![]() This isn’t an encouragement to look at everything through a lens of blind acceptance. There are things written and said that are wildly misleading, hateful, and ill intended. Granted, it would be naïve and even harmful to be this way with everything. Noticing how it responds, welcomes, even pushes back if I go too fast, try to breeze past it.Ĭan you shift your attention to this way of noticing? Can you assume a posture that allows you to simply behold the air you breathe, the writing you read, the people you talk to? It has me-even after just a handful of lessons-moving around with a new attention on the space immediately around me. There are molecules to visit with every millimeter of motion. There is a definite something I am moving through. I started learning taichi recently and what struck me immediately is that the empty space surrounding me is not empty at all. Through this practice we become trustworthy stewards of our friends’ vulnerable new creations. And this carries through to how we write-often watching with wonder as words fill the page as though through us-and of course how we listen and respond to each other’s work. Sitting straight in our chairs, shoulders dropped, attending to the space in and around us, observing how it shifts with our intentions for it. To make sure there’s no trace of this, we shape ourselves differently to start with, beginning each session by connecting with ourselves, with our feet, our spines. This wouldn’t be possible if we were hunched forward in our chairs, foreheads close to the zoom screen, eyes squinting, brows furrowed, pen clutched in hand, poised to capture the first inconsistency we hear and spit it back venomously at the writer as soon as we can. What soaks into our skin and imperceptibly enters our bloodstream. We do this gently: energetically we’re standing back a few paces back from the piece and its creator, letting the words wash over us, and noticing what sticks in our mind, arises in our heart. We first encounter each other’s work by listening to the writer read it. Part of what we’re doing in Soul Writing workshops is dismantling this automatic way of moving through life. So in a way it’s natural that we’d approach others’ work the same way, regardless of context. The metrics are “is it worth my time?” “Is it entertaining me?” “Am I pissed enough to respond?” If something doesn’t prove to be one or all of those things within the first few words, generally we move on. Not to mention how poised we all are to be offended. It’s the posture most of us walk around in all the time, with which we approach everything: price tags, newspapers, social media posts. There is room in all writing, all art, all the world, for scrutiny. I want to invite us all to be gentle readers. In this moment I’m moved to reclaim it as something more literal. This puts me in mind of those old-timey pieces addressed “Dear gentle reader.” Surely it was a nod of respect, referring to the reader as a gentleperson/woman/man. It is so essential to have safe people around our creations, at least to begin with. Naturally I will pick people who are likely to do this regardless of my requests. This is a vulnerable new creation that needs to be handled with care. Mostly I want to know how it impacts them, or if it does.Ībove all, I’ll ask that they be gentle, please. That they don’t compare it to the great literature they’ve read (after all, I have no training, no degrees, no academic grounding whatsoever in what ‘good writing’ is-and anyway, this isn’t written in that spirit). I’ll ask that they only point out anything that is glaring in its ignorance or obtuseness or confusion. Thinking about how I’m going to frame it, a few requests come to mind. Pages: 26 Language: English Pages: 26.I’m finishing up something I’m hoping to publish and, as part of the process, will soon send it out to a few folks to read. Sewing binding for longer life, where the book block is actually sewn (smythe sewn/section sewn) with thread before binding which results in a more durable type of binding. IF YOU WISH TO ORDER PARTICULAR VOLUME OR ALL THE VOLUMES YOU CAN CONTACT US. If the original book was published in multiple volumes then this reprint is of only one volume, not the whole set. ![]() Fold-outs, if any, are not part of the book. As this print on demand book is reprinted from a very old book, there could be some missing or flawed pages, but we always try to make the book as complete as possible. Each page is checked manually before printing. Illustrations, Index, if any, are included in black and white. This is NOT a retyped or an ocr'd reprint. NO changes have been made to the original text. ![]() Leather Binding on Spine and Corners with Golden leaf printing on spine. ![]()
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