AUGUST 2021 WRITING AS HEALING: SUPPORT

The theme of this month’s writing workshop was support. Participants wrote about where we both get and offer support — for instance, in formal groups, in informal settings with people close to us, or in encounters with strangers or with people we...

JULY 2021 WRITING AS HEALING: KINDNESS

This month’s Writing as Healing workshop began with a short video: Maya Angelou’s Be a Rainbow in Someone Else’s Cloud. After watching the video, you might want to write for ten minutes about your response to Angelou’s remarks. She described...

MAY 2021 WRITING AS HEALING: MUSIC FOR THE ANIMALS

For this month’s Writing as Healing session, we watched a short video of a young pianist playing music for zoo animals. Participants then did undirected, free writing about whatever came to mind as they thought about the video. We then read these two quotations:...

APRIL 2021 WRITING AS HEALING: KINDNESS

This month’s writing focused on kindness, including the distinction between being genuinely kind and feeling that you’re being exploited. Among other things, we listened to Emma Thompson reading a poem about kindness (see below). Beneath the poem,...

MARCH 2021 WRITING AS HEALING

Loneliness has discussed a great deal during the pandemic, which has forced many of us to be alone more than we had been before. In this month’s Writing as Healing workshop, we discussed both the difficulty of involuntary isolation, and also the benefits that...