I had planned to post this blog yesterday but due to a glitch with the internet at our house, here it is now:

Today, December 13, 2019, my partner Sarah Clark and are celebrating our 20th anniversary. We’ll take ourselves out to lunch for a special treat and perhaps stop for groceries on the way home. We find even the so-called ordinary things fun to do together. We’ve been doing that for twenty years!

December 13, 1999 was a special day as I was launching my CD of poetry, When My Heart is Open, and a WTN show called “Spiritual Journey” featuring a segment about me and another segment about poet Penn Kemp, was being televised for the first time that evening.

Friends were gathered in my apartment in what I called the Mermaid Mansion in Guelph, Ontario. (I had an apt in an old stone mansion.) At some point during the evening, Sarah asked me out on, what I considered, a date! I called it our second date as I had already had her over to my place for dinner. As Sarah says, after December 13th we were rarely apart.

We first met on September 13th when I went to Sarah’s home to talk to her about the design of my CD, When My Heart is Open. I had Guelph artist Maria Pezzano do the cover art and needed someone to design the front and back covers as well as the interior booklet of poems. That’s where Sarah came in. I had seen her ad for graphic design with very large letters, GET HELP, and I gave her a call. She told me some time later that a couple of weeks before she met me, she had told herself it was time to open her heart.

One of the first women’s writing circles I did at the Mermaid Mansion was called “Remembering the Goddess: Mapping Your Spiritual Journey.” It was based on my travel to Turkey on a goddess pilgrimage in 1998. I was thrilled when Sarah designed a workbook of my writing for “Remembering the Goddess”. The materials were used for a retreat I offered at Bridgewater Retreat in Tweed, Ontario, east of Toronto. [The photo at the left is of fellow pilgrims at Catal Hoyuk in central Anatolia in 1998.]  I have never forgotten my travel to Turkey and look for people who can remind me of Istanbul and the many other ancient sites I visited there.

In Nanaimo, B.C. where Sarah and I now live, we found Mustafa who owns The Kebap in Departure Bay and Ali Esin Engin who imports ceramics, textiles and other amazing products from Turkey for his business: Mediterranean Living. Sarah and I love to go to The Kebap for lunch or sometimes for dinner to sit outside on a summer evening. Mustafa and/or his wife Adrianna joins us for a little conversation.

In Nanaimo, “Remembering the Goddess became “Remembering Our Earth Mother: Remembering Ourselves”, a women’s writing circle with labyrinth walking and circle dancing at Bethlehem Centre on Westwood Lake. Here’s one of the writing practices from “Remembering the Goddess” which is going to be an online course offered through the IAJW (International Association for Journal Writing) as “Writing to Map Your Spiritual Journey.”

From the session entitled “Your Name”: The story of your first name is uniquely yours. Even if you share the same name as someone else, you live if differently. How were you named? Do you like your name? How are you living out the story of your name?

One of the writing circles I offered in Guelph was at the Arboretum at the University of Guelph. “Journaling in the Garden” was a lovely way to engage with writing surrounded by the beauty of the garden and elements of a traditional Japanese garden. That led many years later to the creation of Your Own Tea House Practice, a limited edition, handmade book by Sarah Clark. Now you can order “Journaling as a Spiritual Practice: Your Own Tea House Practice” from the IAJW (International Association for Journal Writing) at www.iajw.org. Look under “Products.” Both the handmade version and the online version were designed by Sarah of course.

Through the years I began calling Sarah DD for Design Department. Who knew when I first hired Sarah that I would end up with my own graphic designer? We’ve done lots together including travelling back to the Ottawa Valley where I was raised, to New Mexico and Haida Gwaii, and moving across the country. What I’ve been thinking about lately is all the creativity we’ve shared during the last twenty years.

As you look through my website you will see Moira Oenia, a mermaid created by Sarah Clark, at the top of each page. Moira Oenia invites you to embrace your creative self. Sarah created Moira Oenia (my Celtic name) when she was on her own in a little cottage called The Parson’s Cottage in Bayfield, Ontario on Lake Huron.

In the spring of 2001, Sarah and I travelled to Taos, New Mexico and stayed at Mabel Dodge Luhan House, a place I had wanted to go to for many years. We so enjoyed the landscape, the history, our visit to the Pueblo, and all that art! One evening, when the store was closed, I saw fabric in the window of a shop I just knew I had to go back to. How could l resist Frida Kahlo fabric or the Virgin of Guadalupe?

I had a Guelph seamstress make bags with ribbon drawstrings. Sarah made the small journals that went inside each bag using her binding machine and covering the journal covers with fabric. The Frida bags also had a pen and the Virgin of Guadalupe bags had a candle and a flower essence I called Whole Unto Herself. I had read that that was the original meaning of the word “virgin” and came up with the flower essences from Raven Essences that would make up Whole Unto Herself. The Whole Unto Herself flower essence was co-created by Andrea Mathieson of Raven Essences, now in Port Hope, Ontario, and is available from the website www.ravenessences.com.

I was so excited to share my chapbook of poetry, The Names of Things (The Flying Mermaids Studio, 2009), with the Easy Writers, the writing group I was part of at the time. It was received with enthusiasm. Sarah designed the text and cover. The cover art is by my dear friend Andrea Bird who is an encaustic artist based in Moorefield, Ontario. The art is entitled: “Cross My Heart and Hope to Fly.” Andrea and I led women’s retreats called A Flying Mermaids Weekend of Creativity & Renewal at historic Drew House in Elora, Ontario when I still lived in Guelph and we continue to correspond with handwritten letters, fourteen years later.

Unfold your personal story.
Envelop yourself with your own wisdom.
Live your life from that heart-opening place. (from Writing Home: A Whole Life Practice)

I offered a writing circle in Guelph before we left Ontario entitled “Writing Your Way Home” and continued writing on that theme once we moved to Nanaimo, B.C. in May of 2005. I engaged other women in the project by having them write me letters which are part of the book. As I worked on the book through its seven stages, I realized it was meant to be shared with others with whom I could be a companion along the writing journey (rather than sold on a bookstore shelf). It’s offered as part of my mentoring program: Writing Home: A Whole Life Practice. You can learn more about it under “Circles.”

Besides designing the cover and the mandala, Sarah designed the interior of the 345-page book as well. It contains guidelines for writing as a physical practice for each of the seven exploratory stages of the Writing Home journey as well as prompts to create your own visual art, writing practice prompts, a poem making kit, and meditative practices to create a writing ceremony as part of your daily life. Oh yes, and she came up with the sub-title: “A Whole Life Practice.” Sarah is very good at “taglines.”

Here’s a writing practice prompt for you: What present story is unfolding in your life? Who are the major actors (challengers, helpers, lovers, inspirers) in your story? What patterns are you laying down for the future?

I learned so much from Andrea Mathieson of Raven Essences beginning in 1997, the same year the Flying Mermaids Writing Circles began in my Toronto living room. I was grateful to hone my own intuitive skills through workshops and consultations with Andrea when she lived in Maple, Ontario. I use Raven Essences to create personal combinations of flower essences for people following the Writing Home program and also for the Writing Life circles which always have a particular theme. In 2011, I began making my own flower essences called Spirit of the Island, in our Nanaimo garden. The Spirit of the Island logo was designed by, guess who: Sarah Clark.

A flower essence of Nature’s sacred energies invites inner exploration, creative expansion and supports the cycles of your life. They’re preserved in brandy and a few drops under your tongue or in some water help create some balance in your body’s electrical system. Adding a flower essence to your bath water or topically on your skin are other possibilities. You can  learn more about the Spirit of the Island Flower Essences and creative approaches to working with them on this website. If you live in Nanaimo, you can buy the flower essences at Lobelia’s Lair or order them through this website.

Here are the flower essences in the Spirit of the Island Flower Essences repertoire so far:

Rhododendron (Self-Trust)
Butterfly Bush (Celebration of the Sacred Familiar)
Rose of Sharon (Inner Teacher)
Camellia (Be Here Now)
Golden Chain Tree (In Praise of the Small).

• When did the Writing Life women’s writing circle begin? It wasn’t as soon as I arrived in Nanaimo in 2005 as I was writing Writing Home and began doing freelance writing for the Nanaimo Daily News and More Living magazine as well as book reviews for the Vancouver Sun. I remember I offered the first series of writing circles in downtown Nanaimo and now they take place in our living room.

The Writing Life circle is a women’s writing circle that usually meets for six weeks at a time with various themes. “Turn Me Into Song, Sing Me Awake” (from a Gregory Orr poem) is the theme for the Writing Life circle to begin January 8, 2020.

Nourish Yourself.
Honour Your Voice.
Write Your Stories.

Have a look under “Circles” for more info about Writing Life.

I believe I first met Ursula Vaira of Leaf Press when I attended poetry retreats with Patrick Lane. There were several of those and Ursula published the chapbooks of poetry that came out of the retreats with a poem or two from each of the poet participants.

Fishing for Mermaids (Leaf Press, April 2014)

Ursula published a couple of my chapbooks of poetry as well as Fishing for Mermaids (Leaf Press, 2014). My first full-length collection of poetry takes its name from a poem I wrote entitled “Fishing for Mermaids, Mining for Light.”  Ursula hired Sarah Clark to design the cover. The poems were many years in the making including those written on Vancouver Island at retreats with master poet and teacher, Patrick Lane.

How to be a Poet

Take long walks in the rain. Lean against an arbutus stretching towards the sea. Breathe deeply. Write on the backs of can labels, the corners of serviettes. Carry a small, pocket-size notebook. Read Neruda, Rilke, Crozier and Lane. Do nothing. Bring some forsythia inside. Look inside a rhododendron. Talk to a dog – and a cat and a house finch on the railing. Listen to poets. Go for a beer with them. Learn colours and the names of things. Eat a fresh fig, slowly. Watch the phases of the moon. Play hookey. Take a ferry to an island – like Gabriola or Bowen or Lasqueti. Cut words out of flyers. Recycle them into poems. Write what you know. What you don’t. Laugh at yourself. Cry over lunch. Wear your nightgown past noon. Plant some seeds. Trust. Talk to a stranger. Talk to yourself. Phone home. Eavesdrop. Remember your dreams. Call yourself a poet.

Among the several one-day writing circles I’ve offered at Bethlehem Centre in Nanaimo is “Poetry as a Doorway In . . . and a Welcome Home.” Sarah’s mandala, Come to Centre, is the ideal reminder of the practice of reading and writing poetry. Sarah created a Mandala Meditation Deck available at some local stores including Departure Bay Aromatherapy Boutique and Lobelia’s Lair as well as from her website: www.sarahclarkdesign.ca. Let a mandala help you come to centre and lead you into a poem.

These days, Sarah has been designing my poems separately, each with a fold-out design with photographs or presented on special paper. She has produced four issues of her own magazine called Compendium. You can find a description on her website. Compendium is a genre-defying approach to life writing. Sarah is now writing but I’m not taking up graphic design!  I’m thinking though that I ought to have my own magazine.

Thank you for reading about our shared creativity. There has been so much and there’s more to come! Sarah and I celebrated our 20th anniversary of love, companionship, shared creativity and wonder on December 13, 2019 and are now entering our 21st year together. The poem below is about Sarah’s and my life when we lived together in Guelph. That’s where we blended our family of four cats.

How It Is

I got up saying I love waking up to my life.
It could have been the writing studio I drove to,
its comfortable sofa of blues and reds, the width
of it, the shelves of books, the myriad of mermaids
and the holy ground on which it stood.
A weathered barn, fenced fields, a flock of sheep,
a vegetable garden that reminded me of my early home.
Walks by the cemetery, graves of Jesuit brothers,
the Virgin Mary in the Grotto, a labyrinth mown into tall grass.
Back at home, four cats, daily celebrations because
you and I had found one another.
There was no I-Pad, no Facebook, the towers still stood.
We moved the table beside the window, heard water
gurgling over rocks in the pond, thankful for the sanctuary
your father created, not realizing, perhaps, it was for us.