From 2012 Writing From the Senses

FIRST
After making sounds together. Write about what you feel in your body, maybe incorporating the sound
I wrote:

The pulse. Ahhh. The miracle of THIS life. Anhhh. The pain yes. But the ecstatic joy of this pulsing miracle still is the sunlight to the shadow of the pain.

Breathing, pulsing, warmth. And the sound of the flute. The wind blowing through the reed. The reed remembers gratitude for the wind and for the privilege of visiting this life in this moment.

A circle of friends, open to the miracle of life. Each peering out from their world of infinity into this shared world of enhanced infinities, enhanced exponentially by the complexity of each inner world brought into the commons.

Contact , connection, coherency. Visioning a world of compassion where we all learn from an early age that our primary task is to share our part of the miracle. Now we think our main job is to keep our turf separate and protect ourselves.  It’s time for us to grow to the next level. Not just for the sheer joy but now for survival. 

SECOND
People read the smell pieces they wrote during the week. I didn’t write one.
Great smell pieces.

THIRD
Guided meditation, feeling life inside your body.
Now write about one person, all the details

The person is my dad. He died in June of 2008. I remember his confident, ringing, inquisitive kind voice. The smell of his special after shave when I was a kid. The sweet, plumby smell of his pipe tobacco when he tried that for a while in the ’50’s.

The feel of his solid body when I bounced off him when he was teaching my brother and I to box. He was so strong but he never used that to hurt or intimidate us. 

I remember all the pictures and videos from him at different times in his life that we collected for the memorial service. Now that I have some similar symptoms that he had from arthritis, and prostate, and his stroke and my speech, I feel his glowing presence coming forth from within me. He had such infectious fun loving energy, that came out in his smile and his body language. When I’m low I feel the big part of him that now lives within me pick me up. Nothing would get him down.  Nothing could slow him down. And now he won’t let me waste any of this precious life force in self pity.

FOURTH
Just visualize again your ally who supports your writing 100%. Seal it in. Re-enter the room but keep alive the inside and the outside.

FIFTH
What you learned or were surprised by

I’m surprised by the power of meditating on the senses before writing. It really adds a needed embodiment and humanness to my writing

SIXTH
Homework prompt
“I come from…”

SEVENTH
People ask if we can keep meeting. She’s busy. Starting another class before this one ends. She’s teaching Write Your Life at Sinai temple at Wilshire and Beverly Glen.
Starts Wednesday, during the day