"This work is unlike any other, in its range of rich, conjuring imagery and its dexterity, its smart voice. Carroll-Hackett doesn’t spare us—but doesn’t save us—she draws a blueprint of power and class with her unflinching pivot: matter-of-fact and tender." —Jan Beatty

Posts tagged ‘choosing joy’

Quarantine Prompt a Day <3 Feeding

18 March 2020 

Nourish the body. Feed the soul. 

Thinking on all the things that fed me these last few days. Yes, the meals shared with my son, but also my brother-man Eric in West Virginia, with his guitar, serenading the world with an Irish song, the silly memes my sister Adaire and I sent back and forth to each other, my young alum Katlyn and her friend selflessly working to collect donations for families and kids in need in quarantine, my current students excitedly discussing their short stories and poems in our online class, my friend Brigid writing a new comic who shared the pages with me, the sound of my friend Lynne’s laughter through the phone, my old dog sleeping on his purple pillow, my silly cat Moco biting my elbow because I was ignoring him, the humming of the bees across the burgeoning green in my yard, the multitude of good people out there doing good work teaching, sharing, cooking, donating–coping, all of them, in beautiful, humane, and community-minded ways.

So much, in the midst of this fear, to feed the soul. 

Make art about one thing recently that fed your soul. 

what feeds you

Daily Prompt Love <3 Making That Choice

30 May 2019 

Make art about choosing Love over hate. 

love and hate

Image by Miguel Santiago from Pixabay

Daily Prompt Love <3 Respect

31 January 2018

Make art about daily actions that show respect for others, about tolerance, about countering divisiveness. 

handshake.jpg

 

Daily Prompt Love <3

14 January 2018

Make art about that door you opened. 

door

 

Daily Prompt Love <3 Laugh, Giggle, Titter, Guffaw

19 December 2017 

Dreamt my sweet daddy last night, and man, did we laugh! My daddy could find the funny in anything, and I mean anything, sometimes to the point that Mama’d swat him on the arm and scold, “Hugh! Stop it!” 

He often laughed to the point of tears, his capacity for joy and laughter ‘gettin away with him,’ as we say in the South, and more than once, we kids found ourselves laughing to tears right along with him. 

What a gift that was, his humor, teaching us the freedom and power of laughter, of seeing the funny in whatever we found around us, that teaching us to laugh, especially at ourselves. 

Make art about someone with that capacity for humor, about laughing, about the power of laughter. 

daddy 2

Heart Work <3 Central Virginia Chapter of Writing for Peace <3 Join Us As We Work Toward a More Peaceful World

So as busy as this fall semester has been, I’ve joined with some amazing people in two projects that pretty much embody two principles dominating my heart:
❤ K’in, the journal I’ve founded, making space for diverse, marginalized, and underrepresented voices, and ❤
❤ A new venture connected to Writing for Peace, an organization that means so much to me. I’ve been collaborating with an outstanding group of people to build on the amazing vision of Carmel Mawle, the work that Andrea Slack Doray, as our president carries on, in the mission of Writing for Peace. in the creation of the Central Virginia Chapter of Writing for Peace ❤
 
We’re still in the building process, but we have a home for the chapter, and we want to invite you to join us, as we work toward promoting empathy and peaceful activism in our communities. Our hope is that writers, and activists, and all kinds of supporters of the arts will come together in other places to form chapters of their own, so that we can work together creating a more peaceful world–for everyone.
 
So excited to be sharing this with y’all! ❤
 
Please visit the inaugural regional chapter of Writing for Peace: 

Daily Prompt Love <3 It's Full, I Swear!

11 December 2017 

“Sometimes, your relentless optimism makes me tired.” 🙂 my brother Bill

Make art about why that glass is half full. 

glass full or empty 

Daily Prompt Love <3 Seeking Solace

26 July 2017

The world is in so much pain right now, so much anger, so much fear. If I am not mindful, that collective despair will weigh down on my back, settle ’round my shoulders like a yoke, until it chokes me, and I am become part of the problem, rather than doing what I think I should–choosing light, choosing peace, choosing Love–doing all that I can to be a force for compassion and Love in this world. So I have to make sure that I care for myself, body and spirit. I personally seek solace in the natural world, in my garden.

It reminds me, daily, that we are made not from our successes, but from the narrative of learning embodied in failure, every lush, red tomato now the product of years on my knees, learning, lessons gifted by seeds that did not germinate, rain that did not fall, soil that wasn’t ready, woodlings that wandered in and ate the fruit, reminders of my rent being due, for sharing this space.

Reward, and humility, in equal share, mistakes and losses, the cost of carelessness, the reminder that I own no space alone in my time on this planet, reside always in the garden. But even more, for me, in that small space, dwells possibility. Even in the darkest winter months, I imagine what will come, with spring. I find solace in the garden’s persistent gift, the imagining of an unimaginable future.

Make art about where you find solace. 

abundabce

Daily Prompt Catch-Up <3 Saying Thank You, Adult Children, & Peace

17 June 2017

Received several thank you emails from my online students today when our class finished. They never understand, I don’t think, how much I have to thank them for ❤

Create a thank you note (written, visual, musical, etc.) to someone else, someone who doesn’t realize how much gratitude your feel for them.

Thank+you+notes

18 June 2017

My son came home this weekend, to celebrate Father’s Day with me 🙂 He says since I’ve been both mother and father, I get to celebrate both days. My mama always joked, If you can stand them til they’re twenty-two, you’ll get them back as friends. 🙂 I am so grateful for those kids, my three closest friends ❤ 

Make art about children as friends. 

friends

19 June 2017

Make art about peacemakers, about working to heal division.

Daily Prompt Catch-Up <3 All About Some Love and Joy–Gotta Be, In These Dark Days

14 June 2017

Make art about ways of finding (re-finding) your joy.

find your joy

 

15 June 2017

Make art about taking a risk on Love. 

risk to love

 

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