"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 ‘Learning from the elders’

Quarantine Prompt a Day <3 Elders

26 March 2020 

My grandmothers. Two women from completely different worlds, cultures, backgrounds, across a vast socioeconomic divide, brought together at the end of their lives, because my parents loved each other, and loved them.

From Miz Pearl I learned about survival, food preservation, foraging, mending, how to find and create beauty even on the darkest days, and the power of prayer, especially when it’s sung. From Miz Ann I learned about the joy to be found in making things with your hands, the value of being a smartass, the pervasive connection of laughter, which fork to use 🙂 and how even the brashest and most self-regarding among us can learn the power of gratitude and humility. 

Fierce women, strong women, wise women, loving women, despite the brokenness life dealt both of them. When they lived together, sharing the same room in my parents’ house, in the twilight of their lives, they became unlikely friends and sisters. ‘Cause that’s what Love does.

Make art about what you’ve learned from elders, about the gifts they bring to our lives. 

Category:

2020 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Family, fiction, Food, freedom, Gratitude, healing, Love, Nature, nonfiction, One Love, peace, poetry, prompts, self care, Writing, Writing Prompts

Tagged with:

Daily Prompt Love <3 Unsung

28 June 2019 

Make art about underappreciated, unsung, nobility. 

unsung nobility

Image by MonoRenal from Pixabay

Category:

2019 Prompts, activism, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, fiction, Gratitude, healing, Love, nonfiction, One Love, peace, poetry, prompts, Writing, Writing Prompts

Tagged with:

Daily Prompt Love <3 Grandfather

16 June 2019 

My dad was one of the funniest, gentlest souls to ever walk the planet. I wish my youngest son had had more time with him. 

Make art about grandfathers.

Category:

2019 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Family, fiction, Gratitude, nonfiction, One Love, poetry, prompts, Writing, Writing Prompts

Tagged with:

Daily Prompt Love <3 She

11 June 2019

Make art about the wisdom of old women, about the dangerous old woman. 

old woman

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Category:

2019 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Family, fiction, freedom, Gratitude, healing, Love, nonfiction, One Love, poetry, prompts, Writing, Writing Prompts

Tagged with:

Guest Blog at Streetlight Mag <3 Grateful To Be Invited<3 Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

Guest Blog at Streetlight Magazine about one of the most important writing lessons I ever learned.
 
typewriter

Category:

Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Editing, fiction, freedom, Gratitude, litmags, Love, nonfiction, One Love, poetry, Writing

Tagged with:

Daily Prompt Love <3 Ways of Knowing

30 April 2017

I asked for a dream before going to sleep last night, a dream that would help me to solve a problem, answer a question I had. In the ways in which I was raised, dreams were just one of multiple ways of learning, ways of knowing.

Unlike mainstream Western culture, which tends to limit ‘knowing’ to what is categorized as ‘rational,’ indigenous cultures across the globe recognize multiple sources of knowledge an individual or community possess and can access, including traditional wisdom, dreaming, land knowing, symbols and images, shared knowledge through connectivity, and story, among others.

Make art about ways of knowing. 

ways of knowing

 

Category:

2017 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Dreams, fiction, freedom, Gratitude, Love, Nature, nonfiction, One Love, poetry, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

Tagged with:

Daily Prompt Love Catch-Up <3 Uncles & Curiosity

4 March 2017

In many cultures, the teaching of heritage and cultural practices is carried out by members of the extended family, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. In certain cultures, this relationship and teaching is formally recognized, and in cultures with matrilineal descent is referred to as the avunculate, sometimes called avunculism or avuncularism, a social institution where a special relationship exists between an uncle and his sisters’ children. Several Native American tribes practice a form of this, where the uncle is responsible for teaching the children social values and proper behavior while inheritance and ancestry is reckoned through the mother’s family alone. Modern day influences have somewhat but not completely erased this tradition.

Thinking on this especially today, as I watch my sons interact with their sister’s baby son, my GrandPerson Max <3. Thinking on it too, as it’s the weekend of my lovely daughter’s birthday, and my own brother, Bill, now gone on to the next life, was present and there for her literally from the moment she first drew breath. He remained a constant source of Love and education for all of my kids until he left us. My daughter Lia couldn’t say ‘Uncle Bill’ when she was small; it came out ‘Opie Gill.’  So now her brothers are not just ‘Uncles’ to her son, but ‘Opies.” Important job they have ❤ And I have no doubt they’ll honor it well. 

Make art about extended family, about aunts, or uncles, about those elders from whom we learn our culture. 

j-and-max

5 March 2017

Spent the day with my sons, two wise and funny young men.  The two things that impress me about both of them are: 1) their shared sense of honor, and 2) their shared insatiable curiosity. They are both always–always–learning something new, or seeking to learn something new, or thinking about how they can learn something new. 

Make art about learning, about loving to learn, about the magic and mystery of curiosity. 

curiosity_quote

 

 

Category:

2017 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Family, fiction, freedom, Gratitude, Love, nonfiction, One Love, poetry, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

Tagged with:

Daily Prompt Love <3 Leadership

22 November 2016

Make art about leadership, about the qualities of leadership, about the responsibilities of a leader. 

leadership-and-learning-are-indispensable-to-each-other

Category:

2016 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Dreams, fiction, freedom, Gratitude, Love, nonfiction, One Love, poetry, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

Tagged with:

Daily Prompt Catch-Up! Storms, and Shrines, and What We Can Learn <3

10/4/2016

I grew up in Hurricane Alley, eastern North Carolina, so the preparation for these big storms is something I learned early. Hurricane Matthew has ripped through Haiti, and is on his way to the US East Coast. All my provisions are laid in, flashlights and emergency equipment in place and ready, and I’ve battened down as much as I can. But sometimes Mama Nature’s just too big and unpredictable for any kind of preparation.

Make art about preparing the best you can.

hurricane-preparation-checklist

10/5/2016

Thinking a lot today about all the ways people find their way to, or demonstrate faith. Took me immediately to one of my top three favorite songs, The Mountain, by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer.

Excerpted Lyrics by Dave Carter

Some build temples and some find altars,
some come in tall hats and robes spun fine.
Some in rags, some in gemstone halters,
some push the pegs back in line.

I see the mountain, the mountain comes to me,
I see the mountain and that is all I see.

Make art about temples or altars or shrines, faith in some unexpected way.

 

10/6/2016

Road Angel Andrea at Walmart today told me about her grandmama teaching her to sew, first by making curtains, long straight hems, she said, over and over again, summer curtains, winter curtains with their heavy lining. She said her grandmama was patient but tough, making her tear out crooked stitches, and try again til she got it right. “I learned to take my time,” she said. “I learned to take my time, look ahead of the foot, and how a pair of curtains can make all the difference in a room.”

Make art about curtains. Or about what you learned from an elder.

my-curtains

 

Category:

2016 Prompts, Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Books, Creativity, Family, fiction, freedom, Gratitude, Love, Music, Nature, nonfiction, One Love, poetry, Writing, Writing Coaching & Workshops, Writing Prompts

Tagged with:

Gratitude! Almost There! Retreat with The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers

Update! 

We’re now less than $200 away from making this dream of attending the retreat with The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers in August. I can’t even find the words to express how grateful I am to all of you, for giving, for sharing, for reading.

Meet the Grandmothers here in this video, and you’ll understand why attending this retreat would be truly the dream of a lifetime.

“Ours is an alliance of Prayer, Education, and Healing, for our Mother Earth,and her inhabitants, for all of the children, and for the seven generations to come….TIme is short…Time is calling us.”

Celebrating the wisdom of women, in hope and prayer that it will save us all ❤

Please visit my GoFundMe campaign here: 

Thank you in advance for reading, and sharing! 

Surrounding you all in Light and Love and Prayer and Joy ❤ and Gratitude, always Gratitude ❤

 

Category:

Art, Artists, Bless the Day, Creativity, Dreams, Family, Gratitude, Love, One Love

Tagged with:

Tag Cloud

%d bloggers like this: