Do you ever feel that you have something to say but just don’t know where to start? Do you believe that ‘you just can’t write? Do you feel that you aren’t able to get your ideas and words in order to communicate something that truly fills your heart? Or, are you a decent writer who yearns to be even better? If so, you are one half of a writing partnership waiting to happen. EVERYONE can actually be a part of a partnership that results in Co-Created Writing. We all have spiritual guides, those folks in spirit who love and support us and who are available to us for guidance. They do not do our work for us, but rather, work with us to aide and assist us on our life journeys. We all have several guides who love to work with us at our request. Co-Created Writing is one area in which our guides can assist us. Co-Created Writing is NOT channeled writing or automatic writing created by our guides. Those occur when a person is able to communicate writing from those in spirit with something to say. In Co-Created Writing, spirit is there to ASSIST us to write more effectively, but the ideas, visions, feelings, even most of the words come from the heart and inner world of the physical people. Our Writing Guide’s job is to help those inner experiences take form through the written word. Co-Created Writing begins with the person meeting their Writing Guide and this frequently occurs in meditation. While in meditation, one simply asks their writing guide to step forward and the dialogue and friendship begin. The two develop their unique methods of letting each other know when they are ready to write, and they begin to develop their relationship. Each brings something to the partnership and so the friendship that develops is a friendship among ‘equals.’ The closer the two become, the easier the writing process becomes. Each partnership develops its own way of communicating and working together, just as with any two physical people would who are writing together. Learning to trust that communication is part of this whole process. The writer learns to recognize the unique ‘energy’ that is their Writing Guide and to trust in what they are ‘hearing.’ My Writing Guide is also my main guide, Michael. He and I have been writing together for many years so our process together is easy and fluid. I recognize his energy and his helpfulness and while I don’t always ‘take his advice,’ I take it in and treat it very seriously. What follows is an example of what Co-Created Writing can produce. This is a poem we wrote, called…
THE SUMMERLAND
-1-
Somewhere in a land far away lies the Summerland.
Off all maps, the directions to it long gone,
The Summerland exists as but an echo of an echo,
its siren call still heard but faintly
Late at night
the cares of the day, wrapped in fuzzy blankets,
you awake with the salt taste of tears
for a place you’ve never been
can never reach
but yearn for.
Down the long corridors of time,
the gentle smell of quiet waves
laps at your memory with
hyacinth skies and floating cloud castles of softest lamb’s wool
seen but dimly from the endless sands.
Home!
How do I get home?
The helpless tears dampen nightclothes
sweaty with the failure to find your way,
your outstretched hand reaching but not finding
the door, the key, the magic words to take you there
– II-
Our hearts are rent by your longing
and we reach out to you with soft whispers of compassion
unheard in the midst of your angst.
Home, we whisper.
You ARE home, we whisper.
There is no door, no key
no magic word to take you there.
You are there
There are no maps to the Summerland,
We whisper.
You are the map, the key, the magic words.
You yearn, we whisper,
Not for some geographic half remembered place,
but for that ancient self-encoded memory
just beyond the reach of your awareness
of who you are
when you are home
in the Summerland
Recently, I asked students in a Co-Created Writing course to invite their Writing Guide to join them on a meditative journey to ‘somewhere or some when.’ This could be a visit to a person who had ‘passed,’ a trip to a historical place or time, or perhaps even a past life. After they and their guides shared this experience, I asked them to co-create a written piece about their experience. The results were simply spectacular. Here is one example of what they individually created…A Trip Back in Time
by Janet Stafford
Who shall we visit of all the greats there are?
Who do we admire who raises the bar?
So many to call on to sit and have tea
Too many admired to just let them be.
A trip back in time gives so much scope
Heart-warming love and a world full of hope
The decision to make is mine I am told
Who shall I visit with intentions so bold?
Edward takes my arm down memories lane
As we travel together to a different plane
There standing strong with a smile on her face
My mother, arms reaching, waits in place
Who else would I visit of all I admire
But the woman that gave my life so much fire
We had our differences at times truth be told
All the more reason to visit and hold
We sat and we talked and laughed all us three
We strolled and we giggled and learned to let be
Life is too short to let pain and discord in
When we learn that everyone can be free of sin
A tug from Edward our time has run out
Yet you will never be gone but always about
I love you mum and hold you dear
Especially knowing you are always near
ANYONE can co-create writing with their Writing Guide. Ask for your guide to step forward. Talk together and begin to get to know each other, just as you would with any new ‘person’ in your life. Decide together on HOW you will ‘make contact’ (a touch on the arm, or a mental call, for example). And… just start writing. Together, decide on your topic. Write together often because as the old saw says, “practice makes perfect.” And most of all remember, the writing is about YOUR ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, YOUR OWN INNER KNOWING. Your guide is not sharing their wisdom but assisting you to write yours more clearly, coherently and passionately. ]]>
