Volume XI, Issue
28
July 13, 2022
Word of the Week: fulfill
Dear ,
I have been dreaming about visiting Alaska since I received a little Golden book for Christmas back in the early 1060's, featuring Yogi and Boo Boo Bear traveling to visit Yogi's Uncle Kodiak in Alaska, "one of the new states."
And finally, a dream fulfilled: Richard and I are here! Forgive me for this brief zine—I don't want to miss a minute.
Here's a tiny photo gallery, from the most recent backwards:
1. Richard and me at Turnagain Bay near Anchorage
2. Me on the Nieuw Amsterdam at College Fjord
3. Me on Red in Skagway
4. Me at Parnassus Bookstore in Ketchikan with a bookseller named, of all things, Maureen :)
If there were an official featured writing this week, it would be from the book Maureen is holding, If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name by Heather Lende, who lives in Haines, Alaska, near Skagway. She's an obituary writer, which she says in the introduction "means I write a lot
about loss, but more about love. Writing the obituaries of so many people I've known makes me acutely aware of death, but in a good way, the way Emily Dickinson meant when she wrote, 'That it will never come again / Is what makes life so sweet.' My job helps me appreciate cookouts on clear summer evenings down on the beach, where friends lounge on driftwood seats and we eat salmon and salads by the fire while our children play a game of baseball that lasts until the sun finally sets behind the
mountains close to eleven o'clock. . . ."
I'm wishing you many of your own dreams fulfilled!
Love and light,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
THE NURTURING NATURE OF WORDS—
AND OUR WORLD
Reconnect with the natural world through the words of writers who invite us into a reciprocal, healing relationship with it, including Henry David Thoreau, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, and Robin Wall Kimmerer. We'll use passages of their works to inspire writing about our own experiences with nature, and to deepen our appreciation for its gifts. We'll also explore a number of fun,
easy methods to help your words flow, whatever your level of writing experience.
COST: $119
WHERE: Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY
WHEN: Monday - Thursday, August 8 -11, 3:30 - 5:30
p.m.
TO REGISTER: Click here.
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WRITING OUR OWN PROFILES IN COURAGE
When have you experienced courage—your own, or anyone else's? What was its source? How can we become more courageous? Come explore these questions, and others, through holistic, whole-brain methods of writing that will open your mind, heart, and spirit to your own growth, and to our human potential to keep
growing. Ideal for those interested in expanding their writing and their relationship to self, others and the world—for personal expression or publication.
COST: $119
WHERE: Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY
WHEN: Monday - Thursday, August 15 -18, 3:30 - 5:30
p.m.
TO REGISTER: Click here.
More WordPlay opportunities here.
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 "fulfill."
PROMPT: Make a list of the stories you've been wanting to tell for as long as you can remember. Pick the most complicated one, the hardest and most important one, and tell it. Don't let life's current complications stop you.
It's fun to play with prompts in community with fellow writers, and to be able to share the results when you're done. You can find out about WordPlay classes, workshops, and retreats here.
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, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, 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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