Here we are just entering the small touch of the new year’s light. And yet, the skies and our creative spirits can still hold gloom. It’s hard to believe in the spark of ideas when we feel closed in. So what can we do in the dark? What flicker can we find to keep us inspired? We can go further in and further in toward what illuminates us from inside out.
The James Webb Telescope is sailing the galaxy. Farther and farther, out and out, its mirrors asking the stars to show themselves by the light they created billions of years ago. The telescope is sending us images of galaxies, clusters, and nebulae that had a presence in creating what we now know as the universe. These images are telling us about ourselves, the time and place we inhabit in reference to before we arrived.
Isn’t that how our own inspiration arrives? Our lives are a multitude of sensory, emotional, and intellectual experiences all stored within us and informing our memories and imaginations. We can sit in subdued winter, waiting for the sun to rise earlier and set later, or we can let our inner wing span spread, voyaging into the deepest dark like the James Webb Telescope. That interior universe holds a multitude of sparks: a face across a table, a spoonful of cookie batter, a voice that jangles the nerves, fingers tangled in a shoelace, a dab of motor oil, a last pill, the smell of salt marshes, or sleet pinging the side of car. Any one of these or a billion, billion other specifics are reflections of moments that turn into questions about what matters, and why anything catches our attention and causes us to wonder.
Our internal galaxies are vast and deep. Sending our own telescopes to search out the flickers, the black holes, the nebulae, and the dying suns will give infinite material to fill the staring pages of a winter afternoon.
Upcoming Events
Writing Beyond the Academy: Scholarship as Storytelling.
Join me online, July 7 – 13, 2024, to write freely, in your genre, your voice, with your experiments from facts, memory or imagination. Leave the curriculum and publishing pressures behind. How do you create metaphor, lyricism, and plot in scholarly work?
I follow the Amherst Writers & Artists Workshop Method closely. Every writer is treated with respect and all writing is treated as art and separate from the writer. I offer writing prompts, not assignments. We listen acutely for what uniquely engages and surprises the reader.
Sunday – Saturday, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. EDT. Cost $1000. Non-refundable deposit $250.
For more information: maureen@maureenbjones.com www.writingfulltilt.com
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