It’s been several months since there’s been a ringing of the ting sha and lighting of the candle to mark the beginning of the Writing Life women’s writing circle in my living room in Nanaimo. Hopefully, we’ll be able to meet in person again in September in a living room larger than mine so that we can be safely distanced.

Writing Life Circle “from away”

There will definitely be a Writing Life women’s writing circle “from away” which will begin on Wednesday, September 16th. Wherever you are, you can join the Writing Life Circle “from away” and be part of a circle where we keep in touch via email.

As I’ve been thinking of museums lately, treasure houses of artifacts collected by people with a theme, I’ve come up with the theme of “Inside the Treasure House” for the six-week writing circle. Actually, it extends an extra week this time to October 28th as we won’t be “meeting” on October 7th.

If you would like to contact me with your questions or to sign up, please email me at creativity@maryannmoore.ca.

Weekly Themes

Each weekly circle also has a theme beginning with “The treasure that is you” on Wednesday, September 16th. You can find the other dates and themes here.

Phases of the Moon

You’ll see on the page with the dates and themes that I’ve also mentioned the phases of the moon for each circle. When we begin on September 16th, it will be a day before the New Moon, when the moon is dark. It’s an excellent time for setting an intention for your writing as a daily, restorative practice.

I have found that making note of the changes around us, as summer becomes fall, we have a path into the story we are wanting to tell whether it’s about disappointment, gratitude or hope.

Flower Essences

Everything is intentional in the circle and the notes I send out each week outline each step of the way to create a safe container for your writing. We begin with an opening poem and end with a poem or reading. Each week I offer a flower essence either from Raven Essences from Ontario or Spirit of the Island which are the flower essences I co-created with Nature on Vancouver Island.

A flower essence each week offers Nature’s support for our safe container, the process of uncovering and the integration of what has been discovered. Even if you don’t have the flower essence to take a few drops, reading the definition offers a shift in consciousness and some fresh insight. I’ll be sending the definitions along with the weekly notes.

The flower essence for our first circle will be Rose of Sharon for Inner Teacher. You can read about it here. The theme that day is “Awake to the treasure that is you.”

The flowers are here to help us in [a] rebalancing mission since much of the disease states
we experience are a result of this separation from divinity, from nature, and from our true selves.

Heidi Smith, The Bloom Book (Sounds True, 2020)

Honour Your Voice

We share writing via email in the circle “from away” and I comment on all of it. The comments are meant to encourage your writing rather than offer a critique and I follow the writing circle intention of nourishing yourself and honouring your voice. If you want to comment on other women’s writing, those are the intentions to keep in mind.

I’ve been reading many poets recently and here’s an excerpt of one of my favourites by Tanya Evanson:

There is a gift inside you
Do not let it gather dust in a far closet

Unwrap it carefully
With your arms wide open

From “Blood and Honey” by Tanya Evanson (The Memoirists, Mother Tongue Media, 2008)