by jlouden | Nov 25, 2015 | Creativity, Self-Care & Comfort
There is a famous story in the writing world that I often tell at my retreats. It goes like this: the poet Bill Stafford was known for being prolific. The poet Robert Bly once asked him, “Bill, how do you manage to write so much?” According to writerly...
by jlouden | Nov 18, 2015 | Creativity, Self-Care & Comfort
After the attacks in Lebanon and Paris, all the other violence the world experienced in the last week, and all the various reactions and counter reactions, amongst all that, I did not despair. Because I saw people everywhere responding to the horror in their own noble...
by jlouden | Nov 11, 2015 | Creativity, Self-Care & Comfort
Last week I wrote about the power of staying with something and that made me think of one of my favorite columns I wrote for Body & Soul years ago—on quitting. It came to mind because nothing is black-and-white: sometimes we need to stay, sometimes we need to wake...
by jlouden | Nov 4, 2015 | Creativity, Self-Care & Comfort
Have you ever heard something like this inside your head: “This writing project / spiritual practice / __________ is taking too long!” Followed by… “So it must not be working.” I am intimate with this line of “reasoning,” which can sound something like,...
