Recap of our last gathering

Thank you to the ladies that made it to RS last Tuesday evening.
It was wonderful connecting with everyone again.
We started out the evening with the writing prompt "He was skating on thin ice. That's all I can say." Try doing a free write with this as your beginning sentence and see where it takes you.

We then took a little break from writing and talked about why we attend RS. What draws us here? It was amazing to hear everyone's story and realize that as different as each one of us is, there was one common thread woven through all of us. We had all loved to write when we were growing up and as life progressed and responsibilities increased, the creative part of ourselves digressed and decreased. Why does that happen? Personally for me, I was always told that a writing career is not practical. I wouldn't amount to anything or get anywhere in life with it. I should have a job as a nurse or teacher or something like that. So, as I went through school, I loaded my schedule with sciences and maths and things that did not feed my creative soul at all. And I continued my life that way, loading it with practical things and ways until I couldn't even remember having a passion for writing. However, in the last couple of years, something has been changing. God has been reminding me of these old longings and desires, and slowly, I have begun to write again.

We also talked about the "Longings Blessing" that I posted on RS earlier. After reading it aloud to everyone, I asked everyone to take some quiet time and reflect on it and what was God saying to them in it. Below is one of the writing pieces that came from it... Thank you Em for sharing it...

Hope

A beginning
at the edge of the ending.
A new direction
with the risk in the jumping.
A new perspective
from the One who walks along side us.

An awakening
of the one who was always there.
A stirring
of deeply hidden desires.
A fire
to be intimate with the Creator.
A need
to use these gifts fulfillingly.

Blessings and Peace,
Carol

Mondays---A Little Writing Prompt

Mondays.....
What comes to your mind when you think about "Mondays"?
Do you totally love them? Are you excited that a new week is starting? Or are you thinking, "Ugh, Monday. Already? Seriously, where did my weekend go?"
Try taking about 15 minutes and just writing about "What your perfect Monday would be like".
Would it be breakfast in bed? Or maybe, the heck with breakfast! How about lunch in bed? Or waking up and finding the cleaning and laundry fairy had been in over night and everything is perfectly spotless and tidy?

Now just write! Write for 15 minutes-no stoppping to edit-just go with your thoughts. You can always come back and edit later. The idea is to just get yourself writing.
I would love to know how this goes for you, feel free to send it to me (carol) or better yet, bring it to Reflective Souls tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 7PM. Hope to see you there!
Peace and Blessings,
Carol

Longings

This blessing was written by John O'Donahue,

from his book entitled "To Bless the Space Between Us"

For Longing

"Blessed be the longing that brought you here
And quickens your soul with wonder.

May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire
That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.

May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease
To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.

May the forms of your belonging ~ in love, creativity, and friendship ~
Be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul.

May the one you long for long for you.

May your dreams gradually reveal the destination of your desire.

May a secret Providence guide your thought and nurture your feeling.

May your mind inhabit your life with the sureness
with which your body inhabits the world.

May your heart never be haunted by ghost-structures of old damage.

May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.

May you know the urgency with which God longs for you."


I love this blessing. I really do. The first time I read it, I think I was speechless, and not just the audible external type of speechlessness, I mean I was speechless inside too. My mind is constantly racing at 1,000 + thoughts a minute, sometimes a second, (it feels like that anyway) and for the first time in a long time, that stopped. I just had to sit with this, with these words. Quite honestly, I am feeling completely inept right now even as I am sitting here with tears streaming down my face trying to describe to you how this passage has spoken to my soul.

Does this blessing speak to you?

Is there a longing that is deep within your soul?

Is there a dream that is in your heart that is gradually revealing itself to your true destination?

Are you feeling the urgency with which God longs for you and that ache in your heart to be revealed?

Take some time to sit with these thoughts. This Tuesday, January 13th, Reflective Souls will be having our first gathering of 2009, I invite you to come.

Peace & Blessings to you...
Carol

January Writing for Women

It's winter, it's cold, it's bleak. The holidays are history for another year. It's January and it's a time for a new beginning. I'm not one for "resolutions," per se. But this year, I have a list of "THINGS I WANT TO DO (BETTER)." Sure, I write. I just want to do it better and with more frequency.

The good news is, Reflective Souls picks up again this month! Our January Gathering will be Tuesday, 1/13 from 7-8:30 PM in the Worship Arts Office. I hope you will bring your writing tablet favorite writing utensil and join us for a time of reflective writing - it's always a journey with an unknown destination.

See you there!