Let Yourself Play

It's the quickest route to what's true

Welcome to all new subscribers. I hope you will feel at home here. Writing this newsletter is an act of love and joy. I am committed to delving into the beautiful, the messy and the sublime that is this act of creating meaning through words. Ultimately, my goal is to remind you that you are Write As You Are.

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This weekend I went to a Kirtan in honour of the birthday of Ganesha. In Kirtans there is a call and response where the lead voice calls and all of the participants respond with the same words. I always find it such a powerful experience.

At one point about half way through, one of the leaders led us in a playful call and response, away from the traditional mantras. He suddenly started playing on his drum and calling out different sounds. Everyone followed, timidly at first. Then as he made the sounds he made movements. Again we followed timidly but excitedly. What was this fun that this guy was leading us towards?

Suddenly we were singing in rounds, he got us up from our seats to move and shake out everything we held in our bodies. “Let yourself step beyond the limit you hold for yourself,” he said. “Let yourself play.”

We were playing with sounds, with dance, with movement like children, whooping and shouting, shaking and laughing. It was wonderful.

And then… the next traditional mantra we sang; my goodness was it beautiful, was it sung with our whole hearts, was it the most pure offering!

Playing opened up that space. Playing helped us let loose, broke down barriers, allowed us to sing with all our hearts.

That experience was such a wonderful reminder of the importance of play in the creative act.

I am always trying to convince the writers I work with to play more (ask them, I probably get quite annoying about it). Because I truly believe that play can actually bring us deeper into the practice. Allowing ourselves to be silly, to have fun, to experiment is so far from a waste of time. In fact, I would argue it saves us time. It brings us more quickly to what is true.

Just today, I found a poem I wrote when I was doing The Artists’ Way for the first time. I remember I found my way back to writing (something I wasn’t convinced at that point I wanted to do anymore) through penning silly poems. The kind of silly poems I grew up reading that made me want to write in the first place.

Reading this poem, called Tiny Lug’oles, made me laugh so much and reminded me of the sheer joy I had writing it. In the end this fun playfulness with words brought me back my love of writing and I went on to write my next novel pretty soon after.

So here’s to letting ourselves play. Your inner kid is soooo creative and they want you to hold that pen a little less tightly.

What could you do today to bring a little silliness into your writing practice? Where can you allow yourself to step just beyond the limit you hold for yourself?

And here’s my poem….I hope it gives you a chuckle.

                                                          Tiny Lug'oles

I have very small ears
from top to bottom, two inches.
When I put my facemask on,
the elastic certainly pinches.
People ask me often,
if out of these tiny lugs, I can hear.
To which I like to reply,
"Sorry, what was that dear?"
The fact that I hear just fine,
but live in a noisy city,
in an apartment block with raucous neighbours
is the part that's not so pretty. 
Ear plugs are too big to block out the sound, 
they never fit in snugly.
So the resulting night of interrupted sleep
could really be quite ugly. 
Then I discovered to my sheer delight
there are plugs made just for tiny ears.
I popped them in and wiggled them around
and gave the biggest cheer.
Now ask me if I can hear out of my lugs
and I will tell you smugly,
"When I've got these little blighters in,
I sleep snug as a bug in a rugly."

And here are a few far funnier poems that made me cry with laughter.

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Mentoring

Capturing my delight as I wait for a mentoring client

Do you want to be reminded to play as your create your art? Would you like to be led back to the joy of writing when that gets lost in the ‘shoulds’? Would you like to make this last half of the year rich with words? Sign up for a discovery call to chat to me about my mentoring offerings.

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Thank you for being here 💜