Janel Moon is a college writing instructor and a hypnotherapist in San Francisco who has had four books of poetry published. This creative resource for writers is based on a course she taught about "Writing as a Spiritual Practice." That experience aimed to help people connect to their souls and wisest self. Moon has chosen nine personal qualities of spiritual development to explore here in the context of writing:
• Awareness of Connection (The Big Picture)
• Acceptance (The Heart That Embraces)
• Letting Go of Control (Taming the "Roughs" at the Door)
• Trusting Our Knowledge (The Full River)
• Sense of Self (The Self Reborn)
• Creativity (Loving the Muse That Takes Us Home)
• Integration (The Path with a Heart)
• Peace of Mind (The Great Sigh)
• Appreciating the Cycles of Life (Flowing into Other Channels)
Moon weds this rich thematic material with writing techniques which ought to prove useful to writers of all stripes: gazing, dialoging, clustering, a Buddhist peace meditation, dream sourcing, and coming together.
Stirring the Waters overflows with imaginative passages, exercises, and stories. We can only list a few of the ones that appealed to us:
• The painter Vincent Van Gogh took singing lessons to help his yellows "sing."
• Moon felt that her father sighs gave her permission to wonder.
• Moon's mother wrote a prayer to her own spirit each night before bed.
• She recommends we avoid comparisons and see them for what they really are: a mirror that finds our life wanting.
• Nature is ripe with examples of the inherent worth of surrender.
• Solitude is the perfect place to nurture creativity.
