The Sunrise Story

  from our last trip to the beach OBX Today I celebrate a summer filled with writing and learning and meeting new people. I attended the All Write Conference in June. July was filled with day after day of writing at the Invitational Summer Institute with the teachers at the Northern Virginia Writing Project. My goal is to carry those days with me into August and the school year ahead. I want to write morning pages everyday. I want to incorporate some fiction writing into my daily writing practice. I want to continue with my writing group. These are the goals I'm working towards. Today, my goal is simple. Pack my car. (Make sure I have my notebook and pens!) Drive north. Meet my family. Drive to the beach in Maine. We are celebrating my mom's 70th birthday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! The ocean is always good for the soul...the beach with family is exactly what I need.  Thank you to Ruth Ayres for providing this space to share our celebrations. Please join us...

Today we journaled. Dave Arbogast stopped by today to lead us in some of Progoff's Intensive Journaling activities. It was an honor to introduce Dave, as he was my introduction to the NVWP through the graduate class I took in 2005. He's the reason I am part of this project and I'm so grateful! What an experience to watch the other teachers experience this for the first time. Dave explained that the writing today was for us...as writers. The audience was us too. With intensive journaling, strong emotions bubble up through the words. I've participated in these exercises time and time again, yet the writing is always fresh and new. Amazing! After our morning of intensive journaling, we broke for lunch and met up with our writing group. We've been meeting at a table in the cafeteria, as it's been quiet. Today it was busy, so we found a room. (Shhh, don't tell...it was marked Faculty. We decided we qualified. Some of us were nervous and outside of our comfort zon...

My day began with a coffee spill and a headache...sounds like a Monday. As soon as I walk into room 447, I release a breath and feel calm. How is it possible to feel this "at home" after only a week? This morning, Peter reminds us to write more and talk less during our morning pages and it works. As I started morning pages, I struggled with "what should I write?" feelings. On my drive I've been listening to Brené Brown and her influence seeped into my writing this morning. I came up with two questions to get me started... 1. How do I feel?  2. What is my intention for today? With these questions guiding my writing, I was off. I wrote and wrote and wrote. I remembered my intention as the day progressed too...it worked.  Only one presentation today...feel better Steph! Peter read the profile he wrote about Kyle. I love these profiles. Each has a different voice and style and it's a perfect way to learn more about everyone. Kyle presented today on multig...

I've been away from the blog for a few days. It feels good to have stepped away and I'm happy that I'm back. Last Thursday was a busy day for me! I shared my presentation with everyone in the morning and I met with my writing group, for the first time, in the afternoon. When I got home, it was like my brain was overloaded and I needed a break.  The presentation I shared was about notebooks. It addressed myself as a notebook writer and I invited teachers to become notebook writers themselves. The teachers responded positively to our time together and I'm grateful for that.  The afternoon brought our first writing group. My group has decided to try something new this summer. We are going to be a hybrid group...meeting face to face once a week and online the other time. We spent some time setting up norms for our group and it was time well spent. We each shared our writing and gave feedback. I love my group. I love that this group of women came together from different ...