Volume XI, Issue 23
June 8, 2022
Word of the Week: frontier
Dear ,
Somewhere, on my trip out West, I crossed a new frontier and contracted Covid. Luckily, it's quite a mild case (go, vaccine, go!), but I'm still taking it easy, so today's zine is a "throwback," all the way to Volume 1, Issue 29 in September of 2012. Yep, my first year of the Word-zine!
I was led by grace on this one. This afternoon, I consulted with a client whom I met through WordPlayer Bonnie McCarson many years ago. So, of course, Bonnie was on my mind as I skimmed through chart of old issues. And there she was, a featured WordPlayer, with a beautiful story about a different kind of frontier. So . . . back in the time
machine we go . . .
Well, I have been taking on a number of frontiers lately—some I haven't chosen, like the loss of a dear college friend to cancer. And some I have, like a new email service and a new teaching format
and a climb up to Max Patch Bald last week with my husband. Here I am at the top, with a 360-degree panoramic view of the North Carolina Mountains.
Life is full of frontiers, and I am inspired whenever I see someone boldly go where they "have never gone before." So I was moved when my longtime WordPlay retreat participant and coaching client,
Bonnie McCarson, sent me an essay called "The Last Great Adventure" that she wrote using the prompt from the "Adventure" Word-zine issue (http://wordplaynow.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/word-of-the-week-adventure/.)
I'll warn you, Bonnie's essay may bring tears to your eyes. But it will also make you smile.) I'm so grateful she said yes when I
asked if she'd be willing to share a slightly shortened version of it with you all.
I hope you'll join Bonnie in taking on new frontiers that challenge you to grow.
Love and light,
Upcoming WordPlay
THE GIFT OF MEMOIR
(Writing the Stories of Our Lives that Matter Most)
Our stories are a precious legacy. Writing them is a gift, not only to ourselves, but to those who love us—they’ll be treasured for generations to come. Come learn techniques to retrieve and record your life stories
of adventure, love, loss, success, and more.
Come learn a number of fun, easy approaches to your memoir writing endeavors. Workshop being held virtually via Zoom.
COST: FREE!
(Thanks to the Reynolda Manor Branch Library
of Winston-Salem)
WHERE: Wherever you are, on Zoom.
WHEN: Saturday, June 25th from 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
TO REGISTER: Email Staci, one of my favorite librarians, at [email protected] to say you'd like to come and
she'll send you a link.
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THE HEALING POWER OF WORDS
(Writing as Renewal/Creating New Writing/
Tools for a Writing Life)
What benefits can writing provide – physically, mentally, spiritually? Are some ways of writing more healing than others? And can we create quality literary work as we heal? In this workshop that incorporates Dr. James Pennebaker’s ground-breaking ideas, we’ll discuss and implement ways to use writing as a
transformational tool. And, if you’re looking, you’ll find the genesis of new poetry, creative non-fiction, and/or fiction. Warning: Laughter likely. Inspiration guaranteed. Read more about this program here.
COST: FREE!
WHERE: 7015 Carnegie Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28211
non-fiction, and/or fiction. Phone: (704) 416-5400
Get Directions.
WHEN: Thursday, June 23rd from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
More WordPlay opportunities here.
Meet Bonnie McCarson
"Working with Maureen has given me the encouragement and the tools to get going and accomplish my goals."
This photo was taken at Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, two years ago when she Bonnie was on an "adventure." Bonnie is a retired teacher with a lifelong interest in writing who also enjoys reading, travel, genealogy, gardening, and, of course, a good adventure. In her retired life she pursues a variety of new learning
experiences and activities, as well as fulfilling her writing dreams.
You can read more about Bonnie (including more details about her great adventures) at https://bonmcc.wordpress.com.
What Bonnie says about WordPlay
"I've just finished emailing my writing group—a group that has been going for six years now.
About a year before we began, having such a group was a dream of mine. Then I took an Artist's Way workshop with Maureen Ryan Griffin at the North Carolina Writers' Network. I was launched.
With a couple friends I was able to pull together a group of like-minded, creative women to commit o twelve weeks to study The Artist's Way. That was only part of my dream. The other part was to finish some of the many projects I had begun and/or wanted to write. I had been writing for a long time and had published poetry
and
nonfiction, but I wanted to do a memoir, a family history, and some fiction. I was stalled and overwhelmed by the variety of things that I wanted to do. Though I did write and had been writing for many years, I was undisciplined and disorganized in the way I approached my writing.
Working with Maureen has given me the encouragement and the tools to get going and accomplish my goals. Last year I published the family history and was able to put it into the hands of my extended family. I have completed the memoir and am now well into a historical novel. I continue to write poetry and to maintain a blog.
Maureen has been a wonderful teacher, mentor, and guide with her coaching and through the many workshops I've attended. I continue to grow and learn in working with her.
Featured Writing
The Last Great Adventure
by
Bonnie
McCarson
During our married life, my husband and I had a number of great adventures. Though many of them included harrowing moments, they were fond memories we often recalled. Now they remain as pleasant reverie and comfort.
The first such adventure began when we packed the few things we owned into a U-Haul trailer around the time of our first anniversary and moved from our home in the beautiful mountains across the length of North Carolina to a lonely outpost on the northeastern coast. We'd gotten a job offer from that area when none were forthcoming in our home area of Asheville, and the person recruiting us had painted the area
we would be moving to as a Garden of Eden. How could we decline?
Once we were settled in a rented cottage on the Currituck Sound, we discovered we were also just at the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp and that, perhaps, we'd been a bit naïve. Dismal was a good word for much of the year we spent there, though it was educational. Living through a very cold winter in a summer cottage taught us much, especially
that we wanted to move back, closer to home and to civilization. Currituck then was desolate in the winter.
We really made the decision to move closer toward home after making an impromptu trip back to Asheville for Thanksgiving—eight hours drive each way, during which time I read aloud to my husband and our puppy from Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. A few years later in our new home in the Piedmont of North Carolina, after we'd taken on the adventure of becoming parents and building a house, we began to
muse about our dream vacations. Short of money, we came up with plan for seeing as much of the country as possible on a budget, inspired, of course, by Steinbeck and Charley.
Over the years, we had a number of memorable adventures, camping far and near. Our trips became the subject of much reminiscing and laughter.
Life, as we all know, brings not only adventures but also great challenges. After we gave up camping we had other adventures, like the marriages of two of our sons and the births of our grandchildren, but those travel adventures were the ones I recalled for my husband the day after he'd been moved into Palliative Care.
For two months he had been facing one of the biggest challenges of his life in the form of critical illness. Like Steinbeck's when he traveled the country in his camper, my husband's health was failing. When, per his wishes, the feeding tube had been removed, and his illness was sapping the last of his life, I reminded him of all the great adventures we'd had. We held hands and laughed and wept together, and
accepted that inevitable one great adventure he was preparing to face.
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt
This is WordPlay—so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word
after another? This week, it's "frontier."
PROMPT:
So often, when we write, we look back at where we have been for inspiration, whether we are writing fiction, memoir, essay, or poetry. This week, look forward instead, through your own eyes or the eyes
of one of your characters. Writing is a great tool for bringing dreams of new frontiers to life, after all.
So it's "bucket list" time. Give yourself a good thirty minutes to come up with a list of 50 things you (or a character) would love to accomplish. Where will you go? Who will you connect with? What goals
will you achieve? Dream big!
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of Writing, two grief, healing, and gratitude workbooks entitled How Do I Say Goodbye? and Praying You Goodbye, and three
collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another."
Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best learn—and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours!
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