentively see in the coming week. For you, for this particular season of life, within your current reality of your unique circumstances, what are three things that will help you attentively see today and in the coming week? What postures and practices will help you see the items on your lists, “turning them around, slowly, in the light”? Journal or take notes for a few minutes on seeing, attention, and anything else that comes to mind. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-8-2024-read-your-life-again monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 8, 2024: Read Your Life (Again) - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then do a few rounds of a breath prayer/breath meditation using the following: Inhale: Hello to everything Exhale: I greet my story https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 8, 2024: Read Your Life (Again) - Prompt. Read your life. Scroll through your text messages, emails, and social media DMs and find one or two sentences from the past couple of weeks that stirs your emotions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 8, 2024: Read Your Life (Again) - Practice. Use those sentences as inspiration for a flash fiction story. It can be autofiction, inspired by your reality. But throw in something extra—include at least a splash of fiction. If you prefer, use a friend’s or a stranger’s social media post as inspiration instead. You can use any found material as long as it stirs your emotions and invites you to go deeper in a story. Set a timer for 10 minutes and take notes or start writing a story with no more than 1000 words. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-7-2024-the-secret-symmetry-of-our-souls monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 7, 2024: The Secret Symmetry of Our Souls - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Close your eyes and rest for a couple of minutes if you like. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 7, 2024: The Secret Symmetry of Our Souls - Prompt. A Blessing for Presence by John O’Donohue May you awaken to the mystery of being here And enter the quiet immensity of your own presence. May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses. May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon. May you respond to the call of your gift And find the courage to follow its path. May the flame of anger free you from falsity. May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame and anxiety never [seldom] linger about you. May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul. May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention. May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul. May you experience each day as a sacred gift, Woven around the heart of wonder. O’Donohue, J., (1998). Eternal Echoes. Exploring our hunger to belong. London, Bantam Books. p.139 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 7, 2024: The Secret Symmetry of Our Souls - Practice. There’s a line in that blessing that wraps words around my primary desire for others and myself: “May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.” That’s the line. That’s what I want for my spiritual direction clients and readers and guests and children and friends and family and all people. I love the entire “Blessing for Presence” by John O’Donohue even though I like to replace the word “never” with “seldom” in that one line. Which line or lines wraps words around some of your desires for yourself and others? If you like, begin writing a blessing using your favorite line from the blessing above as a starting point. May we be consoled in the secret symmetry of our souls. And again: May we be consoled in the secret symmetry of our souls. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-6-2024-time-moves-around-us-and-our-kitchen-tables-with-guidance-from-dani-shapiro-and-joy-harjo monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 6, 2024: Time Moves around Us and Our Kitchen Tables with Guidance from Dani Shapiro and Joy Harjo - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read or listen to “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 6, 2024: Time Moves around Us and Our Kitchen Tables with Guidance from Dani Shapiro and Joy Harjo - Prompt. Read the Dani Shapiro quote above one or two more times. Then read the poem in the Pause one or two more times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 6, 2024: Time Moves around Us and Our Kitchen Tables with Guidance from Dani Shapiro and Joy Harjo - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the questions below: What’s a specific event that you experienced during the past few years that’s somehow connected to your kitchen table that’s still happening now, still unfolding now? How is it still happening? Why is it still happening? How has your relationship with this event changed? How have you changed with regard to this event? Use your notes to begin writing a new essay, story, poem, or letter if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/toni-morrison-and-the-writers-and-artists-who-have-formed-us monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 5, 2024: Toni Morrison and the Writers and Artists Who Have Formed Us - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this portrait of Toni Morrison. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 5, 2024: Toni Morrison and the Writers and Artists Who Have Formed Us - Prompt. Toni Morrison died on this day five years ago. Here’s a quote from writer Jacqueline Woodson: “If it hadn’t been for Toni’s Morrison’s ‘Sula,’ I would never have been able to write the book that is ‘Another Brooklyn.’ If not for the many readings of ‘The Bluest Eye,’ half of the books I’ve written for young people would not be in the world. So many writers, so many writers that are women, so many writers that are black know this to be true—because of Toni Morrison, we are. Because of her, I am.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 5, 2024: Toni Morrison and the Writers and Artists Who Have Formed Us - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes. Make a list of the writers and other artists who have influenced your writing and creative work. Then take notes or journal exploring what those people have given you. What you love about their work that helps you make your own art. If you like, begin writing a new poem, essay, story, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-4-2024-literary-tea monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 4, 2024: Literary Tea - Pause. If you can, prepare a cup of hot tea with mindfulness. Give attention to how your senses are stirred during each step. While waiting for it to steep, take some deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Or, skip the tea and take a few deep breaths. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 4, 2024: Literary Tea - Prompt. Read this excerpt from a piece about literary tea in The New Yorker: Tea is everywhere in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which is an ode to inaction and paralysis. Just how does one broach the subject of love at afternoon tea? Planning out the right words takes time: Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea. Inevitably, in the course of all that fretting, our hero begins to lose his nerve: Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? In the end, of course, he says nothing; this is a poem about self-doubt and aching regret—two conditions, perhaps, that even a soothing cup of tea cannot cure. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 4, 2024: Literary Tea - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and respond to the Pause and Prompt above and/or write everything you know about tea. Personal experiences, literary references, facts you’ve picked up along the way. If you like, begin writing a new tea-themed poem, essay, story, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-3-2024-we-can-be-who-we-are-instead-of-trying-to-be-someone-else monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 3, 2024: We Can Be Who We Are Instead of Trying to Be Someone Else - Pause. Take several deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while considering what you want and need right now for your creative practice. Let go of what you think others want and need and focus on what you want and need. Take notes if you like. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 3, 2024: We Can Be Who We Are Instead of Trying to Be Someone Else - Prompt. Watch this short Instagram reel with Micky ScottBey Jones. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 3, 2024: We Can Be Who We Are Instead of Trying to Be Someone Else - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and take notes or journal in response to the Pause and Prompt above and/or the questions below. When are you tempted to emulate someone else and their work or creative practice? Are there times when that can be helpful? When is it unhelpful? How does belonging to yourself and knowing who you are help your creative process? Where are you sensing disconnects between the fullness of who you are and what you want and need for your creative practice? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-2-2024-sitting-with-the-poetry-of-helen-hoyt-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 2, 2024: Sitting with the Poetry of Helen Hoyt with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. August 2 is the anniversary of the death of poet Helen Hoyt. In one of her most well-known poems, “Ellis Park,” Hoyt addresses the park directly, saying that each morning, she passes through the park, and each morning, she carries with her, into her day, “a piece of you,” some of the park’s “breeze,” and some of its “shade,” “Some of your calm as I go by.” All this she carries into her “office walls,” and it sustains her through the day. What is your park? It may not be an actual park, of course. From where do you draw breeze and calm that you carry into the rest of your day? Breathe deeply as you return to that place in your mind’s eye, and take what you need. “So much treasure you have left. As I find you, fresh at morning, So I find you, home returning -- Nothing lacking from your grace. All your riches wait in place For me to borrow On the morrow,” writes Hunt. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 2, 2024: Sitting with the Poetry of Helen Hoyt with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. She is little remembered today. I wish this were otherwise. Here is one of her lovely and simple poems: Memory I can remember our sorrow, I can remember our laughter; I know that surely we kissed and cried and ate together; I remember our places and games, and plans we had- The little house and how all came to naught- Remember well: But I cannot remember our love, I cannnot remember our love https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 2, 2024: Sitting with the Poetry of Helen Hoyt with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Write a paragraph or poem that begins “I remember” but whose last sentence or line begins “But I cannot remember” https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/august-1-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 1, 2024: August Again with Virginia Woolf - Pause. Gaze for a few minutes at this portrait of writer Virginia Woolf (made by her sister, Vanessa Bell). As you keep company with the portrait, allow your breath to slow. Notice that Woolf is crocheting. Notice her focused gaze. How do your hands feel, how does your face feel, gazing at Woolf’s crocheting hands and face? Does the painting allow you to feel more rested, more focused? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 1, 2024: August Again with Virginia Woolf - Prompt. Virginia Woolf was a lifelong diarist. Here on the first day of August are a few nuggets from some of her August diary entries: August 22, 1922 “The way to rock oneself back into writing is this. First gentle exercise in the air. Second the reading of good literature. It is a mistake to think that literature can be produced from the raw.” August 3, 1924 “But it’s a question of work. I am already a good deal pulled together by sticking at my books: my 250 words at fiction first, and then a systematic beginning, I daresay the 80th, upon The Common Reader, who might be finished in a flash I think, did I see the chance to flash and have done with it. But there’s a lot of work in these things. It strikes me, I must now read Pilgrim’s Progress: Mrs Hutchinson. And should I demolish Richardson? whom I’ve never read. Yes, I’ll run through the rain into the house and see if [Richardson’s] Clarissa is there. But that’s a block out of my day and a long long novel. Then I must read the Medea. I must read a little translated Plato.” If you wish, journal in response to Woolf’s words for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for August 1, 2024: August Again with Virginia Woolf - Practice. Woolf commends “gentle exercise in the air” as one way back into writing. Go outside and walk gently, or dance gently, for ten minutes. Then come back and put pen to paper for ten minutes. ~or~ Notice how central reading “good literature,” from Plato to John Bunyan, is to Woolf’s own writing. Note too that, like most of us, there are works she thinks she should have read but has not. Pick a book of your shelf that you wish to have read but haven’t and read for ten minutes. Or 30 minutes. Or more. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-31-2024-sitting-with-the-bog-by-yudel-huberman-with-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2024-07-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 31, 2024: Sitting with “The Bog” by Yudel Huberman with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. For a few minutes, sit, while allowing your breath to deepen and slow, with this short extract from Huberman’s essay: “What was empty is slowly refilled. No outlet, just rain and evaporation. Simple.” Perhaps repeat those words over and over, with your quiet inner voice, as you breathe in and breathe out. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 31, 2024: Sitting with “The Bog” by Yudel Huberman with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. A bit later on in the essay—read this twice, perhaps once silently and once aloud: “[W]e use instruments to measure temperature, acidity, water levels month by month, year by year. Keep careful records. Dredge from the depths what is no longer secret. Leave all that a moment. The path is strewn with gray-yellow aspen leaves reflecting dusk’s light, a corridor where I prepare to be received.” What careful record-keeping do you need to, or want to leave for a moment? Continue to breathe deeply as you read. “November 22. This morning I woke, and the bog had frozen. Frost covered sedges. Thick slashes in the ice, every which way, like knife cuts, where it imperfectly stitched itself together. From the shadows, steam rises from Labrador tea leaves like passing fog. But head-on in the sun each water droplet is visible, moving rapidly like snow in a mountain gale, slowing, then speeding up again. For a moment the air dries, and my view into the bog is clear, shafts of sun on ice. Then the droplets rise once more.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 31, 2024: Sitting with “The Bog” by Yudel Huberman with Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Huberman wrote that frozen-morning reflection in late autumn. In May, he wrote: “By the time I return, the gradual transformation of seasons has passed. The blueberry flowering is over, and green, budlike berries await their ripening. Mosses send up forests of brown sporophytes. Kalmia sprinkles fuchsia throughout the bog. The mallard pair has returned to nest. The male, beak tucked backward into its breast, eyes me with a slow blink. And in the meadow and woodland mix between my house and the bog I am greeted by a forgotten verdant green. Passover was over. I had worried about missing spring in the bog but discover it is never too late.” Cast your mind back to the fall. Pen in hand, describe an autumn morning — what you saw, what you noticed. Then: what were you fearful you might miss? About what does it feel a relief to be reminded “it is never too late”? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-30-2024-the-work-of-our-hands-with-guidance-and-good-art-curated-by-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2024-07-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 30, 2024: The Beautiful Work of Our Hands with Guidance and Good Art Curated by Lauren Winner - Pause. While allowing your breath to slow, gaze at this photograph of Georgia O’Keefe’s hands. Perhaps dance your hands as you gaze. Here is some of the work those hands made: Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue Purple Leaves Bell Cross Ranchos Churc, New Mexico, 1930 What are some of the things your hands have made? Give thanks for your hands. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 30, 2024: The Beautiful Work of Our Hands with Guidance and Good Art Curated by Lauren Winner - Prompt. Read this poem by May Sarton: True gardeners cannot bear a glove Between the sure touch and the tender root, Must let their hands grow knotted as they move With a rough sensitivity about Under the earth, between the rock and shoot, Never to bruise or wound the hidden fruit. And so I watched my mother's hands grow scarred, She who could heal the wounded plant or friend With the same vulnerable yet rigorous love; I minded once to see her beauty gnarled, But now her truth is given me to live, As I learn for myself we must be hard To move among the tender with an open hand, And to stay sensitive up to the end Pay with some toughness for a gentle world https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 30, 2024: The Beautiful Work of Our Hands with Guidance and Good Art Curated by Lauren Winner - Practice. Begin writing a poem about your hands at three different moments in your life - say, when you were 14, when you were 25, and last week. For each age, show your hands in action. Write this poem by hand. When you are finished, thank your hands. Wonder what good and beautiful thing you might do with them next. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-29-2024-saint-anne-and-the-generations-who-have-come-before-us-with-words-and-guidance-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2024-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 29, 2024: Saint Anne and the Generations Who Have Come Before Us with Words and Guidance from Lauren Winner - Pause. Anna is often featured in a pictorial representation that’s known as an Anna Selbdritt — that is, “Anne herself a third” — or an Anne Trinity: St. Anne is shown with her daughter Mary and grandson Jesus. A family photo, you might say, depicting three generations. Linger over this Anne Trinity, and consider the generations who have come before you - who are the elders in your creative life, your writing life, who have nurtured you and pushed you on your way? Perhaps invite them into the room with you. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/da5d45cd-4a6b-456f-801c-272618eb0267/unnamed+%288%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 29, 2024: Saint Anne and the Generations Who Have Come Before Us with Words and Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/471223 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 29, 2024: Saint Anne and the Generations Who Have Come Before Us with Words and Guidance from Lauren Winner - Prompt. The stories and images we have of Anne are embroideries - embroideries upon embroideries. Or, put differently, the stories and images we have of Anne represent people’s desire to know more. Mary must have had a mother - what was that mother like? One answer the tradition supplies to that question: she was a reader. She is often pictured with a book. Here she is teaching Mary to read: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/b4b3d8d7-fefa-4b02-864b-857003524317/60edbf2e-b270-4cd3-b803-845785ded106_4010.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 29, 2024: Saint Anne and the Generations Who Have Come Before Us with Words and Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103S1H https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/9ff370e1-6036-4720-9dbd-21bfc422335d/6a00d8341c464853ef0263e961c0aa200b-500wi.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 29, 2024: Saint Anne and the Generations Who Have Come Before Us with Words and Guidance from Lauren Winner - Make it stand out https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2020/09/the-holy-kinship.html https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 29, 2024: Saint Anne and the Generations Who Have Come Before Us with Words and Guidance from Lauren Winner - Practice. Who in your lineage — perhaps your actual grandmother or great-grandmother, or perhaps someone in your creative lineage — would you like to know more about than you do, or perhaps can, know? Allow yourself to imagine some of that forebear’s details and stories. Write for six minutes. Or Write a letter to one of the elders who nourished and shaped your creative life, who pushed you on your way. What have you not said to that person that you wish to say? What do you want to ask? For what express thanks? What do you remember about your crucial encounters with him or her? Write for six minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-28-2024-how-to-have-some-glen-time-after-you-return-home monthly 0.5 2024-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 28, 2024: How to Have Some Glen Time after You Return Home - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at art on Lanecia A. Rouse’s Instagram account. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 28, 2024: How to Have Some Glen Time after You Return Home - Prompt. Here’s something I passed on to Christina Kukuk who led the Glen Transition to Home session yesterday morning that I was supposed to lead: Try having 15 minutes of personal "Glen Time" most days. Let the lists you made earlier be inspiration for your personal Glen Time. What can you give yourself for 15 minutes most days? Listen to music by Liz Vice and other favorite musicians? Look at art online by Lanecia Rouse and other favorite artists? Read books by Sophfronia Scott, Gabrielle Bates, Jamie Quatro, and other favorite writers? Try engaging with someone else's art for 7 or so minutes then respond in some way for 7 or so minutes through journaling or note-taking. Or simply receieve whatever the various forms of art offer you. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 28, 2024: How to Have Some Glen Time after You Return Home - Practice. If you attended the Glen, how can you incorporate more elements of what you appreciated about your time there into your typical daily and weekly rhythms? If you have attended tbe Glen in the past, what could this look like for you? If you have never attended the Glen or will never attend the Glen, how can you give yourself 15 minutes of good art + faith goodness most days? Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment is one way. But is there something more personal, more custom that you can give yourself? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-27-2024-pause-and-reflect-with-lots-of-lists monthly 0.5 2024-07-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 27, 2024: Pause and Reflect - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Close your eyes and rest for a few minutes if you like. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 27, 2024: Pause and Reflect - Prompt. Let’s make some lists. Make a list of people, places, things, art, and ideas you've encountered over the past week that help you belong to yourself and feel more connected to a fuller version of yourself. Be as specific as possible. Make a list of the people, places, things, art, and ideas that you’ve encountered over the past week that have made you feel more connected to your creative practice and creative soul. Be as specific as possible. Make a list of at least five things you want more of in the coming days and weeks. Make a list of at least five things you want less of in the coming days and weeks. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 27, 2024: Pause and Reflect - Practice. After making your lists, set a timer for five minutes and sit in silence with your lists. Read over them if you like or close your eyes and just be. Then set a timer for five minutes and take notes or journal about anything that comes to mind. New ideas, ways to respond to items on your lists, things to be grateful for, sad about, disappointed in, excited for, etc. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-26-2024-sitting-with-some-poems-by-denise-levertov monthly 0.5 2024-07-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 26, 2024: Sitting with Some Poems by Denise Levertov - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read a few poems by Denise Levertov. “Seems Like We Must Be Somewhere Else” “The Departure” “The Room” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 26, 2024: Sitting with Some Poems by Denise Levertov - Prompt. Read one more poem by Denise Levertov. “Making Peace” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 26, 2024: Sitting with Some Poems by Denise Levertov - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and reread any poems that seem to have something for you. If you like, write in response to the poems. You can take notes or journal or make lists. You can begin writing your own poem or essay or a letter to a friend. You can also sit in silence and receive the good words from a posture of gratitude. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-25-2024-when-things-dont-go-the-way-you-want monthly 0.5 2024-07-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 25, 2024: When Things Don’t Go the Way You Want - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then close your eyes and rest for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 25, 2024: When Things Don’t Go the Way You Want - Prompt. Sophfronia Scott spoke about beginning again in her keynote address here at The Glen on Monday night but I missed it because I was still recovering from my wild travel situation. There’s another panel of some sort soon with multiple Glen faculty on Beginning Again which I will miss because I’m sick and hiding out in my room and missing the last half of the Glen. But, as I begin to feel better from this illness and my mind and soul and body are revived, I’m thinking about how to begin again after my plans were disrupted and interrupted. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. Maybe others here are sick or injured or disappointed or sad because things just haven’t unfolded the way they hoped. Maybe some reading this aren’t at The Glen. They are at home or at work or on vacation but interruptions and disruptions seem to be winning with them, too. Take a couple of minutes to name any disruptions and interruptions that have disturbed your plans over the past week or so. Take notes, journal, or make a list. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 25, 2024: When Things Don’t Go the Way You Want - Practice. Now take a few deep breaths and read over your notes, journal, or list. Read over it again. Set a timer for three minutes and sit in silence and hold space for the interruptions and disruptions. After that timer ends, set another timer for seven minutes and take notes, journal, or make a list for how to move forward, how to begin again when you have energy and time to begin again. What would it look like to begin again? What would it look like to try again? Even if the original thing can’t be replicated or replaced, what’s a different way to begin again? What did you receive anyway? What good things have you received even though things didn’t go the way you wanted? Is there at least one thing you can name? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-24-2024-sitting-with-a-poem-by-leila-chatti monthly 0.5 2024-07-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 24, 2024: Sitting with a Poem by Leila Chatti - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Close your eyes and rest for a few minutes if you like. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 24, 2024: Sitting with a Poem by Leila Chatti - Prompt. Read “Confession” by Leila Chatti. Then listen to Chatti read the poem. Then read it one more time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 24, 2024: Sitting with a Poem by Leila Chatti - Practice. What does the poem “Confession” stir in you? What images come to mind? What do you feel in your body? What do you imagine? What happens in your soul? Which lines have more energy for you? What did you notice the third time through that you didn’t notice the first and second times? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-23-2024-breathing-each-other-into-life-with-words-from-this-mornings-chapel-service-at-the-glen-workshop monthly 0.5 2024-07-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 23, 2024: Breathing Each Other Into Life with Words from This Morning’s Chapel Service at the Glen Workshop - Pause. Take a few deep breaths then read the prayer below by Arthur Waskow from this morning’s chapel service at The Glen. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/6a2cfee8-d253-40e1-8dde-cad875afe4c0/IMG_1606.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 23, 2024: Breathing Each Other Into Life with Words from This Morning’s Chapel Service at the Glen Workshop - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 23, 2024: Breathing Each Other Into Life with Words from This Morning’s Chapel Service at the Glen Workshop - Prompt. Read the poem “Finishing Touch” by Martha Serpas. It can be found here. (Scroll down to the bottom of the web page.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 23, 2024: Breathing Each Other Into Life with Words from This Morning’s Chapel Service at the Glen Workshop - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and take notes or journal in response to the words above and linked to above and/or the questions below. You can also just sit with these words and questions in silence and notice what comes to mind without needing to capture anything on paper. When does the need to make or do feel overwhelming? When does it feel energizing? How do you experience the “breathing each other into life” in your work, creative expression, and relationships? How do you crave the presence of the divine in your creative work? In your life? In your relationships? How have you noticed the presence (or what seems like absence) of the divine in your creative work, life, and relationships over the past few days? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-22-2024-creative-community-and-artistic-expression-with-guidance-from-words-by-carey-wallace monthly 0.5 2024-07-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 22, 2024: Creative Community and Artistic Expression with Guidance from Words by Carey Wallace - Pause. Take at least six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while closing your eyes. Rest for a few minutes, if you like. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 22, 2024: Creative Community and Artistic Expression with Guidance from Words by Carey Wallace - Prompt. Read this quote from Carey Wallace from an interview for the Image podcast: “And so I went on a search for places where people I respected actually had said stuff about their [creative] process, and I was interested in a number of things. I was interested in the artist's life. Do you have to be unhappy, the artist's character? Do you have to be a jerk? The purpose of art, the definition of art, anything about the art of spiritual practice. And what I found was a total cacophony of, well, actually what I found originally was a whole bunch of gossip and backbiting, but when you sifted through that, what you got was diametrical opposition on how art is made and what it's for and how to define it. And the only point that they all agreed on was the moment of inspiration. And they all talked about it as being something that came from beyond them, something that was better and wiser than them, something that asked them to do things that they didn't expect to do that were even against what they wanted to do and something that would go on to somebody else if they didn't use it. So you get things like Hoagy Carmichael, who was the author of “Stardust” and “Georgia on My Mind,” and a bunch of jazz standards, says that great melodies aren't written, they're discovered. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 22, 2024: Creative Community and Artistic Expression with Guidance from Words by Carey Wallace - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write in response to the words above and/or the questions below. Which artistic communities are you a part of? (They don’t have to be formal or official.) What do you appreciate most about those who help you feel less alone in your creative work? Be specific. What do you know about creative inspiration? How does creative inspiration work in your life and practice? When do you notice creative inspiration? When do you ignore it? What are your biggest obstacles to responding to creative inspiration? What are you being asked to create right now? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-21-2024-poetry-and-spirituality-with-guidance-from-words-by-li-young-lee monthly 0.5 2024-07-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 21, 2024: Poetry and Spirituality with Guidance from Words by Li-Young Lee - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale then read this poem by Li-Young Lee. (This is such a lovely summer poem.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 21, 2024: Poetry and Spirituality with Guidance from Words by Li-Young Lee - Prompt. Read more from this Image interview with Li-Young Lee: Image: What does that mean, “It’s a yoga”? LYL: Well, you know the word religio. It comes from Latin, and it means yokedness, bondedness. The same word in Sanskrit is yoga. We get the word yoke from yoga. So yoga is any practice that reminds us of our original condition, our embeddedness in God, whether it’s breathing meditation or East Indian yogas or any art form. The ancients in India and China said that the practice of art was a royal yoga, the yoga of yogas. When you practice an art form, you realize that the poem is a descendent of your psyche, but your psyche, if you pay attention, is a descendent of something else, let’s say the cosmos. Then the cosmos is a descendent of something else, let’s say the mind of God. So ultimately you go from the mind of God to the cosmos to the psyche to the poem. Those are concentric circles of embeddedness. And the knowledge of our condition of deep embeddedness in a cosmic context, it seems to me, inculcates fearlessness, trust, love, openness, generosity—a more comprehensive, fuller human being. So it seems to me that’s a sacred practice. Image: What is poetry, that it does this more than other forms of language? LYL: I think the paradigm for a poem is DNA—that is, as much information as possible written into as little space as possible. It’s like writing code. There’s so much code in a tiny strand of DNA. And there should be tons of information in a poem. I don’t mean information from the phenomenal world alone. I mean spiritual information, emotional information, concrete information. I think that the more you practice that kind of work, the more you try to change your own thinking so that it is saturated with meaning and being, the more you see how thoroughly the world is encoded, that information is written into every single quantum quadrant of the universe. That God is everywhere, literally. Everything is saturated with God. So the sacred condition of meaning in a poem seems to me a perfect paradigm of mind and world. The saturation of meaning and being in a poem exactly mirrors the saturation of meaning and being in the cosmos. And I can only explain that kind of saturation of being and presence and meaning in everything, from my body to everything else, as a condition of embeddedness in God. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 21, 2024: Poetry and Spirituality with Guidance from Words by Li-Young Lee - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and do a few slow readings of Li-Young Lee’s poem and the interview excerpt above. Then take notes, journal, or begin writing a new poem, essay, story, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-20-2024-art-and-community-with-guidance-from-words-in-image-journal monthly 0.5 2024-07-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 20, 2024: Art and Community with Guidance from Words in Image Journal - Pause. Take some deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art by Sedrick Huckaby. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 20, 2024: Art and Community with Guidance from Words in Image Journal - Prompt. Read the quotes below from Image interviews that explore the theme of community: “When I began art-making, I needed to prove that I could create something of worth, something beautiful, by my own efforts. This drive shaped my aesthetic and process, and I’m still grateful for those intimate solitary times in the studio. Back then I didn’t want to inconvenience anyone for their help or input. But I was often left with emotional, mental, and physical burnout mixed with pride—not the healthiest of combinations. The size and concept of my installation and performance work have taught me I need to bring others into the process, and this challenges my natural inner dynamic. I have to ask for and accept assistance in myriad ways, large and small. Opening my process has made me softer towards myself and others. And I’ve experienced more beauty than I could have hoped for or imagined, both aesthetically and relationally.” - Leslie Iwai, “Life After Thirty | Collaboration and Community: Leslie Iwai” * “When I was thirty, I was making painterly portraits of my grandmother, Hallie Beatrice Carpenter, otherwise known as Big Momma, at her house in Fort Worth. I was using various techniques, most notably impasto, to explore the traditional portrait—and image-making itself. Over the years, these casual paintings lead to an entire series called Big Momma’s House. Some of the paintings took up multiple canvases, and many were framed with rustic wood, reminiscent of her old wood-framed house. After Big Momma died, I continued to make works that referenced her. My next exhibition, Everyday Glory, had paintings of the empty rooms of her house and of all of her children. It also included drawings, lithographs, paint sculptures, and a large charcoal drawing of Big Momma in her youth. Art-making can become a blossoming variety of things. I am no longer just a painter; I am also an activist, project-oriented artist, draftsman, sculptor, printmaker, a person who is interested in collaborations and promoting other artists. You could say that when I was younger I was interested in addition, and now I am interested in multiplication. Now, rather than having a less-is-more aesthetic, I have a more-is-more aesthetic.” - Sedrick Huckaby, “Life After Thirty | Collaboration and Community: Sedrick Huckaby” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 20, 2024: Art and Community with Guidance from Words in Image Journal - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and take notes or journal in response to the words and art above and or the questions below. How do your religious beliefs move you towards other people? How do they move you away from other people? When was the last time you asked someone for help with regard to your creative process or your hopes for your creative work? How can you ask someone for help in the coming days or weeks? What are five ways you feel lonely and isolated in your creative work and creative aspirations? What are five ways you feel a sense of belonging in your creative work and creative aspirations? How has your approach to making art (and other areas of life) shifted over the years? What was true about your approach five or 10 years ago? What is true now? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-19-2024-sitting-together-with-guidance-from-words-by-tania-runyan-about-her-glen-workshop-experiences monthly 0.5 2024-07-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 19, 2024: Sitting Together with Guidance from Words by Tania Runyan about Her Glen Workshop Experiences - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas inlcuded in this short essay by Tania Runyan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 19, 2024: Sitting Together with Guidance from Words by Tania Runyan about Her Glen Workshop Experiences - Prompt. Read the excerpts from a short essay by Tania Runyan in Image journal below: I’m an introvert who loves to talk, an often confusing combination that can leave me drained in spite of myself, or perplex my friends when I suddenly slink off after an hour of raucous guffawing. But I just spent a week in Santa Fe at the Glen Workshop, a gathering of writers, artists, and musicians who meet at St. John’s College every summer to hone their craft, eat and worship together, and listen to some of the world’s most inspiring creative people share their work. And it was there that I experienced several moments of healing and energizing silence.” * “I spent my evenings transfixed by the hymns we sang, the poetry our chaplain read, and the oil that anointed my forehead. But there were also the sacred quietudes: Sitting for hours with my friends Kristin and Sara, speaking only with our clacking laptop keys. Their very presences, the four steady eyes gliding to me with silent humor or compassion when I needed it, gave me the courage to write through difficult childhood memories. Sitting on a brick ledge with a crying person I barely knew, huddled together in literally unspeakable sadness. We looked down at our sandaled toes as lizards scurried behind us, not sure where to find our survival but knowing we eventually would.” * “On the last night of the Glen, chaplain Malcolm Guite said something simple yet profound: instead of trying so hard to replicate Christ as you love your neighbor, look for Christ in your neighbor, seeing his face in the faces you meet. It’s not an easy job, transposing the face of a thirty-something, longhaired Israeli dude on the face of every man, woman, and child I encounter. Of course it’s impossible to ever imagine the exact physical representation of Christ, at least in this world. There has to be another way of doing it, a seeing that goes beyond the eyes. During one night at the Glen, an attendee asked poet Li-Young Lee how he differentiates among the longing, the waiting, and the resting. After several minutes of letting those words roll around his mind and tongue, Lee said, ‘maybe the resting is in the longing.’ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 19, 2024: Sitting Together with Guidance from Words by Tania Runyan about Her Glen Workshop Experiences - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the words above and/or the questions below: How do you try to see the goodness of Christ (or any type of goodness in others), even people with whom you disagree or aren’t particularly fond of? Where do you sense energy right now, today, in the poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”? How have you experienced healing while present with other people recently? How does engaging with art help you see beyond the eyes? How can you experience rest while longing for more? What could that look like? What can you try? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-18-2024-living-into-our-prayers-with-art-words-and-guidance-from-lanecia-a-rouse monthly 0.5 2024-07-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 18, 2024: Living into Our Prayers with Art, Words, and Guidance from Lanecia A. Rouse - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art by Lanecia A Rouse. (Make sure you look through all of the images.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 18, 2024: Living into Our Prayers with Art, Words, and Guidance from Lanecia A. Rouse - Prompt. After experiencing devastating loss, Lanecia A. Rouse left the ministry and became a full-time visual artist. She shared a portion of her story in an Image podcast episode. Here’s an excerpt: “I began to wail out to God. And it was the kind of like David Psalms kind of wailing, truthful cussing. I was so angry and in pain and I said some things, and part of my crying out was: I'm going to need love to show up, and I'm going to need it to show up in real tangible, I can see, feel, embodied ways. Right? And I will keep my eyes open and I will look for it, but I needed to show up. And so, in requesting that, I also knew that prayer required me living into that prayer, as well. And so I began to look for love. In the first place I was like, okay, how am I going to love myself as I live into this new normal? And part of that loving was to imagine—reimagine—what life could look like. A life where I was not just surviving from day to day, but really thriving. And so in the midst of naming these things, I wrote, ‘I am an artist. That's when I am.’ So what do I need to do to be that? So I was like, I want to get a studio downtown. I want to make art. I want to create things with my hands. My body can create. And it was almost like a form of resistance as much as it was an acknowledgement of who I am and what I needed to do. So I started naming it, and my sister had written this poem called “Do the Crazy Thing.” And it was written way before this happened. But during that season, her words and that poem just kept coming back to me. I was like, what is my crazy thing? And it was that. To leave ministry, eventually, and to become a full-time visual artist, which I would never have imagined I would be doing” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 18, 2024: Living into Our Prayers with Art, Words, and Guidance from Lanecia A. Rouse - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and respond to the art and words above and/or the questions below. How does knowing you are loved help you navigate difficult circumstances? How does knowing you are loved help you make your art? Which Psalms and poems and songs help you cry out to God in honest ways? If you are a writer or an artist, what does that mean for your daily life and rhythms? What actionable steps do you want to take to live into that identity? How do you honor that identity? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-17-2024-undercurrents-of-sorrow-in-art-with-guidance-from-words-by-nick-ripatrazone-and-jessica-powers monthly 0.5 2024-07-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 17, 2024: Undercurrents of Sorrow in Art with Guidance from Words by Nick Ripatrazone and Jessica Powers - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while reading this poem by Jessica Powers. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 17, 2024: Undercurrents of Sorrow in Art with Guidance from Words by Nick Ripatrazone and Jessica Powers - Prompt. Read this quote from The Habit of Poetry by Nick Ripatrazone: “‘We need that dimension of sadness in our lives, don’t we?’ It was a statement of truth given the gentle lift of a question—a turn of syntax appropriate for a poet. Jessica Powers wrote those words in 1986, near the end of her life. She pondered how ‘the best literature and art has that undercurrent of sorrow.’ Although it was nearly a lifetime separated from her many years as a nun, Powers turned to her years in New York. There, in the bustling city, ‘I could hardly bear the beautiful music that drifted up to me from a lower apartment.’ Although delivered in prose, it is a poetic rendering: a recognition that even though beautifully alive, the world must sometimes be stilled in order for the artist to create.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 17, 2024: Undercurrents of Sorrow in Art with Guidance from Words by Nick Ripatrazone and Jessica Powers - Practice. After reading the poem and quote above, set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response. Consider the questions below, if you like: What do you know about church bells? What do you want to know about church bells? What are some of your favorite sad songs? How does your creative work help others navigate sadness or other difficult feelings? Which art, books, music, poems, shows, films do you return to again and again to process your own sadness and other difficult feelings? How must the world be stilled for you to create? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-16-2024-examining-our-writing-life-with-guidance-from-sophronia-scott monthly 0.5 2024-07-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 16, 2024: Examining Our Writing Life with Guidance from Sophronia Scott - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then close your eyes, and remember when and why you began to connect more intentionally with your creativity. For a couple of minutes, return to a specific place or time in your mind, if you can. Let your imagination fill in the blanks for your senses. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 16, 2024: Examining Our Writing Life with Guidance from Sophronia Scott - Prompt. Read the excerpt below from an interview with Sophfronia Scott: “When I write fiction it’s like I’m planting seeds. I have some sense of what I’m planting and in the writing process I see what grows and how it grows. I know, for example, that I must write a dialogue scene between two characters. So, I do that work knowing some of what they will say to each other but leaving room for surprises as well. All this discovery can take place within one writing session. Nonfiction writing is like digging but I don’t know what I’m digging for and I don’t know what I’ll find. Sometimes what I find takes me in unplanned and often scary directions. That discovery takes time. An essay could take weeks, even months, and I have no way of knowing what that timeframe will be. I’ve learned to be patient with myself and to give myself as much space as possible to do the thinking and searching required for such work.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 16, 2024: Examining Our Writing Life with Guidance from Sophronia Scott - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the Pause and Prompt above and/or the questions below. Which people have influenced your current work and/or art? What memories do you have that are connected to these people? Why do you write or do other creative work? When did you start? How has your creative expression changed you over the years? How is it changing you right now? When does your creative work feel like planting seeds? When does it feel like digging? How do you inhabit patience and waiting with regard to your writing or other creative work? What are you tired of waiting for? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-15-2024-relentless-tenderness-with-guidance-from-words-and-music-by-over-the-rhine monthly 0.5 2024-07-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 15, 2024: Relentless Tenderness with Guidance from Words and Music by Over the Rhine - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while listening to “Born” by Over the Rhine. (This is a six-minute song, and I recommend you listen to the whole thing.) You can read the lyrics here. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 15, 2024: Relentless Tenderness with Guidance from Words and Music by Over the Rhine - Prompt. Read the excerpt below from an interview with Linford Detweiler (who is one half of Over the Rhine) published in issue 99 of Image journal: Joe Henry: At what point in your young life did you realize that a song is something someone creates, as opposed to a naturally occurring phenomenon like salt, dirt, onions, or thunder? Linford Detweiler: Maybe I should start by saying that as a child, much as I received my mother’s milk, I also took in the story that salt, dirt, onions, and thunder were all lovingly created. And although I am one hundred percent open to and interested in the curious discoveries of science, I never intellectually dispelled once and for all the idea of a creator—some sort of mysterious creative entity or force—behind the universe. There are days, to be sure, when I doubt it. But in truth, there are also nights when I can’t help but believe that there remain mysteries infinitely bigger than the laboratory, bigger than carefully collected data. So I’m not sure it ever occurred to me that songs were any different. Of course there was someone behind the song. This congenital instinct may be connected to my mother’s hymnal. I could often get out of washing dishes after supper—a sort of barter occurred—if I would sit at the upright piano and play hymns while my mother did the washing up. I would try to find an old hymn that she didn’t know, and I don’t think I ever did. She would sing along in her high clear soprano, her hands in soapy water, washing silverware. And my mother was interested in who had written what. She would sometimes go through the hymnal and list all the hymns by a certain writer. She was also fond of discovering the stories behind the songs, which were often tragic. For instance, the old hymn “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning” was written after a shipwreck in Cleveland, Ohio. It was a foggy night, and the man working at the harbor had been drinking and forgot to turn on the harbor lights. I think an argument could be made that we’d have no Johnny Cash or Elvis without their mothers’ hymnals. And I’m not putting myself in their company. As Leonard Cohen would say, when it comes to the tower of song, I hear them laughing a hundred floors above me. But what I am saying is that you really can’t separate gospel music from the fabric of American songwriting. I hope I didn’t wander too far from the question. But yes, songs have writers, and I knew it from the start. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 15, 2024: Relentless Tenderness with Guidance from Words and Music by Over the Rhine - Practice. Take notes or journal in response to the song and words above. Or listen to “Born” again or more music by Over the Rhine. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-14-2024-black-bodies-in-art-and-church-with-guidance-from-words-by-jessica-b-davenport-biko-mandela-gray-and-jessica-mesman monthly 0.5 2024-07-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 14, 2024: Black Bodies in Art and Church with Guidance from Words by Jessica B. Davenport, Biko Mandela Gray, and Jessica Mesman - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while meditating on the quote above from Toni Morrison’s Beloved. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 14, 2024: Black Bodies in Art and Church with Guidance from Words by Jessica B. Davenport, Biko Mandela Gray, and Jessica Mesman - Prompt. Read this quote by Biko Mandela Gray from the Image podcast episode “In This Here Place, We Flesh: Black Bodies in Art and Church” “Woman's theology actually took me to the world of literature. I read The Color Purple in Divinity School and realized that black women's writings could do incredible amounts of work. And so I was like, this is fascinating. And then read Beloved for the second time, but actually for the first time in graduate school, I'd read it before but didn't know what I was doing. And I started to realize that an author who takes their work [or words? both are true] seriously is an artist. And Tony Morrison has always been that artist for me. And so just recently over the past few years, talking both with Jessica and also talking with Lanecia Rouse Tinsley, who's also here, I began realizing how art opens up different worlds. How initially for me it was a critique. And so that brought in that liberationist theological tradition, but how it also starts to open up different modes of release. And that brought in the COGIC [Church of God in Christ] piece for me. My study of art, and I'm still relatively new to this, my interest in art comes from me being a little COGIC boy and also being in certain ways, recovering liberation theologian at heart.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 14, 2024: Black Bodies in Art and Church with Guidance from Words by Jessica B. Davenport, Biko Mandela Gray, and Jessica Mesman - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes minutes and take notes, journal, or be thoughtful without doing any writing of words in response to the words above and/or the questions below. How do you inhabit your body during difficult times? During good times? How do you love your body during difficult times? During good times? How do you take your art seriously? What are specific examples? If you want to take your art more seriously, what are some ways to do that for your current season of life, in light of other commitments and obligations, etc? How does engaging with art open up different worlds for you? How do the words and questions above intersect with your spiritual life and creative work? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-13-2024-why-do-we-need-the-arts-with-guidance-from-a-conversation-with-jessica-mesman-and-james-k-a-smith monthly 0.5 2024-07-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 13, 2024: Why Do We Need the Arts? with Guidance from a Conversation with Jessica Mesman and James K. A. Smith - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale then daydream or close your eyes and rest for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 13, 2024: Why Do We Need the Arts? with Guidance from a Conversation with Jessica Mesman and James K. A. Smith - Prompt. Read this quote from James K. A. Smith from the “Why Do We Need the Arts? A Conversation with James K. A. Smith” episode of Image podcast: “Why we want everyone to experience the arts is because it's another way of being fully alive, otherwise there are parts of us, our imagination lies dormant and it's shriveled and it's written over by pragmatism and consumption and all these kinds of things. And we're less human. We're not what God made us to be. We're not the image bearers we were made to be.” In that same podcast episode, Jessica Mesman quotes something Smith wrote when he was the editor at Comment: “If the believer is haunted by an echoing emptiness, the unbeliever can be equally haunted by a hounding transcendence.” Smith adds this: “I think it's the space that can only be grappled with artistically. There's not really a didactic way of grappling with that. You need the supple, expansive stretching of imagination to be able to do that. I've been thinking a lot, the Roman poet Terrance has this line, ‘nothing human is alien to me,’ and I just find that so suggestive of late. The arts are part of what help us to imagine solidarity with one another. That seems like a very timely need, but it's precisely the space of the arts. I think that helps to bring those two people together in the same room, the same gallery, so to speak, and hopefully understand one another, but also find a lot of grace and forgiveness for.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 13, 2024: Why Do We Need the Arts? with Guidance from a Conversation with Jessica Mesman and James K. A. Smith - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the words above and/or the questions below: How does engaging with the arts make you feel more alive? How does engaging with the arts affect your work, creative process, and relationships with other people? How do you notice the presence of the divine in the arts? How does engaging with various forms and genres of art help you connect with other people, even people with whom you have different political or religious views? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-12-2024-surrender-intimacy-and-mystery-with-guidance-from-image-journal-issue-121 monthly 0.5 2024-07-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 12, 2024: Surrender, Intimacy, and Mystery with Guidance from Image Journal Issue 121 - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at some of the art by Devon DeJardin. And take a couple of minutes to sit with this quote from an interview with DeJardin published in the latest issue of Image: “In the past, so much of my life was about controlling every aspect or situation. In the studio, there is so much of the process that you do control: mixing the paints, building your maquettes, doing your lighting. But the moment you start painting, you have to accept that it’s never going to be as you intend. And then you have that moment of surrender, this understanding that a painting can be more life-driven than you could ever imagine. I have to surrender more and more every single day.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 12, 2024: Surrender, Intimacy, and Mystery with Guidance from Image Journal Issue 121 - Prompt. Here’s an excerpt from “My Inmost Book,” an essay published in the most recent issue of Image. “Intimacy with a book (from the Latin intimus, “inmost”) arrives at the meeting of inmosts. Mine, the book’s. And what are my books? I see now, in writing this essay, that the problem before me—the possibility—is not just in widening my idea of reading but my idea of the book. I’ve talked about these things with my partner, Jess, and once on a spring walk when everything was beginning to bloom here in South Pasadena, I told him I thought my gift in this life was noticing nature. Some months later, when I had become particularly frustrated, dejected, really, by my lack of reading, he said he would rather be with someone who noticed the natural world than someone who had read every word of Shakespeare. I felt the Chinese elm hanging over my duplex relax in me. Galileo’s “book of nature” concerns the workings of the natural world, but intimacy with that book, even if verbalized, is so detailed, so intricate and multitudinous that no human could tally such noticings. And after that process of seeking—in conversation with others, or myself, or the natural world, which I believe has individuated animus—I want my psyche to land at the limit of knowledge, at mystery. The more we admit we do not know, the theologian Gordon Kaufman taught me, the more faithful we are.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 12, 2024: Surrender, Intimacy, and Mystery with Guidance from Image Journal Issue 121 - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and take notes or journal in response to the words above and/or the questions below: Over the past few weeks, have you had to surrender in your creative work and other areas of life? How do you experience intimacy with a book you’re reading? What is worth honoring in the space and time in which you engage with a book? How do you experience intimacy with nature? What similarities and differences do you notice between intimacy with a book and intimacy with nature? What are your thoughts on the intersection of mystery and faith? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-11-2024-honoring-the-chairs-that-hold-us-up-with-guidance-from-words-by-lisa-ann-cockrel monthly 0.5 2024-07-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 11, 2024: Honoring the Chairs That Hold Us Up with Guidance from Words by Lisa Ann Cockrel - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while sitting in a favorite chair. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 11, 2024: Honoring the Chairs That Hold Us Up with Guidance from Words by Lisa Ann Cockrel - Prompt. Read “A Literal Seat at the Proverbial Table” by Lisa Ann Cockrel over at The Isolation Journals. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 11, 2024: Honoring the Chairs That Hold Us Up with Guidance from Words by Lisa Ann Cockrel - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and respond to the prompt that Lisa Ann Cockrel provided in “A Literal Seat at the Proverbial Table” by Lisa Ann Cockrel over at The Isolation Journals. Make plans to return to your response in the coming days. It’s totally fine to give it 10 minutes now and write more later. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-10-2024-tension-in-art-and-story-with-guidance-from-words-by-jamie-quatro-and-art-by-matt-kleberg-part-2 monthly 0.5 2024-07-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 10, 2024: Tension in Art and Story with Guidance from Words by Jamie Quatro and Art by Matt Kleberg (Part 2) - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the art below by Matt Kleberg. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/dfcbf245-03eb-4cf9-aa18-0d63672e2ba0/a1c171c668f8524e9285f55eaf8ee26d.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 10, 2024: Tension in Art and Story with Guidance from Words by Jamie Quatro and Art by Matt Kleberg (Part 2) - Make it stand out Can't Get Next to You By Matt Kleberg 60x48 2018 shared with permission from the artist https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 10, 2024: Tension in Art and Story with Guidance from Words by Jamie Quatro and Art by Matt Kleberg (Part 2) - Prompt. Watch this short video that Jamie Quatro recorded of Matt Kleberg in his studio. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 10, 2024: Tension in Art and Story with Guidance from Words by Jamie Quatro and Art by Matt Kleberg (Part 2) - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the art and video above and/or the items below. In one of the short videos above Kleberg talks a bit about having an idea then iterating and reiterating it to allow a piece to become what it’s going to become. How do your ideas unfold over time? Kleberg also talks about how he receives inspiration for his paintings: “Some of the inspiration comes from outside the studio and some of it is already swirling around inside the studio. The stuff that’s swirling inside the studio probably came from outside awhile back but it’s just kind of ricocheting around in here.” Where does your inspiration come from? Make a list of five people, places, or things. Then give some thought to how those different sources of inspiration feed each other. How the ideas from each source combine and swirl and ricochet during your creative process. Here’s another quote from Kleberg: “I’m taking one loose motif idea and playing with all of these possibilities within that framework and hoping that something eventually clicks into place.” How do you know when something clicks into place? What types of things do you do to move your work toward clicking into place? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-9-2024-tension-in-art-and-story-with-guidance-from-words-by-jamie-quatro-and-art-by-matt-kleberg-part-1 monthly 0.5 2024-07-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 9, 2024: Tension in Art and Story with Guidance from Words by Jamie Quatro and Art by Matt Kleberg (Part 1) - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the art below by Matt Kleberg. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/ce5424ae-cd89-4125-9f46-1f7d6c7cc4db/f0c3ef3a266ccdc19b3378a41277378e.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 9, 2024: Tension in Art and Story with Guidance from Words by Jamie Quatro and Art by Matt Kleberg (Part 1) - Make it stand out Ordinary Time By Matt Kleberg oil stick on canvas 84" x 58" 2014 shared with permission from the artist https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 9, 2024: Tension in Art and Story with Guidance from Words by Jamie Quatro and Art by Matt Kleberg (Part 1) - Prompt. Read the excerpt from “The Day of Big Trouble” by Jamie Quatro published by Image journal: “The Prophet sat on his porch watching darkness climb up out of the field. It was cold enough to see his breath, all the trees showing their skeletons again. He missed having a dog at his feet. Lately he’d been noticing something like a little thumb, baby-sized, pressing up into his bottom rib. No matter how he shifted around on his mattress at night or rubbed the spot, the thumb was there, pushing back. Now, on his front porch, he sat very still and took deep breaths. It was like being on a boat with his fishing line, trying to feel through his hands what might be down there. He wondered if the little thumb might be loneliness. “His son was gone all the time now, ever since the Day of Big Trouble at the country club on Lookout Mountain. Zeke had a job there doing trim work. The Prophet told him he should be framing and hanging drywall, but secretly he was proud his son did the trim. How a thing looked was important. Not just Is it useful, but Is it nice to look at. Trees made fruit, and fruit is useful, he’d said to Zeke. But before fruit comes flowers, and there’s not a thing to be done with them but look.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 9, 2024: Tension in Art and Story with Guidance from Words by Jamie Quatro and Art by Matt Kleberg (Part 1) - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes on the art and words above or the questions below: Where do you sense tension between doubt and anticipation in the excerpt above? Where do you sense tension between doubt and anticipation in your current circumstances, difficulties, and various things you’re navigating right now? What are some examples of things that are useful and nice to look at in your home, yard, neighborhood, community? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-8-2024-haunting-and-wonder-with-guidance-from-poet-gabrielle-bates monthly 0.5 2024-07-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 8, 2024: Haunting and Wonder with Guidance from Poet Gabrielle Bates - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read this poem by Gabrielle Bates, https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 8, 2024: Haunting and Wonder with Guidance from Poet Gabrielle Bates - Prompt. Here’s an excerpt from a single-question interview Gabrielle Bates did for Northwest Review: “No matter what I’m writing, I always seem to be writing about death, which of course is an ultimate looming threat over any experience in our lives. I can remember being very newly, youngly in love and already grieving the fact that we die—that bodily separation is inevitable for lovers, even in the best-case scenarios. I think many people go to poetry to access a heightened, embodied understanding of difficult truths or questions about living. It’s not a kind of awareness or intensity of felt-thought that I think we can, or even should, be in all the time, but I also think we suffer, most of us, for not being there enough.” * Here are some words Bates included with the poem “Salmon” linked to in Pause section: “I wrote “Salmon” when I was thinking a lot about clarity, trying to push myself & my words in that terrifying direction… With love to daughters raised by fathers & the form of the pre-elegy, which draws me back again & again.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 8, 2024: Haunting and Wonder with Guidance from Poet Gabrielle Bates - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the poem and quote above and/or the questions below: What do you know about clarity? What do you want to know about clarity? How do you try to move towards clarity in your writing or other creative practices? Bates writes this in a piece for Poetry Society of America: “Several of the poems in my book Judas Goat are “pre-elegies,” or elegies for people who are, in the world of the poem, still alive. Like exposure therapy, the pre-elegy wades into fear: in this case, a loss that has not occurred.” Take notes for a “pre-elegy” for someone you love. What clear memories do you have of a specific meal you shared with them? What do you want others to know about this person and your time with them? Which poems meet you as you grapple with difficult truths or questions about living? Which poems do you return to again and again? How might we suffer for not thinking about death enough? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-7-2024-leaning-in-with-guidance-words-and-art-from-lanecia-a-rouse monthly 0.5 2024-07-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 7, 2024: Leaning in with Guidance, Words, and Art from Lanecia A. Rouse - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while reading this poem by Ciona Rouse and the accompanying caption on Lanecia A. Rouse’s Instagram account. *Find Ciona Rouse on Instagram here https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 7, 2024: Leaning in with Guidance, Words, and Art from Lanecia A. Rouse - Prompt. Read the excerpt below from an online studio visit and conversation with Image and Lanecia about one way her work changed during the pandemic. (This portion of the conversation begins at the 18:08 mark in the video.) “I typically work on large canvas works when I’m in the studio, but I found during quarantine that I wanted to work small. Once I had some time to really think about my takeaways form the past couple of months of creating, I realized that the big large works—it requires a stepping away… a distancing myself from the work. It's a different kind of intimacy with the canvas when i'm creating really big. But I wanted to create small in a way were I had to lean in. There's this closeness. I didn't have to pull away and distance myself. And I think one of the things I've missed the most [during quarantine] is being able to be in community, present with people and that connection and that energy and that space of leaning into each other and touch… And so through my work, I think that's why I was creating all of these small pieces... The larger canvases were in the background getting some layers to them, but most of the work that I wanted to do and complete were all small, real kind of intimate pieces. And so that changed my practice.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 7, 2024: Leaning in with Guidance, Words, and Art from Lanecia A. Rouse - Practice. Set a timer for ten minutes and take notes or journal in response to the poem and quote above and/or the items below. How do you lean into your creative work? What makes you do deeper with a smaller portion of your writing or art making? How can you do a smaller thing today or one day soon that will allow you to lean in and connect in a closer way? Can you write a flash fiction or flash nonfiction piece? Can you write one terrific paragraph? One sentence? What types of energy shifts do you notice in your creative process? How did the pandemic affect your creative expression? What do you want to experiment with and play with in the coming days and weeks based on everything shared in today’s Daily Nourishment? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-6-2024-slow-down-and-get-curious-with-guidance-words-and-art-from-luz-bratcher monthly 0.5 2024-07-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 6, 2024: Slow Down and Get Curious with Guidance, Words, and Art from Luz Bratcher - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking through these photos of middle schoolers’ art on Instagram. (Be sure to scroll through all of the images!) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 6, 2024: Slow Down and Get Curious with Guidance, Words, and Art from Luz Bratcher - Prompt. I love this from artist Luz Bratcher: “One of my favorite techniques to share is tearing up your pieces if you’re feeling too precious or outcome-oriented about your drawing. Not only is it satisfying, but it opens up so many new possibilities. Rearrange the pieces. Draw on top of them. Or just keep the parts you like the best and release the ones that incite judgement. Whatever helps keep your curiosity alive.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 6, 2024: Slow Down and Get Curious with Guidance, Words, and Art from Luz Bratcher - Practice. Find some things to tear up today. An old draft of an essay, poem, or story. Pages from a book still on your shelves by a theologian you no longer agree with. Junk mail. Bills. (But pay them first!) Use the pieces to make some art of some sort if you like. Paint, draw, or color over them. Make a mosaic or a collage. Take notes for five minutes afterwards to capture some of what you experienced through this process. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-5-2024-helping-others-and-ourselves-with-guidance-from-words-by-sophfronia-scott monthly 0.5 2024-07-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 5, 2024: Helping Others and Ourselves with Guidance from Words by Sophfronia Scott - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while sitting in silence and looking at this photo taken by Thomas Merton. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 5, 2024: Helping Others and Ourselves with Guidance from Words by Sophfronia Scott - Prompt. Read this short excerpt from The Seeker and the Monk by Sophfronia Scott: “A hermitage is not where I’m supposed to be. Somehow I sense this. I’m supposed to be saying something, doing something. And yet I feel anything I could offer would get swallowed up in the noise—I’d be an infant crying out into a hurricane. I stand on the edge of an abyss, my hands in my pockets. . . . I feel as though Thomas [Merton] stands next to me in a similar stance. He helps me think about the possibilities. I think he’d say I have to get out there. I have to find a way to serve. He’d definitely say my hermitage idea is wrongheaded. ‘The contemplative life is not, and cannot be, a mere withdrawal, a pure negation, a turning of one’s back on the world with its sufferings, its crises, its confusions and its errors,’ he writes. ‘The attempt itself would be illusory. No person can withdraw completely from the society of other people.’ When he entered the monastery after months of spiritual struggle, Merton described a lightness, as of . . . a leaving of the world. . . . His writings from his earlier years focused mainly on the cultivation of interior spirituality. . . . But as he matured, both emotionally and spiritually, he too sensed there was more—way more—he could be doing. The world, the very state of it, required that he bring his voice to the table. . . .” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 5, 2024: Helping Others and Ourselves with Guidance from Words by Sophfronia Scott - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the words above and the items below: Consider the question above posed by Sophfronia Scott: “Do you have a talent or skill that you help everybody else with but you don’t do it for yourself?” If so, what are those talents and skills and how can you benefit from them too? Think about when you withdraw to nurture yourself and when you turn outward to nurture others. Which do you do more of? How much thought do you give to being intentional with each, with inhabiting both postures regularly? What do you need more of right now? I’m not a fan of saying I need to nourish my mind, body, and soul so I can serve others. I need to nourish myself because every person requires nourishment. However, when I am nourished, I have more energy and space to serve and care for other people, places, and things. So, there is a relationship between the two. What are your thoughts on this? How do you treat your nourishment as a worthy cause only if you are turning around and serving others? How do solitude, silence, and plenty of time to nourish your own body, mind, and soul affect your desire to do good work and make good art? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-4-2024-power-busyness-and-stillness-with-guidance-from-words-by-lauren-f-winner monthly 0.5 2024-07-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 4, 2024: Power, Busyness, and Stillness with Guidance from Words by Lauren F. Winner - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art by Jacob Lawrence. If you like, read Psalm 1. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 4, 2024: Power, Busyness, and Stillness with Guidance from Words by Lauren F. Winner - Prompt. Read this excerpt from an interview with Lauren Winner that was published on Image’s website when Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God was published: “In the instance of arboreal imagery, the Bible speaks of God as tree and also of us as tree. When we pray the very first psalm, we pray that we will not rush about madly, chatting with cynics and running errands with fools. We pray that, instead, we will be still, devoting our calm energy to the study of God’s word. We will be rooted in God’s word as ‘a tree planted by the water.’ At countless protests in American history—civil rights sit-ins, anti-war marches, labor demonstrations—eventually someone takes up the lines of the old freedom song: We shall not, we shall not be moved. We shall not, we shall not be moved. Just like a tree that’s planted by the water, We shall not be moved. It means, broadly, that protesters will not be dislodged from their larger goals of a more just society, but also that protesters whom police or hecklers are trying to persuade to leave their immediate site of protest will not be moved. Preachers through the ages have also used the psalmist’s image, likening Christians to trees who are sustained by—indeed, wholly dependent on—the living water that is God.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 4, 2024: Power, Busyness, and Stillness with Guidance from Words by Lauren F. Winner - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the prompt above and the items below. Think about the past couple of weeks. How busy have you been? Has there been more rushing about madly than you prefer? How much stillness has there been? How can you have more stillness and calm energy in the coming days and weeks? How do your ideas about power intersect with your decisions about how busy you tend to be and how you make time for stillness? How do external pressures and frameworks of power intersect with your decisions about how busy you tend to be and how you make time for stillness? Which larger goals of society do you hold on to and remain in? Which personal creative goals do you hold onto and remain in? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-3-2024-this-land-is-your-land-with-guidance-from-lyrics-music-words-by-liz-vice monthly 0.5 2024-07-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 3, 2024: This Land Is Your Land with Guidance from Lyrics, Music, and Words by Liz Vice - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while listening to “This Land Is Your Land” by Liz Vice. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 3, 2024: This Land Is Your Land with Guidance from Lyrics, Music, and Words by Liz Vice - Prompt. Read the two quotes from Liz Vice below: “I sat down and re-wrote lyrics of Woody Guthrie’s song “This Land Is Your Land” with my friends Paul Zach and Orlando Palmer just one day shy of the Unite The Right Rally one year anniversary. The purpose was to write lyrics that told the origin story of America. There are a lot of reasons to celebrate being American but one thing that must first be talked about is the history. Healing can’t begin without first acknowledge the gapping wound created by the colonization, the mass genocide of the Indigenous people, and the enslavement of African slaves. There is still much work to be done.” - from Secret Eclectic * “When I was younger I had a health scare and realized life is short and I need to follow my dreams and so, two years ago, I put my things in storage and decided to travel the world. I've been lucky enough to travel throughout Europe and stay with friends. In this time, I was hit with inspiration to write another record. In June of 2023, I remembered sitting across from my friend Laki in a cafe in London. It’s called the Lazy Chef and I think about their wraps often. I had my lap top with me and there seemed to be an irresistible urge to open up songs from YEARS ago. This compulsion led me down a path of rewrites and arranging. I had a collection of stories that had a common thread. “Was I actually going to write another record?!” I thought to myself. So, here I am. I have eight really amazing tracks that I had the opportunity to record in Munich with my friend Tim. I cracked open my piggy bank and had just enough to get the record started. Now, I am coming to you, my supporters and encouragers, and asking if you would like to partner with me and help bring this project to fruition.” - from Liz Vice’s Successful Kickstarter Campaign, “A New Record by Liz Vice” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 3, 2024: This Land Is Your Land with Guidance from Lyrics, Music, and Words by Liz Vice - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and respond to the lyrics, song, and quotes above and/or the items below through journaling or taking notes: What stirred in your heart, mind, soul, and body as you listened to Liz Vice’s version of “This Land Is Your Land? Re-read the quotes in the Prompt portion above. How does having a couple of glimpses into Liz Vice’s creative process intersect with your thoughts about your creative process? What good things can you receive from her words here? Which historical events and narratives do you want to explore more deeply? How might engaging with Liz Vice’s music and words help you belong to yourself, others, the world, and God? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-2-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-07-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 2, 2024: Inhabiting Hallways with Guidance from Words by Nick Ripatrazone - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the image of a hallway below—a photo of a first-floor hallway in Clara Barton’s home available online via Google Arts. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/ed0aded6-51fc-4548-ab1d-ba8c2ad6768f/Hallway+in+Clara+Barton%27s+Home+.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 2, 2024: Inhabiting Hallways with Guidance from Words by Nick Ripatrazone - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 2, 2024: Inhabiting Hallways with Guidance from Words by Nick Ripatrazone - Prompt. Read the words below from a piece Ripatrazone wrote for The Millions about hallways in horror films: “Jean-Paul Sartre thought modern existence contained a ‘labyrinth of hallways, doors, and stairways that lead nowhere.’ We believe — structurally, metaphorically — that all hallways end. Hallways were not meant for standing, but we adorn them with images. Li-Young Lee’s lines ‘The photographs whispered to each other / from their frames in the hallway’ capture the sense of this place.” * “In our homes, hallways are spaces shared with those we know well; in hotels, hallways are tight byways, places where we share space with strangers.” * “It is best to end with a film about nightmares, because that is how we sometimes encounter hallways. We wake from a bad dream and rub our eyes. Unable to sleep, we walk down the hall, and though we know there is nothing to be afraid of, our fingers trail along the wall, hope for comfort in the dark.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 2, 2024: Inhabiting Hallways with Guidance from Words by Nick Ripatrazone - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the words above and the items below. Which physical actual hallways do you walk through on a typical day? Which personal circumstances feel like hallways right now? What sensations do you feel in your body when you close your eyes and imagine standing still in a hallway that’s meant for walking, for movement? What do you grasp for in search of comfort and hope during times of uncertainty? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/july-1-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-07-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 1, 2024: When You Do Things from Your Soul Featuring Calligraphy Artist David Chang - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the calligraphy art on this Instagram post at @davidchangstudio. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 1, 2024: When You Do Things from Your Soul Featuring Calligraphy Artist David Chang - Prompt. Read this quote by David Chang from an episode of The Jesus Storybook Podcast (bold/emphasis added): “I started thinking about how could I create artworks using simply just calligraphy. Redeemer's Center for Faith and Works allowed me to have my first exhibition at their office space. I remember being so excited about that just to have a space where I could just show artwork and I just took off the ground running. I just went all in, and that's where it segues into this church because my dad was the pastor there and they had the space in the attic. Three months of just locking myself in there, and there was this just daily ritual rhythm of just going in, creating work, experimenting, but very, very focused. I created a body of work that were just different expressions of what I saw calligraphy being used as, or my language of calligraphy was starting to develop. That space really informed a lot of that because there was this process of really learning how to commune with the space, be sensitive with the space, and just being open to how a space can inform my art, my creativity, and I think that looking back that really helped inform a lot of the approach of how to prepare to make work and the intention of embodying and just allowing the work to just flow through me. All those processes I think really informed a lot of how I make work today, and that just started me on this long journey of learning calligraphy simply from fascination stage to learning as practicing as a hobby, and then going on to have small jobs and also just practicing it from time to time, but that eventually led to bigger jobs and there was a point where I crossed over into just focusing on calligraphy full time, and eventually that led to this moment where I started making artwork with it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for July 1, 2024: When You Do Things from Your Soul Featuring Calligraphy Artist David Chang - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the quote above and the items below. Which spaces and places have influenced your creative expressions over the years? Has one particular space been more pivotal and transformational for your creativity or spiritual life? If so, describe the space. And take notes on The Before, The After, and the transformation process. It’s not necessary to be a full-time artist to be an artist, so let’s focus on the fascination stage and the practicing stage for the following: What are your current creative fascinations? What are you currently practicing? What do you want to practice more? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-30-2024-say-tomorrow-doesnt-come-with-guidance-from-quotes-and-words-by-ada-limon monthly 0.5 2025-06-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 30, 2024: Say Tomorrow Doesn’t Come with Guidance, Quotes, and Words by Ada Limón - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “The Conditional” by Ada Limón. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 30, 2024: Say Tomorrow Doesn’t Come with Guidance, Quotes, and Words by Ada Limón - Prompt. Read this quote by Ada Limón from a 2022 Vanity Fair interview: “I would look at the page and think: I don’t know what you’re doing for me? [Writing]’s not helping me and you don’t want to just read a poem that’s like, ‘I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared.’ But then the funny thing was that ‘The End of Poetry,’ which is the last poem of the new book, came to me because I needed to be touched and to be hugged and to be held. And that poem didn’t start with that last line, it started with the uselessness of poetry for me and its tropes that I couldn’t [use] because I wanted a sharp tool and all I have is soft language, you know? But of course, what does a poet do when all language fails them is they write a poem? [Laughs.] That poem was the engine that sort of started me writing again, and, and then I continued to write throughout. It really was a saving grace. It always is in my life. I wouldn’t be the human I am without writing, and reading, but also just the act of working it out on the page.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 30, 2024: Say Tomorrow Doesn’t Come with Guidance, Quotes, and Words by Ada Limón - Practice. Write for 10 minutes about the things that seem useless right now for whatever reason, even if you know intellectually they aren’t useless. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-29-2024-be-sure-to-read-poetry monthly 0.5 2024-06-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 29, 2024: Be Sure to Read Poetry - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read a favorite poem (or any poem you can find without too much trouble) and do a breath prayer/meditation using single words or phrases from the poem. (Here’s a poem you can use: “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” by Adam Zagajewski) Inhale a word or phrase and exhale a word or phrase. Repeat the breath prayer five or so times. When I do breath prayers, I usually inhale a word or phrase that corresponds to or names something I want to receive and exhale a word or phrase that corresponds to or names something I want to let go of. If this particular breathing practice doesn’t work well for your poem, or if it feels awkward, skip it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 29, 2024: Be Sure to Read Poetry - Prompt. Here’s a quote from Lydia Davis: “Be sure to read poetry, regularly, whether you are a poet or a writer of prose. I hope, of course, that if you’re a poet, you are already reading a lot of poetry. You will not develop, as a writer, if you don’t read. You won’t write as well, if you’re a prose writer, if you don’t read poetry.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 29, 2024: Be Sure to Read Poetry - Practice. Set an eight-minute timer and read some poems. Use a website like poetryfoundation.org or a book of poetry. Take notes while reading the poems. If you don’t own any books of poetry, consider buying one, two, or three when you have the funds to do so. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-28-2024-summer-is-for-bodies-with-an-offering-from-catherine-ricketts monthly 0.5 2024-06-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 28, 2024: Summer is for Bodies with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes. Close your eyes and daydream. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 28, 2024: Summer is for Bodies with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Prompt. Freewrite for five minutes about your body in summer. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 28, 2024: Summer is for Bodies with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Practice. Practice a body scan meditation, such as this one from Headspace. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-27-2024-more-time-offering-from-catherine-ricketts monthly 0.5 2024-06-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 27, 2024: More Time with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes. Close your eyes and daydream. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 27, 2024: More Time with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Prompt. For the past few weeks leading up to the Summer Solstice, the days were getting longer. Possibility greeted us. Freewrite for five minutes on this prompt: "What would you do if you had all the time?" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 27, 2024: More Time with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Practice. Reread what you've written. Is there one thing that you could practically pull from these lines into your life? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-26-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 26, 2024: The Best Part of Summer with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes. Close your eyes and daydream. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 26, 2024: The Best Part of Summer with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Prompt. MacLaughlin writes, "We enter water and we leave ourselves. Gravity loosens and we swim into a slow trance, we swim into wisdom. And what is the wisdom? It is of being un-separate. It is a temporary return to the unbroken planet, where we exist as both whole and dissolved." Freewrite for ten minutes about swimming. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 26, 2024: The Best Part of Summer with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Practice. List ten places you dream of swimming. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-25-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-06-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 25, 2024: The Start of Summer with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes. Close your eyes and daydream. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 25, 2024: The Start of Summer with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Prompt. MacLaughlin writes, "What's the start of summer for you, the signal that it's here? Is it the last day of school? The lilacs or day lilies? First sleep with the windows open? Smell of cut grass behind the gasoline of the lawn mower? The fat red tomato sliced thin and salted? A sunburn? Shins sweating? The first swim?" Freewrite for five minutes about what signals the start of summer for you. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 25, 2024: The Start of Summer with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Practice. Name one thing that brings you joy in summer and make a plan for how to practice it often this season. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-24-2024-do-you-feel-young-an-offering-from-catherine-ricketts monthly 0.5 2024-06-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 24, 2024: Do You Feel Young? with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes. Close your eyes and daydream. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 24, 2024: Do You Feel Young? with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Prompt. What about summer makes you feel young? Freewrite for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 24, 2024: Do You Feel Young? with an Offering from Catherine Ricketts - Practice. Write down one thing you can do today to help you connect with your child self. Then do it. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-23-2024-our-dreams-drink-coffee-with-us-with-a-poem-by-joy-harjo-photographs-by-carrie-mae-weems-and-sculpture-by-ricky-swallow monthly 0.5 2024-06-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 23, 2024: Our Dreams Drink Coffee with Us with a Poem by Joy Harjo, Photographs by Carrie Mae Weems, and Sculpture by Ricky Swallow - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then allocate a few minutes to viewing these photos from The Kitchen Table Series by Carrie Mae Weems. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 23, 2024: Our Dreams Drink Coffee with Us with a Poem by Joy Harjo, Photographs by Carrie Mae Weems, and Sculpture by Ricky Swallow - Prompt. Read or listen to “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 23, 2024: Our Dreams Drink Coffee with Us with a Poem by Joy Harjo, Photographs by Carrie Mae Weems, and Sculpture by Ricky Swallow - Practice. Sit at your current kitchen table or recall an image of a kitchen table from your past. Then set a timer for 10 minutes and begin making a few lists: —Make a list of five memories that are somehow connected to the kitchen table you’re using for this exercise. —Make a list of five joyful things that are connected to the kitchen table you’re using for this exercise. —Make a list of five sorrowful things that are connected to the kitchen table you’re using for this exercise. If you like, begin writing a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend using these lists. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-22-2024-you-already-have-what-you-need-to-make-the-art-you-can-make-today monthly 0.5 2024-06-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 22, 2024: You Already Have What You Need to Make the Art You Can Make Today - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the art on this Instagram post at @art_and_theology. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 22, 2024: You Already Have What You Need to Make the Art You Can Make Today - Prompt. You already have what you need to make the art you can make today. People have been making art and creating things for a really long time. You can write, paint, sing, dance, etc. even if your circumstances are trash, the world is on fire, and you really wish this or that weren’t hanging over your head. You can be creative today for 15 minutes (or more) without all of the experts’ advice. We don’t have to make this more complicated than it is. And: If you feel a ton of resistance for whatever reason and the words above make you want to curl up in a ball and take a nap, try being curious about what’s going on in your heart, mind, and soul instead of looking to someone else to tell you what’s going on in *your* heart, mind, and soul. Maybe making some art will help you discover what’s going on in your heart, mind, and soul. Also, maybe it’s time for a nap? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 22, 2024: You Already Have What You Need to Make the Art You Can Make Today - Practice. Set a timer for 15 minutes and make some art. Write, paint, draw, sing, dance, take photos, whatever. When you’re done, consider these three questions: 1. How do you feel now compared to how you felt 15 minutes ago? 2. How did the art-making go? 3. What needs more attention the next time you return to this art? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-21-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-06-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 21, 2024: The Vain Summer - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read the poem “Summer” by Carlo Betocchi and translated by Geoffrey Brock. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 21, 2024: The Vain Summer - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and make three lists: Five things you want to do this summer, five things you want to avoid this summer, and five things you want to write this summer. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 21, 2024: The Vain Summer - Practice. Set a timer for six minutes and begin doing one thing you want to do this summer or begin writing one thing you want to write this summer. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-20-2024-feel-alive-to-yourself-and-your-art-with-help-from-a-poem-by-hanif-abdurraqib monthly 0.5 2024-06-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 20, 2024: Feel Alive to Yourself and Your Art with Help from a Poem by Hanif Abdurraqib - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale then listen to “When We Were 13, Jeff’s Father Left The Needle Down On A Journey Record Before Leaving The House One Morning And Never Coming Back” by Hanif Abdurraqib (I love this poem so much.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 20, 2024: Feel Alive to Yourself and Your Art with Help from a Poem by Hanif Abdurraqib - Prompt. “Music in this poem is music that’s used for comfort, but also music that’s turned up loud to blare from a car radio on a highway, to listen to when alone, to listen to with memories, and to listen to in order to come back to the emotional landscape that we still carry in us.” –Pádraig Ó Tuama, Poetry Unbound podcast What’s a significant memory that you’ve been carrying around most of your life? Write about a song that offers comfort while helping you explore the emotional landscape tied to that significant memory. Set a timer and write for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 20, 2024: Feel Alive to Yourself and Your Art with Help from a Poem by Hanif Abdurraqib - Practice. Now pick a favorite song that helps you connect with your current emotions and circumstances. Listen to it twice. Take notes and see if you have any insights or ideas for a new essay, story, poem, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-19-2024-juneteenth monthly 0.5 2024-06-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 19, 2024: Juneteenth - Pause. Take deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while watching this recording of a 1925 Juneteenth parade in Texas. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 19, 2024: Juneteenth - Prompt. Read “Harriet Jacobs was a pioneer in exposing racial and sexual violence” Read “Song of Liberty” by George Moses Horton, originally published in 1865. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 19, 2024: Juneteenth - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write in response to the film, poem, and article above and/or the questions below. What do you know about Juneteenth? What more do you want to know about Juneteenth? Where do you see the need for greater freedom for yourself and others today? Write about the intersection of Juneteenth and July 4th. How can your creative practice help you move toward more freedom? How can your creative practice help others move toward more freedom? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-18-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-06-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 18, 2024: Nothing up Her Sleeve with Flash Creative Nonfiction by Diane LeBlanc - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 18, 2024: Nothing up Her Sleeve with Flash Creative Nonfiction by Diane LeBlanc - Prompt. Read this flash nonfiction piece, “The Bird” by Diane LeBlanc. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 18, 2024: Nothing up Her Sleeve with Flash Creative Nonfiction by Diane LeBlanc - Practice. Read “The Bird” one more time. Then set a timer for eight minutes and take notes or journal using the questions below. —What was your immediate reaction to this piece? —Where do you sense the energy in this piece? —Why do you think it works or doesn’t work as a flash piece? —What experiences from your own life does “The Bird” bring to mind? —What literary connections come to mind? If you like, use your notes or journal entry to start a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-17-2024-the-important-and-unimportant-with-a-poem-by-peggy-robles-alvarado monthly 0.5 2024-06-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 17, 2024: The Important and Unimportant with a Poem by Peggy Robles-Alvarado - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 17, 2024: The Important and Unimportant with a Poem by Peggy Robles-Alvarado - Prompt. Read “In Leticia's Kitchen Drawer” by Peggy Robles-Alvarado https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 17, 2024: The Important and Unimportant with a Poem by Peggy Robles-Alvarado - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and make a list of things that are in your kitchen “junk drawer” or a fictional character’s kitchen junk drawer. Pick three items from the list and write true or fictional details and origin stories for each. In the coming hours and days, use your list and additional details to begin writing a new story, essay, poem, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-16-2024-questioning-god-and-becoming-a-father-with-a-poem-by-carlos-andrs-gmez monthly 0.5 2024-06-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 16, 2024: Questioning God and Becoming a Father with a Poem by Carlos Andrés Gómez - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to “Father” by Carlos Andrés Gómez read by Pádraig Ó Tuama. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 16, 2024: Questioning God and Becoming a Father with a Poem by Carlos Andrés Gómez - Prompt. Here’s a quote from Pádraig Ó Tuama about this poem: “That’s what I loved the poem is that it felt theological and embodied, all at once. And I think that’s the best kind of theology, but, often, theology can feel very disembodied, and human experience can feel embodied. And I think he brought the question about thinking about real meaning and about thinking about how any holy book can speak to the reality of everyday life, right into the guts of being human, locating us in 121st Street or locating us in Times Square or locating us in any part of any city, where the question of God comes face-to-face with the question of pain and the way that humans hurt humans.” And here’s one more: “And so, clearly, then, you are asking the question of theodicy, the question from the Book of Job: How can God be present when this kind of reality is happening? And what lessons does his book refuse? It seems to be that he’s suggesting that the holy book — the Bible, I suppose — is refusing to learn lessons from the way that life is being experienced in the daily reality. And I love that. There’s a challenge to the idea about religion that thinks it knows everything. And really, he’s saying, What lessons are you refusing to learn? He’s thinking that religion has lessons to learn, rather than other people.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 16, 2024: Questioning God and Becoming a Father with a Poem by Carlos Andrés Gómez - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the poem, the quotes, and/or the questions and prompts below. How does your body connect to your theology? How does your body help you belong to yourself, others, your places, and the larger world around you? Describe your current location—your physical body in this physical place right now. Then move out in concentric circles around you, broadening the scope of your current location. Include concrete details and more abstract feelings and ideas, if you like. What lessons do you want religion to learn from your daily reality? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-15-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-06-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 15, 2024: More World Everywhere with Words by Anne Sexton, Music by Bach, and Plenty of Silence - Pause. Listen to this short Bach Trio. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 15, 2024: More World Everywhere with Words by Anne Sexton, Music by Bach, and Plenty of Silence - Prompt. Read “The Fury of Sunrises” by Anne Sexton. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 15, 2024: More World Everywhere with Words by Anne Sexton, Music by Bach, and Plenty of Silence - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and sit in silence. Take notes if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-14-2024-words-that-may-or-may-not-remain-in-the-world-with-quotes-and-good-words-by-jamie-quatro monthly 0.5 2024-06-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 14, 2024: Words that May, or May Not, Remain in the World with Quotes and Good Words by Jamie Quatro - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then Read “Protestant Worshipper in St. Joseph's Cathedral, San Antonio, Texas” by Jamie Quatro. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 14, 2024: Words that May, or May Not, Remain in the World with Quotes and Good Words by Jamie Quatro - Prompt. Read “Working“ by Jamie Quatro. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 14, 2024: Words that May, or May Not, Remain in the World with Quotes and Good Words by Jamie Quatro - Practice. —Make a list of some of the things you worry about while you’re writing. —Make a list of the things you need to do right now instead of writing. —Make a list of things you should’ve done a week ago or a month ago and haven’t done yet because, in part, you chose to write. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-13-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-06-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 13, 2024: Exactly Here, Today with Quotes and Guidance from Dani Shapiro - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for three minutes, close your eyes, and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 13, 2024: Exactly Here, Today with Quotes and Guidance from Dani Shapiro - Prompt. “We may be halfway through a novel, an essay, a story, or a memoir or we may be nearing the finish line on a piece that has taken us years. But wherever we are in our work, we have never been exactly here, today. Today, we need to relearn what it is that we do. We have to remind ourselves to be patient, gentle with our foibles, ruthless with our time, withstanding of our frustrations. We remember what it is that we need. The solitude of an empty home, a walk through the woods, a bath, or half an hour with a good book—the echo of well-formed sentences in our ears. Whatever it takes to begin again.” - Dani Shapiro https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 13, 2024: Exactly Here, Today with Quotes and Guidance from Dani Shapiro - Practice. Set a timer for nine minutes and write about beginning again using the quote above and/or the questions below. —What are your thoughts on the quote above? —What do you want to begin again today? —What do you need to remember about your writing and creative practice today? —How do you want to honor your body, mind, and soul today? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-12-2024-which-stories-have-been-omitted monthly 0.5 2024-06-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 12, 2024: Which Stories Have Been Omitted? - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes, close your eyes, and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 12, 2024: Which Stories Have Been Omitted? - Prompt. Here’s more from Matthew Salesses: “Craft is the history of which kind of stories have typically held power—and for whom—so it also is the history of which stories have typically been omitted. That we have certain expectations for what a story is or should include means we also have certain expectations for what a story isn’t or shouldn’t include. Any story relies on negative space, and a tradition relies on the negative space of history. The ability for a reader to fill in white space relies on that reader having seen what could be there. Some readers are asked to stay always, only, in the negative. To wield craft responsibly is to take responsibility for absence.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 12, 2024: Which Stories Have Been Omitted? - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and begin completing the writing exercise below from Craft in the Real World: In five minutes, write as many sentences as you can that follow this format: If s/h/t hadn’t __________, __________ wouldn’t have ___________. (For example: “If she hadn’t tried to cross the road, her boyfriend’s car wouldn’t have flipped over.”) Expand one of the sentences into a paragraph, including a full set of actions and character(s). Expand the paragraph into a scene. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-11-2024-when-a-poem-can-help-you-pray monthly 0.5 2024-06-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 11, 2024: When a Poem Can Help You Pray - Pause. Rest for three minutes. While seated or lying down in a spot in that feels safe and comfortable, set a timer, close your eyes, and rest. If you like, begin this time of rest with six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale and/or read Matthew 11:28-30. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 11, 2024: When a Poem Can Help You Pray - Prompt. Listen to What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade by Brad Aaron Modlin. Then set a timer and write a response for seven minutes. (There are so many things to respond to in this poem!) Journal, pray, take notes, or start a new poem, essay, story, or letter to a friend. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 11, 2024: When a Poem Can Help You Pray - Practice. Here’s a quote from Pádraig Ó Tuama about the poem above: “And I found myself, when I read this poem, thinking, what was the day we were taught that gay boys are boys too? What was the day that you were taught that loving poetry was enough? What was the day we were taught that feeling desperately lonely, even when you’re 10, was OK? How could we be brought into the consolation that as you looked at your own family and felt like everybody else’s family is more together than mine — that that’s OK? How could any of these things be wrapped into the story of a life?” Keep a running list throughout the rest of the day of the things no one taught you but are wrapped into the story of your life. If you like, pray through your list. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-10-2024-sweet-thing-there-she-was-with-quotes-and-guidance-from-toni-morrison monthly 0.5 2024-06-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 10, 2024: Sweet Thing, There She Was with Quotes and Guidance from Toni Morrison - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then do two or three rounds of a breath prayer using the words below from Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Inhale: We die. Exhale: That may be the meaning of life. Inhale: But we do language. Exhale: That may be the measure of our lives. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 10, 2024: Sweet Thing, There She Was with Quotes and Guidance from Toni Morrison - Prompt. Read this quote by Toni Morrison: “I have an ideal writing routine that I’ve never experienced, which is to have, say, nine uninterrupted days when I wouldn’t have to leave the house or take phone calls. And to have the space—a space where I have huge tables. I end up with this much space [she indicates a small square spot on her desk] everywhere I am, and I can’t beat my way out of it. I am reminded of that tiny desk that Emily Dickinson wrote on and I chuckle when I think, Sweet thing, there she was. But that is all any of us have: just this small space and no matter what the filing system or how often you clear it out—life, documents, letters, requests, invitations, invoices just keep going back in. I am not able to write regularly. I have never been able to do that—mostly because I have always had a nine-to-five job. I had to write either in between those hours, hurriedly, or spend a lot of weekend and predawn time. . . . I’ve tried to overcome not having orderly spaces by substituting compulsion for discipline, so that when something is urgently there, urgently seen or understood, or the metaphor was powerful enough, then I would move everything aside and write for sustained periods of time.” –from a 1993 interview with Elissa Schappell in The Paris Review https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 10, 2024: Sweet Thing, There She Was with Quotes and Guidance from Toni Morrison - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and sit down in a space that’s good for writing and write something. Anything. A letter, a to-do list, a complaint, or begin a new essay, story, or poem. What’s urgent? If there’s nothing urgently there, pretend something is. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-9-2024-when-you-feel-disconnected-from-the-present-moment monthly 0.5 2024-06-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 9, 2024: When You Feel Disconnected from the Present Moment - Pause. Look at this photo of Georgia O’Keeffe’s studio by Laura Gilpin for two minutes. Zoom in and wander around the image. Notice what catches your attention. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 9, 2024: When You Feel Disconnected from the Present Moment - Prompt. Set a timer for four minutes and draw a picture of your desk or writing space. Include one or two details that you don’t typically notice. The point is not to draw a perfect picture. The point is to see in a new way while inhabiting the present moment. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 9, 2024: When You Feel Disconnected from the Present Moment - Practice. Make a new drawing of the same desk or writing space two more times in the coming hours or days. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-8-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-06-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 8, 2024: What Do You Want to Know? - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale then read this poem by Victoria Chang: Gift Is silence a gift? I can’t hear my bones shrinking, the lemon turning yellow. The flag is louder than my memories. How I wish time were a wooden wheel. “Gift” and five other poems by Victoria Chang are available online here. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 8, 2024: What Do You Want to Know? - Prompt. “I would like to know if you took a train. If you walked. If you had pockets in your dress. If you wore pants. If your hand was in a fist, if you held a small stone. I would like to know if you thought the trees were black or green at night, if it was cold enough to see your breath, to sting your fingers. I would like to know who you spoke to along the way. If you had some preserved salty plums, which we both love, in your pocket.” - Victoria Chang, Dear Memory https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 8, 2024: What Do You Want to Know? - Practice. Read the quote from Dear Memory one more time. Then set a timer for seven minutes and write about what you want to know. Pick one specific person, question, or thing and make a list of various answers you want that person, question, or thing to tell you. Try starting with the phrase “I would like to know if…” to get things flowing. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-7-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-06-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 7, 2024: More Time to Be Receptive to the World - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 7, 2024: More Time to Be Receptive to the World - Prompt. Read or listen to “The Endlessness” by Ada Limón. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 7, 2024: More Time to Be Receptive to the World - Practice. Read or listen to the poem one more time. Pick an object that’s nearby, look at it for a minute or two. Write about the life that’s underneath the object. For 10 minutes, take notes, journal, or start a new story, poem, essay, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-6-2024-d-day-sculpture-abstract-memorials monthly 0.5 2024-06-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 6, 2024: D-Day Sculpture and Abstract Memorials - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at images of Anilore Banon’s Les Braves sculpture memorializing D-Day on June 6, 1944. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 6, 2024: D-Day Sculpture and Abstract Memorials - Prompt. Read what Spencer Bailey wrote about abstract memorials in the introduction to his book In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials: “When it comes to memorial making, it seems that, over the twentieth century, artists and designers realized that abstraction carries power that a figurative statue or literal-minded sculpture rarely, if ever, achieves. Vagueness, when done carefully, with intent and a desired effect, creates a vast array of connections between cultures, individuals, and emotions. Each visitor to an abstract memorial can have their own reading and response. Abstract metaphors allow for messiness, complexity, and contradiction. They embrace chaos. They are, as author Rebecca Solnit has written, ‘bridges across categories and differences.’” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 6, 2024: D-Day Sculpture and Abstract Memorials - Practice. Anilore Banon was inspired by themes of courage, hope, freedom, and brotherhood while creating her abstract memorial sculpture Les Braves. Freewrite for seven minutes on these themes and/or the themes that inspire you in your creative work and/or anything that comes to mind in response to the quote by Spencer Bailey above. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-5-2024-good-words-and-nourishment-from-rita-dove-and-jarkko-laine monthly 0.5 2024-06-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 5, 2024: Good Words and Creative Nourishment from Rita Dove and Jarkko Laine - Pause. Do two 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. Then read “Ars Poetica” by Rita Dove. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 5, 2024: Good Words and Creative Nourishment from Rita Dove and Jarkko Laine - Prompt. Read “When the Streets Change Colour” by Jarkko Laine. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 5, 2024: Good Words and Creative Nourishment from Rita Dove and Jarkko Laine - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the poems above and the questions below. —What do you want for your creative work today and tomorrow? —What robs your creative energy? What feeds it? —Which corners of your world can you navigate with wonder? —What things do you remember from five seasons ago? —What’s over now? What has ended? —What does “where sound is scared of sound” bring to mind? Which images appear? Ideas? Questions? If you like, use your notes or journal entry to begin writing a new essay, story, poem, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-4-2024-good-words-and-guidance-from-joy-harjo monthly 0.5 2024-06-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 4, 2024: Things Passed Down with Quotes and Guidance from Joy Harjo - Pause. Do two 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. Then read “Granddaughters” by Joy Harjo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 4, 2024: Things Passed Down with Quotes and Guidance from Joy Harjo - Prompt. Read this quote by Joy Harjo: “When my mother passed, I inherited an iron cooking pot brought over on the Trail that belonged to her mother’s mother. Some of the most important stories are not in words, or in poems or other forms of speaking, but in objects of use and beauty. This cooking pot is one of the most potent stories I carry, made at the end of the century before last, one of many such pots used by Native people east of the Mississippi. The one that was passed through generations of women came to me from my mother. It tells of survival, of the labors of women who cooked, cleaned, and uplifted everyone with stories and songs. The pot is sitting at my feet while I am writing.” - Joy Harjo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 4, 2024: Things Passed Down with Quotes and Guidance from Joy Harjo - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and take notes in response to the quote and poem above and the questions below. —Which meaningful objects can you see right now? —Which objects hold some of your cherished stories? —What has been passed down to you? —What will you pass down to others? —Which objects intersect with your writing practice and creativity? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-3-2024-start-in-the-middle-with-quotes-and-guidance-from-austin-kleon monthly 0.5 2026-02-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 3: Start in the Middle with Quotes and Guidance from Austin Kleon - 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 draw a small picture of a sun on the middle of a piece of paper. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 3: Start in the Middle with Quotes and Guidance from Austin Kleon - Prompt. Watch this six-minute video of Austin Kleon making a mind map. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 3: Start in the Middle with Quotes and Guidance from Austin Kleon - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the Set a timer for seven minutes and begin making your own mind map using your sun picture as the center. What ideas have you thought about in the past week? What have you read? What have you written? What has made you curious? What connections have you noticed? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-2-2024-art-life-and-setting-priorities-with-guidance-from-quotes-by-georgia-okeeffe monthly 0.5 2024-06-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 2, 2024: Art, Life, and Setting Priorities with Guidance from Art and Quotes by Georgia O’Keeffe - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this painting by Georgia O’Keeffe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 2, 2024: Art, Life, and Setting Priorities with Guidance from Art and Quotes by Georgia O’Keeffe - Prompt. Look at My Front Yard, Summer by Georgia O’Keeffe for two or three more minutes. While looking at the painting, continue taking six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 2, 2024: Art, Life, and Setting Priorities with Guidance from Art and Quotes by Georgia O’Keeffe - Practice. Read the Georgia O’Keeffe quotes below. Set a timer for nine minutes and take notes or journal in response to the painting or her quotes included in this email. Use these questions, if you like: —How does her painting remind you of summer? —How is your front yard different from the painting? —What daily rhythms help you inhabit your creative work? —What good things have you noticed recently? —What are your thoughts on happiness, creative busyness, and curiosity? “Most of the time I am alone with my dog and think it is fine to be alone — I have been working and rather like my doings — I really work like a day laborer — have been preparing canvas and it is really hard work but Im determined to prepare enough to last four or five years so there will always be lots of empty ones around. Im even going to frame them and back them so there will be nothing left to do but the paintings… My life is good — and I like it. The dog and I have a walk almost every early morning and again at sunset — He just now banged on the door to tell me he was ready to come in and go to bed.” * “I do not like the idea of happyness — it is too momentary — I would say that I was always busy and interested in something — interest has more meaning to me than the idea of happyness.” https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/june-1-2024-june-again monthly 0.5 2024-06-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 1, 2024: June Again - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale then read the poem “June Again” by Judy Longley. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 1, 2024: June Again - Prompt. What roadside growing things always capture your attention on road trips? I love tall (dead?) grasses, Queen Anne’s Lace, and the gold daylilies all over North Carolina during the summertime. Set a timer for seven minutes and write about what you know (or what you don’t know) about your favorite roadside flowers, plants, and grasses. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for June 1, 2024: June Again - Practice. Look at the painting Wild Chicory in Front of a Landscape here. If you like, do a visio divina session with the painting using these instructions. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-31-2024-with-guidance-from-a-quote-from-melissa-febos monthly 0.5 2024-05-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 31, 2024: The Things I Can’t Speak with Guidance from a Quote by Melissa Febos - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 31, 2024: The Things I Can’t Speak with Guidance from a Quote by Melissa Febos - Prompt. Read this quote from Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos: "The most common question that I have gotten over the years at readings, in classrooms, and from friends is how I deal with the fallout of including living people in my work. I usually first respond by telling them that there are no living people in my work, only characters, which are figments animated by imagination plus a small number of qualities shared by the person on whom they are based. They are a process and a product of radical reduction. The trouble is that almost no one likes to be reduced, even to their most cherished qualities." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 31, 2024: The Things I Can’t Speak with Guidance from a Quote by Melissa Febos - Practice. Take notes for 10-12 minutes using the questions below that are based on the quote above: —What are some ways you can honor others and yourself in your writing even though you're working with characters, "figments animated by imgination plus a small number of qualities shared by the person on whom they are based?" —Which things do you not want to do? What would dishonor the characters in your writing? —When writing about yourself, which qualities can you want focus on? Include the good, the bad, the weird, the beautiful. —Which qualities would someone who adores you focus on? —What about someone who doesn’t like you? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-30-2024-read-your-life-and-greet-your-untold-stories-with-guidance-from-padraig-o-tuama monthly 0.5 2024-05-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 30, 2024: Read Your Life and Greet Your Untold Stories with Guidance from a Quote by Pádraig Ó Tuama - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Go outside and take another six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 30, 2024: Read Your Life and Greet Your Untold Stories with Guidance from a Quote by Pádraig Ó Tuama - Prompt. Read the quote above two or three times. Then read your life. Scroll through your text messages or emails and find one message from the past couple of weeks that stirs your emotions somehow. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 30, 2024: Read Your Life and Greet Your Untold Stories with Guidance from a Quote by Pádraig Ó Tuama - Practice. Use that text messagemor email as inspiration for a new flash fiction story. It can be autofiction, inspired by your reality. But throw in something extra—include at least a splash of fiction. Set a timer for 10 minutes and take notes or start writing a story with no more than 1000 words. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-29-2024-how-to-know-it-is-poetry-guidance-from-emily-dickinson monthly 0.5 2024-05-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 29, 2024: How to Know It’s Poetry with Guidance from Emily Dickinson - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while reading “I Dwell in Possibility” by Emily Dickinson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 29, 2024: How to Know It’s Poetry with Guidance from Emily Dickinson - 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) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 29, 2024: How to Know It’s Poetry with Guidance from Emily Dickinson - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes then journal, take notes, or begin writing a new poem, story, or essay using the quote above and 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? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-28-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 28, 2024: Delve into Yourself - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 28, 2024: Delve into Yourself - Prompt. Read the quote below two or three times. “I ask you, dear sir, to have patience with all that is unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves, like closed rooms, like books written in a foreign language. Don’t try to find the answers now. They cannot be given anyway, because you would not be able to live them. For everything is to be lived. Live the questions now. Perhaps you then may gradually, without noticing, one day in the future, live into the answers. Perhaps you bear within yourself the capacity to imagine and shape a sacred way of life. Prepare yourself for that. Trust what comes to you.” - Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 28, 2024: Delve into Yourself - Practice. Journal, take notes, or begin writing a new poem, story, or essay using the quote above and the questions below. —Which questions do you want answers to right now? —Which questions do you want to ignore? —What might it look like to live your questions instead of finding answers to them? What would you do differently today? Tomorrow? Next week? —What sacred way of life do you want to shape? What would you let go of? What would you hold onto? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-27-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 27, 2024: Your Face Remembered - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the illustration below of that “depicts people paying tribute at the Tomb of the Civil War Unknowns during the first official Decoration Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in May 1868. (Illustration by C.M. Thomas from Harper’s Weekly, June 20, 1868)” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/6a0fe060-c1d2-427b-80a9-25bdf124615d/Harpers+Weekly+1868+June+20+Dec+Day+Tomb+Civil+War+Unknowns.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 27, 2024: Your Face Remembered https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 27, 2024: Your Face Remembered - Prompt. Read “Your Face Remembered” by Eunice Tietjens. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/de2fed55-589f-4b00-813b-15a9b0b5d030/IMG_0079+%281%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 27, 2024: Your Face Remembered https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 27, 2024: Your Face Remembered - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the image and poem above and the questions and statements below. Write a few lines of prose or poetry about Memorial Day, death, remembering, and not being able to remember. Now think a bit about how this day, war, death, and remembering intersects with your creative work and take notes. How can knowing death’s reality, war, loss, and grief be motivation to write or motivation to skip writing? What are some specific ways you can remember those who are honored on this day? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-26-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 26, 2024: The Morning and the Light Outside - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then look at The Morning and the Light Outside for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 26, 2024: The Morning and the Light Outside - Prompt. Set an eight-minute timer and take notes on the light where you’re sitting right now. What do you notice about the light? Can you see any light outside if you’re inside your home or another building? Include details on various sources of light, light’s presence or absence, and its effect on the space, atmosphere, and objects inside it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 26, 2024: The Morning and the Light Outside - Practice. Give your attention to the light every few hours throughout the day. Take notes using the questions above if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-25-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 25, 2024: What Nature Has to Offer Us - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 25, 2024: What Nature Has to Offer Us - Prompt. Watch these short Instagram Reels from my friend Holly Carlisle about her Seasonal Sketches with flowers and grasses other growing things. I love this contemplative creative practice so much and I’m thankful for the short informational videos she made. First Informational Video Second Informational Video Third Informational Video Another video that shows some of her process for one of her early spring seasonal sketches. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 25, 2024: What Nature Has to Offer Us - Practice. Go outside. Find 15 stems of something, anything, from your garden or yard or a common area. Or gather 15 leaves. Or 15 rocks. Or you can buy some stems from Trader Joes. It’s fine. Or. Google what’s blooming locally right now. Using Holly’s guidance in the videos linked above, make or draw a seasonal sketch of some sort. Don’t think too much about the result, but give your attention to the process and what this creative practice stirs in you. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-24-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 24, 2024: In All Things - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 24, 2024: In All Things - Prompt. Here’s a quote from an essay I wrote for The Millions on reading as a spiritual practice: I recently read Lydia Davis’s Essays Two: On Proust, Translation, Foreign Languages, and the City of Arles, in which she describes her early-morning routine of reading and writing—a routine that neatly parallels my own predawn ritual of contemplative prayer… “I may attempt a translation of it even before getting my first cup of coffee. This is partly a result of inertia: I am still tired or half asleep, and I don’t want to move from my chair. If I do have my cup of coffee by me, I’m likely to sit even longer.” Her description of her process of literary translation struck me as very similar to lectio divina, a form of contemplative prayer that involves slowly reading a passage of scripture several times: I begin by trying to read the story. I read the first line. More than once, it has contained the word bosrand, “edge of the woods”—something Snijders sees from his kitchen window and a place I like to be, or imagine. Or it has contained something about the author’s problematic chickens, or his dogs. One begins with a woman (vrouw) in the distance (distance is verte, which, confusing me for a moment, is identical to the French for green, but whose root is ver, sharing a past with the English far). Still half dreaming, I am transported to the Dutch countryside, among the chickens and buzzards, foxes, shepherds, swans, and the occasional cyclist or hiker coming along the pad (cognate of path) in front of the author’s house… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 24, 2024: In All Things - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and read a few sentences from a favorite book. Read them slowly. Read them again and again. Where do the words take you? What images come to mind? What do you remember? How are your senses stirred? Take notes for a few minutes if there’s anything you’d like to capture. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-23-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 23, 2024: Why Is It Beautiful? - 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 two more times. Then watch this video of the Atlantic ocean for a couple of minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 23, 2024: Why Is It Beautiful? - Prompt. Here’s a quote from St. Thérèse of Lisieux: “I was between six and seven when I saw the sea for the first time. I could not turn away my eyes: its majesty, the roaring of the waves, the whole vast spectacle impressed me deeply and spoke to my soul of God’s power and greatness.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 23, 2024: Why Is It Beautiful? - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and journal or take notes in response to the quotes above and/or the questions below: —Which natural elements impress you most and speak to your soul? —How does being outside affect your creativity? —How does enjoying nature affect your mood and stress levels? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-22-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 22, 2024: Time Moves around in Us - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 22, 2024: Time Moves around in Us - Prompt. Read the Dani Shapiro quote above one or two more times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 22, 2024: Time Moves around in Us - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and journal or take notes using the following questions as prompts: What’s a specific event that you experienced during 2020 that’s still happening now, still unfolding now? How is it still happening? Why is it still happening? How has your relationship with this event changed since 2020? How have you changed with regard to this event? Use your notes to begin writing a new essay, story, poem, or letter if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-21-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 21, 2024: A Moment of Pure Mystery - 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.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 21, 2024: A Moment of Pure Mystery - 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.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 21, 2024: A Moment of Pure Mystery - 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? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-20-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 20, 2024: Art, Life, and Setting Priorities - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 20, 2024: Art, Life, and Setting Priorities - Prompt. Look at My Front Yard, Summer by Georgia O’Keeffe for two or three minutes. While looking at the painting, continue taking six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 20, 2024: Art, Life, and Setting Priorities - Practice. Read the Georgia O’Keeffe quotes below. “Most of the time I am alone with my dog and think it is fine to be alone — I have been working and rather like my doings — I really work like a day laborer — have been preparing canvas and it is really hard work but Im determined to prepare enough to last four or five years so there will always be lots of empty ones around. Im even going to frame them and back them so there will be nothing left to do but the paintings… My life is good — and I like it. The dog and I have a walk almost every early morning and again at sunset — He just now banged on the door to tell me he was ready to come in and go to bed.” “I do not like the idea of happyness — it is too momentary — I would say that I was always busy and interested in something — interest has more meaning to me than the idea of happyness.” Set a timer for nine minutes and take notes or journal in response to the painting or her quotes included in this email. Use these questions, if you like: —How does her painting remind you of summer? —What do you want for yourself in the coming summer months? —How is your front yard different from the painting? —What daily rhythms help you inhabit your creative work? —What good things have you noticed recently? —What are your thoughts on happiness, creative busyness, and curiosity? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-19-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 19, 2024: Be Still, Friend - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 19, 2024: Be Still, Friend - Prompt. Listen to “Country of Water” by Mahogony L. Browne on The Slowdown with Major Jackson. While listening to the poem, continue taking six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 19, 2024: Be Still, Friend - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and take notes on the poem and write your own affirmations using “Country of Water” and the questions below as a guide. —What do you believe? —What do you believe about yourself? —What do you believe about your body and your skin? —What do you believe about the air, water, fire? —Who has prayed for you? —Whose backbones have brought you forth? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-18-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 18, 2024: All of Life Is the Writing Life - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then go outside and take another six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 18, 2024: All of Life Is the Writing Life - Prompt. All of life is the writing life because every moment is forming you to do the writing you will do when it’s time to write. If all of life is the writing life, everything counts. Everything matters. One reason I believe all of life is the writing life is because I have no idea where the line can be drawn if it’s not true. Who gets to decide what matters and what doesn’t matter? Who gets to police the writing life and determine this activity is part of the writing life but that isn’t? We still have to sit down and write. But maybe this approach to a fuller view of the writing life and all it entails can provide a bit of rest and less angst when we aren’t writing, in those spaces before, after, and in-between the writing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 18, 2024: All of Life Is the Writing Life - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write in response to the prompt above and the statements below. Make a list of 10 things you did last week that weren’t writing. Make a list of 10 things you need to do next week that aren’t writing. Pick one or two items listed and journal or take notes about how those items will affect you (for better or worse) and form you to be who you will be when it’s time to sit down and write. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-17-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 17, 2024: Like a Magician - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 17, 2024: Like a Magician - Prompt. Read this flash nonfiction piece, “The Bird” by Diane LeBlanc. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 17, 2024: Like a Magician - Practice. Read “The Bird” one more time. Set a timer for eight minutes and take notes or journal using the questions below. —What was your immediate reaction to this piece? —Where do you sense the energy in this piece? —Why do you think it works or doesn’t work as flash piece? —What experiences from your own life does “The Bird” bring to mind? —What literary connections come to mind? If you like, use your notes or journal entry to start a new poem, story, essay, or a letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-16-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 16, 2024: Walking as Creative Fuel - Pause. Do a few rounds of a breath prayer/meditation using a word that represents something you want to receive during the inhale (peace, rest, freedom, etc.) and a word that represents something you want to let go of during the exhale (anxiety, busyness, oppression, etc.). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 16, 2024: Walking as Creative Fuel - Prompt. Read the quote below. “Nature’s particular gift to the walker, through the semi-mechanical act of walking — a gift no other form of exercise seems to transmit in the same high degree — is to set the mind jogging, to make it garrulous, exalted, a little mad maybe — certainly creative and suprasensitive, until at last it really seems to be outside of you and as if it were talking to you whilst you are talking back to it. Then everything gradually seems to join in, sun and the wind, the white road and the dusty hedges, the spirit of the season, whichever that may be, the friendly old earth that is pushing life firth of every sort under your feet or spell-bound in a death-like winter trance, till you walk in the midst of a blessed company, immersed in a dream-talk far transcending any possible human conversation. Time enough, later, for that…; here and now, the mind has shaken off its harness, is snorting and kicking up heels like a colt in a meadow.” - Kenneth Grahame, via The Marginalian https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 16, 2024: Walking as Creative Fuel - Practice. If you’re able, take a walk for 10 minutes. Then take notes for five minutes in response to the questions and statements below. —Make a list of 10 things you thought about while you were walking.—Make a list of 10 things you didn’t think about while you were walking. —How did the walk affect your mood? —How did the walk affect your creative ideas? —Describe the weather during your walk? —What did you feel in your body during your walk? If you like, use your notes to start a new poem, story, essay, or a letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-15-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 15, 2024: When the Sky Fills with Rain - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Rain” by Kazim Ali. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 15, 2024: When the Sky Fills with Rain - Prompt. More writing on rain from Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York: “Out on the street they hardly notice the clouds before it starts raining. The rain comes down in sheets. Drenched all at once, not drop by drop. The first drop is the pistol at the start of the race and at that crack people move for shelter, any ragtag thing, they huddle under ripped awnings, the doorway of the diner, suddenly an appetite for coffee. Pressed up against buildings as if on the lam. Little sprints and dashes between horizontal cover. Dry here. Surely it will stop soon, they think. They can wait it out. It cannot last forever.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 15, 2024: When the Sky Fills with Rain - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write about rain. Write what you know and what you don’t know. Write a prayer. Write about what’s true or make stuff up. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-14-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 14, 2024: Get Closer to the Actual Experience - Pause. Do a few rounds of a breath prayer/meditation using a word that represents something you want to receive during the inhale (peace, rest, freedom, etc.) and a word that represents something you want to let go of during the exhale (anxiety, busyness, oppression, etc.). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 14, 2024: Get Closer to the Actual Experience - Prompt. Look at the painting Les Bluets by Joan Mitchell and read the quotes below about the painting by Lydia Davis. “On one visit I walked out to Mitchell’s studio to look at a painting. I don’t know if this was the first time I went into her studio. I liked the painting very much and thought there was no problem with the way I looked at it. It was what it was, shapes and colors, white and blue. Then I was told by Joan or someone else that it referred to the landscape here in Vétheuil, specifically to cornflowers. Whatever I had known or not known about painting before, this was a surprise to me, even a shock. Apparently I had not known that an abstract painting could contain references to subject matter. Two things happened at once: the painting abruptly went beyond itself, lost its solitariness, acquired a relationship to fields, to flowers; and it changed from something I understood into something I did not understand, a mystery, a problem.” “I had had other striking experiences of incomprehension, the most extended being the weeks I spent in an Austrian first-grade class listening to the German language, before it began to change slowly, a fragment at a time, to something I could understand. Years later, when translating French texts into English, I struggled so hard with the meaning of certain complex sentences that I was sure I felt this struggle physiologically inside my brain—the little currents of electricity sparked, traveled, leaped forward against the problem, fell back, leaped again from a different side, failed. But this experience caught me unprepared, in its novel form — no words, but three panels of blue and white.” - Lydia Davis https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 14, 2024: Get Closer to the Actual Experience - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and take notes on the painting, the quotes, and the questions below. —What do you want to understand but will never fully understand? —What have you been unprepared for in the past few weeks? —What blue things can you find in your home or wherever you are right now? Make a list. —What do you remember about a painting or a show or a film you’ve seen in the past? What have you forgotten? If you like, use your notes to start a new poem, story, essay, or a letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-13-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 13, 2024: Go on. Say More. - Pause. Sit in silence while looking at this art for a minute or two. Give it your full attention. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 13, 2024: Go on. Say More. - Prompt. Read “Taming Wild Animals” by Lisa Bubert. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 13, 2024: Go on. Say More. - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and respond to “Taming Wild Animals” by journaling and answering one or more of these questions: How do you experience the shimmers of your creative practice? What anxieties do you have about your writing? What do you need to say more of? What do you need to write about in the coming days, weeks, and months? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-12-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 12, 2024: Dance Language with Martha Graham - Pause. Do a few rounds of a breath prayer/meditation using a word that represents something you want to receive during the inhale (peace, rest, freedom, etc.) and a word that represents something you want to let go of during the exhale (anxiety, busyness, oppression, etc.). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 12, 2024: Dance Language with Martha Graham - Prompt. “Martha Graham once said, ‘A dancer’s art is built on an attitude of listening, with his whole being.’ That’s probably a good prescription for those of us also in search of creative insight. What does your whole being tell you? What kinds of imagery flit across your imagining mind while reading about Martha Graham – or courting personal inspiration? And how do those images mesh with the demands of your vocation or avocation? A thinker’s art is built on an attitude of listening to the world without and the mind within.” - Michele and Robert Root-Bernstein https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 12, 2024: Dance Language with Martha Graham - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and take notes on the quotes above. —How do you embody how you feel? —What is your dance language? —What does your whole being tell you? (Stop right now and listen. What do you hear?) —What kinds of imagery flit across your imagining mind while reading about Martha Graham? —How do you listen to the world? If you like, use your notes to start a new poem, story, essay, or a letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-11-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 11, 2024: The Worst Thing That’s Ever Happened - Pause. Do a few rounds of a breath prayer/meditation using a word that represents something you want to receive during the inhale (peace, rest, freedom, etc.) and a word that represents something you want to let go of during the exhale (anxiety, busyness, oppression, etc.). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 11, 2024: The Worst Thing That’s Ever Happened - Prompt. Listen to “What’d I Do With All This Faith” by Jack Antonoff/Bleachers and/or read the quotes by Antonoff below “My version of time management is that, when I’m doing the things I love, they somehow create time for me, so I only do things I love. In this line of work, you are either being given life or sucked of life, and I don’t love being in the studio enough to be doing something I don’t want to do.” “I use everything outside of my work to turn my brain off, like my YouTube life — I watch a lot of food things. When I get home or if I want to take a break, I get into a loop of people making pasta, people frying things. My whole Instagram is just food, people packaging things. I like videos of meat: seasoning, barbecuing videos. But these aren’t things I do! Never! And I think that’s why it’s relaxing to me. I think the definition of relaxation is to enjoy something that fascinates you but does not inspire you.” “The craft is something you can work on and grow, but it’s just a tool. And the act of writing, having ideas of value and making albums, is truly something from the heart and the mind that mostly happens outside the studio. You get thoughts in the shower or walking or doing things, and that’s a really frustrating reality. The mystery of where it comes from and how it comes? There’s no answer to that. And I really don’t trust anyone who has an answer for it.”. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 11, 2024: The Worst Thing That’s Ever Happened - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and take notes on the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. If you like, use your notes to start a new poem, story, essay, screenplay, or song. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-10-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 10, 2024: Magnify Your Spirit - Pause. Do a few rounds of a breath prayer/meditation using a word that represents something you want to receive during the inhale (peace, rest, freedom, etc.) and a word that represents something you want to let go of during the exhale (anxiety, busyness, oppression, etc.). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 10, 2024: Magnify Your Spirit - Prompt. “Seek out what magnifies your spirit. Patti Smith, in discussing William Blake and her creative influences, talks about writers and artists who magnified her spirit — it’s a beautiful phrase and a beautiful notion. Who are the people, ideas, and books that magnify your spirit? Find them, hold on to them, and visit them often. Use them not only as a remedy once spiritual malaise has already infected your vitality but as a vaccine administered while you are healthy to protect your radiance.” - The Marginalian https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 10, 2024: Magnify Your Spirit - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and take notes on the quotes above and/or the questions below. —What do you believe in? —What do you doubt? —Which people, ideas, and books magnify your spirit? —How do writing and creating magnify your spirit? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-9-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 9, 2024: What Brings You to Praise? - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read or listen to “You Wake the Dead to Life” by Rumi and Haleh Liza Gafori. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 9, 2024: What Brings You to Praise? - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and begin responding to one or more of the questions below from/inspired by Poetry Unbound Ep 23. Examine the experience of loving a friend and go deeper with it to explore the question, “what does this say to me about what I consider to be most fundamental to the world?” How does friendship open you to the divine? Which specific friendships open you to the divine? What gets in the way of your friendships? How’s your balance of online and offline friendships? How can you tell when it’s time to hang out with someone in person? How do you know when it’s time to take a break from social media? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 9, 2024: What Brings You to Praise? - Practice. Read this quote from Poetry Unbound Ep 23, then set a timer for seven minutes and write about how your friendships have been center points for your deepest longings and/or how your friendships have changed you. If you want more from your friendships, you can right about that, too. “Rumi had a profound and deep and changing friendship with Shams, and I think it’s a really important thing to recognize how in Rumi’s life, a friendship, a particular friendship, was something that became the center point for his deepest yearnings: for God, for religion, for knowing what’s important in the life. Our friendships change us profoundly, and in Rumi we hear how a praise song to a friend is also a praise song to God.” —Pádraig Ó Tuama https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-8-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 8, 2024: Be Alive to Yourself and Your Art - Pause. Listen to “When We Were 13, Jeff’s Father Left The Needle Down On A Journey Record Before Leaving The House One Morning And Never Coming Back” by Hanif Abdurraqib (This poem! Oh my goodness.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 8, 2024: Be Alive to Yourself and Your Art - Prompt. “Music in this poem is music that’s used for comfort, but also music that’s turned up loud to blare from a car radio on a highway, to listen to when alone, to listen to with memories, and to listen to in order to come back to the emotional landscape that we still carry in us.” –Pádraig Ó Tuama, Poetry Unbound podcast Write about a song that helps you return to the emotional landscape tied to a significant memory you still carry in you. Set a timer and write for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 8, 2024: Be Alive to Yourself and Your Art - Practice. Pick one song that helps you connect with your current emotions and circumstances. Listen to it twice. Take notes and see if you have any insights or ideas for a new essay, story, poem, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-7-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 7, 2024: Let Water Open Your Imagination and Soul - Pause. Watch this Niagara Falls webcam or this Lisbon Falls webcam for two minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 7, 2024: Let Water Open Your Imagination and Soul - Prompt. Read “Twice More to the Lake” by Brian Doyle. Begin a new story, poem, or letter to a friend inspired by a memory connected to water. Write for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 7, 2024: Let Water Open Your Imagination and Soul - Practice. Do three slow silent readings of this poem or this Scripture passage. Choose a few lines to write down by hand. Read those same lines aloud twice. Put both hands under running water for two minutes. Take notes or journal about water, the Pause, Prompt, and Practice for four minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-6-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 6, 2024: Trying to Create Another World - Pause. Do a few rounds of a breath prayer/meditation using a word that represents something you want to receive during the inhale (peace, rest, freedom, etc.) and a word that represents something you want to let go of during the exhale (anxiety, busyness, oppression, etc.). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 6, 2024: Trying to Create Another World - Prompt. Read “At the Clothesline” by James Tate. Then read it again. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 6, 2024: Trying to Create Another World - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and take notes on the poem and/or the statements and questions below. —What feelings does the poem stir in you? —What images, ideas, objects, or art make you happy and break your heart? —Write about laundry. The good, the bad, the not-so-bad. If you like, use what you wrote to begin a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-5-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 5, 2024: Even Problems Have Energy - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for two minutes and close your eyes and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 5, 2024: Even Problems Have Energy - Prompt. Read “Photosynthesis” by Ashley M. Jones. Read it one more time then copy down the final stanza of the poem. While you’re writing down this last part of the poem, notice where the energy is for you in this stanza. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 5, 2024: Even Problems Have Energy - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes and respond to “Photosynthesis” and/or the statements and questions below. —Write what you know about growing vegetables and flowers. —Write what you don’t know about growing vegetables and flowers. —What’s one thing a parent or caregiver taught you? —What are some of your legacies from previous generations? If you like, use your notes and responses to begin a new essay, poem, story, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-4-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 4, 2024: Against Dying - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then go outside and take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 4, 2024: Against Dying - Prompt. Read “Against Dying” by Kaveh Akbar” aloud. Then read it one more time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 4, 2024: Against Dying - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and copy down as much of the poem as you can. Then set a timer for five more minutes and take notes or write a response to it. What do these words stir inside you? What comes to mind? Where does your life intersect with this poem? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-3-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 3, 2024: Quitting and Not Quitting - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for two minutes and close your eyes and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 3, 2024: Quitting and Not Quitting - Prompt. Make a list of 10 things you could quit. You aren’t committing to stopping anything. You’re just listing things you could stop if you ever decide you want to quit them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 3, 2024: Quitting and Not Quitting - Practice. Set a timer for nine minutes and take notes on things you’ve quit and haven’t quit over the past few years. —What have you quit and why? —What did you quit that you didn’t want to quit? —How do you decide when to quit and when not to quit? —How are you different after you quit? —What have you learned from quitting and not quitting? If you like, use your notes to begin a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-2-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 2, 2024: Happiness and Sadness Are Somehow Alike - Pause. Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then set a timer for two minutes and close your eyes and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 2, 2024: Happiness and Sadness Are Somehow Alike - Prompt. After taking some deep breaths and resting for a couple of minutes, read “I Don’t Want to Hear Any Good News or Bad News” by Elisa Gabbert. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 2, 2024: Happiness and Sadness Are Somehow Alike - Practice. Set a timer for nine minutes and begin writing a bad poem using these instructions from Elisa Gabbert. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/may-1-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-05-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 1, 2024: Grounded through the Shaking - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then go outside and take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 1, 2024: Grounded through the Shaking - Prompt. Read this excerpt from Shoutin’ in the Fire by Danté Stewart: “I just started to refuse to give empty hope to myself or to people who did not see our humanity. I just tried over and over again, every time I got my black coffee and mustered up some Black words on empty white pages. I tried to give us love, love that would keep us grounded through the shaking. As a writer, I came to the realization that far more important than people liking my work or even resonating with my work or even using my work to shake things up was me liking myself and liking the complexity of life and believing that I had something worth giving that was saturated in maturity and love. The people who I wanted to like my work were far more interested in being loved than they were in me trying to make them like me or me trying to give them hope or me trying to conjure up something fantastical that would keep one foot in front of the other. We were not looking for hope. We were looking for love.” - Danté Stewart, Shoutin' in the Fire https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for May 1, 2024: Grounded through the Shaking - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and take notes on the quote above. —Which words have the most energy for you? —What images come to mind? —What do Stewart’s words stir in your body, mind, and soul? Then set a timer for five more minutes and write about how your writing can give others love. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-30-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-05-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 30, 2024: A Secret Collaborator - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then look at the painting Dandelion with Red Dragonfly (silver) by Hung Liu for a couple of minutes while continuing to breathe with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 30, 2024: A Secret Collaborator - Prompt. Read the Nasher Museum of Art’s description for Dandelion with Red Dragonfly (silver): https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1d99b5c8-468e-4d75-956b-6d5f4216917c/IMG_8367+%281%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 30, 2024: A Secret Collaborator https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 30, 2024: A Secret Collaborator - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes, and take notes on: —The painting and the painting’s description —Dandelion thoughts and memories from your own life experiences —Any dandelion moments/seasons of life when you’ve had to survive a long journey or fly away, take your chance, and wait to see what the future holds If you like, use your notes to begin a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-29-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 29, 2024: The Very Reason That I Write - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then go outside and take six more deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 29, 2024: The Very Reason That I Write - Prompt. Read the quote above by Zadie Smith a few more times. Say it aloud once or twice, too. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 29, 2024: The Very Reason That I Write - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes, and take notes on: —What it looks like for you to sleepwalk through life —When you are tempted to sleepwalk through life —When you’ve had no choice but to sleepwalk through life —How your writing practice keeps you from sleepwalking through life If you like, use your notes to begin a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-28-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 28, 2024: We Keep Making the Best of It - Pause. Read these two short poems by Kay Ryan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 28, 2024: We Keep Making the Best of It - Prompt. Here’s more from Kay Ryan: “The poems are so small. If I have a narrow line and lots of them, I feel that it may slow the reader down so the poem’s not over so fast. Also I like the danger; the short line has so much edge. I can’t bury a weak word. Also I find that the really short line allows me to hide rhyme. I’m not opposed to end rhyme, but I don’t like to see very much of it. I like to bounce the rhyme among word parts and have it show up in different places, and the little line allows me to do that. Also, I think it just looks nice on the page. You mentioned an evolution, but I guess it just pleased me to write with these shorter lines and so I’ve done it more and more. It’s funny. It’s not like there was a time when I said, ‘I think I’ll make my poems narrower.’ They just seemed to start getting that way.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 28, 2024: We Keep Making the Best of It - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and take notes on Ryan’s poems and quotes above. Write your notes down in a narrow column like Ryan’s poems. See what happens next. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-27-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 27, 2024: It’s My Own Mystery I’m Looking At - Pause. Read this poem by Li-Young Lee. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 27, 2024: It’s My Own Mystery I’m Looking At - Prompt. Here’s more from Li-Young Lee: “English is not my first language, though it is the language in which I write. I feel the real medium for me is silence, so I could be writing in any language. To inflect the inner silence, to give it body, that’s all we’re doing. You use the voice to make the silence present.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 27, 2024: It’s My Own Mystery I’m Looking At - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and sit in silence. Then set a timer for seven minutes and take notes on your recent experiences of silence by responding to the quotes above or the questions below: - What sorts of silence do you crave? - What sorts of silence create discomfort? -What or who has been too silent lately? -What arises inside you when you’re practicing silence? -What does your body feel like when you’re practicing silence? -What are three metaphors that might help you explain and/or understand silence? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-26-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 26, 2024: More World Everywhere - Pause. Listen to this short Bach Trio. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 26, 2024: More World Everywhere - Prompt. Read “The Fury of Sunrises” by Anne Sexton. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 26, 2024: More World Everywhere - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and sit in silence. Take notes if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-25-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 25, 2024: We Rediscover Who We Are - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 25, 2024: We Rediscover Who We Are - Prompt. Set a timer for five minutes and respond to these questions: What things in your home mean the most to you? How do ordinary objects define who you are and what you value? How do objects help you preserve the past and speak to the future? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 25, 2024: We Rediscover Who We Are - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes then write about two objects in your home, one on display and one hidden. You can take notes, journal, or start a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend. *This writing exercise is inspired by a prompt in Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-24-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 24, 2024: Then I Remember - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 24, 2024: Then I Remember - Prompt. Read the note below by Jeff Nunokawa in Note Book: “Sometimes I get discouraged when I realize that most of what I write will never see much light of day. But then I remember how some of the best practices aren’t aimed to reach past the ages, but rather just to get us through the night.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/8d1d7eaf-e36a-4d99-b30f-91e72ebc2bd0/IMG_6988+%281%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 24, 2024: Then I Remember https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 24, 2024: Then I Remember - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and respond to the note above and/or the questions and statements below. List five frustrations you have about your writing or other creative work. List five ways your creative practice helps you inhabit your hours, days, and nights. List five things you want to write or make even if no one else ever sees it. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-23-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 23, 2024: Which Stories Have Been Omitted? - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes, close your eyes, and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 23, 2024: Which Stories Have Been Omitted? - Prompt. Here’s more from Matthew Salesses: “Craft is the history of which kind of stories have typically held power—and for whom—so it also is the history of which stories have typically been omitted. That we have certain expectations for what a story is or should include means we also have certain expectations for what a story isn’t or shouldn’t include. Any story relies on negative space, and a tradition relies on the negative space of history. The ability for a reader to fill in white space relies on that reader having seen what could be there. Some readers are asked to stay always, only, in the negative. To wield craft responsibly is to take responsibility for absence.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 23, 2024: Which Stories Have Been Omitted? - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and begin the writing exercise below from Craft in the Real World: In five minutes, write as many sentences as you can that follow this format: If s/h/t hadn’t __________, __________ wouldn’t have ___________. (For example: “If she hadn’t tried to cross the road, her boyfriend’s car wouldn’t have flipped over.”) Expand one of the sentences into a paragraph, including a full set of actions and character(s). Expand the paragraph into a scene. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-22-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 22, 2024: It Looks Like You’re Just Sitting There - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes, close your eyes, and rest. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 22, 2024: It Looks Like You’re Just Sitting There - Prompt. Susan Orlean’s Wisdom for Writers: -You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it. -You should read as much as possible. That’s the best way to learn how to write. -You have to appreciate the spiritual component of having an opportunity to do something as wondrous as writing. You should be practical and smart and you should have a good agent and you should work really, really hard. But you should also be filled with awe and gratitude. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 22, 2024: It Looks Like You’re Just Sitting There - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and journal or take notes using the quotes above and/or the prompts and questions below: -Make a list of five things that are happening when you’re writing that no one else knows is happening. -What do you love about writing? What are some ways you can remind yourself that you love it? -What authors and books have formed you as a writer? What books do you love? What books do you read again and again -Write a few sentences about how writing fills you with awe and gratitude. * Use your notes to begin writing a new essay, story, poem, or letter if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-21-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 21, 2024: No Life Is All Bleak - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then go outside and take six more deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 21, 2024: No Life Is All Bleak - Prompt. Read this quote by Mary Karr: “No life is all bleak… That’s what’s so gorgeous about humanity. It doesn’t matter how bleak our daily lives are, we still fight for the light. I think that’s our divinity. We lean into love, even in the most hideous circumstances. We manage to hope.” —Mary Karr, The Paris Review https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 21, 2024: No Life Is All Bleak - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the quote above and/or the questions below. How is life not bleak right now? What’s gorgeous about humanity even while there’s evil and heartbreak and despair? How do you put yourself in the way of light? How do you lean into love? What are you hoping for? Or, how do you hope for hope? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-20-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 20, 2024: Words Seem to Possess a Mystic Quality - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes, close your eyes, and do a body scan. What hurts? What’s stiff? What sensations can you feel on your skin feel right now? How’s your breathing? Do you need to relax your shoulders? What else? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 20, 2024: Words Seem to Possess a Mystic Quality - Prompt. Read this quote by Virginia Woolf: “In illness words seem to possess a mystic quality. We grasp what is beyond their surface meaning, gather instinctively this, that, and the other — a sound, a colour, here a stress, there a pause — which the poet, knowing words to be meagre in comparison with ideas, has strewn about his page to evoke, when collected, a state of mind which neither words can express nor the reason explain. Incomprehensibility has an enormous power over us in illness, more legitimately perhaps than the upright will allow. In health meaning has encroached upon sound. Our intelligence domineers over our senses. But in illness, with the police off duty, we creep beneath some obscure poem by Mallarmé or Donne, some phrase in Latin or Greek, and the words give out their scent and distil their flavour, and then, if at last we grasp the meaning, it is all the richer for having come to us sensually first, by way of the palate and the nostrils, like some queer odour.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 20, 2024: Words Seem to Possess a Mystic Quality - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and journal or take notes using the following questions as prompts: —How do you inhabit hours and days differently when you’re sick? —What are the worst things about being sick? —What are the best things about being sick? —How does being sick change how you engage with books, TV shows, music, etc? —What do you remember about the last time you were sick? —What have you forgotten about the last time you were sick? * Use your notes to begin writing a new essay, story, poem, or letter if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-19-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 19, 2024: By Putting People to Sleep We Are Waking Them Up - Pause. Set a timer for three minutes, close your eyes, and rest https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 19, 2024: By Putting People to Sleep We Are Waking Them Up - Prompt. Read the Tricia Hersey quote above one or two more times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 19, 2024: By Putting People to Sleep We Are Waking Them Up - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and journal or take notes using the following questions from Rest Is Resistance as prompts: How do we dream about a future we want to see? How do we simply tap into our dreaming flow? Who taught you the capacity to dream? Who are the sharpeners of your vision? When did your desire to daydream fade away? When did you begin to confuse the idea of daydreaming as frivolous and a waste of time? How can you begin to welcome yourself into a DreamSpace that is waiting for you to tap into? How can you begin to disconnect from the lies of grind culture enough to fall into a moment of dreaming? Use your notes to begin writing a new essay, story, poem, or letter if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-18-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 18, 2024: Part of It Remains Mysterious - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to a song that helps you feel less alone. (Here's one of my favorites!) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 18, 2024: Part of It Remains Mysterious - Prompt. Read the Megan Abbott quote above one or two more times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 18, 2024: Part of It Remains Mysterious - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and journal or take notes using the following questions as prompts: What are your thoughts on Abbott’s quote? Do you agree or disagree? Why? What conditions usually help you do the writing you want to do? What conditions usually keep you from doing the writing you want to do? When did you last write words on paper or a screen for at least 15 minutes? What conditions led to that writing session? What are three things you can do that usually help you write? (Here are three of mine: 1. Read Essays One by Lydia Davis 2. Read a poem or two or three 3. Go to a museum.) If you don’t know the answer to this question, I encourage you to experiment! Use your notes to begin writing a new essay, story, poem, or letter if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-17-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 17, 2024: “God Made My Whole Body” with Ashley M. Jones - Pause. Rest your eyes for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 17, 2024: “God Made My Whole Body” with Ashley M. Jones - Prompt. Read “God Made My Whole Body” by Ashley M. Jones below. This poem is also published online here and in Reparations Now! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/ba036e08-58fc-4a24-b83d-8f362d305a8f/IMG_9050.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 17, 2024: “God Made My Whole Body” with Ashley M. Jones https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 17, 2024: “God Made My Whole Body” with Ashley M. Jones - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the questions and prompts below. What else did God make? List five things God made that are specific to you. List five things God made that are specific to your hometown. List five things God made that are specific to friends or family members. Begin writing a new prose poem using your notes and lists. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-16-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 16, 2024: Everything That Has Ever Happened Keeps Happening - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 16, 2024: Everything That Has Ever Happened Keeps Happening - Prompt. Read the Dani Shapiro quote above one or two more times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 16, 2024: Everything That Has Ever Happened Keeps Happening - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and journal or take notes using the following questions as prompts: What’s a specific event that you experienced during 2020 that’s still happening now, still unfolding now? How is it still happening? Why is it still happening? How has your relationship with this event changed since 2020? How have you changed with regard to this event? Use your notes to begin writing a new essay, story, poem, or letter if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-15-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 15, 2024: “Rememory is both a reconciliation and a vexation, both a healing and a wounding” - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then give your attention to your body. Where do you notice imbalance, pain, tension, energy? Can you breathe into those places and try to release anything you’re holding onto? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 15, 2024: “Rememory is both a reconciliation and a vexation, both a healing and a wounding” - Prompt. Read this quote about Beloved by Stephen Metcalf: “In Beloved, Morrison perfected a mode of narration, entirely her own but with roots in everything from the African griot to As I Lay Dying, built out of compulsive repetition, in which the onion, as it were, is constantly being both peeled and reconstituted; in which memories are constantly being both exhumed and buried; and in which the mind of the storyteller is both imprisoned and set free in the act of retelling. And so, like the return of Beloved, and the enduring curse of slavery itself, rememory is both a reconciliation and a vexation, both a healing and a wounding.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 15, 2024: “Rememory is both a reconciliation and a vexation, both a healing and a wounding” - Practice. Set a timer for 12 minutes and complete as much of this exercise as possible. Then write one paragraph about a memory from the past couple of weeks. Write it in the present tense using first person perspective. Capture a few specific sensory details. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then write another paragraph describing the same memory from a different angle, from a different perspective. Try writing it in the present tense using second person perspective. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then write one more paragraph describing the same memory in past tense using third person perspective. If you don’t finish the steps above in the 12 minutes allocated to this writing exercise, feel free to return to it in the coming hours and days. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-14-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 14, 2024: “There are things that you cannot not know” with Kerry James Marshall - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art by Kerry James Marshall. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 14, 2024: “There are things that you cannot not know” with Kerry James Marshall - Prompt. Here’s more from The New Yorker about the Kerry James Marshall piece linked above: “His aim was to catch ‘a moment that’s miraculous in the context of a mundane, ordinary day.’ There are several such moments in his huge, 2012 “School of Beauty, School of Culture,” which channels his earlier “De Style” and also Velázquez’s “Las Meninas.” Here we are in a hairdressing salon, where eight or nine women talk or preen or stand and watch. The critic Peter Plagens described it as “one of the most complex orchestrations of color in contemporary painting.” A large poster of a woman with a flower in her hair, on the wall at the far right, is from Chris Ofili’s 2010 show at Tate Britain in London. (“I was absolutely floored when I saw that image,” Ofili told me. “I’m still honored when I think of it.”) Two toddlers are in the foreground, one of them a boy, who is peering at a distorted yellow-and-white shape on the floor, which no one else seems to have noticed; it is an image that can be seen only from an extreme angle, an anamorphosis, like the skull in Hans Holbein’s “The Ambassadors”—in Marshall’s painting, it is Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. The idea of white female beauty as the impregnable standard in Western art is only one of the questions raised by this endlessly evocative painting.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 14, 2024: “There are things that you cannot not know” with Kerry James Marshall - Practice. Watch this 7-ish minute video of Kerry James Marshall. Then take a few notes or journal in response. Return to the painting if you like. Take more notes, journal some more, or write a letter to a friend about this painting. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-13-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 13, 2024: A Place to Put Yourself - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 13, 2024: A Place to Put Yourself - 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.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 13, 2024: A Place to Put Yourself - Practice. Freewrite for eight minutes on how writing gives you a place to put yourself. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-12-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 12, 2024: The Bones and the Skeleton of Language - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then give your attention to your body. Where do you notice imbalance, pain, tension, energy? Can you breathe into those places and try to release anything you’re holding on to? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 12, 2024: The Bones and the Skeleton of Language - Prompt. Set a five-minute timer and begin forming a found poem using any words around you. Collect words from mail stacked on your kitchen counter, email, text messages, notes, books, book titles, whatever. Find at least 30-40 words. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 12, 2024: The Bones and the Skeleton of Language - Practice. Set a timer for eight minutes. Then write the words down. Then play with the words and see what happens next. Don’t worry about writing a perfect poem. Play and give attention to any connections that emerge and surprises that appear. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-11-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 11, 2024: Look Up - Pause. Go outside and look at the sky for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 11, 2024: Look Up - Prompt. “Among the earliest memories of each of us are the images of clouds drifting by overhead, fleecy, fair-weather clouds promising sunny skies—storm clouds bringing portents of rain or snow. The farmer plowing his field reads the weather language of the sky. So does the fisherman at sea, and all others who live openly on the face of the earth. They are the writing of the wind on the sky.” - Rachel Carson https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 11, 2024: Look Up - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write about the wind and the sky. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-10-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 10, 2024: A Vital Necessity - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Go outside and take six more deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 10, 2024: A Vital Necessity - Prompt. Watch Ifie Natasha read a stunning list poem on IG. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 10, 2024: A Vital Necessity - Practice. Using the list poem above as a guide, create your own list poem that captures the essence of one day this past week. Set a timer for 10 minutes then follow these steps if you need a bit more guidance: Go through your calendar, to-do lists, text messages, emails, and social media posts for that day. Brainstorm items that are connected to that day in any way. Meetings, feelings, emotions, current events/news, interactions with other people. See if there are any obvious threads in your brainstorming notes. If so, try a list poem using those threads. If not, pick one item that seems interesting and go deeper. List even more details. Dig for more memories or connections. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-9-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 9, 2024: When Laughter is a Prayer with Kaveh Akbar - Pause. Listen to “How Prayer Works” by Kaveh Akbar during the first 2:45 of this episode of Poetry Unbound. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 9, 2024: When Laughter is a Prayer with Kaveh Akbar - Prompt. Write about something that doesn’t seem like prayer but is (or might be?) for seven minutes. Take notes with bullet point phrases or write real sentences. Journal or pray or begin a new essay or a story or a letter to a friend. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 9, 2024: When Laughter is a Prayer with Kaveh Akbar - Practice. “‘How Prayer Works’ is anything but frivolous. It is a joyful response to the serious question of how to hold things together: with practice, with companionship, with repetition, with openness to the world, with spontaneity, laughter and freedom…” —Pádraig ÓTuama, Poetry Unbound (book) Notice how you try to hold things together in the coming hours and days. Can Kaveh Akbar and “How Prayer Works” be your guides as you move toward more “openness to the world, with spontaneity, laughter, and freedom”? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-8-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 8, 2024: Develop Your Somatic Vocabulary with a Tool from Aundi Kolber - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then give your attention to your body. Where do you notice imbalance, pain, tension, energy? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 8, 2024: Develop Your Somatic Vocabulary with a Tool from Aundi Kolber - Prompt. Read this IG post from Aundi Kolber and her list for developing a Somatic Vocabulary for yourself (AND your writing!). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 8, 2024: Develop Your Somatic Vocabulary with a Tool from Aundi Kolber - Practice. Which words from the list help you accurately describe how you feel now or in the recent past? Which words from the list work well for a current work-in-progress? Which words make you curious? Which words feel familiar to you? Journal, take notes, or make lists for 5-7 minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-7-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 7, 2024: Poetry, Play, and Creating New Endings - Pause. Read “Pan Dulce” by Jose Hernandez Diaz https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 7, 2024: Poetry, Play, and Creating New Endings - Prompt. Jose Hernandez Diaz also writes poems that have a lot of surrealism. Let’s use the poem above and Diaz’s use of surrealism in several of his other poems as inspiration. Set a timer for eight minutes.Write about a recent phone call or text exchange with a family member or friend. Then write a new ending. Experiment! Play! What else could’ve been said? What could’ve been left unsaid? Make stuff up. Make it weird. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 7, 2024: Poetry, Play, and Creating New Endings - Practice. Add one sentence to three more conversations today. After each phone call, text, or email exchange is complete, create something new. Don’t overthink it. Let your imagination extend what seems to be finished. Then see what happens next. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-6-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 6, 2024: “Ode to the Overlooked Minimalist Painting in the Gallery” by Jose Hernandez Diaz - Pause. Rest your eyes for a couple of minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 6, 2024: “Ode to the Overlooked Minimalist Painting in the Gallery” by Jose Hernandez Diaz - Prompt. Read the poem below by Jose Hernandez Diaz. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/c7058703-eeb6-495e-b790-a5cd2e9c53d9/IMG_8653+%281%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 6, 2024: “Ode to the Overlooked Minimalist Painting in the Gallery” by Jose Hernandez Diaz https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 6, 2024: “Ode to the Overlooked Minimalist Painting in the Gallery” by Jose Hernandez Diaz - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and freewrite and/or respond to the questions and statements below. - What do you notice or appreciate that others tend to overlook? - Describe a situation or an event for which turnout was less than anticipated. - Which mediocre songs, TV shows, and films are you drawn to anyway? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-5-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 5, 2024: Poems and more with Jose Hernandez Diaz - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale then read this poem by Jose Hernandez Diaz. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 5, 2024: Poems and more with Jose Hernandez Diaz - Prompt. Read the following questions and answers from a recent interview with Jose Hernandez Diaz: —Where does a poem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning? I usually start with a title or a striking image. I often like to write about iconic Mexican and Mexican American imagery or symbols like boxing, piñatas, sombreros, mariachis, jaguars, famlia, etc. Also, in my prose poetry, I tend to create characters and write from persona and third person, like the Man in a Pink Floyd Shirt or the Man in a “Kafka for President” Shirt. —What fragrance reminds you of home? From childhood? Chlorine from the pool in the apartments I grew up in. From adolescence: pan dulce from the panderia. —David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art? MF DOOM, Chicano Batman, Ramon Ayala, The Get Up Kids (music), the beach (nature), Philosophy (academics), Picasso, Kahlo, Rivera, ASCO, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Basquiat, my friends who wrote graffiti for DFLK, JPAK… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 5, 2024: Poems and more with Jose Hernandez Diaz - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write your own responses to one or more of the questions above. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-4-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 4, 2024: Sources of Delight - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read and meditate on these words from Ross Gay: “Sources of delight are also sources of survival. And life is complicated. In order to accurately represent or engage with life, it means that you are going to be engaging with what is both profoundly sorrowful and also what is not. If the trees bloom this year, that is a thing to take note of, just as it's a thing to take note of if your mother or your best friend dies. Those are all things to take note of; they're not mutually exclusive.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 4, 2024: Sources of Delight - Prompt. Here’s more from Ross Gay: “Writer's block, it seems to me, comes from perfectionism. Often, it comes from a kind of sense that you know what you need to write but you just don't know how to do that. If there's any way to decrease the expectations, and also to decrease one's own desire to be excellent—if you give up the idea of what it should be—that then allows things to flow.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 4, 2024: Sources of Delight - Practice. Set a timer for 13 minutes and journal in response to the quotes above and/or the questions below: What are some of your current sources of delight? What are some of your current sources of sorrow? What is making life complicated right now? Do you believe in writer’s block? (I don’t, but many people do!) What are your thoughts on writer’s block and/or creative resistance? What helps you let go of expectations with your writing? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-3-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 28: Long, long, long ago with Anonymous 4 and Lauren Winner - Pause. Listen to “Abbeville” by Anonymous 4. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 28: Long, long, long ago with Anonymous 4 and Lauren Winner - Prompt. Among my favorite cds (yes, that’s still how I listen to music) are those by Anonymous 4, a now-disbanded quartet (obviously) of women who first sang medieval music, and then, in 2004, began interweaving American music into their recording repertoire. After the release of their first American-flavored album, Anonymous 4 was interviewed on NPR. In that interview Marsha Genensky says that long before Anonymous 4 even existed, she was studying traditional folk music with a woman in the Ozarks. Genensky’s teacher took her to church, where she heard “Abbeville.” “I was moved beyond anything and I just had to know more.” That was the beginning of the many-years-later American Angels. “Sometimes you just get a sound in your head and you, you just have to follow it,” said Genensky. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 28: Long, long, long ago with Anonymous 4 and Lauren Winner - Practice. Write for 7-10 minutes about something you heard in the past that you just had to follow. If nothing comes to mind, see if you can write your way into a memory of something you heard and followed. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-2-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 2, 2024: Poems and More with Jose Hernandez Diaz - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale then read the poem by Jose Hernandez Diaz on the third image in this Instagram post. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 2, 2024: Poems and More with Jose Hernandez Diaz - Prompt. Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Jose Hernandez Diaz: After drafting a poem, how do you approach revision? After getting the first draft on the page I will go back and read it to myself until I get it just right paying attention to line break and form if it’s a poem, specificity of imagery, do I need more description, or less description, musicality, titles, awkward moments which need to be blended in a seamless way, and overall wow factor, does the poem leave me wanting to read it over and over in awe. * When it’s time to revise something you’ve written, how do you know what to change? What do you typically need more of? What do you usually need less of? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 2, 2024: Poems and More with Jose Hernandez Diaz - Practice. Here’s another excerpt from an inerview with Jose Hernandez Diaz: The first poem of yours I ever read was “The Jaguar and the Mango” from the January 2020 issue of Poetry Magazine which is a prose poem. Why is the prose poem the perfect form for this sort of personified exploration in the poem? I think it is the perfect form for condensed writing and you can still get a scene or an angle of storytelling in. Sometimes we just need a window into a scene not the whole backstory and inner monologues. We sometimes want to fill in the blanks on our own. Minimalism, haiku, short stories, have always been fascinating to me for their brevity and intensified mode/power of expression. * Set a timer for five minutes and begin writing a prose poem using Diaz’s words about prose poems above as a guide. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/april-1-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-04-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 1, 2024: Trick Your Brain into Loosening Up - 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 draw a small picture of a sun on the middle of a piece of paper. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 1, 2024: Trick Your Brain into Loosening Up - Prompt. Watch this six-minute video of Austin Kleon making a mind map. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for April 1, 2024: Trick Your Brain into Loosening Up - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and begin making your own mind map using your sun picture as the center. What ideas have you thought about in the past week or so? What have you read? What have you written? What has made you curious? What connections have you noticed? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-31-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Easter Sunday: Dandelions, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art found via artandtheology.org. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Easter Sunday: Dandelions, and More - Prompt. Read some words on Easter by Frederick Buechner Here’s an excerpt: “The symbol of Easter is the empty tomb. You can't depict or domesticate emptiness. You can't make it into pageants and string it with lights. It doesn't move people to give presents to each other or sing old songs. It ebbs and flows all around us, the Eastertide. Even the great choruses of Handel's Messiah sound a little like a handful of crickets chirping under the moon. He rose. A few saw him briefly and talked to him. If it is true, there is nothing left to say. If it is not true, there is nothing left to say. For believers and unbelievers both, life has never been the same again. For some, neither has death. What is left now is the emptiness. There are those who, like Magdalen, will never stop searching it till they find his face.” OR Read the poem “Dandelions” by Peter Campion https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Easter Sunday: Dandelions, and More - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and freewrite in response to one or more links above. Or pick a few sentences from the essay or a few lines from the poem to copy down three or four times. You can treat it like a meditative practice. Go slow. Notice how your hand makes each letter, each shape. Pay attention. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-30-2024-a-revision-exercise-from-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2025-04-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Holy Saturday: A Revision Exercise from Lauren Winner - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Holy Saturday: A Revision Exercise from Lauren Winner - Prompt. The words below and in the Practice section are from a revision exercise designed by Lauren Winner. This is an example of what will be offered during today’s Revision Stations gathering. “We know how Holy Saturday ends - that it leads to, and turns to, Easter Sunday. But the story’s original “characters” did not know what would follow from Holy Saturday. On Saturday, they only knew the present tense - Jesus in the ground.” - Lauren Winner https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Holy Saturday: A Revision Exercise from Lauren Winner - Practice. A Revision Exercise for a Work-in-Progress: “Take a moment to consider how your piece of writing plays with present and future knowledge. Pick a character from your piece and write that character in a scene two ways - in the present tense with no knowledge about what comes later, no knowledge of possible reversals, and incomplete knowledge of the stakes; and then in the long future, retrospectively, with many different knowledges about the scene than the character had when the scene actually happened.” - Lauren Winner https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-29-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Good Friday with a Poem and Essay by Pádraig Ó Tuama - Pause. Take a few deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to “Go to Hell” by Pádraig Ó Tuama. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Good Friday with a Poem and Essay by Pádraig Ó Tuama - Prompt. Read this essay by Pádraig Ó Tuama. Here are the last two paragraphs: “Years later, when studying theology, I came across Hans Urs Von Balthasar. Von Balthasar is noted for many things, one of which is his poetic retelling of Christ’s descent into hell. He said, “Jesus descended into hell. He is dead with us, and disturbs our loneliness. … God, in the weakness of love enters into solidarity with us who find ourselves damning ourselves, in the form of the crucified brother abandoned by God…and in such a way that is clear to the sinner that God-the-Forsaken is so for my sake.” Each year on Easter Sunday I find myself moved. Not because there is a happy ever after ending to all of our stories. It is quite clear that there is not. I am moved because of a sacred echo of a hope that there is solidarity for those who feel like we inhabit a small hell of our own experience. The hope of Easter doesn’t damn this hell with a bleaching light. Rather this hope enters and squats with us. The celebrations of Holy Week for me are not about cataclysmic resurrections, but about being moved to follow in the life of the Nazarene, bravely entering into loneliness with a small spring of consoling company.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Good Friday with a Poem and Essay by Pádraig Ó Tuama - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the poem above, the essay above, and/or one or more of the questions below. What do you want to receive from Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter this year? How do you want hope to enter your life? This world? What makes the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus worthy of following, observing, celebrating? What gaps do you wish a savior would fill in this world? What bad things do you wish could be undone? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/cb4f897e-7184-49a5-8483-566685f9a61e/1c92766a-e42c-4fe8-a6b3-fb757f768f0b_3000+%281%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for Good Friday with a Poem and Essay by Pádraig Ó Tuama - Make it stand out [Good Friday by Paul Delaroche] Artist Unknown about 1870–1890 Learn more here. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-28-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 28, 2024: The State of Being Alone with James Baldwin - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read this poem by James Baldwin. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 28, 2024: The State of Being Alone with James Baldwin - Prompt. Here’s more from James Baldwin: “That all men are, when the chips are down, alone, is a banality—a banality because it is very frequently stated, but very rarely, on the evidence, believed. Most of us are not compelled to linger with the knowledge of our aloneness, for it is a knowledge that can paralyze all action in this world. There are, forever, swamps to be drained, cities to be created, mines to be exploited, children to be fed. None of these things can be done alone. But the conquest of the physical world is not man’s only duty. He is also enjoined to conquer the great wilderness of himself. The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 28, 2024: The State of Being Alone with James Baldwin - Practice. Set a timer for 13 minutes and write in response to the quotes above. Write whatever comes to mind or use one or more of the following questions/prompts: Describe your relationship with solitude. Do you have enough solitude for your spiritual life and creative practice? If so, how? If not, what do you want to do differently Which writers and artists illuminate the darkness for you? Which books, songs, paintings, TV shows, and other forms and genres of art help “make this world a more human dwelling place”? What are you doing to put yourself in the way of the art that helps you inhabit this world? What do you want to do more of so you can put yourself in the way of the art that helps you inhabit this world? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-27-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 27, 2024: Read Poetry Regularly - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read a favorite poem (or any poem you can find without too much trouble). Then do a breath prayer/meditation using single words or phrases from the poem. Inhale a word or phrase and exhale a word or phrase. Repeat the breath prayer five or so times. When I do breath prayers, I usually inhale a word or phrase that corresponds to or names something I want to receive and exhale a word or phrase that corresponds to or names something I want to let go of. If this particular breathing practice doesn’t work well for your poem, or if it feels awkward, skip it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 27, 2024: Read Poetry Regularly - Prompt. Here’s more from Lydia Davis: “Be sure to read poetry, regularly, whether you are a poet or a writer of prose. I hope, of course, that if you’re a poet, you are already reading a lot of poetry. You will not develop, as a writer, if you don’t read. You won’t write as well, if you’re a prose writer, if you don’t read poetry.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 27, 2024: Read Poetry Regularly - Practice. Use a website like poetryfoundation.org or read a book of poems. Set an eight-minute timer and read some poems. Make Lydia Davis proud and take some notes while reading the poems or after you’re done. And. If you don’t own any books of poetry, consider buying one, two, or three! https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-26-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-03-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 26, 2024: Read the Best Writers from All Different Periods because You Already Belong to Your Time - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read or listen to “The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm” by Wallace Stevens. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 26, 2024: Read the Best Writers from All Different Periods because You Already Belong to Your Time - Prompt. Here’s more from Lydia Davis: “You should be reading a lot—reading different kinds of books but also reading in different ways: sometimes fast, and sometimes slowly. Sometimes just absorbing what you are reading, losing yourself; at other times analyzing as you read, developing your awareness of how a writer achieves an effect; sometimes stopping to analyze closely just one sentence or one paragraph.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 26, 2024: Read the Best Writers from All Different Periods because You Already Belong to Your Time - Practice. Set an eight-minute timer and read one paragraph from a favorite book. Stay with that same paragraph for the entire eight minutes and take notes on how the writer “achieved an effect.” Then take notes for a few more minutes on how you experienced the eight-minute exercise. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-25-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 25, 2024: Try Not Knowing - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then look at “The Silence” by Carel Weight for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 25, 2024: Try Not Knowing - Prompt. In “The Silence,” Carel Weight “wished to convey his belief that although people come together in rituals, their experience is essentially solitary. To emphasise this, the three figures never met and were painted separately.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 25, 2024: Try Not Knowing - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and have five minutes of silence and stillness. Write three sentences about your five minutes of silence. Write three sentences of fiction about a character’s experience of a brief period of silence. Write three more sentences about someone’s silence. These three sentences can be fiction, nonfiction, memoir, a prose poem, a letter to a friend, anything. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-24-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 24, 2024: Write from Your Own Interest - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then look at this painting by John Fabian Carlson for a few minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 24, 2024: Write from Your Own Interest - Prompt. Here’s more from Lydia Davis: “My interest may pass. But for the moment I follow it and enjoy it, not knowing where it will go. Let your interest, and particularly what you want to write about, be tested by time, not by other people—either real other people or imagined other people.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 24, 2024: Write from Your Own Interest - Practice. Set a ten-minute timer and write about one thing you’re interested in that you’ve never written about. Write what you know. Write what you don’t know. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-23-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 23, 2024: Be Mostly Self Taught - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Prayer at Sunrise” by James Weldon Johnson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 23, 2024: Be Mostly Self Taught - Prompt. Here’s more from Lydia Davis: “I have found that pursuing my own interests in various directions and to various sources of information can take me on fantastic adventures: I have stayed up till the early hours of the morning poring over old phone books; or following genealogical lines back hundreds of years; or reading a book about what lies under a certain French city; or comparing early maps of Manhattan as I search for a particular farmhouse. These adventures become as gripping as a good novel.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 23, 2024: Be Mostly Self Taught - Practice. Write a list of five things you want to explore about the craft of writing. Write a list of five topics you want to research. Write a list of five things you will do in the coming weeks that will help you become a better writer. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-22-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 22, 2024: Blessed Are Those Who Seek - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 22, 2024: Blessed Are Those Who Seek - Prompt. Set a timer for 13 minutes and begin taking notes using the prompts below. —Make a list of five thoughts/ideas you have about the season of Lent. —Find and write down three quotes about Lent from others that help you feel seen and known. —Make a list of five things worthy of grief. —With any remaining time, take notes about the items on your lists or anything else that comes to mind. Those who aren’t Christians are welcome to use these prompts: —Make a list of five thoughts/ideas you have about the reality of suffering. —Find and write down three quotes about suffering from others that help you feel seen and known. —Make a list of five things worthy of grief. —With any remaining time, take notes about the items on your lists or anything else that comes to mind. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 22, 2024: Blessed Are Those Who Seek - Practice. Return to these prompts and your notes during the next few days. Notice how your thoughts on Lent or suffering develop after taking these notes. Be curious and see what happens next. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-21-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-03-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 21, 2024: More Blank Space - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to a song that helps you feel less alone in the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 21, 2024: More Blank Space - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and respond to one or more of the questions below: How have recent or past tragedies shaken your reality? What specific things, events, circumstances do you wish could be undone? How have you noticed God’s presence in your creative work and beyond during the past week? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 21, 2024: More Blank Space - Practice. Schedule some blank space in your day today. At least 15 minutes. An hour is great. Two hours are better. Just be. No agenda. Do something that feels frivolous or rest your eyes or sit in a cozy spot and let your mind wander. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-20-2024-with-charlotte-donlon monthly 0.5 2026-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 20, 2024: At the Center of Life with Eugene Peterson, Toni Morrison, and More - Pause. Set a timer for three minutes and set an intention to pray or hold space for anyone who comes to mind. As you think of a person’s name or face, say their first name aloud, pray the name in silence, or write it down on a piece of paper or in your journal. Try to clear any additional thoughts from your mind and let the names be the prayer or meditation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 20, 2024: At the Center of Life with Eugene Peterson, Toni Morrison, and More - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and write about the prayer/meditation exercise above. Freewrite or respond to one or more of the following questions: —How did you experience that prayer/meditation practice? —Which names surprised you? Why? —What else did you notice about the names that came to mind? —Who do you want to add to your prayer/meditation/list? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 20, 2024: At the Center of Life with Eugene Peterson, Toni Morrison, and More - Practice. Schedule one or two more rounds of the name prayer/meditation for later today. Go ahead and add it to your calendar or set a reminder. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-19-2024-with-charlotte-donlon monthly 0.5 2026-03-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 19, 2024: What do YOU need today? - Pause. Set a timer for three minutes and pause in a way that’s helpful for you right now. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 19, 2024: What do YOU need today? - Prompt. Set a timer for five minutes and make a list of things you want to write about one day soon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 19, 2024: What do YOU need today? - Practice. Check in with yourself a few times throughout the day. How can you determine what your body, mind, and soul need today? How can you give yourself what you need today? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-18-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 18, 2024: Bring a Poem Alive with Robert Haas, Maura Stanton, and More - Pause. Do a few rounds of box breathing. “Box breathing refers to the fact that a box has four sides, a concept represented here by breathing while you slowly count to four for a total of four times — four counts of breathing in, four counts of holding your breath, four counts of exhaling, and four more counts of holding after your exhale.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 18, 2024: Bring a Poem Alive with Robert Haas, Maura Stanton, and More - Prompt. Read the poem “Spring” by Maura Stanton aloud three times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 18, 2024: Bring a Poem Alive with Robert Haas, Maura Stanton, and More - Practice. Using the poem above as a guide, set a timer for 10 minutes and explore an abstraction by asking questions, making observations, and giving commands that incorporate elements of the natural world. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-17-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 17, 2024: The Poems Always Know with Ashley M. Jones - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 17, 2024: The Poems Always Know with Ashley M. Jones - Prompt. Watch this 7(ish)-minute video of Ashley M. Jones on poetry and prayer from yesterday’s SDW Four-Hour Retreat. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 17, 2024: The Poems Always Know with Ashley M. Jones - Practice. Journal for five minutes in response to Ashley’s poems and the questions she asks. What do these poems seem to know? And what are they telling you? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-16-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 16, 2024: Move Away from Chaos and Towards Peace - Pause. Close your eyes. During your next inhale, say “receive peace” to yourself and imagine inhabiting a peaceful scene. During your next exhale, say “release chaos,” and visualize chaos leaving. Breathe in peace and breathe out chaos 10 times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 16, 2024: Move Away from Chaos and Towards Peace - Prompt. List five things that bring peace to your life and writing practice. List five things that bring chaos to your life and writing practice. Take notes for seven minutes about your lists and anything else that comes to mind. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 16, 2024: Move Away from Chaos and Towards Peace - Practice. Be intentional and put yourself in the way of things that bring you peace today and in the coming days. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-15-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 15, 2024: When Language Fails with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes and meditate on Elegy to the Spanish Republic by Robert Motherwell. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 15, 2024: When Language Fails with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Prompt. Find some art materials in your house--this could be as simple as a pen or markers or as elaborate as found scraps of colored paper and glue. Using as much time as you have available, portray your tears visually. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 15, 2024: When Language Fails with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Practice. Is there another mode of expression that is best suited to convey your tears? Meditate on tears using music, cooking, movement--whatever comes naturally to you. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-14-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-03-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 14, 2024: Waiting with Those Who Cry with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes and meditate on the scuplture Negro Lament by Hélène Sardeau. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 14, 2024: Waiting with Those Who Cry with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Prompt. Who do you accompany in grief? Who accompanies you in grief? Write for five minutes about those you weep with, or those who might need you to weep with them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 14, 2024: Waiting with Those Who Cry with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Practice. Reread what you've written. Do your words contain an invitation toward action for you today? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-13-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 13, 2024: Where We Cry with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes and meditate on Under the Weeping Ash Tree by Sarah Paxton Ball Dodson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 13, 2024: Where We Cry with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Prompt. Where do you go when you cry? Write about the places your tears take you. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 13, 2024: Where We Cry with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Practice. List the last five places where you have cried. Do you think fondly of those places? Do they trouble you? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-12-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 12, 2024: When Tears Fall with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes and meditate on And Women Must Weep by Rockwell Kent. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 12, 2024: When Tears Fall with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Prompt. Tears are one of the hardest human experiences to write about in fresh language. List five cliches that are often used to write about tears. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 12, 2024: When Tears Fall with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Practice. Now practice writing about tears without cliche, beginning with fresh verbs: Write "tears" five times on a piece of paper. Then follow each instance of the word with a surprising verb. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-11-2024-catherine-ricketts monthly 0.5 2026-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 11, 2024: On Tears with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Pause. Set a timer for two minutes and meditate on Weeping Man by Leonard Baskin. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 11, 2024: On Tears with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Prompt. In the Christian year, it is the season of Lent--a season of lament and reflection. This week, we will meditate on tears. It’s difficult to write about tears without slipping into sentimentality, so our prompts will give us ideas for writing about tears with fresh language, while inviting us to reflect on the things that grieve us and provoke this fundamental human response. Heather Christle writes, “I suppose some people can weep softly and become more beautiful, but after a real cry, most people are hideous, as if they’ve grown a spare and diseased face beneath the one you know, leaving very little room for the eyes.” Prose about emotion that is grounded in the physical body can prevent us from slipping into abstraction and sentimentality. What do you look like when you cry? Free-write on this for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 11, 2024: On Tears with Heather Christle and Catherine Ricketts - Practice. Study your face in the mirror for two whole minutes. Later today, study it again. Notice whether your face changes from one time of day to the next. Consider writing about this. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-10-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 10, 2024: Spring Again with Maggie Smith, Mindful Walking, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art, Nanakusa (Seven Herbs of Early Spring), from Momoyogusa (A World of Things), Volume 3. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 10, 2024: Spring Again with Maggie Smith, Mindful Walking, and More - Prompt. Read or listen to “Not everything is a poem” by Maggie Smith. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 10, 2024: Spring Again with Maggie Smith, Mindful Walking, and More - Practice. Set a timer for five minutes and freewrite in response to the poem, the art, and spring. Set a timer for five minutes and draw a sketch of the art. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-9-2024-posture-of-gratitude-nicole-parsons monthly 0.5 2025-03-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 9, 2024: A Posture of Gratitude with Nicole Parsons - Pause. Find a quiet place with some privacy. Find a way that feels comfortable for you to kneel or bow. Then repeat the words “thank you” at your own pace, silently or out loud. Spend two minutes in this attitude and posture of gratefulness. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 9, 2024: A Posture of Gratitude with Nicole Parsons - Prompt. Take five minutes to write a whole bunch of very short thank you notes to the things you see in your immediate environment. Be direct and specific (“Thank you pen for not being out of ink.”). This will feel silly, but write as many thanks to as many different things as you can in five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 9, 2024: A Posture of Gratitude with Nicole Parsons - Practice. Pick one of the objects you just thanked, one that feels like you just now really notice it. Write about it for 8 minutes. Observe it closely. How is it made? What does it look like, feel like? What can you imagine about the person who dreamed it up, designed it? How much intention and work, trial and error might have been put into this object before it came to your space? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-8-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 8, 2024: More God Everywhere with Anne Sexton - Pause. Listen to this short Bach Trio. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 8, 2024: More God Everywhere with Anne Sexton - Prompt. Read “The Fury of Sunrises” by Anne Sexton. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 8, 2024: More God Everywhere with Anne Sexton - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and sit in silence. Take notes if you like. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-7-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 7, 2024: A Quiet Aura with Charlotte Brontë - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read the poem “Pleasure” by Charlotte Brontë. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 7, 2024: A Quiet Aura with Charlotte Brontë - Prompt. Do visio divina for seven minutes using this art and these instructions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 7, 2024: A Quiet Aura with Charlotte Brontë - Practice. Sit outside in silence for six minutes today. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-6-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-03-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 6, 2024: Lots of Water with Brian Doyle, Frederick Buechner, and More - Pause. Watch this Niagara Falls webcam or this Lisbon Falls webcam for two minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 6, 2024: Lots of Water with Brian Doyle, Frederick Buechner, and More - Prompt. Read “Twice More to the Lake” by Brian Doyle. Begin a new story, poem, or letter to a friend inspired by a memory connected to water. Write for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 6, 2024: Lots of Water with Brian Doyle, Frederick Buechner, and More - Practice. Do three slow silent readings of this poem or this Scripture passage. Choose a few lines to write down by hand. Read those same lines aloud twice. Put both hands under running water for two minutes. Take notes or journal about water, the Pause, the Prompt, and this Practice for four minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-5-2024-charlie-kaufman-our-art-needs-to-reflect-our-world monthly 0.5 2026-03-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 5, 2024: Reflecting the World in Our Work with Charlie Kaufman - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to “I Shall Not Walk Alone” by The Blind Boys of Alabama. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 5, 2024: Reflecting the World in Our Work with Charlie Kaufman - Prompt. Read the quotes below from a speech Charlie Kaufman gave last year. “We are trained to do the bidding of people who are motivated not by curiosity but by protecting their jobs.” ”Our work is to reflect the world, say what is true in the face of so much lying.” ”I do know that art means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of the power which holds it hostage.” (Adrienne Rich) ”The world is a mess. The world is beautiful. The world is impossibly complicated. And we have the opportunity to explore that.” ”Be nervous. Be vulnerable. Just make your story honest and tell it.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 5, 2024: Reflecting the World in Our Work with Charlie Kaufman - Practice. At the end of the speech quoted above, Kaufman expressed gratitude for the opportunity to reflect on screenwriters' work and why it's important. I invite you to reflect on your writing and why it’s important. Set a timer for seven minutes and journal or take notes on the importance of your writing and work. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-4-2024-therapy-and-novel-writing monthly 0.5 2026-03-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 4, 2024: Making Maps, Therapy, and Novel Writing - Pause. Read “The Map” by Elizabeth Bishop. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 4, 2024: Making Maps, Therapy, and Novel Writing - Prompt. “Making a Map: On Therapy and Novel Writing” by Erin Griffin Collum: “Writing my novel became its own parallel track to my therapy sessions and to living in a pandemic. It helped me uncover what I wanted and thought and felt throughout a year that shoved us all out of our windows of tolerance. It helped me understand what I find fun, and it helped me validate myself. I wrote for the right reasons: because I wanted to, because it felt good, and because it was a project I cared about. Now, when the “before times” confusion sets in, it’s still hard. There’s still hurt and grit and darkness. There’s still news in my inbox about death tolls and division that knocks the breath out of me. Nothing about the last year and a half has been easy or simple. And yet. Now I know how to find my way. I know how to make a map.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 4, 2024: Making Maps, Therapy, and Novel Writing - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the quote above. Use one or more of these questions if you like: How do you know if you’re writing for the right reasons? What are some of the wrong reasons? How is writing a form of play for you? How does writing help you know more of yourself? How does writing help you find your way through difficulty? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-3-2024-hoping-for-hope-with-mary-karr monthly 0.5 2026-03-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 3, 2024: Hoping for Hope with Mary Karr - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 3, 2024: Hoping for Hope with Mary Karr - Prompt. Read this quote by Mary Karr: “No life is all bleak… That’s what’s so gorgeous about humanity. It doesn’t matter how bleak our daily lives are, we still fight for the light. I think that’s our divinity. We lean into love, even in the most hideous circumstances. We manage to hope.” —Mary Karr, The Paris Review https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 3, 2024: Hoping for Hope with Mary Karr - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the quote above. How is life not bleak right now? What’s gorgeous about humanity right now? How do you put yourself in the way of light? How do you lean into love? What are you hoping for? Or, how do you hope for hope? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-2-2024-rain-in-literature monthly 0.5 2025-03-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 2, 2024: Rain in Literature with Kazim Ali, Colson Whitehead, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Rain” by Kazim Ali. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 2, 2024: Rain in Literature with Kazim Ali, Colson Whitehead, and More - Prompt. Here’s more writing on rain from Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York: “Out on the street they hardly notice the clouds before it starts raining. The rain comes down in sheets. Drenched all at once, not drop by drop. The first drop is the pistol at the start of the race and at that crack people move for shelter, any ragtag thing, they huddle under ripped awnings, the doorway of the diner, suddenly an appetite for coffee. Pressed up against buildings as if on the lam. Little sprints and dashes between horizontal cover. Dry here. Surely it will stop soon, they think. They can wait it out. It cannot last forever.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 2, 2024: Rain in Literature with Kazim Ali, Colson Whitehead, and More - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write about rain. Write what you know and what you don’t know. Write a prayer. Write the truth or make up some stuff. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/march-1-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-03-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 1, 2024: Places and Their Stories with Toni Morrison and Megan Dohm - Pause. Read this quote from Beloved by Toni Morrison: “Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place--the picture of it--stays, and not just in my remory, but out there, in the world. What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head. I mean, even if I don't think if, even if I die, the picture of what I did, or knew, or saw is still out there. Right in the place where it happened.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 1, 2024: Places and Their Stories with Toni Morrison and Megan Dohm - Prompt. Here’s an excerpt from “The Lost Midwives of Ocracoke” by Megan Dohm: “Ocracoke is a small slip of an island off the North Carolina coast. It’s a place where some of the houses were built with timber stripped from shipwrecks, a place with countless stories of lost sailors, of German U-boats dangerously close to shore, of a beheaded pirate swimming laps around the wreckage of his ship. The memory of storms has soaked into the roots of trees, into people, and into the low tide silt — the kind of storms that demolish two churches, two schools, and 30 houses in less than a day, and leave drowned chickens up in the trees.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for March 1, 2024: Places and Their Stories with Toni Morrison and Megan Dohm - Practice. Set a timer for 10 minutes and begin writing about a familiar place. Using the quotes above as guides, describe the place with unique and specific details. Maybe some of these questions will help you determine what to include: What sets this place apart? Which stories does this place hold? What does this place remember? What has this place forgotten? What do you see in this place that others might not see? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-29-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-11-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 29, 2024: Gregory Orr and Poems That Move Us - Pause. Go outside if you’re able to do so. Then take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then take six more deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 29, 2024: Gregory Orr and Poems That Move Us - Prompt. Read the poem below from Gregory Orr’s Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/9c27eafd-38d4-494c-8d9e-fbb91dbfcca8/IMG_3122+%281%29.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 29, 2024: Gregory Orr and Poems That Move Us - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 29, 2024: Gregory Orr and Poems That Move Us - Practice. Which poems (or lines or phrases from poems) have moved you in the past? Set a timer for five minutes and begin making a list. Then keep your list nearby. Return to the poems, lines, and phrases that move you. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-28-2024-word-offerings-divine-encounters-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2026-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 28, 2024: Word Offerings and Divine Encounters with Lauren Winner - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then listen to NPR’s Guy Raz interview Lauren Winner. Give particular attention to a story about how she met God in a particular way during a church service. The story begins 3 minutes and 15 seconds into the interview. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 28, 2024: Word Offerings and Divine Encounters with Lauren Winner - Prompt. After listening to this story, set a timer for eight minutes and use the scene described as a prompt to begin a prayer, new fiction, a new essay, or a new poem. What happens next? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 28, 2024: Word Offerings and Divine Encounters with Lauren Winner - Practice. Here are more questions to consider in the coming hours and days: How have you met the divine in a way you weren’t expecting? How do you wish you could notice the divine today or one day soon? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-25-2024-breath-and-prayer monthly 0.5 2026-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 25, 2024: Breath, Uncertainty, and a Prayer by Gertrude the Great - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. This six-count inhale and six-count exhale will help integrate your body+mind+soul. All religions from the beginning of time have prayers that use a six count inhale and six count exhale structure. (Read more in Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 25, 2024: Breath, Uncertainty, and a Prayer by Gertrude the Great - Prompt. Read “a brief meditation on breath” by Yesenia Montilla. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 25, 2024: Breath, Uncertainty, and a Prayer by Gertrude the Great - Practice. Here’s a quote by Montilla about the poem above: “I started this poem at the beginning of the pandemic. I am part of an incredible women’s writing group led by the incomparable Cheryl Boyce Taylor and she had tasked us to write through the uncertainty. I could not help but make the correlation between the inability to take in breath—a symptom of COVID-19 and the loss of breath at the hands of the police—a reality of being Black in America. This was before we knew that this virus would take us in such higher numbers compared to white folks. This was before George Floyd and all that has happened and continues to happen and will continue to happen as we try to get free.” Set a timer for seven minutes and respond to these questions: What were you uncertain of during March of 2020? What are you uncertain of now? What will you be uncertain of in four years? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-27-2024-ada-limon-forsythia-taking-notes-outside monthly 0.5 2026-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 27, 2024: Ada Limón, Forsythia, and Taking Notes Outside - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at this art. Then read the art description below the image in the link. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 27, 2024: Ada Limón, Forsythia, and Taking Notes Outside - Prompt. Listen to Ada Limón read the poem “Forsythia.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 27, 2024: Ada Limón, Forsythia, and Taking Notes Outside - Practice. Go outside, set a timer for seven minutes, and take notes on some of the things you can see, hear, touch, and notice today, right now. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-26-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 26, 2024: Marveling at Poems with Mark Jarman - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then read “Unholy Sonnet 11” by Mark Jarman. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 26, 2024: Marveling at Poems with Mark Jarman - Prompt. Set a timer for seven minutes and begin a response to this prompt from Mark Jarman: “Take a poem you wish you had written—a poem you love and marvel at—and go ahead and try to write your version of it. This occurs in poetry more often than you might think. “Sailing to Byzantium” is W. B. Yeats’s version of John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale,” for example, and “The Windhover” is clearly Gerard Manley Hopkins’ version of the Keats poem. I had long admired and marveled at “Home Burial” by Robert Frost. But it was not until I began to write “Questions for Ecclesiastes” that I was able to recognize that it was my version of Frost’s great poem. This might seem like a tall order and much more than an exercise. But it’s worth it, even if it takes you a lifetime.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 26, 2024: Marveling at Poems with Mark Jarman - Practice. In the coming hours or days, read three of the poems Jarman mentions in the prompt above: “Ode to a Nightingale”, “Sailing to Byzantium”, and “The Windhover”. Study the similarities, differences, and influences. Take notes. See what happens next. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-24-2024-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2024-11-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 24, 2024: Anna Atkins, Cyanotypes, and Figuring It Out with Lauren Winner - Pause. For one minute, look at this cyanotype by Anna Atkins. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 24, 2024: Anna Atkins, Cyanotypes, and Figuring It Out with Lauren Winner - Prompt. Atkins (1799-1871) was one of cyanotype’s early adopters; she used the method (which was invented in 1842) to capture plant life. The Public Domain Review explains how cyanotypes are made: an “object is placed on paper which has been treated with ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, after which it is exposed to sunlight and then washed in water, leading to the uncovered areas of the paper turning a dark blue.” Here’s another cyanotype by Anna Atkins. And here’s another one. Photography dealer Jeffrey Fraenkel has said, about cyanotyopes, “The color blue strikes some chord in us that goes beyond words.” For three minutes, brainstorm the blue objects in your life, past and present, that have been important to you. Then, if you wish, write toward one of them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 24, 2024: Anna Atkins, Cyanotypes, and Figuring It Out with Lauren Winner - Practice. Click on the cyanotype here to call up five images by five different people (Atkins is one), and take a minute or two with each image. Make a cyanotype (you will not need a camera; you will need cyanotype paper). https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-23-2024-hallie-waugh monthly 0.5 2026-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 23, 2024: Hallie Waugh on Scent, Memory, Paying Attention, and More - Pause. When you get a chance, step outside. Breathe in deeply through your nose for five breaths. What do you smell? What does that scent tell you about the world around you? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 23, 2024: Hallie Waugh on Scent, Memory, Paying Attention, and More - Prompt. Set a timer for five minutes and write a list of scents that have formed you, starting with your childhood. Choose one of the scents and flesh it out into a paragraph or longer piece for five more minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 23, 2024: Hallie Waugh on Scent, Memory, Paying Attention, and More - Practice. Immerse yourself in an aroma that is meaningful to you this week. Maybe it’s the scent of fresh-baked bread, your favorite perfume, or the smell of clean laundry. Return to your list of scents from the prompt above. Write vignettes for as many scents as you’d like, or use this list for future writing prompts and ideas. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-21-2024-hidden-silence-with-hallie-waugh-quieting-yourself-music-and-more monthly 0.5 2024-11-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 21, 2024: Hidden Silence with Hallie Waugh, Quieting Yourself, Music, and More - Pause. For five minutes, practice “quieting.” Sit still and listen for the quietest sound you can hear. Then, listen for the next quietest sound, and the next, and so on. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 21, 2024: Hidden Silence with Hallie Waugh, Quieting Yourself, Music, and More - Prompt. Choose a favorite piece of music—anything will do, whether a classical arrangement or your favorite pop song from high school. Write a few paragraphs describing the song to someone as if they’ve never heard it before. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 21, 2024: Hidden Silence with Hallie Waugh, Quieting Yourself, Music, and More - Practice. Try the practice of quieting several times throughout your day, or incorporate it into your daily routine. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-22-2024 monthly 0.5 2026-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 22, 2024: Hallie Waugh with Full Bellies, Poetry, and More - Pause. Take a sip or a bite of something you love that’s readily available. Practice mindful eating (or drinking) by sitting in silence, chewing slowly, and noticing how the taste makes you feel. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 22, 2024: Hallie Waugh with Full Bellies, Poetry, and More - Prompt. Set a timer for ten minutes and write about a meal you will never forget. Use as many sensory descriptors as you can. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 22, 2024: Hallie Waugh with Full Bellies, Poetry, and More - Practice. Read this poem. Go to the supermarket this week and purchase a fruit or vegetable you typically don’t use—I’m thinking starfruit, dragonfruit, or leeks. Do a quick search on how to cook it, or enjoy it fresh. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-20-2024-hallie-waugh-david-linden monthly 0.5 2026-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 20, 2024: When Touch Transcends Language with Hallie Waugh, David Linden, the Science of Touch, and More - Pause. Sit in a comfortable position and set a timer for three minutes. Notice what sensations you feel on your skin: the way your body rests on the chair beneath you, the temperature of the air, the feel of your feet on the ground. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 20, 2024: When Touch Transcends Language with Hallie Waugh, David Linden, the Science of Touch, and More - Prompt. Think of a time when touch transcended language or created intense emotions. Set a timer for 10 minutes and write that scene using as many sensory descriptors as possible. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 20, 2024: When Touch Transcends Language with Hallie Waugh, David Linden, the Science of Touch, and More - Practice. Use some time throughout your day mindfully touching your surroundings and observing what you feel—the knit blanket on your couch, the fur of your dog, cool stones by the water, or the grass in your lawn. Practice “grounding” by sitting with your bare feet on the earth for three to five minutes. Try the 20-second hug with someone in your life. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-19-2024-jack-whitten-abstraction-sending-out-scouts monthly 0.5 2026-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 19, 2024: Jack Whitten, Abstraction, Sending out Scouts, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 19, 2024: Jack Whitten, Abstraction, Sending out Scouts, and More - Prompt. Read this quote about Jack Whitten’s art and look at the image below. “To become familiar with Whitten’s art is to realise that the terms ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’ need no foundation in religion, nor need they reduce to literary metaphors. Whitten gave soul a visual presence, a reality. He constructed his later works, many of them grand in scale, by accumulating small units of cast acrylic paint, often translucent, and organising them like the tesserae of ancient Mediterranean mosaics. He canted the units slightly, so they absorbed light from multiple directions and reflected it back in expanding waves of luminescence. His method expressed – or perhaps liberated – the soul of the material, of the colour, of the light. He did not depict something that possessed soul; rather, he established soul itself within the matter of his painting.” Quote from https://www.apollo-magazine.com/the-art-and-wisdom-of-jack-whitten/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/7db526d2-52d3-4c1b-81d2-a019a1e34b85/Black+Monolith+I%2C+A+Tribute+to+James+Baldwin+%281988%29+by+Jack+Whitten.jpg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 19, 2024: Jack Whitten, Abstraction, Sending out Scouts, and More - Make it stand out Black Monolith I, A Tribute to James Baldwin (1988) By Jack Whitten https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 19, 2024: Jack Whitten, Abstraction, Sending out Scouts, and More - Practice. Read this quote from Jack Whitten then set a timer for 5-7 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the quotes, art, and questions below. “I tend to do a bunch of drawings before the painting season starts. And I call the drawings—I call them scouts. As a kid—I grew up in Alabama—as a kid I grew up with cowboy and Indian movies, where you would send a scout to see what was going on. I think of the drawings that way. When I do the drawings, I have the material, and I’m just sending the material out, looking for stuff. But the stuff that comes back from the drawings, I can deal with in the paintings. So there is no specific drawing for a specific painting…” What are the “scouts” for your writing and creative process? What do you send out in the earlier phases of a new project? What do you hope to receive? Quote from https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/03/01/quantum-wall-an-interview-with-jack-whitten/ https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-18-2024-hallie-waugh monthly 0.5 2026-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 18, 2024: Unmixed Attention with Hallie Waugh, Colors, Matisse, and More - Pause. Close your eyes for six slow breaths. Then, open them and look at your surroundings. What stands out as interesting? What is your eye drawn to? Where is the light? The shadow? Notice how it feels in your body to pay close visual attention to your surroundings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 18, 2024: Unmixed Attention with Hallie Waugh, Colors, Matisse, and More - Prompt. Use your thumbs and forefingers to frame something in your environment. Take 7-10 minutes to write about what you see in the frame. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 18, 2024: Unmixed Attention with Hallie Waugh, Colors, Matisse, and More - Practice. Sketch your surroundings. Spend some time observing the colors and shapes in this painting by Matisse. Read this poem by Mary Oliver. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-17-2024-lauren-winner monthly 0.5 2026-02-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 17, 2024: Longer Endings with Lauren Winner, Portraits, Women’s Suffrage, and More - Pause. For one minute, gaze at this 1913 lithograph by B. M. Boye. Let your eyes linger where they linger. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 17, 2024: Longer Endings with Lauren Winner, Portraits, Women’s Suffrage, and More - Prompt. Last Saturday, we met Kate Clarke Lemay, a curator and historian at the National Portrait Gallery. She curated the 2019-2020 exhibition Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence, in which the lithograph appeared. Women whose portraits were featured in the exhibition include Ida B. Wells, Alice Paul, and Mary McLeod Bethune. Votes for Women also included images made as recently as 1965, such as a photograph of activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Explaining why she included images and objects created after 1920, Lemay told the Washington Post “The 19th Amendment didn’t wrap things up in a pretty bow…It didn’t resolve the disenfranchisement of women for everybody. Black women, Native American women — any minority woman — still had all of these impediments to their voting rights until” the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The story of woman suffrage, in other words, is a story that in fact unfolds for many years after the event that some people might have thought its conclusion. What are other stories that extend long beyond the event that many might mistakenly think their end? Brainstorm for three minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 17, 2024: Longer Endings with Lauren Winner, Portraits, Women’s Suffrage, and More - Practice. Call up an older relative—your sister, your aunt, your grandmother—and try to learn as much as you can about woman suffrage in your family. Who was the first woman in your family to vote? Under what circumstances? What voting barriers, if any, have women in your family faced in the past few generations? If no one in your family knows, try piece together what’s plausible: who, likely, were the first women in your family to vote? Where were they likely living when they voted, and in what election might they have cast their first ballots? In response to what you learn, or what you suppose, write a scene that places one of your foremothers in an electoral context. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/february-22-2024-hallie-waugh monthly 0.5 2024-11-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 16, 2024: The Abundant Life, Deep Breaths, Divine Drawing, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. This six-count inhale and six-count exhale will help integrate your body+mind+soul. All religions from the beginning of time have prayers that use a six count inhale and six count exhale structure. (Read more in Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 16, 2024: The Abundant Life, Deep Breaths, Divine Drawing, and More - Prompt. Set a timer for five minutes. Think about the past week and the coming week and answer these questions: What abundance did you experience this week? (The good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful) What abundance do you want in the coming week? What do you want to write about next week? What do you want to skip writing about next week? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 16, 2024: The Abundant Life, Deep Breaths, Divine Drawing, and More - Practice. Pick one contemplative practice to do today that will help you honor where you are right now. You know what you need. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/lauren-winner-february-24-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 15, 2024: “Direct Your Heart Upward” with Flowers, Death, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while looking at the art on this Instagram post at @art_and_theology. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 15, 2024: “Direct Your Heart Upward” with Flowers, Death, and More - Prompt. The German text in the folk artwork linked above translates to “Flowers are not all red. All men hasten toward death. Man cannot remain here, so direct your heart upward, 1802.” Set a timer for five minutes and take notes in response to that quote. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 15, 2024: “Direct Your Heart Upward” with Flowers, Death, and More - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the questions below. Google images of flowers. Which are your favorites? Describe them. What colors are they? Which red flowers catch your attention? Write a few lines of prose or poetry about the flowers you’ve looked at online. Now think a bit about how your hastening toward death intersects with your creative work and take notes. How can knowing death’s reality be motivation to write or motivation to skip writing? What are some specific ways you can “direct your heart upward”? How can this idea nourish your soul and help you notice how you belong to yourself, your creative work, and the divine? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/charlotte-donlon-february-14-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 14, 2024: “No Remedy for Time” with Octavio Paz, “Between Going and Staying,” and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 14, 2024: “No Remedy for Time” with Octavio Paz, “Between Going and Staying,” and More - Prompt. Read the poem below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 14, 2024: “No Remedy for Time” with Octavio Paz, “Between Going and Staying,” and More - Practice. Set a timer for seven minutes and write in response to the poem and the questions below. What happens between a day’s going and staying? What does this poem tell you about time? How are you a pause? Here’s another quote by Octavio Paz: ”We are time and cannot escape its dominion. We can transfigure it but not deny it or destroy it. This is what the great artists, poets, philosophers, scientists, and certain men of action have done.” How does time maintain its power in your life? How do you transfigure time? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/charlotte-donlon-february-13-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-02-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 13, 2024: “Like Most Miracles” with Leila Chatti, the Sound of Silence, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 13, 2024: “Like Most Miracles” with Leila Chatti, the Sound of Silence, and More - Prompt. What does quiet sound like? Set a timer for seven minutes and freewrite. See what you come up with. What metaphors capture the sound of silence? Which images? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 13, 2024: “Like Most Miracles” with Leila Chatti, the Sound of Silence, and More - Practice. Read or listen to “I Went Out to Hear” by Leila Chatti. Then take more notes about the sound of silence in this poem, in life, in nature. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/charlotte-donlon-february-12-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-02-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 12, 2024: “Art Is Long” with Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 12, 2024: “Art Is Long” with Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, and More - Prompt. Read “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/cd8a66ec-777f-40d1-b5a6-d8bc87190820/Ernest+Longfellow+View+of+Sailboat+1856.jpeg Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 12, 2024: “Art Is Long” with Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, and More - Make it stand out “View of Sailboat” by Ernest Lonfellow (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s son), 1856 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 12, 2024: “Art Is Long” with Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, and More - Practice. Read “A Psalm of Life” one more time. Make a list of 10 words from the poem that have energy for you right now. Copy down five lines that are interesting to you for some reason. Sit with your lists for a few minutes and take notes of observations and anything that comes to mind. Then write a response to the poem or freewrite for seven minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/charlotte-donlon-february-11-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-02-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 11, 2024: “We Don’t Have to Make It More Complicated Than It Is” - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 11, 2024: “We Don’t Have to Make It More Complicated Than It Is” - Prompt. Make a list of all of the reasons you don’t write as often as you’d like. Then make a list of things you think you need to have or do be before you can do the writing you want to do. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/1e67110f-86ec-4d6f-bfd0-e4f294371cd5/Spiritual+Direction+for+Writers%C2%AE+Writing+Is+Not+Complicated.PNG Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 11, 2024: “We Don’t Have to Make It More Complicated Than It Is” - If you want to write, pick up a pen and start writing. If you want to become a better writer, write more words and read more books. If you want some help along the way, get some help. But please ignore the voices that say you're incapable of writing until you do X or buy Y or follow Z. You have everything you need right now. Promise. We don’t have to make this more complicated than it is. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 11, 2024: “We Don’t Have to Make It More Complicated Than It Is” - Practice. What do you need to cross of the lists you made? Can you grab a pen and paper and write a sentence, a phrase, a word? https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/lauren-winner-february-10-2024 monthly 0.5 2024-02-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 10, 2024: “Figuring It Out” with Lauren Winner, Martha Mitchell, and More - Pause. For one minute, gaze at this 1970 portrait of Martha Mitchell, and allow Mitchell to gaze at you. What does your face do in response to her gaze? (I find myself beginning to smile.) What begins to happen between you and her as you look at one another? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 10, 2024: “Figuring It Out” with Lauren Winner, Martha Mitchell, and More - Prompt. Kate Clarke Lemay was the curator for the National Portrait Gallery’s 2022 exhibit Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue, in which the portrait of Mitchell appeared. In an interview about her work as a curator and art historian, Lemay was asked “What are five words that come to mind when you think about the idea of living an artful life?” She said: “Openness, motivation, curiosity, discipline, and time. ….I think two of the words go together: openness and time. Often I have my best ideas when I have the space and time to open up, observe the world, and make connections…. My creative brainstorming happens best when I have time and space to listen to my hunches — those little voices in the corner of my mind that all too often get squashed out by everyday responsibilities.” How do you respond to Lemay’s insights into an artful life? (Yesterday, they made me feel irritated and stressed. Today they make me feel curious and hopeful.) Write in response for five minutes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 10, 2024: “Figuring It Out” with Lauren Winner, Martha Mitchell, and More - Practice. Lemay (whom we’ll hear from again next Saturday) also said: “When has art made me stop in my tracks? When have I really felt moved, and why was that?” How do you respond to those questions? Write for eight minutes. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/sarah-sanderson-stones-of-remembrance-pam-houston-and-more monthly 0.5 2024-02-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 9, 2024: “Stones of Remembrance” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Pam Houston, and More - Pause. Scroll through this photo essay on stone carving in Mexico. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 9, 2024: “Stones of Remembrance” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Pam Houston, and More - Prompt. Artists throughout human history and all around the world have used stone as a medium. Many times, the impulse to work in stone stems from a desire to create something lasting. What do you hope to create—whether through your writing or another aspect of your life—that will last beyond your lifetime? What has been passed on to you from those who came before? Take five minutes to write a response to these questions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 9, 2024: “Stones of Remembrance” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Pam Houston, and More - Practice. Stone can be used for elaborate sculptures, or something as simple as a stone pile of remembrance. Take a moment to make your own stone pile of remembrance. What good things do you want to remember and celebrate—from the past week, from this year, or from your whole life? Draw a pile of stones on a piece of blank paper, and label each one with something to remember and celebrate. Or, create a pile of actual stones in your house or yard for this purpose. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/sarah-sanderson-calming-music-move-toward-healing monthly 0.5 2024-02-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 8, 2024: “More Healing” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Calming Music, and More - Pause. Take a minute or two to relax. Use a heating pad or heated stone if you can, or listen to some calming music. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 8, 2024: “More Healing” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Calming Music, and More - Prompt. In many cultures, stones are used for healing. Hot stone massage originated in China, and it has also been used in Africa, India, and the Americas. Think about a time when you were warm and relaxed. Set a timer for eight minutes and write about that experience. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 8, 2024: “More Healing” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Calming Music, and More - Practice. Healing comes in all kinds of ways. Often, we can choose whether to cooperate with our healing or work against it. Notice the ways you are being invited into healing today—whether through rest, laughter, conversation, solitude, community, intentionality, curiosity, or any other way. Choose to cooperate with healing if you can. Write about these experiences when you get a chance. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/sarah-sanderson-abigail-thomas-the-mission-and-more monthly 0.5 2024-02-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 7, 2024: “Weighed Down” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Abigail Thomas, The Mission, and More - Pause. Watch this clip from the movie The Mission. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 7, 2024: “Weighed Down” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Abigail Thomas, The Mission, and More - Prompt. In the clip, a former slave trader is attempting to do penance by dragging the weight of his previous life wherever he goes. What is weighing you down today? Maybe past regrets, or lies you’ve internalized, or simply the stresses and burdens of the present. Set a timer for five minutes and begin writing or drawing these feelings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 7, 2024: “Weighed Down” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Abigail Thomas, The Mission, and More - Practice. Now, watch the next clip from The Mission, in which Rodrigo is released from his burden. What would it feel like for the things that are weighing you down to simply be cut off and flung away? Who do you need to ask to do this for you? Write a letter to someone—yourself, God, or another person in your life—asking for the release you need. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/sarah-sanderson-clint-smith-and-more monthly 0.5 2024-02-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 6, 2024: “Stumbling Stones” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Clint Smith, Slips, Trips, Falls, and More - Pause. Take a few moments to watch some of this humorous video with slips, trips, and falls. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 6, 2024: “Stumbling Stones” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Clint Smith, Slips, Trips, Falls, and More - Prompt. When was the last time you tripped over something? Take five minutes to write about that experience. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 6, 2024: “Stumbling Stones” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Clint Smith, Slips, Trips, Falls, and More - Practice. Now think about a “stumbling stone” as a metaphor. Despite the painful experience of tripping or stumbling, sometimes, when an unexpected idea trips us up, it can end up moving us in a positive direction. As you go about your day, be watching for surprises—in your writing and in your life—that you may at first stumble over. How can those surprises move you to a place you didn’t expect to go? Write about them. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/for-sunday-february-5-2024-sarah-sanderson-annie-dillard-william-steig monthly 0.5 2024-02-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 5, 2024: “Grounded in the World” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Annie Dillard, William Steig, and More - Pause. If you can, find a rock or stone to hold in your hand. Feel its texture, temperature, and weight. Keep it nearby all week. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 5, 2024: “Grounded in the World” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Annie Dillard, William Steig, and More - Prompt. If rocks could speak, what would they say? If you became a rock, what would you experience? How does noticing rocks or stones keep you grounded in the world? Take nine minutes to write your response to one of these questions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 5, 2024: “Grounded in the World” with Sarah L. Sanderson, Annie Dillard, William Steig, and More - Practice. Over the next few days, notice the physical world around you and the way you feel being in it. Whenever you can, notice the sensation of your feet on the ground, or the feeling of air on your skin, or the way the physical world, with all its rocks and soil and grass and bark, presents itself to your touch. Capture those sensations in words. https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/for-sunday-february-4-2024-wake-up-to-the-coming-week-with-quotes-by-james-nestor-visio-divina-and-more monthly 0.5 2024-02-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/26ce776e-e36e-49d6-be7a-6e4f3d102ee1/Untitled+design+%282%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 4, 2024: “Wake Up to the Coming Week” with James Nestor, Visio Divina, and More - Pause. Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. This six-count inhale and six-count exhale will help integrate your body+mind+soul. All religions from the beginning of time have prayers with a six count inhale/six count exhale structure. (Read more in Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/758e62b1-bbdf-416a-a264-a6b8f830094e/SDFW+Email+Templace+Icons+%284%29.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 4, 2024: “Wake Up to the Coming Week” with James Nestor, Visio Divina, and More - Prompt. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Think about the past week and the coming week and answer these questions: What do you want more of? What do you want less of? What do you want to write about this week? What do you want to stop writing about this week? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6290bfac70d3233d23b6907d/2ef0207f-1911-42d6-be41-e9f7b6cd10fe/Untitled+design.png Daily Nourishment - Daily Nourishment for February 4, 2024: “Wake Up to the Coming Week” with James Nestor, Visio Divina, and More - Practice. Pick one contemplative practice to do today that will help you honor where you are right now as a writer and a whole person. You know what you need. (But it might be helpful for me to encourage you to think about it and make a plan!) https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/tag/Nicole+Parsons monthly 0.5 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/tag/D-Day+Sculpture monthly 0.5 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/tag/Sophfronia+Scott+Glen+Workshop monthly 0.5 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/tag/Charlie+Kaufman monthly 0.5 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/tag/spiritual+director+for+writers monthly 0.5 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/tag/Lanecia+Rouse+Artist monthly 0.5 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/tag/Biko+Mandela+Gray monthly 0.5 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/tag/Georgia+O%27Keeffe monthly 0.5 https://www.spiritualdirectionforwriters.com/daily-nourishment/tag/Chelsea+Brooke+Yarborough+writing+prompt monthly 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