writingtowardswholeness

Have you ever tried to “beautify” a line or phrase from your journal that spoke to you? The “Beautify a piece of your writing” exercise helped me distill the most important message I needed to hear from my memoir in progress about being a new mom to my mixed race boy. I am working on the “deeper story,” so I used colored pencils to emphasize words and meditate on its message for me. “I will show him the full expanse of his humanity even if others would reduce him by his ‘race.’” As I traced over the words, added pictorial symbols, and drew a sun and moon, I could feel the weight of a moral responsibility in parenting my son. But the “beautifying” process acted as a detoxification of outside messaging, which uplifted me.

Join me for an in-person workshop at my place on Saturday, April 11, from 1 – 3 to try a sampling of simple beauty exercises, including the “beautify your words” activity. Details to register can be found on the Events page.