Letter to Phoebe

THAT'S GREAT news about the writing group for many reasons. Thanks for the compliments. I started writing a daily notebook when I was seriously suicidal 1998 and wanted to chop off my head. My friend Susan suggested I write and gave me THE ARTISTS WAY by Julia Cameron. It was a life raft. I did not "do" the exercises I just wrote every morning as if my life depended on it, it did. I haven't stopped. As a kid I used to write my dreams and hide them within my sketchbook drawings. It was unsafe to write in the home because my parents went through everything of mine (including the trash and the toilet bowl). What helps me to find FLOW is keeping a SPITTOON notebook. No edits rereads just SPEW! I try to do it every morning with my wake up beverage or every night. After 3 weeks it's an ingrained HABIT. My vignettes grow out of that and writing letters which is my favorite thing to do. Tell me more about your wheelbarrows. Where did you find them? What color will you paint them? What kind of flowers will you put in them? This could be your next poem. The other thing that helps me is walking and reading and doing the things I love. Swimming baking bread making soups rolling my own pasta. The notebook writing wakes up my ears and opens my HEART.
LOVE YOU< Emily PS Get a copy of JOURNAL of a SOLITUDE by MAY SARTON this book reinspires me all the time. It is my bible.