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Tag Archives: mistakes

On Being Human – Writers’ Well

10 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by harulawordsthatserve in Poetry, Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

creativity, human, mistakes, poem, poetry, robots, TED talks, workshop, writing, writing prompt

Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of what was written in response. Today’s prompt (allow about 15/20 mins total) is…A Poem ‘On Being Human’

Begin by completing the following half sentence about 10 times, with whatever ideas come into your head; A robot could never…. If you’re doing it in a group, you can pass your list round to the right after each item and add to each others so you get some creative cross pollination of imaginative ideas. Then, turn over your piece of paper and complete the following, again 10 times; I know I’m human because…

Now using the ideas you’ve gathered as inspiration, write a poem entitled ‘On Being Human’. You could also watch this TED talk for some input…

This is what I wrote:

Would I give up being human

to take Trump

out of the White House

and end all the wars?

Would I give up being human

if I could erase

that painful conversation

forever?

Would I rather be programmed

to know my future

and have choices

made for me by code

so they were always ‘right’?

Now I know

why we have free will

because I’d use mine

to keep all my mistakes

and cry anyway

say those words

and learn how to build bridges

that I could cross

to take them back

Because each time life

breaks my heart

I have to mend it

and it becomes bigger

And if I’d known the pain

those choices were going to create

I’d never have made them

but then

I wouldn’t be me

Who would I be

if all I am

was decided by someone

or something else?

Expansion is human

the game of evolution

never knowing what

life holds next

means we risk disasters

but also have access

to the best life

has to offer

even if we don’t

recognise the best

in the moment it arrives

For we’re only human after all

but life still trusts us enough

to create with it

that the result may always be

a surprise

 

 

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/

Wednesday Writers’ Well

03 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by harulawordsthatserve in Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

blackout poem, compost, creative writing, creativity, fable, first time, found poem, gratitude, hero, heroism, humour, imagination, job, joy, mistakes, nature, poem, poetry, river, soul food, spring, story, TED talks, well, well being, work, writing prompt, writing workshop

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“The aspiring poet is constantly lowering a bucket only half way down a well. coming up time and again with nothing but empty air. The frustration is immense. But you must keep doing it anyway. After many years of practice, the chain draws unexpectedly tight, and you have dipped into the waters that will continue to entice you back. You’ll have broken the skin on the pool of yourself.”

 – SEAMUS HEANEY

Welcome back after a brief break, to this regular slot each Wednesday, which I call Writers’ Well because: it’s intended to be a source of nourishment and inspiration for the writer in you, it expresses my belief that creative writing can benefit our well being on many levels, and…I love the above quote from Seamus Heaney. It gives me goosebumps every time. It also resonates with my own intention when leading writing workshops. It’s not about producing good writing, it’s about brave, real writing. Writing that goes down deep within to draw up something unexpected.

Writing Prompt:

My recent trip to Scotland included several visits to my mother, who still has a couple of shelves of my ‘ unthrowable away stuff,’ some of which will eventually become ‘throwawayable’, when I have time to sort through it. Among all this I found some personal treasure – a collection of writing prompts and some responses from the very first creative writing sessions I held, five years ago, filed in a folder I’d made immediately after that first session, driven by the buzz of joy and playfulness I’d been left brimming with. I made it from a gift bag left over from my birthday.

IMG_1939 (2)
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This week I’d like to share a very simple prompt, which was part of that very first writing workshop I held – when I had just one participant. It’s super simple and has never failed to bring lots of playful laughter, and some rather random stories. I’ve used it several times since, especially when I’m writing with just one other person.

Each person writes the first sentence of a story, anything at all, and then passes it to the other person who then writes the second sentence and passes it back etc etc writing just one sentence at a time. The speed helps the imagination as does the cross pollination with someone else’s style and ideas. If you want to try this on your own…I guess you could write two stories at a time, alternating between them, and adding just one sentence at a time to each.

This is one of the stories my first ‘student’ and I co-wrote, five years ago. I think I originally set the task at 10 minutes, but we couldn’t stop so I think it ran longer! This particular story ended up in a style for children…I don’t know why, just because. If you look at the photo closely you can see the different styles of handwriting, and the blue VS black ink marking our different contributions. Completely spontaneous and unedited, written in about 10/15 minutes. Enjoy 🙂

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Once upon a time there was a wizard living at the bottom of our garden. This wizard really wanted to build a fish pond so he could observe the fish swimming. Of course, with magic, it doesn’t take long, and with a wand he built the pond, filling it with beautiful fish. But then he thought of something else the pond needed, was it a bridge or a swing? He closed his eyes and asked the fish what they wanted, to make their pond even more beautiful and grand.

The fish were not aesthetic experts, but they knew an architect just down the road. The architect was a toad who went by the name of Mr Knowit. Mr Knowit was delighted to come over – he loved giving advice, especially to lowly fish. In his superior way he made his own slow hopping round of the pond and declared, ‘I know exactly what this pond needs!’

They all clamoured to hear this pronouncement, but first he said it needed a brass band as an introduction to his speech. Well, where would they find a brass band at such short notice they wondered, and asked Mr Knowit, ‘Would a chorus of birds do?’ 

Yes they would do, but only if they first had a practice. Could they sing God Save The Queen for example? Well of course, that was one of their favourites the head fish assured Mr Knowit, and with a loud splash he called the birds to the nearest tree.

But Mr Knowit suddenly had a moment of shyness; perhaps he didn’t really know what was best for the fish! There was a loud intake of breath – Mr Knowit DIDN’T know it, so NOW what were they going to do!? Perhaps they could have an attunement, but alas they had no hands to hold, only tails. So they all faced out and, like the most skilled synchronized divers, touched their tails together in the centre and closed their eyes.

A strange silence came over the group and the wizard appeared and said, ‘What did you get?’

There must be a bridge woven from reeds that all may come to seek the wisdom of the fish!

Mr Knowit knew some other toads and a neighbourly beaver who, when called upon, were more that happy to lend their skills to building the bridge.

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/

 

 

 

Wednesday Writers’ Well

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by harulawordsthatserve in Poetry, Uncategorized

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

blackout poem, compost, creative writing, creativity, fable, first time, found poem, gratitude, hero, heroism, humour, imagination, job, joy, mistakes, nature, poem, poetry, river, soul food, spring, story, TED talks, well, well being, work, writing prompt, writing workshop

img_1608

“The aspiring poet is constantly lowering a bucket only half way down a well. coming up time and again with nothing but empty air. The frustration is immense. But you must keep doing it anyway. After many years of practice, the chain draws unexpectedly tight, and you have dipped into the waters that will continue to entice you back. You’ll have broken the skin on the pool of yourself.”

 – SEAMUS HEANEY

Welcome to this regular slot each Wednesday, which I call Writers’ Well because: it’s intended to be a source of nourishment and inspiration for the writer in you, it expresses my belief that creative writing can benefit our well being on many levels, and…I love the above quote from Seamus Heaney. It gives me goosebumps every time. It also resonates with my own intention when leading writing workshops. It’s not about producing good writing, it’s about brave, real writing. Writing that goes down deep within to draw up something unexpected.

Writing Prompt:

Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of what was written in response. Today’s prompt (take about 15 mins in total) begins with completing the following sentence five times – ‘It was the first time…’

Now, for the next ten minutes or so choose one of those sentences, and expand on it… This is what I wrote:

P1040345
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May I introduce…the river Findhorn. I’m heading up to Scotland today – can’t wait!

 

It was the first time she’d spoken to the river. It didn’t feel like anything special. Actually it felt entirely natural, the most natural thing in the world. It didn’t occur to her until later that she may have been seen, overheard.

‘Help me,’ she’d begun. ‘Take this away.’

The immediate wordless response took her breath away. It was gone! She looked all around her. It must be a trick. Who? What? Nothing. But the sadness she’d arrived with really had disappeared. She began to giggle, and it felt like the rapids mimicked her joy as they rushed, white-tipped and wild, towards her. She began to sing, directing her song to the movement of the water, until her new lightness turned into a contented emptiness. She sat on a rock and watched; not anything in particular, just watched.

She began to play ‘what if’. What if I jumped in, where would it take me? What if I knew how to build a shelter and stayed for a night right here on the river bank? What if I could ask this rock to tell me all that it’s seen and heard? What if I were perched on the top of that tree, light as a bird – what would I see? What if being me weren’t so different from anybody else? What if I belonged? Fitted in…

The game stopped. She didn’t fit in, but just maybe that was a good thing. She stood, with new resolve, and bowed to the river. As she turned to walk uphill, back the way she’d come, it didn’t feel like she was climbing, for inside she was already ‘up’, and could see more clearly where she wanted to go.

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/

 

 

 

Wednesday Writers’ Well

06 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by harulawordsthatserve in Poetry, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

blackout poem, compost, creative writing, creativity, fable, found poem, gratitude, hero, heroism, humour, imagination, job, joy, mistakes, nature, poem, poetry, soul food, spring, story, TED talks, well, well being, work, writing prompt, writing workshop

img_1608

“The aspiring poet is constantly lowering a bucket only half way down a well. coming up time and again with nothing but empty air. The frustration is immense. But you must keep doing it anyway. After many years of practice, the chain draws unexpectedly tight, and you have dipped into the waters that will continue to entice you back. You’ll have broken the skin on the pool of yourself.”

 – SEAMUS HEANEY

Welcome to this regular slot each Wednesday, which I call Writers’ Well because: it’s intended to be a source of nourishment and inspiration for the writer in you, it expresses my belief that creative writing can benefit our well being on many levels, and…I love the above quote from Seamus Heaney. It gives me goosebumps every time. It also resonates with my own intention when leading writing workshops. It’s not about producing good writing, it’s about brave, real writing. Writing that goes down deep within to draw up something unexpected.

Writing Prompt:

Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of what was written in response. Today’s prompt (allow around 15/20 mins total) is in two parts, and is on the topic of – heroes or heroism.

To begin, take no more than 10 minutes to just write whatever comes as you reflect on this topic. You might describe an individual whom you consider to be a hero, or you might explore the qualities or demands or what we term heroism. Just write.

Now, for the next ten minutes or so you’re going to read what you’ve just written and extract, carve out, discover…a blackout poem. This simply means you underline, or circle, or in some other way highlight words (or parts of words) from the text to make a poem. Ideally you won’t change the order or form of the words at all.

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This is what I ended up with:

Unsung heroes

meet

daily living

with honest graft, heart

write them

sing them

the world wouldn’t turn

without them

mothers go without

so children thrive

bus driver leaves his seat

to help

never mind the timetable

everywhere heroes

keeping us human

hearts standing strong

hope alight

your stories all around me

make lots

of little differences

 

 

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/

 

 

 

Wednesday Writers’ Well

29 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by harulawordsthatserve in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

compost, creative writing, creativity, fable, gratitude, humour, imagination, job, joy, mistakes, nature, soul food, spring, story, TED talks, well, well being, work, writing prompt, writing workshop

img_1608

“The aspiring poet is constantly lowering a bucket only half way down a well. coming up time and again with nothing but empty air. The frustration is immense. But you must keep doing it anyway. After many years of practice, the chain draws unexpectedly tight, and you have dipped into the waters that will continue to entice you back. You’ll have broken the skin on the pool of yourself.”

 – SEAMUS HEANEY

Welcome to this regular slot each Wednesday, which I call Writers’ Well because: it’s intended to be a source of nourishment and inspiration for the writer in you, it expresses my belief that creative writing can benefit our well being on many levels, and…I love the above quote from Seamus Heaney. It gives me goosebumps every time. It also resonates with my own intention when leading writing workshops. It’s not about producing good writing, it’s about brave, real writing. Writing that goes down deep within to draw up something unexpected.

Writing Prompt:

Each week, I share one of the writing prompts used the previous Friday in my weekly workshop, along with an example of what was written in response. Today’s prompt (allow around 5 mins) is to write briefly on the topic…but something else happened instead.

This prompt was inspired by this TED talk, which I watched recently. It gave me and my perfectionist tendencies plenty to think about. Check it out:

 

This is what I wrote:

Something else happened instead

They say God laughs when you plan because, so often, something else happens instead. That something is an invitation to trust I guess, though sometimes I don’t want to ‘invite’ or ‘welcome’ that something else at all! I want everything to go exactly as I’d hoped, wished, made for it to happen – but then I would’ve missed out on so many important moments – moments of joy, learning, surprise, the opportunity to grow and practice my resilience and responsiveness. 

I thought that poem would go down a storm. But something else happened instead. I was scared to send that email, expecting an angry response – but something else happened instead.

Life likes to keep me on my toes!

 

If you enjoyed this prompt, then you can find more here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/upcoming-writing-workshops-and-some-prompts-for-you-to-play-with/

and here:

https://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/writing-prompts-the-elements/

 

 

 

Up or down?

22 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by harulawordsthatserve in Poetry

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

compassion, contemplation, creativity, gifts, gratitude, learning, mistakes, poem, poetry

mistakeimage credit: nurturingthenaturalmama.blogspot.com

“Up or down?”

asks the mistake.

“I have a choice?”

(sarcastic voice)

A step appears

and down I go

then in my newly sunken state

I quickly meet my next mistake

“Up or down?”

it duly asks

smilingly

just like the last

so now I’m getting really pi**ed

and yes, another chance is missed

the next step down

a voice consoles,

“you were so right –

life’s full of holes”

and even being right is wrong

another step and down I’ve gone

before I even heard it ask

“Up or down” –

it’s got so fast!

“Hang on!” I yell

“Please listen. Wait!”

“OK” I hear –

my next mistake!

I’ve seen it now

I’m not too late

“Up or down?”

It asks again

and humbly

gathering all my strength

I say, “Up please.”

and then I see

an angel smiling back at me.

She offers me her wings

and says,

“Now up you go.

I’ll take the stairs.”

mistake2image credit: blogs.edweek.org

Good Morning

25 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by harulawordsthatserve in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

africa, compassion, creativity, gifts, gratitude, humour, inspiration, joy, life, love, mistakes, poetry, trust, words

‘Good morning!’ I hear,

as I admire the sunset

and smile.

 

‘Oya, muvuga “Good evening!”‘

I correct and they giggle,

as they try to repeat.

 

We trade more than words,

as we build a bridge with mistakes

and meet across the shyness

 

until I walk away

and leave behind me

a trail that laughs.

If you want to know more about my trip to Rwanda, and to see some photos go to:

http://beathaandherboys.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/its-a-photo-thing-part-one/

 

Beloved

16 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by harulawordsthatserve in Poetry

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

awareness, compassion, dreams, home, inspiration, life, love, meditation, mistakes, poetry, service, spirituality, writing

Beloved

Forgive me

Take from me

This anger

This fear

This hatred of you

And the ‘lessons’

You’ve ‘forced’ me into

 

Beloved

Forgive me

Take from me

This shame

This shattering weakening

Of all that I held

To be me and good

Which in testing

Has been found groundless

 

Beloved

Forgive me

Take from me

This fear

This disappointment

This judgment

Of this mess of a world

Which shines with such beauty

And yet oozes such suffering

I can barely stay

 

Beloved

Forgive me

Take from me

This belief

This desperate clinging

This stubborn independence

That says I need not you

If to be with you

So breaks my heart

And brings the pain

I’ve known

 

Beloved

Though I scream

Though I shake

Though I beg you

Let go

Yet hold me

Receive from me

My service

My faith

My love

And help me

To do nothing

Be nothing

Without you

 

For I am not

If you are not

And I would not

If you will it not

For I am yours…

 

Use me.

 

 

 

Why should I strive?

11 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by harulawordsthatserve in Poetry

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

awareness, beauty, contemplation, creativity, humour, inspiration, life, love, meditation, mistakes, poetry, writing

Why should I strive for

moments of cosmic bliss

only to realise,

through spiritual come down,

that they miss the point –

I’m still in the ‘real world’

where the purest Joy and Love

can’t fail to meet their match

in the dramas of my own or another’s making.

 

More the fool me

for allowing myself to believe,

that I can be the truth

that ‘doesn’t exist’

whilst those around me

pledge allegiance to cynics

who protect them from

Love’s dangerous embrace.

 

Yet I could never give up seeking

ever richer and more truthful

deep and meaningfuls with Divinity

where ‘we’ laugh at my troubles,

and my ‘issues’ disappear

because I am.

 

Dear sweet God please

may I be granted the Peace

of knowing that such forays

into Heaven’s unchartered waters

will become longer and more frequent

as you teach me to build a vessel

that won’t sink so often.

And may I have the Faith to believe

that it does indeed serve me

to reach for those heights

despite the pain of the fall

when the bubble bursts…

and life invites me to ‘blow’ another one,

a little rounder and more rainbowed than the last…

In praise of DELETE

07 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by harulawordsthatserve in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

life, mistakes, nature, writing

I was teaching IT to a small group of Rwandan secondary school students who were touching a computer keyboard for the first time. I’d given them some text to type up on a word processing programme and all was progressing well, if a little loudly. They were all training to be secretaries and administrators and had spent many hours using old fashioned typewriters so couldn’t yet be convinced that they didn’t need to hit this keyboard quite so firmly. About five minutes into the session one student called me over with a look of complete despair, ‘I’ve made a mistake!’

He pointed out the incorrect spelling of a word he’d mistyped, continuing to look quite distraught. I couldn’t understand why he was so upset and pointed to the delete key, ‘just press this key’ I said and did so in demonstration. The offending letter immediately disappeared, apparently by magic if the look on his face was to be believed. He touched the key in awe as we watched another letter disappear. A sharp intake of breath followed, then a delighted giggle. A quick, ‘thank you teacher!’ and a sharp nudge on the shoulder of his nearest neighbour to pass on his marvelous new trick and celebration filled the room.

One of the joys of being a writer is the magic and power of being able to simply remove from our story world anything that we don’t like; a word, a sentence, paragraph or chapter. Hit delete and it disappears into the ether, limbo or wherever else stuff goes when you hit that left pointing arrow. Goodbye and good riddance.

My sister once told me how she’d begun an attempt to delete the negative affects of her angry or aggressive thoughts. Immediately after the offending thought she would repeat three times, aloud or silently in her head; cancelcancelcancel! This might be accompanied by the laughter or a look up to the sky in unconscious prayer. The intention was to let the universe know, ‘I didn’t really mean it!’ in the hope that now the thought would not manifest in reality. So I’ve been wondering what life’s delete keys are. They’re certainly not usually available at the touch of a button but they do exist.

Recently in meditation I became aware of how many of my thoughts were about or concerned other people. I found myself saying in my head, ‘please take away anything that isn’t mine’. Almost immediately I began to shake with silent sobs and tears were streaming down my face. I’m such a sponge and soak up so much, and quite indiscriminately, from those around me that I sometimes lose track of what thought or feeling is really mine. Silence can help me give spirit the space to remove what is no longer serving me. Delete key one – meditation (tears optional).

I’ve been working on lengthening it but my fuse remains sensitive and short. However, if caught in time by me or someone else who knows me well enough, then laughter can put the flame out, defusing the dangerous anger that was building with impressive effect. Delete key two – humour (particularly effective in an emergency)

There are times when I feel so overwhelmed, by joy or sadness of anything else on the emotional scale that I need to let it out, share it, give it back or hand it over to something bigger for fear I might otherwise explode. My favourite delete key in this situation is a trip to the sea, but anywhere in nature will do. I will lie down on the stones/sand/grass to physically plug in and then close my eyes and ask the earth, wind, sea and sun to take back, share, remove from me, that is so small, this feeling, that is oh so big, because I know they can handle it better than me. Delete key three – time in nature (close to a large expanse of water highly recommended)

There’s another delete key of course. That’s the messy one, the get stuck in one, the get your plastic bag and some gloves if you need to and just pick up the rubbish you don’t like and put it in a bin. I too am a delete key. I too can choose to acknowledge and take responsibility for mistakes and emotional rubbish, particularly my own, and do what I can to remove their harmful consequences. Saying sorry also comes in this category.

So, happy deleting and please let me know if you’ve found any more of life’s delete keys that work well for you. And hey, if life’s hits redo on you…delete right back!

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