Write Things Down, with Naomi Shihab Nye
Hope Portal, Session 3
In these next few sessions, we investigate some orientations and ways of being that are companions to hope. If hope is a muscle that can be exercised to become stronger and more supple, these qualities might be thought of as fascia, or the tendons — complementary ligaments that make the whole viable and sustainable. The wonderful poet Naomi Shihab Nye is winsome and wise about how writing is a companion to life, and certainly a companion to hope, for her. And it’s a companion to the way we are investigating hope here: the calming simple act of writing things down.
Journaling prompts for Session 3
Exchange words with yourself — the many selves alive inside you — about what you’re doing here. What has hope meant in your life and in your world(s)? Do the different selves inside you have different orientations to despair and to imagination with real-world consequences? How about your best self?
During this week and in the following weeks, as it feels interesting, try this exercise proposed by Naomi. Land on a single word or phrase that you find animating in this Wisdom Practice, and “use it as as an oar that could get you through the days” — just by holding it in your mind (and heart) and seeing how it rubs against other words and how it meets experiences and other words. And remember Mary Oliver’s advice: Keep your journal close by at all times.
We've created a beautiful journal for the whole seven weeks, with full-size printable pages, that you can download for free HERE.
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Find an excellent transcript of this show, edited by humans, on our show page.
Just beginning? Read our introduction for a possible way to organize your experience.
The Hope Portal and this series are adventures in opening the deep enduring teaching that lives inside the 20 years of On Being. We would be so grateful if you would let us know how it goes for you and how it might be refined, by writing to us at mail@onbeing.org.
My "oar", recently (perhaps for a few weeks now), has been 'Wholehearted'-- I find that I find dormant energy and instrumental fuel-cells of fortitude when I remember it (although I forget often)~~~and I am so grateful to express it in order to remember often...especially here! Special Thanks! I have a playlist entitled "Breathe" and it would rub nicely up against 'Wholehearted': 'Breathe Wholeheartedness'.
Naomi’s right. Writing is sacred graffiti on the walls of time. It’s how the self leaves breadcrumbs through the labyrinth of memory. It’s how we sneak hope past the inner doomsayer who insists everything is pointless before lunch.
When I journal, it’s not for productivity. It’s for protection. A spell cast in ink. A rescue mission for some exiled part of me that still believes in love without irony.
As for the many selves inside me—one is tired, one is defiant, one still thinks we can fix this world with metaphors and mint tea. But they all sit at the table when I pick up the pen.
Today my oar word is “withstand.” Not in a clenched-jaw way, but like a tree that’s learned to bend. We don’t outrun the storm. We root into it and write our names in the dirt, anyway.