Spilling Words onto Paper

Or I suppose in my case onto the keyboard. I loved the service today at the fellowship! It was titled "Poetry: A Spiritual Path of Healing and Wholeness." It was given by a high school teacher at a private arts school in Appleton. She said her favorite thing to tell her students to do is to spill words onto paper and let them go. Although she spoke mostly of poetry, it was more about just writing, writing anything. She talked about how we all have stories to tell and writing these stories is important for remembering them. That writing our own stories helps us relate to one another's stories and helps us share our stories.


She read something that said "Stories can feed us more than food." Then she went on to share her own experience with this. About 1 year after her adult son died in a boating accident she met a lady that approached her and told her she knew her son. So of course she asked how and as it turns out both of their sons had been friends in college and she had gotten to know him by her son bringing him home for dinner from time to time. The lady once gave her son a ride home and asked if he was related to Ellen and he of course said that was his mother. The rest of the ride home he talked about his mother in great detail. Ellen said today that in that moment she understood what that saying meant. She said as the lady shared that story of her son it fed her soul. I know it has happened more times in my life but in the last few years I have noticed those around me feeding my own soul with their stories they have shared with me. And in many cases it has fed me much more than food has.


Her next story inspired a poem that she wrote. She was at a conference sitting at a table with many other people she didn't know. As they chatted there was one guy that kept looking around the room nervously. After a while he stood up with his arms strecthed wide as a lady approached him. When she reached him them embraced, both started crying and she laid her head on his chest. Ellen later found out that the man recieved her husband's heart in a transplant. Ellen read her beautiful poem about hearts inspired by this meeting. The last line of it read "what would your heart whisper?"


I suppose that is where we find our words, stories, whatever to write in the first place. I think it is an interesting thing to ponder what our hearts would say if they could speak, what stories they hold within them and what love continues to live on through them.


Her last story was of her sister struggling with cancer. While going through her chemo she could not keep any food down so Ellen decided everytime she would eat she would eat with the intention of eating for the both of them. It of course brought her to write a piece entitled "eating for my sister." The work was mixed with beautiful analogies, some fun loving moments from their childhood and an intention to breath energy into her action. The day after she wrote it she decided to read it to her class, which they then offered up feedback as that is the way her class is run. At one point during her poem she spoke of her and her sister laying in the grass watching an ant carry a cracker and marveling at the size of the ant compared to the item being carried. One of her 15 year old student commented on how the first time he heard it he thought it was awful to be speaking of ants in a poem about her sister's cancer but that the second time through (I guess they always read everything twice) he pondered that perhaps we are all small like the ant with great loads to carry at times.


This of course then propelled her into the topic of how everyone can be our teachers if we look for it, allow it, need it, want it. I can certainly relate to this as I live with four very tough teachers, that challenge me, remind me, push me beyond my limits and love me daily. She also spoke of how writing has been proven to have health benefits along with helping people over come depression and anxiety. Dave and I did a lot of writing in life coaching to help sort out our feelings and emotions so we could fully understand where we were at with them.


Upon ending her talk today she encouraged all of us to journal and answer 3 questions she likes to ask herself daily...


What surprised me today?
For me it would be the -7 degree weather this morning (although I would also say it is probably better that I didn't know or I may not have gone today either).


What inspired me today?
Certainly her sharing her stories and others, thus I wrote about it.


What moved and/or touched me today?
Having had a dear friend's mother that donated her heart, I lost it in the middle of the fellowship today when she spoke of that story. I wonder so often what other parts of people besides their shear physical organs live on when they give such a gift to another.