#WritingWednesday - Resilience with Ada Limón
I have been reflecting quite a bit about resiliency. A thought that I am sitting with is that resiliency requires one to face their mortality, their fallibility, in order to cope with each difficulty encountered. I even struggle to come up with the right words regarding how one deals with difficulties. Some are survived, some are confronted, some are passed through. Resilience looks different depending on the person, their resources, and situation. Sometimes resilience is trying to maintain stasis - or finding a new reality.
A cycling accident four weeks ago started me on this line of thought. A subarachnoid hemorrhage and fractures of my temporal bone and clavicle and a lot can change at once. After my head hit the pavement, I spent 45 minutes with my eyes open and talking, but I have no memory of doing so. Suddenly, my brain came back online, my husband was over me, talking to me and checking my bones for fractures, I was sobbing. Had I not been wearing a helmet, I would be dead. As things go, my healing has been remarkably quick, but this experience put me in touch with my frailty and fallibility
We can imagine the way we will behave when things go wrong. We can wonder how our loved ones will react. I can honestly say I know the answer to those questions. Such an experience brought out surprising moments of kindness and understanding in others. Learning to slow down, heal, and accept others' generosity has been my lesson - and I have failed quite a few times. Initially, I was in shock. I had to give my nervous system a while to calm down. I also tried to skip the healing process and go right to rehabilitation, but bones heal on their own terms.
I have neither patience nor grace naturally, I have to practice them, and it has been a challenge not being able to charge my way through these challenges. Survival doesn't always mean developing empathy. In fact, sometimes it makes a person more rigid and judgemental ("I survived X and I still fulfilled my commitments. What is your excuse?")
I went to Point Roberts to visit my Godfather and his wife. They are telling me how in the face of an aging population and limited resources, the community bands together to care for each other. Humans evolved because they grew together not in spite of it. Sometimes having to band together means we can come out better. As a defiantly independent person, asking for help doesn't come easily
In a way, we are all heliographs. What we reflect at others can be our choice, and sends a powerful message to others.
Instructions on Not Giving Up - Ada Limón
More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me. When all the shock of white
and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave
the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,
the leaves come. Patient, plodding, a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,
I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf
unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.
How to Triumph Like a Girl - Ada Limón
I like the lady horses best,
how they make it all look easy,
like running 40 miles per hour
is as fun as taking a nap, or grass.
I like their lady horse swagger,
after winning. Ears up, girls, ears up!
But mainly, let’s be honest, I like
that they’re ladies. As if this big
dangerous animal is also a part of me,
that somewhere inside the delicate
skin of my body, there pumps
an 8-pound female horse heart,
giant with power, heavy with blood.
Don’t you want to believe it?
Don’t you want to lift my shirt and see
the huge beating genius machine
that thinks, no, it knows,
it’s going to come in first.
Further Reading
Ada Limón on Poets.org
Recognized for her passion, knowledge, and support of her clients’ individual journeys toward their best selves, Frances Mulinix brings over 20 years of experience in coaching, voice, movement, writing, and performance to support her clients in breaking down blocks and reaching achievements they had previously not thought possible. Transform your relationship toyour mind, body, and voice, bringing new confidence and creativity to your life.
New Vibrance Group Class Being Offered
Exciting news!
A new group class is being offered:
The first weekly session commences Thursday, September 6, 5:30 - 6:30 pm at Planet Chiropractic at 2173 Fairburn Rd, Douglasville
Discounted rates for those who purchase a 10-week pass and for Planet Chiropractic clients.
Frances Mulinix is excited to bring her unique and effective group and private coaching sessions to Douglasville.
Access the body’s innate ability to heal at Vibrance group classes.
Reduce stress, increase awareness, navigate emotions, and improve the mind-body connection through a combination of meditation, breath work, and gentle stretches.
Recognized for her passion, knowledge, and support of her clients’ individual journeys toward their best selves, Frances Mulinix brings over 20 years of experience in coaching, voice, movement, writing, and performance to support her clients in breaking down blocks and reaching achievements they had previously not thought possible. Transform your relationship to your mind, body, and voice, bringing new confidence and creativity to your life.
#WritingWednesday: Summer in the South
As this is my second summer in the American South, I am still very much a newbie. I am new to the humidity, the crickets at night coming out of the dark on a wave of sound, the extreme air conditioning that has me wearing layers indoors and then wholly unprepared to walk out my front door! I have started to go on walks in my local park and the trees provide a welcome respite from the heat, but I am learning that getting up very early before the heat is a good idea.
Not only is this poem perfect for the season, Paul Laurence Dunbar's is in many ways quintessentially American. While he is ultimately viewed as a success, his story is one of hard work, determination, prejudice, grievance, and the importance of support from the community.
Summer in the South - By Paul Laurence Dunbar
The oriole sings in the greening grove
As if he were half-way waiting,
The rosebuds peep from their hoods of green,
Timid and hesitating.
The rain comes down in a torrent sweep
And the nights smell warm and piney,
The garden thrives, but the tender shoots
Are yellow-green and tiny.
Then a flash of sun on a waiting hill,
Streams laugh that erst were quiet,
The sky smiles down with a dazzling blue
And the woods run mad with riot.
About the Poet
Born on June 27, 1872, Dunbar was the son of Joshua and Matilda Murphy Dunbar, two freed slaves from Kentucky. Dunbar is one of the first African American poets to be recognized by his country for his literary contributions.
Dunbar was a hit with the local Dayton community before he received wider recognition. By the age of fourteen, his poems could be found in the Dayton Herald and, as a high school student, he edited a newspaper published by peer Orville Wright, the Dayton Tattler. Dunbar was the only black student in his graduating class at Central High School in Dayton.
Unable to afford college and encountering barriers due to his race, Dunbar worked as an elevator operator. Luckily, a former teacher invited him to read his poems to the Western Association of Writers. An instant favorite he received support from popular poets such as James Whitcomb Riley. This encouraged Dunbar to self-publish a collection of poetry called Oak and Ivy in 1893. He sold his book for one dollar to the people who rode his elevator in order to offset the publishing costs.
Called by a desire to work at the first World's Fair, Dunbar moved to Chicago. There, he befriended Frederick Douglass. Douglass, calling Dunbar “the most promising young colored man in America,” assisted Dunbar in finding a job as a clerk and organized opportunities for Dunbar to read his poetry. His poems began to reach a wider audience by 1895 with major national magazines and newspapers publishing his works. His second collection was the result of further assistance from friends, Majors and Minors (Hadley & Hadley, 1895). The "minor" poems were those written in dialect and earned his greater attention while the "major" poems were in standard English and greater in number. At this time, writing in a Southern dialect was often contrived to mock blacks. Instead, Dunbar used dialect to make social commentary, drawing in his parents' backgrounds.
Paul Laurence Dunbar with his mother, Matilda Burton Murphy Dunbar, c. 1900.
While on a six-month reading tour of England in 1897 with a third poetry collection, Lyrics of Lowly Life (Dodd, Mead and Co., 1896), Dunbar met the Queen of England. With his return to America, Dunbar was hired as a clerk at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. He married Alice Ruth Moore who was also a writer and published Folks from Dixie (Dodd, Mead and Co., 1898), a collection of short stories, the novel The Uncalled (Dodd, Mead and Co., 1898), then two further collections of poetry, Lyrics of the Hearthside (Dodd, Mead and Co., 1899) and Poems of Cabin and Field (Dodd, Mead and Co., 1899). During this time Dunbar also wrote lyrics for several musical reviews.
By 1898 Dunbar had become very ill with tuberculosis and left his position as clerk, spending his time fully on writing and giving readings. The following five years saw Dunbar write three further novels and three collections of short stories. His separation from his wife in 1902 was followed by what is considered a nervous breakdown and pneumonia. Over this period he produced several collections of poetry such as Lyrics of Love and Laughter (Dodd, Mead and Co., 1903), Howdy, Howdy, Howdy (Dodd, Mead and Co., 1905), and Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (Dodd, Mead and Co., 1903). However, Dunbar suffered from depression and, while successful, experienced many frustrations with his career.
Dunbar passed away in his mother's house in Dayton Ohio on February 9, 1906, at the age of thirty-three. He died held by his mother as the 23rd Psalm ("Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death") was recited, witnessed by doctors, neighbors, and his secretary. Recognized as the greatest African-American poet of his day, the state of Ohio purchased his mother's house after her death to make it the first state memorial to an African-American in the country. At a time when African-Americans were considered to have little of value to say, Dunbar was the first black writer to be accepted by American literary establishment.
Adapted from Academy of American Poets.com and Dayton.com.
Your Turn
Go for a walk in your neighbourhood. What do you see? What do you hear? How do you know it is summer? What says "summer" in your community? What is the vernacular of your area? Are there ways of speaking that are unique where you live? Tune your ear.
Write a poem painting a picture using the sounds and images you collect on your walk.
Recognized for her passion, knowledge, and support of her clients’ individual journeys toward their best selves, Frances Mulinix brings over 20 years of experience in coaching, voice, movement, writing, and performance to support her clients in breaking down blocks and reaching achievements they had previously not thought possible. Transform your relationship to your mind, body, and voice, bringing new confidence and creativity to your life.
#LGBTMonth: When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities
For LGBT Month, we are focussing on the works of lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, transgender, and queer poets:
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities
- Chen Chen
To be a good
ex/current friend for R. To be one last
inspired way to get back at R. To be relationship
advice for L. To be advice
for my mother. To be a more comfortable
hospital bed for my mother. To be
no more hospital beds. To be, in my spare time,
America for my uncle, who wants to be China
for me. To be a country of trafficless roads
& a sports car for my aunt, who likes to go
fast. To be a cyclone
of laughter when my parents say
their new coworker is like that, they can tell
because he wears pink socks, see, you don’t, so you can’t,
can’t be one of them. To be the one
my parents raised me to be—
a season from the planet
of planet-sized storms.
To be a backpack of PB&J & every
thing I know, for my brothers, who are becoming
their own storms. To be, for me, nobody,
homebody, body in bed watching TV. To go 2D
& be a painting, an amateur’s hilltop & stars,
simple decoration for the new apartment
with you. To be close, J.,
to everything that is close to you—
blue blanket, red cup, green shoes
with pink laces.
To be the blue & the red.
The green, the hot pink.
Illustration by Peter Urkowitz!
About Chen Chen
Born in Xiamen, China, Chen Chen grew up in Massachusetts. A PhD student at Texas University, Chen Chen is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), Kissing the Sphinx (Two of Cups Press, 2016), and Set the Garden on Fire (Porkbelly Press, 2015).
When I Grow Up won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize and was long-listed for the National Book Award. He is a Kundiman Fellow. He is the winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize (2014), New Delta Review's Matt Clark Award in Poetry (2014), the Joyce Carol Oates Award (2011), and a finalist of Narrative's 30 Below Contest (2014).
Further Reading
Recognized for her passion, knowledge, and support of her clients’ individual journeys toward their best selves, Frances Mulinix brings over 20 years of experience in coaching, voice, movement, writing, and performance to support her clients in breaking down blocks and reaching achievements they had previously not thought possible. Transform your relationship to your mind, body, and voice, bringing new confidence and creativity to your life.
Own Your Narrative
Source: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/new-york-city
This past week has been very packed. I was in New York training in Fitzmaurice Voicework. I have never been to New York before, and I very much enjoyed the visit. I didn't have enough time to make the most of it as my time and energy was focussed on training and learning as much as I could to take back to my own clients. I did, however, stumble into Times Square by accident, and discover that I had been going to a gym just 2 blocks from the Empire State Building (good thing I decided to look to my right on my second-to-last day or I would have missed it)!
While I was in New York, I trained under many incredible teachers including Catherine Fitzmaurice, Micha Espinosa, Barbara Karger, Julie Foh, Joseph Bates, Ilse Pfeifer, and Professor He Yan from Shanghai Theatre Academy. I spent my week working with many incredible performers, having wonderful conversations, and building friendships.
Sunrise on the Rails by Ray Cunningham
Upon my return to Atlanta, I immediately dashed off to teach a class. We focussed on what builds muscle tension and how to release it, learned about chronic pain and what the current research says about healing it, and how to own the narrative of our lives.
One of my clients, a retired flight attendant shared with me the secret of her unflappability on the job. She is always a warm and beautiful human being, but, when dealing with upset travelers she was unfazed. She explained that she had the mindset that they did not get to ruin her day. This allowed her to exercise a healthy boundary between her personal self and those she encountered as her professional self. It meant that she wouldn't allow herself open to strangers. In this way, she demonstrates an internal locus of control, knowing that she created her own destiny and refused to allow others to have control over her.
Stories are powerful and the ones we tell about ourselves are vital. Is your narrative one of Agency where you are in control of your life, Redemption where the challenges you faced brought an improved attitude or insight, or Communion where your focus is on forming and evolving meaningful relationships?
Own your narrative and take ownership of your life.
Whatever your aims, we can aid you in achieving your goals with our individualised approach and flexible sessions. Contact us:
#VibranceNews: The Art, The Science of Success & Resilience Course
I have some very exciting news:
I am currently looking for 5-7 participants to attend a new 8-session personal development program. We will use neuroscience-based strategies and practice to facilitate intra- and interpersonal development. Such skills improve our professional and personal lives, increasing well-being, presence, and resilience.
As this program is still in development, the course is free in exchange for attendance, constructive feedback, patience with any hiccups, and writing a testimonial. Sessions will be interrupted during June/July, but there will always be home practice in the meantime to maintain momentum.
I am looking for expressions of interest in order to draw up a schedule that works for the group and space availability.
Location: Planet Chiropractic, 2173 Fairburn Rd, Douglasville
Sessions will comprise of presentations intermixed with writing, standing, speaking, and lying activities (mats, chairs, pillows etc. provided). Participants will need to practice strategies at home between sessions.
I think Thursdays may be ideal as Planet Chiropractic is closed that day. Otherwise Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday outside of Planet Chiropractic’s hours. Sessions should run no longer than 2 hours.
Please contact me with your availability and any questions: contact@vibrancecentre.com
About me: I am a speech teacher and trained Occupational Therapist from Vancouver, Canada. I work with adults experiencing transitions in their lives and careers: job interviews, promotions, presentations, relationships, work-life balance, and conflict management.
Whatever your aims, we can aid you in achieving your goals with our individualised approach and flexible sessions. Contact us:
#PoetryMonth High School Training Ground
Here's a treat for April, poetry month, Malcolm London performing his piece about the school system in which he grew up.
High School Training Ground
At 7:45 a.m., I open the doors to a building dedicated to building, yet only breaks me down. I march down hallways cleaned up after me every day by regular janitors, but I never have the decency to honor their names. Lockers left open like teenage boys' mouths when teenage girls wear clothes that covers their insecurities but exposes everything else. Masculinity mimicked by men who grew up with no fathers, camouflage worn by bullies who are dangerously armed but need hugs. Teachers paid less than what it costs them to be here. Oceans of adolescents come here to receive lessons but never learn to swim, part like the Red Sea when the bell rings.
This is a training ground. My high school is Chicago, diverse and segregated on purpose. Social lines are barbed wire. Labels like "Regulars" and "Honors" resonate. I am an Honors but go home with Regular students who are soldiers in territory that owns them. This is a training ground to sort out the Regulars from the Honors, a reoccurring cycle built to recycle the trash of this system.
Trained at a young age to capitalize, letters taught now that capitalism raises you but you have to step on someone else to get there. This is a training ground where one group is taught to lead and the other is made to follow. No wonder so many of my people spit bars, because the truth is hard to swallow. The need for degrees has left so many people frozen.
Homework is stressful, but when you go home every day and your home is work, you don't want to pick up any assignments. Reading textbooks is stressful, but reading does not matter when you feel your story is already written, either dead or getting booked. Taking tests is stressful, but bubbling in a Scantron does not stop bullets from bursting.
I hear education systems are failing, but I believe they're succeeding at what they're built to do --to train you, to keep you on track, to track down an American dream that has failed so many of us all.
Whatever your aims, we can aid you in achieving your goals with our individualised approach and flexible sessions. Contact us:
#PoetryMonth Why Poetry (with Matthew Zapruder)
In honour of Ntional #PoetryMonth Matthew Zapruder is a poet, editor at large for Wave Books, guitarist in the rock band The Figments, and associate professor in the Saint Mary’s College of California MFA Program in Creative Writing. His recent book, Why Poetry is a call to reignite our love affair with poetry. He argues that the way we have been educated has stopped us from being able to enjoy poetry. Our misconceptions prevents us from engaging with poems leading us to feel confused and incapable of connecting to the work.
Zapruder has written several collections of poetry and his poems are represented in several anthologies. Adaptations of Zapruder's poetry have been performed at Carnegie Hall, he collaborated with painter Chris Uphues on For You in Full Bloom (2009), and co-translated, with historian Radu Ioanid, Eugen Jebeleanu’s collection Secret Weapon: Selected Late Poems (2008). He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship, the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the May Sarton Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Matthew Zapruder discusses poetry and his book with Jacke Wilson on The History of Literature.
April Snow - Matthew Zapruder
Today in El Paso all the planes are asleep on the runway. The world is in a delay. All the political consultants drinking whiskey keep their heads down, lifting them only to look at the beautiful scarred waitress who wears typewriter keys as a necklace. They jingle when she brings them drinks. Outside the giant plate glass windows the planes are completely covered in snow, it piles up on the wings. I feel like a mountain of cell phone chargers. Each of the various faiths of our various fathers keeps us only partly protected. I don’t want to talk on the phone to an angel. At night before I go to sleep I am already dreaming. Of coffee, of ancient generals, of the faces of statues each of which has the eternal expression of one of my feelings. I examine my feelings without feeling anything. I ride my blue bike on the edge of the desert. I am president of this glass of water.
Whatever your aims, we can aid you in achieving your goals with our individualised approach and flexible sessions. Contact us:
#WritingWednesday - Read to Become a Better Writer
Reading great fiction makes us richer and better able to navigate our own experience and our way in the world.
As Hannah Frankman explains, fiction offers us something we cannot experience in self-help, history, psychology books. Fiction enriches our lives. It allows us to encounter other people, comprehends patterns of evolution, causes us to see a larger picture, encounter the world in a different light, brings us to a deeper understanding - of ourselves, others, and the world around us.
The Walrus, a Canadian magazine dedicated to rich thinking and rich dialogue has a collection of wonderful stories that they have opened up online to readers in order to stimulate creativity and encourage readers to become writers. Here are some of their favourites:
Sources and Further Reading
The Importance of Reading Fiction
Whatever your aims, we can aid you in achieving your goals with our individualised approach and flexible sessions. Contact us:
Quotes for Motivation and Presentations
The other day, I was feeling overwhelmed and frustrated that I didn't seem able to make headway on certain goals I had set for myself. Sometimes I have to be honest with myself as to whether I am prioritizing the correct things, or that I should be putting my energy toward the tasks that I would rather avoid, but which would light a fire under me if I accomplished them.
Sometimes finding a little inspiration is necessary. Similarly, finding a quote, image, or story upon which to anchor a presentation can be key. It is not a bad idea to have a collection of ideas and quotes that you find will support you in your work.
Here are some of mine:
Janelle Monáe
"Even if it makes others uncomfortable, I will love who I am.”
- Janelle Monáe
"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." -Maggie Kuhn
“When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” - Ellen DeGeneres
“These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.” - Najwa Zebian
"It doesn't get easier. You get better." - Unknown
"I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars." - Og Mandino
Maya Angelou
"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style" - Maya Angelou
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” - Maya Angelou
“Always keep your eyes open. Keep watching. Because whatever you see can inspire you.” — Grace Coddington
"Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire." - Unknown
Billie Jean King
“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” - Billie Jean King
“The human capacity for burden is like bamboo—far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.” - Jodi Picoult
“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” - Unknown
“As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation—either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.” - Barbara De Angelis
“It’s not the events of our lives that shape us but our beliefs as to what those events mean.” - Tony Robbins
“Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.” - Simon Sinek
Whatever your aims, we can aid you in achieving your goals with our individualised approach and flexible sessions. Contact us: