In the News

by Nancy Casey

Think of the many people that have passed through your life and the many places you have been. Oh so many!

Today you will write about 26 of them.

Set up your page by first drawing a line at the top where the title will go. Then write the letters of the alphabet (A-Z) down the left hand side of the page. For each letter of the alphabet, you will coax yourself to recall a person or a place from your life that begins with that letter.

You have lots of people to choose from: everybody you have ever known or heard about, strangers, people from the media, characters from shows and books.

Some of the places you have been have names that everybody knows. They be found on maps: names of cities, streets or mountain ranges. Other places are personal. They don’t have official names. You have favorite and not-so-favorite places in your living space and out in the world. Are there places you miss? Can you recall a place where you sat, stood, laughed or danced?

Here’s the twist: Don’t write down the name of the person or the place. Instead, write down a short detail that gives just enough information for you to know what it means. You don’t have to make it so somebody else would understand or even guess. It only has to make sense to you.

For example, a person who loves to stretch out on their blue couch could use “couch” for the letter “C”. But instead of writing “couch” they could write something like, “Inviting and blue.”

Another example: Suppose you have a friend named Bob. You could use “Bob” for the letter “B”. You wouldn’t write “Bob” though. Instead, next to the “B”, you could write down something you and Bob did together. Or you could name one quality of Bob’s that you admire.

It can take a minute or two for your mind to settle into the two-step thinking it takes to do this. First you think of something for the letter, then you think up the detail and write that down next to the letter. Be patient with yourself. Doodling can help. You can skip around instead of doing the letters in order.

If you get really stuck on a letter or two, leave it temporarily blank. Something might occur to you after you start doing something else and you can fill it in later.

When you have written something for each of the letters and illustrated the page to your satisfaction, give your work a title and write the date on it.

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.

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Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. You can find more of her work here. She occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes, writing certificates, or writing coaching, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

by Nancy Casey

Drawers and windows can open. People can open their mouths, their eyes, their hands and, of course, their minds.

Volcanoes and earthquakes open up the ground.

A person can open a book, a file, a faucet or a present. Doors can open into something, and they can open out on something, too. (What’s the difference?)

How can you tell whether or not your mind is open? Does anything open as time passes? Can a flower prevent itself from opening?

Your writing mission for today is to fill a page while over-using the word open (or any of its forms, like opening, opened, open up, etc.)

You can describe your surroundings or something that happened to you. You can tell a story that you know about or a story that is invented from your imagination.

As you write, try to use the word open in every sentence at least once, more than once if you can.

As you fill your page, be open to the idea of drawing on it. Your mind opens up when you are “writing” and also not trying to squeeze your thoughts out in words and letters.

Be open to writing. Be open to drawing. Most of all, be open to the idea of opening and whatever that might open up.

After you have filled a page, read over your work. Make small changes if you need to. Add more color or decoration to the page if you want to. When you are satisfied with the page, give it 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.

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Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. You can find more of her work here. She occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

 

by Nancy Casey

What’s new and different in your life lately? These virus times have brought most of us new concerns and routines. New understandings and knowledge. New beginnings. New ways of problem-solving. New connections. New distances.

It’s overwhelming when everyone is cast into such newness at once. But newness isn’t new. Every day, every moment is new. Even if we tend not to notice.

As you set up your page, think about what’s new in your life lately. Have you had new thoughts? Have you noticed anything recently that you never really noticed before? What new things are you doing these days? Are you learning new kinds of information?

The page setup takes a while. Do it slowly and think about what’s new to you lately. Big things and little ones, related to the virus and not.

Draw the usual line at the top of your page where the title will go. Then divide the remainder of the page into four equal sections by drawing a vertical line and a horizontal line. Inside each of the four sections, draw a pretty-big rectangle. Plan to write inside the rectangles and draw or decorate the rest of the space.

Label each rectangle, using these four headings:

Think – Notice – Do – Information

In each of the rectangles write down what’s new to you in that category. Don’t force yourself to think specifically about the virus, and don’t avoid thinking about it either. Do notice where your mind tends to go and encourage it to go other places as well.

Skip around and gradually fill the page. Write inside the rectangles. Doodle around the outside of the rectangles. Until the page is full.

Read over your work. Make small changes if you need to. Add more color or decoration to the page if you want to. When you are satisfied with the page, give it 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.

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Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. You can find more of her work here. She occasionally teaches a Write-For-You class at the Recovery Center. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.

 

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.

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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.