Holy Days R4 Healing
Making Space for the Sacred Instead of Sacrifice
Our American culture suffers from a cancer called capitalism bent on sucking the life from most of us daily. Many - especially those of us who live with an attachment wound or trauma (those of us at greater risk for autoimmune diseases) live on a caffeinated jumpstart, racing through days spending nights too overwhelmed to manage, only to do it again the next day. This cycle doesn’t allow us the time we need to process anything, to digest what is happening, or to appreciate the good.
The origin of the word holiday comes from holy day, a day set aside for the sacred to dedicate to the divine. To me - and I do believe in God but not to push in your face or judge people who don’t believe or have other ways of expressing their spirit - there is nothing more divine (close to God) than paying attention to life. With divinity in us all, what could be better than making time for ourselves? And yet we consistently fail to do this.
I used to feel as if I had so much to process, I was afraid I’d collapse if I spent time with myself. What helped me the most was starting small and slow. Processing little bits at a time. Going gently and easing myself into a practice where I could eventually feel as if I can process my days daily without much of a backlog.
Healing in life is similar to healing in narrative: moments of recognition (from the Ancient Greek, anagnorisis). Being able to sit with truth, to realize how parts of me feel and why, and to let those parts of me know they make sense. Of course my parts feel overwhelmed with all I’m supposed to do and/or how I’m supposed to show up. Being able to take a moment to see a part and hear its feelings and let it know I see and hear it, that I recognize those feelings, is healing. (Try it.)
And yet often, especially for the holidays, instead of doing less, we do more! We are a culture of more, a culture of human-doing. Until we collapse. And even after we’ve collapsed, been hospitalized, and almost died, we still do too much.
I talk and teach about compassion because it’s the beginning of being able to start to truly take care of ourselves. I did all the things the doctors told me to do, took my meds and refrained from many activities, and yet I wasn’t healing. I was angry and caught in loops of reactivity. Without compassion for myself, I couldn’t stop pushing. (I wanted to figure out how to post a recording here - something you could listen to or watch - about compassion and forgiveness for the holidays, but I could not push myself to make that happen.)
I am not pushing myself anymore. I am not rushing or adding things to my schedule. I am taking as much time off as I can. And I am giving myself grace. (I will figure out how to post a recorded video of a compassion meditation soon. If anyone knows how to do this and wants to teach me, I’d love the help!)
If you find yourself in a hole digging, please reach out for some help. I am a coach who helps people learn to regulate their nervous system and befriend their parts. What kind of parts? All kinds especially Inner Critics and Judges, but any and all kinds of parts are welcome with me, all are sacred. May you and all of your parts enjoy a healing and compassionate New Year.
artwork by Scott Sherman at ScottShermanStudio on Instagram
The Prompt:
Here is one of the prompts from this past month’s Brave Space, something to chew on… (when you attend Brave Space you get several pages of prompts. There are warm-ups and craft prompts and poem prompts and prompts that make you think, and this is a thought prompt with some action steps added on. Enjoy!)
ON RESPONDING TO ASSUMPTIONS - What is a play? Or a story? Or a memoir? Or whatever you are working on? What does it do? What would it need to do for you to consider it successful? What are your criteria?
Plays (for example, could be anything, any medium) do not need to look or feel or act like the plays that you already know and have read or seen from the past or the canon. In fact, many (countless) plays (or paintings or whatever) from other cultures behave completely unlike American plays of the past 120 years. And just because you may not know about them, doesn't mean they aren't amazing!
What would inspire you to create something that works differently just for you and your audiences (or readers)?
Not everyone is writing with a cis white straight male audience in mind. Therefore we may not want to create a play that is typical of that audience or that follows those expectations. We often call those expectations craft but they are really a genre the dominant system has imposed on everyone for much too long.
Alternatively you could train yourself to follow, or at least notice, your impulses, and learn to trust them. Use them to make what you want to make for yourself.
How would you change what you're working on if you felt it would succeed without having to comply with the dominant culture? How much more might you reveal? How honest could you or your characters be? How high would the stakes become if you or your characters were telling an unvarnished truth or exposing a system we’ve all been trained not to see? What power could you own as a creative person by removing society’s blinders to your own lived experience?
Make a list of what you or your characters believe people are blind to. List at least 10 things. Get specific. Pick one of those that feels juicy and assign it to a character, and in their voice, let them tell a story that reveals an injustice or a reality or a blight or crime against humanity. Delve. See into the corners. Use all the senses (here are 40 to play with from my very first Substack). Try it and let me know what happens.
With prompts, grounding practices, & discussions, Brave Space invites playwrights, poets, painters, potters, novelists, memoirists, musicians & artists working in any medium to make meaning in a safe community. Begin and/or bring your projects to completion. $5-25 suggested per session. 4x/week! On or off camera. No commitment, drop-ins welcome. Try it!
Brave Space Schedule:
12/27 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space
Friday 3pm ET Brave Sharing Salon
12/29 Sunday 6pm ET All Human Brave Space
12/30 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space
1/1 Wednesday 12pm ET 1st Brave Space of 2025! w/workshop!
1/3 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space
1/5 Sunday 6pm ET All Human Brave Space
1/6 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space
1/8 Wednesday 12pm ET Brave Space w/workshop
1/10 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space
1/12 Sunday 6pm ET All Human Brave Space
Sunday 730pm ET Brave Sharing Salon
1/13 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space
1/15 Wednesday 12pm ET Brave Space w/workshop
1/17 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space
Each week Wednesdays includes fast feedback for up to 1 page (@300 words) of writing or you can bring in a craft issue/ask for help with your project.
Each month there are 2 Sharing Salons: Second Sundays (730pm ET) and Final Fridays (3pm ET) for sharing up to 10 minutes of work (up to 1500 words).Amazing People Doing Amazing Things:
My latest poem, "I've Never Been a Country," was recently published in The Mersey Review here with an essay I wrote here.
Thru 12/29 Get your tickets to the truly remarkable world premiere of the beautiful land i seek (la linda tierra que busco yo) by Matt Barbot produced by Fault Line Theatre with Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and Latinx Playwrights Circle. Use the DISCOUNT CODE FLT10 to purchase any ticket at a 10% discount. It’s funny, it’s theatrical, and Vulture says, “Audacious and quick-witted…driven by ache, it’s also never far from laughter, sometimes straight-up nuttiness.” I love this play! Go!
Take a Poetry Workshop with Only Poems! https://www.onlypoems.net/creative-writing-workshops
1/4 & 1/5 Leap with Passion this coming January! (Either day) Get ready to leap into your New Year! Rhonda Musak’s fabulous day-long workshop to help you find focus and clarity around your life goals is transformative! I highly recommend it! Register Here!
The Femme Collective presents January, The She-Wolves and Broken Thread at the 14th Street Y this coming January! Get Your Tickets! The Femme Collective is a groundbreaking partnership between MultiStages, The Neo-Political Cowgirls, and Eden Theater Company. Together they represent a united front in reimagining the theater industry’s future. Born out of the financial and cultural challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, this innovative collaboration between three women-led companies seeks to redefine theater through shared resources, amplified diversity, and community resilience.
Opportunities:
Due ASAP, The Workshop Theatre is accepting applications for Spring 2025 Intensive Workshop! until Tuesday, December 31st at 11:59pm EST OR until 120 scripts are submitted. Please contact info@workshoptheater.org with questions.
By 12/27/24 Applications Due for Experimental Theater Writing Workshop Winter 2025 Suzanne Willett is seeking female or female-identifying experimental writers for a series of ten Zoom classes held Tuesday evenings from 01/07 - 03/11. Classes will consist of discussions of homework material; prompt assignments; and readings of work generated in class, culminating in final presentations. More Info Here or you can apply directly here
By 12/31/24 Autistic Voiceover Artists is a new initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering autistic adults through voiceover training and practice. AVA’s mission is to create an inclusive and engaging space where autistic adults can explore voiceover as a means of self-expression, skill-building, and creativity. This November and December, AVA is offering free online voiceover workshops for Autistic adults! Webinar schedule and more info here.
The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis offers the following programs to apply to:
-Many Voices Fellowship - for any early career BIPOC playwright interested in spending two years in Minnesota, deadline in December 2024
-Many Voices Mentorship - open to beginning BIPOC playwrights based in Minnesota, deadline in December 2024
-McKnight National Residency and Commission - open to established playwrights outside of Minnesota, deadline in December 2024
-Core Writer Program - open to any committed professional playwright, deadline in January 2025
-McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting - open to mid-career Minnesota-based playwrights, deadline in January 2025
-Core Apprentice - open to playwrights in or recently graduated from undergrad and graduate programs, deadline in February 2025.
12/31/24 Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program rent-free non-living studio space to 17 visual artists for year-long residencies in DUMBO, Brooklyn.
1/1/25 Pen America U.S. Writers Aid Initiative The U.S. Writers Aid Initiative (USWAI) is intended to assist fiction and nonfiction authors, poets, playwrights, translators, and journalists in addressing short-term financial emergencies. To be eligible, applicants must be professional writers based in the United States, and be able to demonstrate that this one-time grant will be meaningful in helping address a short-term emergency situation. Grant decisions are made on a quarterly basis by a volunteer committee of literary peers in consultation with PEN America staff.
1/3/25 McColl Center Artists-in-Residence Programs to spark artistic growth for emerging and mid-career artists. Residents enjoy private housing, a large-scale studio, guidance, marketing support, and a stipend. They have the freedom to focus on artistic exploration and engage with the local creative community. Access to shared labs: 3D, ceramics, media, and woodshop. The program runs from September 9 to December 15, 2025.
1/5/25 Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Residency free, stipend-supported, accessible residencies to artists and writers who are residents of New York State and Indian Nations therein. They support artists and writers working in the following disciplines: Poetry, Playwriting & Screenwriting, Photography (film or digital) & Filmmaking, and Visual Arts (Painting, Sculpture).
By 1/31/25 Autistic Oral History Project is offering grants of $3K to Autistic folks and Autistic-adjacent folks who want to participate in collecting oral histories.
2/1/25 Wave Farm Transmission Art Residencies in Hudson, New York This residency will emphasize “A Radio Art Hour.” During a 10-day residency at Wave Farm, artists will develop new transmission artworks informed by access to a research library, equipment, unique workspace resources, and on-site staff support. An artist fee of $1,000 will be provided to each resident artist.