Our Lives, Our Way

                This video suggests a way that we can live better. It is a way, not the way. It can be our way.There is plenty of choice. We can use our wisdom, intelligence, beliefs, feelings and needs to choose as best we can. We can take care of ourselves as we will.  Our way of life is up to us. An excellent early step is to show up. To show up we may find it useful to stand up. Another important step, one suggested on this video, is to realize usually that resisting others is not productive, violence is particular not productive. 

                For example, when we do not like their food, we can co-operate to get the best food we can. We do not have to by food we do not want or like. We can refuse to buy their food. We do not have to do without. Think about it if you wish. If  you do so, you might also consider what it means to show up. 

Rememberance: A Conversation

 Mago Bill Experience: Experiential differences not all related to age, but experience does take time.

 

                She was a young girl of about his age. She was speaking with an older woman she obviously cared for, but she was saying with some vehemence, "You just don't care."

                The older woman seemed truly fond of the young girl, and who may have felt some hurt at the girl's words, still answered in kindly tones. He still remembered what she said. She said, "I have come to see that some things do not matter very much and, that most things don't matter at all."

                The girl answered still with some feeling, "You don't care about anything." 

                The woman answered a bit as though she were speaking to herself as much as to the girl. "I once knew a wise old gentleman who did not believe in 'things.'"

                                                                                            by Richard S.
                                                                                            for Mago Bill

Without a Teacher

Learning to write without a teacher may be effectively done and enjoyed.

                It has been done in groups of from 5 to 17 participants. Basically, the members each commit to reading the writing of a member then to coming together with the other members to share their feelings about what they have read. 

Hearing what others have felt as they read your works has proven a great help to improving one's writing and a powerful experience in itself.

Any Questions?  I'll clarify one doing without being asked.
Every member reads one specified piece of  writing of one member of the group. Then in a gathering of all the members each member tells about how she felt as she read the piece.
This telling of feels is done at nearly every meeting of the group.

The bit below is about what I have learned from my experience and from Mr. Elbow. It is something that I might offer at an appropriate moment in the gathering of my group.

                On the horizon, a Final Draft 

                Once you have some writing from which it seems you can coax some coherence, you may be close to the point at which to edit and turn out a final copy.

            Take 15 minutes to make your meaning clear to yourself.

                You might let yourself consider an outline or plan.

                Sum up what you have into a genuine single assertion of what your meaning is. Not easy, but possible. Remember that your assertion must actually assert something that can be quarreled with.

                You have grown your meaning and specified it to yourself clearly. Good for you. Your efforts and good thinking will give you a good chance to do some truly powerful writing.

                                                                            by Richard Sheehan
                                                                            or Mago Bill