Finding the Juice

I love when they cry!  I love when pens are moving and tears are streaming.  I love when they surprise themselves with emotion as they read their writing out loud for the first time.  It means that they hit a vein and found their juice – their itch, their humanity, and their power.   

Under our everyday selves, we carry our histories – our multitude of stories and emotions.  We all have too many stories to carry in our conscious minds.  Most of them get tucked away beneath our obligations, our to-do lists and our highlights reel.  Lynda Barry, one of my writing mentors, calls these stories “the unthought known.”  These are the things that sculpt us into who we are.
 
Stories build bridges.  They allow us to walk in each other’s skin. That is the writing that thrills me.  I love reading it.  I love writing it, and I love facilitating it in others. 
 
Powerful writing is like a doodle – one that is beautiful, but could never have been thought into being.  They are both born out of playfulness, fearlessness and a moving hand.
 
Writing has been reminding me that life is also art unfolding.  I am learning to trust that I can’t think up the magic.  I am learning to move forward, following my passion, trusting that I will find the juice…

Where do you find your juice?

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