Writing Prompts
Everything has a little bit of everything within it.
from Writing by Heart by Meredith Heller | Posted 3/23/24 | Updated 3/24/24
Let's explore this interconnected web of life. Ever notice how everything is not only connected to everything else but is also contained within everything else? Everything has a little bit of everything within it.
In his book Peace Is Every Step, the late Vietnamese Zen Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh addressed this by writing about a cloud floating in a sheet of paper, bringing our attention to how the clouds made the rain that grew the trees that were cut down and made into paper.
Life is a web of interbeing. Everything contains everything. And we are part of it. By naming the parts and finding the connections, we weave ourselves back into wholeness and belonging, into interbeing.
Body/Mindfulness: Close your eyes and settle in. Ride the waves of your breath. Invite your body to relax and open so that what's inside you becomes accessible.
Choose something, anything, really, like a pillow or a pen, a table or a coffee mug, a guitar or a dress, and follow it through until you have a sense of all the elements contained within it and how they are related, like in Thich Nhat Hanh's poem.
WRITE NOW! Write the life story of your chosen object, including as much as possible about what it contains and the process it has gone through to become what it is.
Look for the interdependent relationships between the elements that comprise your object, like rain clouds providing water so that trees can grow and be cut down to make paper. You have permission to be inventive. This doesn't need to be scientific or factual. Use your imagination to make connections. The whole universe is contained within each part. Perhaps include even yourself!
Next: Belonging
Copyright ©2024 Meredith Heller. All rights reserved.
Meredith Heller is a poet, singer-songwriter, avid nature lover, and educator who leads writing workshops and wellness retreats. ....
From the book Writing by Heart copyright ©2024 Meredith Heller. Reprinted with permission from NewWorldLibrary.com.