Spread the wings of your compassion wide...by writing to right the world

What we can learn from the butterfly and the moth

Oct 22, 2023

In this age of awareness of quantum entanglement, the old saying "the wind from a butterfly's wings is felt around the world" takes on even more significance.

Writing to right the world, you are the butterfly, and I encourage you to spread your beautiful wings wide!

Share your insights, your passions, your questions and curiosity with the world. Don't hold back.

In my other Substack blog, The Spirit of Education, I have been exploring how education too often narrows and constricts the free flow of children's tremendous innate capacity for curiosity, imagination and play.

My granddaughter still knows how to play!

To illustrate this, I recall a stunning story from Annie Dillard's memoir Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, about how she placed a Polyphemus Moth cocoon in a Mason jar to hatch.

The moth hatched while Dillard was away at school, and it could not spread its wings wide within the confines of the glass jar. Deprived of expansiveness at that crucial point of its life, the moth was unable to open its wings and fly.

In a poignant passage, Dillard releases the moth and watches as it walks off miserably down the road, forever deformed and earthbound.

Education can too often be like that Mason jar.

But unlike Dillard's moth, we humans can learn to spread our wings again later in life.

Every day offers new opportunities to grow and develop, to look back at our lives with compassion, to let our creative spirits fly free.

Riding on the beach in Iceland, summer 2023.

Just as Annie Dillard looks back at her younger self with compassion, purposefully sharing a key moment from her life in the hope of benefiting others, I invite you to stretch yourself in your writing to offer a compassionate embrace to everyone who shows up in your stories.

Cast the stones of your stories not at each other, but into the wide, deep ocean of our collective consciousness, where they will generate ripples of compassion in ways you cannot predict.

Trust that you will touch the hearts of those most in need of the images and insights you have to offer.

In this spirit, I'll be leading a three-session online memoir workshop next month, "Telling the (Loving) Truth About Your Family."

We'll be looking at:

Family lineages and what gets passed down or perhaps hidden;
How childhood family constellations continue to affect adult behavior and perspective;
How you, as the narrator of your family stories, can spread your arms wide enough to accept the truth of what was and what is, while also alchemizing that truth into the gold of life lessons that may generate a better future for yourself and others.

All are welcome to join in this rich field of inquiry—find out more and register here.

In the meantime, as we spiral down into the Samhain season, when the veils between us and our ancestors thin, let's turn up the force of our own inner lights and meet the challenges that face us with steadfast love and compassion.

Yours in the spirit of peace,

Jennifer

Me in my guise as author and publisher of Green Fire Press!

I was recently invited to join in a virtual parade of solo entrepreneurs based in the Berkshires, and I’m happy to share the story with you in this short video produced by series curator Sherry Steiner and Operations Manager Erica Spizz of Community Television of the Berkshires.

If you’ve been curious about my work as publisher of Green Fire Press, or would like to see a cornucopia of pretty photos of my recent writing workshops abroad, check it out!

Click here to view video.

Come write with me, in person and online!

Writing a collaborative poem at San Fedele, Tuscany, spring 2023.

Riding & Writing

Monte Velho Equo-Resort in Evora, Portugal, January 7 - 13, 2024. A week of dressage lessons on beautiful, well-trained Lusitano horses, plus guided writing sessions and plenty of time for relaxing and exploring the hill country of the Alentejo. Find out more and register here.
Hestaland in Borgarnes, Iceland, June 10 - 16, 2024. A week of riding spirited Icelandic horses in beautiful rolling countryside, writing in good company, and soaking in the hot springs and Arctic Summer Solstice energy of Iceland. Find out more and register here.

Writing Workshops

Telling the (Loving) Truth About Your Family: A Memoir Workshop hosted by Il Chiostro. November 3, 10 & 17, 9 - 10:30 am Eastern, online. Register here.

Join the Birth Your Truest Story Online Community for Writers!

Halloween/Day of the Dead “Behind the Veil” Open Mic, November 1, 7 pm Eastern. Register here.
Poetry as Attention, Poetry as Love, with Allie Rigby, Nov. 5 & 12, 1 - 3 pm Eastern. Register here.
Check our online Events Calendar for a steady stream of online coaching and writing sessions, classes and events designed to nourish your writing practice and build community! See it all here.