My life has changed a lot since I began writing this Wisdom Within, Ink blog back in 2009-ish. It particularly changed when I began working on my first book in 2015 and freelancing shifted my focus away from facilitating and coaching. By the time I returned to school to complete an MFA in Creative Nonfiction/Memoir … Continue reading Welcome to my woefully out of date, but hopefully still helpful, blog!
Originally posted on the TLA Network Blog on March 6, 2014 (posting here now to save it from the unsearchable depths of the well of archived posts) “I am not here to teach you anything.” Expressions of confusion flicker across the faces of those circled around me. Wasn’t the very reason they signed up for this … Continue reading Good Facilitating is not Teaching
There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. -- Toni Morrison This quote by Toni Morrison, one of my favorite, popped up in my Instagram timeline this morning. When I read it, tears … Continue reading I have no words… so I write
I wrote this post almost nine years ago, in November 2009. My life looks very different now -- I no longer need to lay out my children's clothes, for one thing, thank goodness! -- but the main message, that we all need support and friendship, is particularly on point for me right now. When I … Continue reading One cold, dark, beautiful morning…
I originally wrote this article for Chrysalis, The Journal of Transformative Language Arts (which is currently under maintenance), April 2016 Let the river take me, a compilation poem Let the river take me — Even when it hurts, it breathes with the joy of laughter, undulating. I choke on life, I’m really here in the world. I … Continue reading Let the river take me: Learnings from facilitating an at-risk group
Well, I did it. The book is finished. Lilian Baker Carlisle: Vermont Historian, Burlington Treasure -- A Scrapbook Memoir is, finally, gosh-darn really real! I truly didn't believe it was real until the moment I first held it in my hands at the book launch. It's always just been a one-dimensional design on the computer, even … Continue reading Path to Publication, pt 18: Book Launch!
Good grief. Nine months ago I wrote a post in celebration of the fact that the first draft of the book manuscript was imminent and that layout was finished, meaning in just a few months more the book -- a (mostly) visual biography of a local historian and writer -- would be ready for publication. … Continue reading Path to Publication, pt 17: It’s happening! (pt2). Subtitle: ARGH, the Critic!
This is one poem in a series from the “Write to Recover” group I facilitate. I put them together from phrases that resonate with me while participants read, adding nothing but punctuation and the occasional conjunction. This one is comprised of the words of four participants who were writing on the theme, "Your own voice." … Continue reading Hear myself out
I originally wrote this post in 2014 for the blog of tlanetwork.org, the website of the Transformative Language Arts Network. It seems appropriate to re-post as I am preparing a graduate course on Expressive Writing in the classroom for Castleton University's Center for Schools. Although in this situation I will be technically a lecturer/teacher/professor rather … Continue reading I’m not here to teach you anything: Some thoughts on facilitating & coaching
This is one poem in a series from the “Write to Recover” group I facilitate. I put them together from phrases that resonate with me while participants read, adding nothing but punctuation and the occasional conjunction. This one is comprised of the words of five participants who were writing on the theme "Overcoming an obstacle.” … Continue reading Scars to prove I showed up
joanna tebbs young 