All Things Wild and Free
All Things Wild and Free
All good things are wild and free - Henry David Thoreau
The Pen and Portal All Things Wild and Free Workshop is a six-week workshop designed for the young, and the young at heart. It includes two hours of writing, and re-wilding, per week, or a total of twelve hours of creative writing. It is an invitation to tap into a sense of play in your writing, done entirely at your own pace. Prompts are broken down in such a way that they can be sprinkled into fifteen minute writing breaks, or gone through in two hour weekly blocks, stacking on top of each other as we go.
Also included each week is an exercise in grounding, also referred to here as creative inspiration. Take it if it helps, or leave it if it doesn’t. They help us, and have become an integral part of the Pen and Portal process. Consider them a gift.
Play is the mediator of the invisible and visible - Dora Kalff
You are a vibrant being, limited only by the constraints of your own mind; fed through creativity, connection and play. All Things Wild and Free is an invitation to return to those playful instincts and see what comes. Think of it as an experiment if you must, an opportunity to be inspired and to observe what that inspiration does to your writing, and as a result, to your felt sense of wholeness.
Whether you are eight or eighty eight, this workshop is a place to reconnect with the child inside you, who wants so much to come out and play for a while. Hold any writing “goals” loosely, gently, like a precious stone, collected and held in your front pocket for further consideration. The writing will take you where you need to go.
Make a few lists to get started. When finished, post it to your bulletin board, or tape it to your computer, and when feeling stuck, refer back for further inspiration. Just remembering how to tap into childlike awareness and joy. For you, or your character:
Name at least three superpowers that you possess
Name four things that are unique about the way you speak
Make a list of five animal spirits
Name six of your favorite ways to play
Getting started can be just as simple as that. The meditations and inspiration, questions and writing prompts offered in All Things Wild and Free were designed with the intention to hold a space for you to come to the writing table open to the possibility of connecting through the most unserious business of play. By paying attention, maybe for the first time in a long while, loosening your ideas about what “should” be and opening to what “could” be, you bridge the gap between the visible and the invisible. A stick becomes a light saber, a chair becomes a throne, and all of a sudden, anything is possible.
Love and light,
