31 Comments

So excited for another year of writing and learning and growing and wondering with all of you in whatever garden of delights we conjure up.💗Jeaninne, the way you articulate why we do language is music 🎼 to my soul. Since joining Writing in the Dark, my writing has become richer, deeper, more daring, exploratory and expansive and yet I feel more confident than ever before, even as I take more risks. That’s all because of the safety I feel here to stretch myself. I’ve only really touched the surface of this lake of my imagination, it seems, even after decades as a creative writer. Excited to dive for those depths in our new intensive!

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I look forward to engaging more with WITD prompts and community this year. Thanks for all you offer, Jeannine.

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Yay, looking forward, Rosemary!

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You inspire, Jeannine - you in-spire (breathe in) and we breathe out (and dream) with you. Thank you.

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Thank you, Andrea ❤️

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I’m so so so excited for this. Just snagged the book today and can’t wait to get going. I feel finally like I’m mostly back to myself again 🩵🩵 Ready to jump back in with everyone 🩵🩵

Thank you, Jeannine and Billie for all that you do and for the way you help us turn magic into words into dreams into reality 🩵🩵

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Ah Mesa — it’s so good to hear you coming back to yourself. Not easy, as each day brings more bad news. It continues to be painful. But also, we’re alive, these days are numbered, and we don’t get them back, so, to the degree we can reach for joy, may we do so. ❤️

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Love that oneness with ' all that is', that blurring of boundaries between our human form and pure energy.

Mexico...nearly went there last year! So glad you had a good break.

Sending love across the oceans.

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Welcome home y'all! We missed you. Love this essay which is chock full of great ideas and good news. I am currently reading Dacher Keltner's book "Awe--The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life." I recommend it.

So looking forward to WITD in 2025.

I want to add that I think reading "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" has broken open my heart as a writer. I am changed and evolving. I can feel positive growth in my craft. Very grateful for this opportunity. Thanks!

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I love love love this book so much even though the part about the monkey has damaged me I think...

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Welcome home Jeannine + Billie! Your trip looked like a dream! Very excited for the year ahead with WITD and all the new things you have planned (including camp!) Also, love, Love, LOVE your artwork of you and Z riding bikes Billie :) Looking forward to Wednesday <3

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Welcome back to the reason we are giddy and amazed by spring, or even temps over 40!

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Book ready and waiting. It's been a while, although I read every post, Jeannine. So looking forward to getting stuck back in with you💙

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Jeannine, more serendipity: I finished reading THAT SENSE OF WONDER: HOW TO CAPTURE THE MIRACLES OF EVERYDAY LIFE by Francesco Dimitri last week. And here you are, writing about wonder and awe. Naturally.

I purchased THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS and am eager for this writing intensive. Also eager to join you and your community with these upcoming salons, chats, and virtual gatherings! Lovely start to the new year, I would say.

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Yes! When the inside matches the outside brings us the wonder of synchronicity and awe!

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I know you know that feeling. xoxo

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Squeee! Cannot wait for another intensive. Thank you thank you Jeannine and Billie for all the work you do to bring us together and to share with us what you know. I am forever changed by this space and by you both and everyone who shows up here. xoxoxo

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Likewise, Jocelyn. We feel just the same about this place, and everyone who makes it what it is.

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It's wonderful going through life with a sense of wonder, amazement, and awe. Yet, I'm always surprised when I roll around the words you share and realize the profoundness in the thinking. I love this so much, "So Writing in the Dark isn’t about prettifying our writing. To the contrary. It’s about making words matter, making words into art, making words into living shapes that makes us feel something." Making words matter. This. This is why I write. Thank you for this, Jeannine.

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Me, too, Steve. It's an honor to write with you.

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❤️

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words as living shapes that make us feel. so much yes. bug hugs, friend.

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❤️ ❤️ ❤️

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Hi friend, thank you for affirming that thought. Hey, I know I’m older than you but I have never heard the term bug hugs before and when I read it I had to LOL picturing that…literally. Thanks, Jocelyn 🤗

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I love that drawing— those perfect suspended feet!! And this fiery manifesto from your freezing homecoming! What a complex and rich root system to sustain us for the year ahead. Gentle landing, soft beginning, ferocious play— here we go pushing off into a new year. Welcome back.

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Ferocious play!!! I love that so much!

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Rawr

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so eloquent, Emily, xoxoxo

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As always!

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💕💜❤️

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💜

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