Giving gifts to yourself!
For my last Zoom workshop last week, we considered gifts. Gift giving and receiving is part of this season for most of us but not something we all have an easy relationship with. It’s a rich source for writing and journalling. I began to think about what gifts I’d like to give myself and I’m not talking about wrapping up something to leave under the tree. I struggle with the word self-care because it feels like another demand in an already busy life, as well as something to add to my to-do list, but giving gifts to myself, well that feels different. The gifts to myself this season might include a woodland walk, a takeaway coffee, an afternoon nap or long bath.
As my moon explorations continue, this year, I couldn’t resist this Moon magnetic poetry set which is now on my fridge and I come downstairs in the morning to the delight of rearranged words by my teenagers who are often awake when I am sleeping. And instead of reaching for my phone if I am waiting for something to cook, I am playing with new combinations of words. I also love my self-created tradition of visiting the lantern trail of Glow Wild at Wakehurst in Sussex. It gets me outside in the dark and feels like a celebration of winter rather than Christmas.
I enjoy the magical, fantastical worlds that are created in amongst the trees and the shifting of a familiar place to an unknown one after dark.
In the workshop, I shared this poem by Yvonne Baker (published in Fanfare anthology by Second Light)
The Gift
Once you were given an unwrapped box.
There was no paper to tear, no velvet ribbon coiling
to the floor, only a bone-white lid to lift.
Inside was darkness — an empty night that made
your head spin, echoed with the thud of your heart.
You hid the box away on a high shelf
filled the air with light, radio static,
the chatter of television. But a shadow
seeped from under the lid, a whisper of anxiety
muffling all sound with the smell of winter —
shades of tobacco, charcoal, ink.
So you took the box down again
allowed its silence to flow over bookcase, sofa
the one cup on the table, to marble the walls
like the reflection of sunlit water.
Writing Invitation
So this is my writing invitation to you this season. Consider gifts. Write about the best or worst gift you’ve ever been given. What other kinds of gifts are in your life? What gifts can you give yourself? It could be a notebook to keep in the kitchen or some fridge magnets to make the most of those few minutes while the kettle boils or the sauce thickens!
Like the poem, begin with: Once you were given…
2024 Creative Writing Workshops
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This blog post was created by Mel Parks, a writer, researcher and workshop facilitator based in Sussex, UK. Mel runs writing workshops locally and on Zoom and researches creativity in midlife as well as her personal connection to nature. She has been widely published and is currently working on a series of moon and plant-inspired essays.
It is free to read and share, but if you value my work, please do stop by my virtual honesty box and leave a handful of loose change.