From Jamie Cat Callan
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I met Jamie at the Stonecoast MFA residency when she was teaching and I was a student. She is a marvelous teacher and true creative, the kind of person who bubbles positivity with the understanding that life isn’t always sunshine and roses. I love her weekly newsletter. The topics are timely, I learn something new, and often feel validated as a writer in some way.
This is from her recent newsletter, which I am sharing with Jamie’s gracious permission.
Cynical
You start off tough. Full of hard edges and sharp points. You know what’s what and you’re nobody’s fool. At some point you are tossed into the mouth of the yawning ocean, like so much sea glass. You try to hang on to your cynicism. You present your been-there, done-that demeanor. You know it all. And maybe you really do.
That is, until one day, you don’t know it all.
Maybe you’re only thirty or fifty or maybe you get to be ninety-seven and you awaken to find that all the rough edges that have been rolled and tumbled by the salty brine are now smoothed out. Your cynicism fades into the mist. You find that you are more porous and smooth, and dare I say, soft. Vulnerable.
This could happen at any point in your life. It could happen at many points in your life. Perhaps it’s happened to you already. Think back. Was there a time when you felt you had opened up in a way that you had never before? When you felt the full fragility of being human? When you were frightened and yet felt completely alive — so alive that you let go and raised your petals to the sun, fully open to what the world had in store for you?
Time and sun, rain and wind softened you. You blossomed.
Be Honest
You know if you have experienced this. However, you may have also tucked this memory of blossoming away, like a dried flower placed in an old book. You put it on a high shelf and then forgot about it. Do not despair, my creative friend. I have good news. The blossoming, the vulnerability, the unknowingness is still available to you.
Think back to the moment something shook you to your core. Consider that time when you thought you would never survive this thing — whatever this thing happened to be. Now, I want you to unpack that memory and I want you to let it unfurl, filling you completely. Fully awaken to the promise of life, and to the prospect of death. Yes, death, because every awakening is an acknowledgement of mortality. That’s why we avoid this blossoming. But, as artists, we should look life and death in the face. Each moment we create is a light in the dark.And for your creativity prompt, I give you this word: nurture.
As always, have fun.
Love,
Jamie
About Jamie Cat Callan
Jamie Cat Callan is an American gal who grew up under the tutelage of her mysterious and elegant French grandmother. She’s traveled to France many times and interviewed hundreds of French women (and more than a few men) to find out their secrets to love, romance, marriage and how they keep their ooh la la!
Jamie’s essay on how she met and married her husband appeared in the New York Times Sunday Styles Modern Love column. She’s a popular speaker on women’s issues, love, marriage and leading a creative life.
Visit her blog at jamiecatcallan.com. See all her books and her Writer’s Toolkit (a must-have) on Amazon
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Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a writer, poet, and artist.
Learn more about her award winning novel, In the Context of Love.
Learn more about her picture book, Gordy and the Ghost Crab.
Learn more about her poetry chapbook, Security
