Summer is Buzzing and Barking and Beating
Post by Kris Woll
Summer is buzzing and barking and beating all around me as I write this: bugs and birds, neighborhood dogs, footsteps of runners and walkers on the sidewalk adjacent to where I sit. Gardens and grasses and uninvited-but-persistent weeds grow, waving in the wind. It is warm and will get warmer through the day.
This season of movement and growth inspires me. The long days provide early light for my morning writing practice, before the busy-ness of daily life begins. In winter’s deepest days, I am up in the dark to the sound of an alarm, turning on a lamp and wrapping myself in layers and filling a steaming coffee cup before I turn to the page. Now, the sun is my alarm, reinforced by noisy birds announcing the day. Now I drink my coffee over ice.
Morning writing is a consistent rhythm in my life, throughout the year, through the years. I crave it, the way I crave the coffee I drink while I write. It has sustained me through varied seasons.
And what sustains it, this writing practice? Coffee, yes, and habit. And even more so, companionship: gathering with others who are also writing. Over the past few years, I have found this companionship in contemplative writing circles – monthly gatherings with other creative souls seeking to pay attention not just to what we are writing but also to what is buzzing and growing in our lives as writers. These circles practice forging the receptiveness of a contemplative practice with the generativity of a creative one, and have helped me to pay attention to my own writing and life in a new way.
Summer being a most suitable time to plant things and watch them grow, contemplative writing groups are springing up through Eye of the Heart this season, and I’m thrilled to facilitate a few of them. This month, and again in July and August, new groups will gather. They are open to all writers who are curious about how contemplation and creation can come together in their lives and work. In contemplative writing circles, we practice listening deeply to each other and, in turn, listening more deeply to ourselves. Come to one or all three.
This summer morning buzzes and barks and beats around me as I sit writing, and I am grateful for this practice and this full cup of coffee and the light and warmth of the other writers and seekers who sustain me on my way.