Writing: A Spiritual Path
From childhood I enjoyed hearing and reading stories. These included stories about my parents when they were growing up and stories about Sinbad the Sailor and Winnie-the-Pooh. In grade eight I read The Diary of Anne Frank. Anne writes why do I keeps a diary? She wonders, who will ever care about the private thoughts of a young girl hiding with her family from German soldiers? Reading her story I could imagine the tension of living each day in fear of being caught and taken from her hiding place during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War Two. Anne’s story taught me that a young person not any older than I was in grade eight has a story to tell. And that storytelling can change lives.
As an adult I grew as I kept a journal. I discovered I could articulate my feelings, thoughts and experiences. By moving towards the blank page, giving expression to my inner thoughts, I affirmed I had something original and worthwhile to express. I grew to trust the practice of writing helped develop an inner respect and interest in my own unfolding story, and that my life was important somehow to the One who had created me. What I did made a difference as I wrote my unfolding story from week to week.?? The great Sufi poet, Rumi, in his poem, “Who says words with my mouth?,” writes:
Who says words with my mouth?
Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking….?
This poetry, I never know what I am going to say.
I don’t plan it.
When I get outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all. ?
Rumi points to something important in the relationship between writing and spiritual practice. Writing grows as I attend to the world around me through silence and listening, much like prayer. This allows me to express on paper what is essential. Thoughts come to me in the present moment. While I may have a general idea of a topic I want to write about, much of my writing is about simply letting new thoughts arise. They come one sentence after another. Like Rumi, “I don’t plan it.” Spontaneity and novelty are my companions as I write. I free myself of any concern for the final outcome. I know that any editing I may want to do can be set aside for later. For anyone who writes there is a challenge to engage the blank page: to allow thoughts to come and write them down. Rumi speaks to me and speaks to anyone of us who want to write, encouraging us to be present to what poetry is emerging in us right now. By setting aside anticipation, Rumi invites us to set aside a condition writers can fall into. It goes like this: “I won’t write anything down on this blank page until I have a guarantee that it will be perfect, profound, eloquent, moving or worth publishing.” Set a condition like that and you may find yourself staring down a blank page for a long time.
Every spiritual tradition images the Divine as a Creator. A pattern of continuity and novelty accompany these acts of creation. Continuity in the created order is exhibited in the changing of the seasons. Novelty expresses itself in the new forms and variations of creations unfolding. Continuity in writing is present in the paper and pen, or the computer screen and the keyboard. I begin with the familiar blank page and my task is to put words on that page. The process of writing invites me to create something new, whether a poem, a psalm, a prayer, a journal entry, a short story, a play. Again and again there is a spiritual challenge to trust that I have something to express.
I remember reading Brenda Ueland’s, If You Want to Write. Her first chapter was titled: “Everybody is Talented, Original and Had Something Important to Say.” I wrote down that line and posted it on my fridge. Growing up in the church I was taught we are all made in God’s image. It followed that God, who created must also have given me the ability to create too. Posting Brenda Ueland’s quote on my fridge was my way of challenging myself to trust that indeed God was at work in me, blending the art of writing with spiritual practice.?
After many years working as a church employee in Christian Education, I made a switch. In 1999, I went to the Center for Journal Therapy in Denver, Colorado. I was certified to teach journal writing workshops. I returned to create my own business, Write to the Heart. In the years that followed I’ve taught journal writing, prayer writing, spiritual autobiography, poetry, poetry and nature writing and psalm-writing workshops to over 7000 participants. This has taken me to community centres, high school English classes, retreat settings, colleges, churches, synagogues, book stores, libraries, writers and professional groups.?
A publisher in British Columbia, Canada, Wood Lake Books, noticed my name appearing in different congregational notices and retreat centre program calendars. A conversation followed resulting in an idea for a book. It would offer a framework for re-engaging ancient sacred poetry found in the Hebrew Psalms and invite the reading audience to try their hand at writing their own new sacred poetry. I wanted to be able to write a book that everyone who had attended my workshops could feel invited into. The Hebrew Psalms provided a ready container for many of the people I had taught. The Psalms were of interest to numbers of spiritual traditions and as literature in educational settings.
The book was titled Writing the Sacred: A Psalm-inspired Path to Appreciating and Writing Sacred Poetry. I was enlivened by the opportunity to help people connect writing with spiritual practice. Although the people I worshipped with over many years in many communities had also been taught that we are created in the image of God, a God who is a Creator, I encountered others self-doubt. Whether it was inviting people to lead prayers in worship, or inviting people to write new psalms, numbers of churchgoers would tell me “I’m not creative.” Some people seemed to sense God had set them aside uniquely to be an observer of other’s creativity.
One of the challenges I faced as I shifted my attention to writing as a possible career was the response of some friends and acquaintances. While the vast majority expressed confidence, support, even excitement for my new adventures in writing, there emerged a select few who were skeptical. There comments included:
Who was I to think I could be an author?
Wasn’t writing was a waste of time? A luxury? A trivial pursuit?
Did I have a need to be famous?
Did I think I was better than others by devoting time to writing?
I was told I’d never taken a single risk in my life. All this writing? Just a smoke-screen! What was I hiding?
The life of a writer was unpredictable, financially uncertain.
Why was I such a reckless risk-taker?
Looking back on that decision, I learned important lessons about art and spirituality. When we make life changes many people will support and assist us as we give birth to our dreams. Others will voice cynicism, fear, contempt, even gossip. There are no guarantees what leaving the known, secure path we have walked will manifest: failure or success? Loss or gain? By deepening my relationship with the unfolding process of my own sacred story and the focus and direction I had given my attention to helped me set aside anxiety about the outcome. I let God take care of outcomes. I was finding out what giving myself over to this gift of writing and teaching could manifest as I sought to be of service. I had to discern where openness to my creativity lay, putting aside others doubts and reservations, and keep my eyes on the prize.
Writing the Sacred was released in April 2005 and I began a seven-week book and workshop tour to over 35 communities in the three western provinces. Since that time I have led three month long workshop tours somewhere in North America, usually in the fall, winter and spring. At each workshop I’ve taught people about the poetic forms present in the Hebrew Psalms. I’ve spoken about resemblances with other psalm/sacred poetry in the Near East. I’ve offered examples of early writings in the Christian community in the tradition of psalm-writing, and of spiritual poetry including the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, Hafiz, Rumi and Hildegaard of Bingen. And I’ve shown examples of contemporary sacred poetry and invited people to craft their own new psalms as a path to growing encounter with the sacred.
Along the way I have written my own new poems honouring the sacred unfolding that I am witness to. Here is one:Face to Face
I turn to You
as I open my eyes,
breathe from my belly
and salute the dawn. ?
I turn to You
who keeps me in the stillness of the morning
who guides me through my daily rituals:
rising, stretching and preparing a meal.
I turn to You
who comforts me from torment
who gives me second sight
who releases me from judgment
and grants mercy
I turn to You
who keeps me from loosing connection
with myself or my neighbour
who calls to me to join in the dance
I turn to You
who shows me sunlight and shadow,
the sweetness of air on the wind,
the taste of pineapple,
the colours of sunset,
the freshness of water when I bath,
the warmth of bedcovers when I prepare for rest.
You who I turn to, turn to me,
remember me and guard me
as I sleep.
As I teach the opportunity to write again and again helps me lean into the surprise of words freshly falling on the page. And it continues to be a source of gratitude to be able to be of service assisting people to have an encounter with their spiritual gifts for writing. This is both for the seasoned writer and those who have never put pen to paper. What I learn again and again through each workshop is that everyone has something important and unique to share. And everyone has a life story that is sacred and worth taking time to express.??
Ray McGinnis is author of Writing the Sacred: A Psalm-Inspired Path to Appreciating and Writing Sacred Poetry. He writes for Seasons of the Spirit's " online resource “Spirit Sightings," and writes for their 12-14 year old curriculum. Since 1999 he has taught over 500 writing workshops to over 7,000 people in North America. He worships at Canadian Memorial United Church where he lives, in Vancouver. To book him for a workshop or conference visit www.writetotheheart.com.