Oh! The Things That Grow!

by Nancy Casey

The more you look for things that are growing, the more growing things you will find.

Your mission today, in order to write your page, is to notice what’s growing.

You could begin by going outdoors into the spring day and taking a short walk, noticing all the particular types of growing that is happening around you. You could also notice spring growth by parking yourself near a window, or a houseplant.

You don’t have to limit yourself to plants, though. Or animals. Or even the outdoors. Is anything growing in your refrigerator? If you have hair, it’s growing.

Check in with your senses. Can you hear any sounds growing? Are there sensations on your skin that can grow? When something aromatic gets near your nose, what grows?

What grows when you grow drowsy?

Thoughts and ideas can grow in your imagination. They get bigger on their own when our store of information grows. They also grow when they connect to each other. What thoughts have been growing in your mind lately?

Feelings grow, too. Can you find words to describe how feelings like anger or acceptance grow in your mind and body? What grows so big inside you that you laugh? What has to grow so you can make a decision?

Roll the idea of growing around in your mind while you gather your writing tools and prepare your page to write. Draw a line where the title will go and set off a space for a drawing or two. Before you begin to write, wander somewhere.

You can wander physically by going from one random spot to another, indoors or out. You can stay in your chair and pretend you are the camera on a mosquito-sized drone exploring your surroundings. You can send an imaginary drone inside yourself to cruise around and notice what’s going on in your body and mind.

As you wander, ask, “What’s growing?”

When you notice something growing, write down what it is, how it grows and why you know it is growing.

You might fill the whole page by writing about one single thing. Or your page could turn out to look more like a list. Maybe you would rather draw what you notice growing, so that drawing takes up most of the page and there are only a few words on it.

Regardless of how your page fills up, look everything over when you are finished. Make small changes if you want to. Give your work a title and write the date on it, too.

Here is an example of what someone could write.

You can share your work by posting it as a comment below. You can type it in, or take a photo of it and upload the image.

Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. You can find more of her work here. She looks forward to having  Write-For-You classes in person again at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.