When I started, I didn't know I was writing a book

When I first started writing what would become the poems in Eyes, Stones, I had no idea that I was writing a book. I am not even sure I knew I was writing poems. All I knew is that I was following the deep questions I had around the pain I had as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors grappling with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and opening myself to hold the suffering of two peoples inside my body. With each person I spoke to, and each poem I wrote, it became clear that I was telling a story that was both my story, and a story much larger than me. During that journey, I discovered that it was through engaging deeply with the creative process itself that I was able to live fully into the questions and the pain I was experiencing, and move through it.


And when I became a new mom, I was thrust into an unknown world again. I walked through the streets with my son strapped to my chest, feeling isolated and alone, and broken open, making up songs about the complicated mix of loneliness and love I was feeling. I began jotting down notes in my phone under the tab “Mommy Journal”. These notes were the beginning of what would become my next book of poems, Mother Country, which is coming out in October.


I am not saying that every creative impulse you follow will become a book of poems or a best selling album or a finished painting. The truth is, I don’t know. Nobody knows. And that can feel scary.


In fact, each time I begin a creative endeavor, it starts in the dark. I am feeling my way,  brushing up against my fear of not knowing what is next, not knowing if it will be “good enough” or if anyone will receive it or if I will even be able to finish.


And each time, when I follow one foot in front of the other, something shifts. Maybe what I am creating in that moment is not meant to be shared. Maybe it is just a way to move an emotion or sensation through my body to make space for something else. Maybe it is the beginning of something I can’t yet see, something that wants to come through me. Maybe it will become a poem or a song or a book or a painting.


The truth is, It is not my job to know. It is my job to make a space to follow the impulse or the stirring or the something in me that wants to be released.


What about you? Do you feel a stirring go something inside of you? Something you want to bring forward but you are not even sure what it is, and you don’t know how?


Or maybe you have a creative project or vision that you know you want to birth, and you keep putting off, waiting for the “right time?”


You don’t have to do it alone.


If you sense that you would like a creative guide, and a community to support you in bringing your creative visions or stirrings to life, I invite you to join me for Creative Fire Circe, an intimate LIVE virtual and in-person program designed to activate your authentic voice, alchemize your experience and emotions into expression, and provide support and accountability. This program combines one on one support and deep community connection to create a potent container for your creative visions.


The link with all the details is HERE. I would love to share it with you. There are 10 spots. We begin in April.