Do you remember the sense of trepidation you felt when you were asked to play with the big kids? Your fear-based self-talk may have gone something like this, "Oh, they want me to play! But, I'm not good enough. What if I can't keep up? I don't want to look silly."
Then, you forgot yourself and your worries. You began to enjoy the game and have fun. When it was all over, you felt a sense of accomplishment for taking a risk and joining the big kids. Yes, they truly wanted you in the game. In fact, they saw strengths and abilities in you that your fears had over-ridden.
On 73 Ways to Become a Better Writer, Mary Jaksch suggests attempting different genres of writing. Poetry is one genre that I'm not comfortable with - neither reading nor writing. So, why not start there?
In a recent post to Kayt Hoch, I commented:
@poetwist One of these days I may be brave enough to take u up on ur poetry challenge! 🙂
— Marianna Paulson (@AuntieStress) August 6, 2009
Kayt Hoch punctuates the day with daily tweets of encouragement which help us prod our inner poet. Yesterday, she tweeted the following prompt to the Twitterverse and my declaration to go for it.
@poetwist Will send u my first foible...playing with the "big kids" now! 🙂 Why I'm making it public is beyond me! :~o
— Marianna Paulson (@AuntieStress) August 12, 2009
This was my first public attempt at poetry in a number of years. Many, many years!:
AuntieStress @poetwist Stress closes the curtain of joy/Light♥edness is heavily-weighted /Is this what u wish 2 destroy?/A catastrophe abated.
Promptly cheering me on, Kayt replied with:
@AuntieStress thanks for joining in 🙂 pushing the boundaries & risking a bit is palm sweaty for everyone - way to go for it!!
And a compliment on my very public poetic tweet:
@AuntieStress very nice write! excellent opening line - 'curtain' of joy is a wonderful turn of phrase - thought provoking message too!
The interesting part to me was the process. I knew I wanted to venture out of my comfort zone and a tweet is a perfect place from which to fly - only 140 characters, plus Kayt was gently pushing me out of the nest.
Once I committed myself to writing a 140 character poem, it happened in mere minutes. That's the power of the heart. It's the strangest and most wonderful of feelings! The words seemed to appear out of nowhere - it's almost a sense of not thinking, or perhaps, more aptly, not trying to think.
As I continue to transform my stress and balance my nervous system by using the power of the heart, I experience this flow on a more frequent basis. It's what cortical facilitation is all about - the quietening of the fear-based "noise," in order to be able to hear and convey the true essence of what you want to say.
Finally, in a further email discussion, Kayt had this to share:
"I can relate too, to the description of your process - I am an intuitive artist/writer - the initial work is more like a channel opening than me actually 'deciding' to 'do' anything. After that of course comes the intensity of disciplined crafting, molding the raw material into a final product."
I feel privileged to be playing with the big kids! Thanks to Kayt for awakening our poetry palate and creating a space for us all to play and experiment!
I grew up in the middle of four brothers, so it was play with them or play alone. I quickly learned to walk the wall and climb to the highest branch in the tree. Brothers take no nonsense!
Granny taught us to use laughter to cut stress and I use it to this day. God bless my granny!
This is truly an inspiring post.
I must say I am blushing at the terribly nice things you said about the poetwist gig. I really don’t have a good perspective on how folks perceive that work, and I very much appreciate what you said. If anything I do positively influences even a single moment of creative flow, then I feel I am returning a debt owed to that which feeds me.
I believe that creative expression is too often thought of as some sort of rarefied state reserved only for those starving in a loft somewhere. This is completely counter to reality (imo). I believe the creative thrust that manifests itself as the universe (whatever one believes that thrust to be) flows through each and every object & being throughout all the cosmos. And we are meant to express this creative force.
Perhaps the stifling of this creative flow is a major contributor to the basis of our stress, illness, and disharmony. I don’t ‘know’ if that is ‘true’ but I do intuitively feel it is the case.
I thank you for so honestly sharing your stretch into the unknown with us. It is reassuring and encouraging in equal measure.
You really are a gift to us all!
Grannymar,
A life of adventure (and memories) courtesy of your brothers. And, probably a few nicks and bruises, too!
Your granny passed on her gifts to you – that’s evident when one visits your blog.
Kayt,
I think one of the telling things about your “poetwist gig” is that people are, indeed, participating! That speaks volumes and verses!
Your intuition is right – when we don’t honour our values – do what is in our heart – stress increases. In fact, the first lesson in the coaching programmes I use covers values and the relationship to stress.
Creativity is important for health, growth and happiness. It does not just have to be about the arts – creativity is present in how we solve problems, answer questions or repair something.
Thanks for caring enough to encourage us to expand our poetic wings!
And now it has turned into the most delightful poem on the LBC! Fantastic!