April 20th – Leaky Writing Wrap-up Party!

by Julie

We meet again on Tuesday April 20th from 1-3 pm for the final writing group in the Tuesday series. We’re having a special writing party to mark the end of our monthly meetings! There will be some snacks, please feel free to bring pot-luck food to share. We’ll be meeting in the upstairs art room this month.

Gilda’s Club — Call Maureen to sign up: 416–214-9898

Leaky writing group welcomes all experiences, acknowledges everyone as a writer (yes, you too!) and every suggested activity is completely optional. We encourage rebellion.  Everyone is welcome to submit what they write in the group to this blog forum, but like everything else, it’s totally up to you!

It’s been a fantastic year — I’ve loved writing and learning with all of you.  I’ll continue to offer workshops at Gilda’s on a less regular basis. Save the date — Wednesday June 16th — we’ll be running a full afternoon workshop starting at 1 pm and ending with an evening performance of My Leaky Body that will be open to the public at 7pm. Details for the afternoon will follow soon!

Check out some new and wonderful participant writing below:

THE NEW

by Marel

My dear
Youthful
Cheerleader,
Exuberant,
Full of words
And patterned motions,
Encouraging me
To play the game.

Where are you now?

I have not seen you
For years and years.

Is that you I glimpse,
Older,
Wiser,
Asleep beneath your warm sombrero?

How long will you spend
Dreaming up my new life?

Wake up!!
I don’t have
Much time.

Be quick.
Be sure.
Be nice.

“Nothin’s gonna change my world”

“Nothin’s gonna change my world”…say it over and over, sing it, whine it, believe it, but beware for as much as you ingrain this into your being, it cannot be.

Your world WILL change –the bottom will fall out just when you’re least expecting it.

The warmth of the sun will shine, beckoning you forward when you must stay trapped within your walls and then when they release you, cold may set in, lurking around you, eating away from your outer layer to your inner most core.

Open yourself to this change—open to all life has to offer, open to sitting in silence, open to wildly dancing with strangers.  Open to the universe, open to the woman sitting on the grate at Queen and University Avenue gasping for warmth from the underground world, open to the wind whistling with mighty strength, gaining speed between downtown high rises, open to the welcoming scent of homemade bread as you enter your home when day has gone and there is only the lonely night left before you. Float above all this for awhile, but know you will come crashing, crushing down, to feel sorrow and pain…sit in it as you would joy, knowing that it too will pass.

It’s as a wave building with all the greatness of life gaining joy and growing in size until it reaches its peak and then comes tumbling down. sometimes with as much joy, getting grounded on the warm sand to once again begin its climb to oblivion.

This is the way of life; of happiness, of sorrow, of loneliness, of sickness, of wonder, of laughter, of terror, of wildness, of awakening.

January 19, 2010

Valerie

Alleluia Sister, Love is all around

Look into the small child’s eyes, watch him gently interact with his sister, making snowmen outside the ski lodge, finding long pine cones for noses, chunks of gravel for eyes and smiles so big they stretch from ear to snowy ear.  Learn they are from Australia where sand is usually their medium for play.  Feel the sun on your face as you ski through the woods watching shadows of tall trees spread before. Feel your body work hard to climb the hills and struggle for control as you charge down hills hoping to stay upright, inevitably falling, sprawling, laughing, hurting, finally with sixty year old difficulty rising to an upward incline once again.

Hear the music from inside the lodge and the footsteps of the dancers all together, bodies passing, feet tapping, around and round we go taking in the energy of the movement as we hold hands and smile.  My newness is embraced as I am taken into this sacred circle.

Taste the aliveness of my being.  Hold hands, squeeze the special ones, feel my heart grow, enjoy the surprises, celebrate the differences, jump about, make new friends, share ideas, find out about different lifestyles, love everyone and everything—share who you are.  You have so much love to give and let all the love that comes to you wash over you like a warm waterfall.

Look up, eyes open, arms outstretched, take it, you own it, you deserve it, it’s yours to give and it is yours to receive.

January 2010

Valerie

The Light In The Piazza

On Saturday Februay 6th,  Gilda’s club is organizing a special outing to The Berkeley St Theatre to see The Light In The Piazza.

Click here to learn more about the play

There is still room available, so please contact Maureen if you’re interested: 416 214 9898 x 618

Then, on Wednesday February 24th from 6:30-8:30 pm, we will be having a discussion and creative workshop based on the themes of the play. Everyone is welcome to join on the 24th, whether or not you’ve seen the play. The idea is to draw out themes of health, life and disability that we can all creatively reflect on.

The regular Leaky Writing group that was to meet in February is cancelled, but will continue to meet in March.

Check out the new posts of wonderful writing from your fellow participants below!

sacred spheres

by katie

star-studded heavens,

infinite, alluring

swathes of rich blue,

a velvet highway

starbursts of energy,

fierce and firey

whitehot and whimsical,

candelabra canopy

magnificent mystery,

humankind’s compass

promise and prophecy,

star-studded heavens

Elder Love

by Marel

Elder love asks questions
That were not there
When I was dating in my teens.

Can you cook?
Do you like to have time
By yourself?
Would you be willing to move
For love?

All of these questions
Are delivered on the phone
Or on-line.

Shouldn’t it be easier
The second time around?
I have decades of experience.
I am no beginner.

Yet I feel apprehensive and sublime
All at the same time;
As I ponder meeting someone.

Will he be more than
I have hoped for?
Or worse, less
Than I need?

“Risk with a purpose”, I say,
“Make good choices.”
I am still Alive.

BE HERE NOW

by Kathy D.

How wild is that?

Once again a wilderness feeling has crept into my consciousness. I am starting to feel lost within my losses. My spirit hovers restlessly above my body which, by necessity, stumbles forward in search of completion. The sense of joy, so recently encircling the camp of my story, appears to have moved on to other situations. Abandoned now to my own circuitously circular ways I feel that change has happened. It’s in the past. Now is static, gluey, empty of joy. Drifting along without a plan.

To plan or to drift? The card game of life: scrutinize the possibilities, go with the flow, play the wild card?

Time will tell. It works that way.

January 19th 2010

We meet again on Tuesday January 19th from 1-3 pm.

Gilda’s Club — Call Maureen to sign up: 416–214-9898

Leaky writing group welcomes all experiences, acknowledges everyone as a writer (yes, you too!) and every suggested activity is completely optional. We encourage rebellion.  Everyone is welcome to submit what they write in the group to this blog forum, but like everything else, it’s totally up to you!

Sparkly Holiday Writing Fun

by Julie Devaney

I love facilitating the leaky writing group at Gilda’s Club. We scheduled our group to happen right before the annual holiday party yesterday and participants arrived with Santa hats, Christmas sweaters and profound insights about the challenges and joys of the season. The experience of having a major illness changes us, gives us a more grounded, gritty and honest perspective about family, priorities, the pressure to keep up appearances. I learn so much from participants every month.

In this month’s writing we explore the dark cavernous caves of the winter months as wide open spaces where we can birth new sparks of creativity. We begin each session with a visualization, and this time, we invited three words to come to us. Everyone wrote their three words on scraps of paper and mixed them up in the centre. We then pulled two words each and wrote a piece. After sharing, we each took a final word to write a quick five-minute piece. Read Miranda’s description on her blog by clicking here. We discovered that 3 different people threw some version of the word “sparkle” into the pile! We hope you enjoy the sparkly results below.