Finding Our Wings

 Today marks the two year anniversary of Insecure Writer's Support Group! 

You can go here for more information!

 A big thank you to our founder Alex Cavanaugh!  C'mon Captain you need to blow out the candles on the cake!

Alex has a  big announcement:  "And because the IWSG means so much to me, I want to secure its future as a safe place for writers. A place where writers at any stage can find hope, support, and answers. "

              Coming next month – the Insecure Writer’s Support Group website!

  Thank you Alex for being our light!  He has secured an awesome team of admins to help run it - Joy Campbell, Michelle Wallace, Joylene Nowell Butler Susan Gourley/Kelley, L. Diane Wolfe, and Lynda Young.


"The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light.” - Joseph Campbell


I am insecure today-I live in doubt.  I know it is a part of the process of being creative, but I must continue on the path I have chosen.  On my path, I hear screech owls, a ton of crickets chirping, and is that a wolf I hear howling, or maybe my hound has seen another rabbit on his deck.  

I was reminded this past week of a butterflies' journey.  I volunteer at my local Senior Center, once a month.  I teach art. This past week we made Origami butterflies.  Some were happy with their creation and others squabbled their art was not good enough.  I assured them they were all beautiful.  Many shook their heads disagreeing with me.   I hijacked their Christmas tree in the corner of the game room and decorated it, with all the fragile, folded wings the group had created.   When they saw the collective effect of their art-they agreed the butterflies were beautiful and everyone smiled.

 I haven't felt at ease teaching at this center.  At first no one would look at me, they didn't want to speak.  Then they dared each other to participate, but now I see their smiles, as we are getting use to each other.  It felt like they let their guard down and a shift in mood transformed us all. 

When I looked at the tree, I thought of butterflies being words.  When we start writing we are unsure, we question our words.  We feel lost sometimes on our path and worried no one will understand us, see our vision, our intention.  Yet, we can only grow when we extend and share.  Words give us wings to glide, float and soar. 

I discovered as I wrote this post that the word Origami is from the Heian era in Japan. Then there is talk about this art form being discovered after paper was formed.   It originally refers to a form of writing! (huh?! )  "One of the oldest and most direct references to paper folding appeared in a 1680 Japanese poem by Ihara Saikaku, in which the author writes about paper butterflies that appear in a dream." *****    I tried to find the translated poem, but no such luck.

The Japanese view paper is a landscape used to create. We as writers know this-it is a journey word by word.  If we use our GPS=Gifts, Passion and Spirit, we have a chance to find the right destination for our words.  We just have to continue on until we transform~  And as Joseph Campbell said, "At the darkest moment comes the light."  















“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson