Writers who CARE: the 50/50 Project

I was so pleased to get the opportunity to talk about Writers who CARE: the 50/50 Project on CBC Radio's "Close to Home" show. Host, Carmen Klassen, called from Halifax wanting to know more about how the project works. The money we are raising is going to the Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world. Thanks to all the talented writers who have volunteered their time and talent to do critiques. If you'd like to hear more about this project with CARE International to raise money for the crisis in the Horn of Africa, listen to our chat at CLOSE to HOME.

Feeding the Lake

Here's an excerpt I shared at the last Answering the Call writing retreat from Madeleine L'Engle's "Walking on Water:"

If the work comes to the Artist and says, "Here I am, serve me," then the job of the Artist, great or small, is to serve. The amount of the artist's talent is not what it is about. Jean Rhys said to an interviewer in the Paris Review, "Listen to me. All of writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. And there are mere trickles, like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake."

I have never served a work as it ought to be served; my little trickle adds hardly a drop of water to the lake, and yet it doesn't matter; there is no trickle too small. Over the years, I have come to recognize that the work often knows more than I do. The great artists, the rivers and tributaries, collaborate with the work...Shakespeare knew how to listen to his work, and so he often wrote better than he could write; Bach composed more deeply, more truly, than he knew; Rembrandt's brush put more of the human spirit on canvas than Rembrandt could comprehend.  When the work takes over, then the artist is enabled to get out of the way, not to interfere. When the work takes over, the Artist listens.

BUT we MUST work every day, whether we feel like it or not; otherwise when it comes time to get out of the way and listen to the work, we will not heed it.

Writers who CARE: the 50/50 Project

Have you always dreamed of becoming a published author? Do you have a half-finished manuscript hidden under the bed? Writers who CARE are a group of published authors working to raise money for Somalian refugees through CARE International. If you donate $50 to The 50/50 Project, a published author will critique 50 pages of your work-in-progress. This is a steal folks!

East Africa is facing its worst drought in more than 60 years, creating the most severe food crisis in the world today.
CARE has launched an emergency appeal for $48 million to provide food, water, and emergency relief. They hope to reach almost 2 million people affected by the emergency.

Check out Writers who CARE: the 50/50 Project today and see how you can help. Thank you for your support!

ANSWERING THE CALL: Writers' Retreat

Answering the Call VIII: Releasing the Writer Within

A WORKING WRITERS’ RETREAT

WHERE: The Villa Madonna in Renforth, New Brunswick (just outside of Saint John)
WHEN: October 14, 15 and 16, 2011

FORMAT:
October 14, 2011:
5 p.m. Registration in foyer.

6 p.m. Opening Address: Answering the Call by Kathy-Diane Leveille
6 to 9 p.m. Meet and Greet Social

October 15, 2011: Full writing day.
7 to 9 p.m. Optional critique group

October 16, 2011:
11:00 a.m. Closing and wrap up.
1:00 p.m. Heading home after lunch and out by mid-afternoon.

FEE: $168.00 which includes single room and board.

All writers dream of getting a block of time for themselves to write. The Villa provides the perfect opportunity. Over the years, we've created touchstones within the weekend's framework that provide optional opportunities to connect with other writers to share work-in-progress and experience.  Rooms are single and private, so there is not excuse not to write.

E-mail shadowsfall@kathy-dianeleveille.com for more information.

"All of us can see ourselves in Leveille's characters. These are stories that speak to the complicated bonds we have with siblings and parents, who they were and who they are now and how we learn the truth of what we took for granted before."  -The Daily Gleaner

Thoreau

Thoreau writes eloquently of the deceptive appearance of TIME. It is quantifiable and measurable; however, beneath our need to contain it, TIME possesses an eternal, elusive quality.  I think this is also true of the well of CREATIVITY that exists within and without us. We barely dip beneath its surface,  but on occasion some of have been lucky enough, through pure clumsy accident,  to drink deep.

"TIME is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink, I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is the pebbly stars."

Henry David Thoreau

Walden

Where Creativity Meets Spirituality for you?

Where does creativity meet spirituality for you? I'll be posing that provocative question to various artists/writers/creatives I've met over the years. This week I sent it to Annie Harding, who I met this winter in an on-line group that touched base weekly to discuss Julia's Cameron's book FINDING WATER.

Annie: About me, I am a minor published poet with work in four internationally published anthologies.I am working on a collection of poems bout Nova Scotia.I also write Haiku,Sijo, Tanka and Hagia- a combination of photography and Haiku. Originally from Boston I have lived here for the last nine years on a small farm called foggytop. we raise sheep,goats and poultry. We are trying to make the farm self surviving-easier said then done. I was trained as an artist but I spent thirty plus years in corporate America. I design rare gemstone jewellery and work as a fibre artist and photographer.

 

Where does creativity meet spirituality for you?

 

I always been on a spiritual quest, creative energy must originate from the creator,  I am sojourner of sorts finding many religions offer aspects of joy and awareness that brings me peace. The Dali Llama- to take what we need and leave the rest. At the base of all religions I find a oneness-that connects us all.

 

Thomas Merton has a prayer where he confesses his uncertainty and in his uncertainty he concludes that by merely trying to please God, we do in fact please him. In this mindset I wrote the following

 

knowing

that I know nothing

I surrender

my mind centers and my breathing slows

it is in this silence

I at last find

you

waiting for me

on the other side of each breath

 

 

The 12  week journey we just completed FINDING WATER, THE ARTISTS WAY gave us many beneficial tools to help harness the Creator and our “believing mirrors” to build us up when we can not go  on. So I thank Lungta the wind horse blow blessing across the universe and leas us al to a new creative  level -

 

Namaste Annie

 

 

Hafiz poetry

There was a lovely poem in my mailbox from my friend, poet and photographer, Sarah:

WE HAVE NOT COME TO TAKE PRISONERS

We have not come here to take prisoners,
But to surrender ever more deeply
To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world
To hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run my dear,
From anything
That may not strengthen
Your precious budding wings.

Run like hell my dear,
From anyone likely
To put a sharp knife
Into the sacred, tender vision
Of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend
Those aspects of obedience
That stand outside of our house
And shout to our reason
"O please, O please,
Come out and play."

For we have not come here to take prisoners
Or to confine our wondrous spirits,

But to experience ever and ever more deeply
Our divine courage, freedom and
Light!

~ Hafiz ~

(The Gift ~ versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

Desmond Tutu

My e-mail artist circle wrapped up the last chapter of Julia Cameron's "Finding Water" last week. We shared a number of inspirational poems and thoughts with one another. This was one of my favorites:

"You are a child of my own heart

Seek out your deepest joy and you fill find me there.

Find that which makes you most perfectly yourself and know that I am at the heart of it.

Do what delights you

And you will be working with me,

Finding your life,

Hidden in me."

Desmund Tutu from "Made for Goodness"

Finding Water: Julia Cameron

This week wraps up my e-mail Artist Circle's exploration of Julia Cameron's book "Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance."  I've enjoyed a variety of things about this book. This excerpt is only one of many that moved me:

Working at art  is really an act of communion. When I write, I am praying. When I miss a day's writing, I, in effect, miss a day's prayer--and I feel it.  I believe there are higher forces that we connect with when we work...I have written for 20 years. That has given me a spiritual life. I believe that I am intended to write, that when I write, I open myself to Spirit.