connection | Thinking Through My Lens

I love the way water ripples. Something disrupts—a pebble, a water droplet, even a wave—changing the course or disturbing the calm and ripples move out. Layers and layers in movement. Energy in motion: palpable, visual, sonic.

I’ve been feeling those ripples in my life this week. The connection to another blogger’s post that has me sharing the post with this person and that person…because they HAVE to read it. They will want to try what this blogger described. The email from a colleague about the conference session I presented on Saturday and used her book as a mentor text…and then she learned about it from those in attendance who were so excited to meet her at a different event. The friend I haven’t heard from in months who reached out because she happened on yesterday’s post and felt that closeness we used to share when we lived in the same city.

I can feel that energy driving me, encouraging me to reach out and connect too. That ripple of touch continues to spread, the concentric circles widening until it spills into the milky froth of foam sliding along the shore.

What ripples are you experiencing this week?

Last night on our National Writing Project connecting the network zoom call, my colleague and I were asked to facilitate a “making” session–a place for a small group to make something together. And since writing is making, we thought about some way to have our group engage in a small writing piece that collectively made something bigger.

Inspired by the Springtime in Washington Haiku Contest: Poems on a Pandemic article another colleague shared with me earlier in the week, we decided to create a shareable slide deck of our own version of Coronavirus Haiku. We invited participants in our breakout session to create a Haiku (short poem, 17 syllables, 5-7-5 pattern), and then add the poem and an image to a slide in the collaborative deck.

I offered my own as example:

So this post serves as an invitation to all of you. Take a few minutes to write a Haiku or other short poem about some aspect of your coronavirus experience. It can be funny, somber, documentary, whimsical, sad, angry…

You can access the slide deck here: Coronavirus Haiku: Short Poems Documenting Life During a Pandemic. Writing is not only making, it is also connecting. And can be healing as well. A few years back I wrote a post about my response to another blogger and colleague’s invitation to write #haikuforHealing–a balm for the tired spirit. So let’s connect and heal as we write together.