Hello there!
I hope this missive finds you well
Before we get onto this month’s creative prompt…
I need your help!
I am looking for beta readers to read a short personal essay.
Toehold is a collection of essays for those who are clinging onto their creativity by their fingertips while scrabbling for their next toehold. I am farming these out to beta readers.
It won’t take long: I just need you to read a short piece and tell me if it makes sense.
Do this for me and I’ll send you a copy of the e-zine I’m making and which will include the finished version of these essays.
If you are keen to do this, then just reply to this email.
Creative prompt
This month’s prompt is something you could do as you walk about your part of the world. Train your observational powers and refresh your spiritual palate by putting into action this suggestion from Rachel Carson:
“One way to open up your eyes to unnoticed beauty is to ask yourself: ‘What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?”
This could be a wonderful prompt for a journal entry or a writing exercise. And, for you folks who are too busy to do these things, it could be a lovely thing to carry around inside you as you tackle your chores.
“Looking is more than a psychological phenomenon. We see not only with our eyes but with everything that we are and with everything that our culture is. The artist is a professional voyeur.” – Dorothy Lange
Resource of the month
“… sometimes the simplest language goes straight to the heart of the matter.”
The splendid Open Culture website has published the full list of the original word association prompts as used by Carl Jung in the early 1900s. Why not work your way through the list and challenge yourself or a friend with what you come up with? See where your imagination takes you.
What’s happening on Chat.
I have started a new Chat thread for pictures of tress or forests. Feel free to add your own images – photos you took on your latest hike or your favourite tree-art.
Poem of the month
Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America
Tell me what it’s like to live without
curiosity, without awe. To sail
on clear water, rolling your eyes
at the kelp reefs swaying
beneath you, ignoring the flicker
of mermaid scales in the mist,
looking at the world and feeling
only boredom. To stand
on the precipice of some wild valley,
the eagles circling, a herd of caribou
booming below, and to yawn
with indifference. To discover
something primordial and holy.
To have the smell of the earth
welcome you to everywhere.
To take it all in, and then,
to reach for your knife.
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Come and talk to me!
The Bewilderment Game: Join me for The Bewilderment Game, a narrative-building workshop designed for reflection on the pandemic years. 7 July, 8am-9am OR 6pm-7pm AEST. Book here.
So that’s it for this month. See you at the end of July or come and chat with me in Substack Notes.