Give Sorrow Words
Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak,
Whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.
(Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5.1.50-1)
Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak,
Whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.
(Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5.1.50-1)
The world offers itself to your imagination. Offers to you. You offer back. You offer up. The world opens up to you. You open in return, to the world. The world is a gift if only you are there, present and open, waiting and willing, vulnerable and strong to catch and harvest what is offered….
In a workshop on sacred space, I drew a rainbow vortex, holding 4-6 crayons in my hand at a time. I loved that part. Then, looking at my crayon drawing, I wrote this letter to the rainbow vortex. Later I cut the vortex into a spiral and pasted it into my journal, folding in switchbacks…
Maybe we need different places for different phases of our lives. Maybe cherished places remain alive inside us even if we have to move on—our attachment to the earth not thinned, but widened. ~Deborah Tall , “From Where We Stand: Recovering a Sense of Place” ~
In just a few days I’m making a huge move in my life and where I live. I’ll be moving from Lake County in Northern California to St. Louis, Missouri where I’ll just be an hour away from my father. Pop, 91, lives just across the river in SW Illinois, about 6 miles upriver from…
Twice I responded to the summoning of my doorbell. Twice a grinning and harried floral delivery man handed me a huge bouquet of roses…not red, not pink, but peachy…my favorite color. A dozen times 2 = 2 dozen roses for 2008 Valentine’s Day. I’m sure sometime in my life I’ve been sent flowers by delivery….
Philip and Carol Zaleski have done a marvelous thing in Prayer: A History…they have brought prayer to our doorstep and into our bedroom, back to the kneeling rug of childhood. From the book jacket: “This landmark book presents prayer in all its richness and variety throughout history, across traditions, and around the globe. Focusing on…
I loved the quote you use for this thought. My current book is about unwitnessed grief. I said that grief has many siblings — guilt, anger, separation among others but of course, Shakespeare says it best.
Your course sounds wonderful. I’ve suggested the “I remember” exercise and also the “I don’t remember” exercise that Natalie Goldberg uses in her Writing the Bones workshop. But your expansion of it to include differing points of view and to make it a way for people to express ranges of sorrow is truly inspired. Thank you for telling us about it on the Women writing the West website and for having this site and blog. You are appreciated! Warmly, Jane
I have articls about grief and a journal called A Year and a Day which I kept after losing my wife. Idaho State Unvieristy is the publisher.
Michael Corrigan