Events & News (04/22/23)
Put a drop in the bucket
The Saturday Spark
Tell us: What bucket in your life do you want to put a drop in every day?
Got yours?
This week’s featured title from my store is Still We Rise: Heart-Writing Through Grief to Hope ($7.99 before Rafter discount). It is a digital file.
Have you suffered the loss of someone you love? Do you see a dear one’s death approaching? Are you yourself facing the end of this life?
The grief that you’re feeling is another form of love. Writing from the heart can help you find your voice in the midst of the pain. It can help carry you through the loss, even if you don’t think of yourself as a “writer.”
This 16-part guide combines honest heart-writing with silent centering, quiet reflection, and contemplative reading of accessible poems. Each session is based on a passage from my poem For the Sake of One We Love and Are Losing. Its themes will invite your reflections and, along with supplemental poems, inspire your heart-writing.
This guide is a great enduring resource. Cycle through it again and again to strengthen your resilience.
Remember to enter your Rafter discount (“rafter25”) at checkout to receive 25% off your order.
A new way to Raft! Introducing “Notes” . . .
The Substack platform, which hosts The Raft, has just launched a new way that we can connect: Substack Notes. In this new space, we can all share stuff we like: quotes, photos, links, short posts, and more—whatever we're creating, experiencing, reading, or thinking about . . . so much fun! (Learn more here.)
Introduce yourself to other Rafters in a “Rafter Snap”!
One Sunday a month, I present a “Rafter Snap” in my Staying Power newsletter. Each Snap features a Rafter so that we can all get better acquainted and be inspired by one another. Here’s an example, spotlighting Marianne Murphy Zarzana.
Introduce yourself to other Rafters by submitting your own “Snap” based on questions I’ve prepared for you. I’ll share the submissions in the order I receive them.
In case you missed it . . .
Next week on The Raft . . .
Creatives’ Coffee (Zoom, Wednesday, 4:00-5:30PM Central). A casual conversation group for Rafters who like to “make stuff,” whether for fun or as a profession. Need companionship and support? Creative inspiration? Cross-fertilization of ideas? You’ll find oodles of all this and more at the Coffee. Hop on the Zoom at this link. Can’t make it? Watch for the video replay in this newsletter.
Poetry Pick-Me-Up (Zoom, Thursday, 12-1PM Central). A casual weekly gathering for poetry-sharing and discussion. Hop on the Zoom at this link.
Bring a published poem that has recently struck you to read to the group. Or, just come to listen to poems offered by other Rafters and to participate in informal but wholehearted conversation. Can’t make it? Watch for the video replay in this newsletter!
Grateful, grateful!
My heartfelt thanks to these folks for their recent gifts in support of The Raft: Amy Adams, Carroll Jones, Jari Thymian, and lombarcy.
Whew! That's all for now. Stay well. Stay witty. Stay tuned into your true spot and create from your radiant, beautiful self.
🧡 Thanks for reading! As part of The Raft, this newsletter is kept afloat by beautiful readers like you. If you like my work, please support it by becoming a paid subscriber, buying my books, or inviting me to speak. And remember to add your 2¢ by leaving comments!
To have more fun. Or, to borrow a phrase coined by one of my speech therapy students: to have funs.
My equanimity bucket 🪣😉