Spring Rites

Spring Rites: Write right

Question for you – are you interested in using your journal as a way to improve your self-awareness and self-acceptance? Or are you more interested in deepening your gratitude practice in a variety of ways, which may include writing in a journal? This isn’t a mutually exclusive question, but I am figuring out how to help people approach the Gratitude Journal question, and am looking for feedback. Take a look at my website, Workshops page. and let me know how those two workshop ideas sound. Thank you.

For me, Gratitude acts like a hinge to my heart, my head, my internal values and my many external variables. My journal practice does the same thing and the dots connect when I put my pen to the page – most days.

As my recently published book explains, personal writing sometimes reveals uncomfortable shadows lurking, but playing with words in your personal process can also bring joy. I like riffing with words, mixing my metaphors and using homonyms – words that sound the same, but have different meanings and different spellings – looking for creative solutions to old problems.

Today: Introducing my Spring Rites Homonym Selection for March 2022:

Rite. Write. Right.

1. Rite – is a noun referring to some ceremonial act or action. It is closely related to the word ritual and every morning, I use a pen and writing as my morning rite of passage transitioning from dream to awake. Writing for me is part meditation, part emotional release, part introspection, part self-acceptance and always an affirmation that there is much to be grateful for and yes, always more work to do.

2. Write – this is what I love to do. Write is a verb, an action word that grows stronger with consistency of practice. For me, writing in a journal is my best way to train, cajole and coax myself into using words well. Finding the right words takes intentional effort and I try to avoid easy clichés. With discipline, writing can teach us how to become better communicators, craft better questions, foster better friendships, and ultimately be kinder to ourselves and others. How? By thinking with a pen in our hand and permission to write from the heart, we can begin to organize our truest thoughts and learn to write what we mean and to mean what we write. Believe me, I don’t always get it right. Enter word number three of this homonym trio.

3. Right. – has a meaning whose opposite is “left” and another opposite is “wrong”. Right now, in March 2022 we are surrounded by rumour, misinformation and disinformation and seeking the right meaning for the times is a significant challenge. (In case you missed it, last month’s post playfully explores the phrase: “Howling Fantods” .)

Back to Right – according to the online Merriam Webster dictionary, there are over thirty definitions for this five letter word. It can be used as a noun (a thing), a verb (an action word), an adverb (describing an action) or an adjective (describing a person, place or thing) And right often describes how we feel.

Obviously, it takes a lot of writing, reading, listening, thinking and processing to land on the right meaning of right for this moment in time.

If….

• You want to start a journal ritual, but simply cannot find the time and space
• You have started to write in a journal dozens of times and always given up in frustration
• You already have a journal habit but could use some right touches in order to enjoy more benefits

An Ecology of Gratitude: Writing your way to what matters can help you get to the start line. You can purchase a copy locally at Café Books or The Whyte Museum or Wild Life Distillery or Ticino Swiss Italian Restaurant and also via Amazon, Kindle and Kobo. Or you can invite your indie book seller or library to order it from IngramSpark.

For more insights into my approach to gratitude and journal writing, email me at: lorraine@grassrootsgratitude.ca

Visit my website www.grassrootsgratitude.ca

Follow me on Instagram: @lorraine_widmer_carson

… or just show up at page one, and ask yourself a question like “I wonder what I am thinking about”.. Repeat again tomorrow and soon you will be putting one word ahead of another.

Gratitude: Know it. Show it. Grow it.

Use your Gratitude Journal to:
1. Improve health and fitness
2. Affirm feelings of abundance and ‘good enough’
3. Reduce feelings of scarcity, fear and deprivation
4. Improve your sleep – leave it on the page!
5. Enjoy life’s gifts and lighten burdens – be grateful
6. Improve self-esteem, self-awareness, self-acceptance
7. Improve your energy levels and find inspiration
8. Find more reasons to be trusting, generous and kind
9. Set goals and work towards them
10. Enjoy better social interactions by grounding conversation in gratitude