Day 8: On Safe Guarding
Our First Annual Lunar New Year Journaling Challenge
This month I am participating in the Tin House Writers Workshop, a renowned writing program that has been home to some of America’s great literary minds.
I expected a world-class experience, but on Saturday at the opening of the program, the Executive Director, Lance Cleland, gave a welcoming speech so grounding and immense in compassion, that I unexpectedly found myself crying.
Lance began by acknowledging that though we were all present for the robust program, he recognized the state of the world in which we are all existing in, and the struggles that many of us are facing because of it. He acknowledged that an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people is taking place. He said while he believed we all have the intention to present our best work and be in practice with our literary colleagues, he also pointed out the mental and emotional distress that the current political climate in America is having on many of us. In other words, he extended his grace to us.
I can’t remember the last time I felt so safe, supported, and uplifted in a setting like the one offered by the Tin House community. Perhaps that is what triggered the uncontrollable tears that flowed from me following Lance’s moving words.
In addition to feeling immensely grateful for Lance’s compassion, it also made me pause and think of the spaces I create around me. How I show up for the people in my life - my son Jaad, my family, my friends, and every single space I enter. How could I build on the energy that Lance created for us all in that particular moment and carry it forward to the spaces I inhibit?
Following his beautiful introduction, along with words by the fantastic program leader A.L. Major, we then broke into our small workshop groups. My group genre is nonfiction and we are being led by author Nadia Owusu, whose memoir Aftershocks is next up on my reading list.
Nadia began our workshop by sharing Keeping Quiet, by the resplendent Chilean poet-diplomat, Pablo Neruda, whose words feel so timely.
Now I invite you to take a few deep breathes and sit with Neruda’s words for a moment. When you are ready, let us begin our eighth day of journaling together.
Day Eight Lunar New Year Journaling Prompt:
✨ Reflect & Write:
When was the last time you felt fully safe, seen, and supported? Who were you with? Where were you? What was the environment around you like?
What does it mean to you to feel safe, seen, and supported?
How are some ways you can create or contribute to that feeling in your day-to-day life?
As always you are welcome to skip the prompt and free-hand journal whatever comes to mind instead.
May you be surrounded by the people and things that help you feel safe and supported - in every sense of the word, my beloved readers.
Love,
Summer