Transcription

G:
Hello and welcome.
This is the writing spirituality podcast, brought to you by the Grounded Spirit Project. We’re delighted that you joined us. Whether you’re a writer first and foremost, or write as part of your role as community or spiritual leader, this is the place to find ideas, tools and prompts to get started, to keep going and get finished, and to find a home for your writing.
L:
Let’s take a moment to focus.
Take a deep breath.
Relax your body.
Let go of your to-do list,
and be fully present, here and now.
G:
Welcome to episode 0: About the Writing Spirituality Podcast
I’m Gwyneth, a poet, translator and writing coach based in the UK.
L:
And I’m Lucía, a writer and a student of religion coming to you from Spain.
G:
The Writing Spirituality Podcast is part of the Grounded Spirit Project, an initiative to help everyone of us to develop, grow, and share our own personal spiritual path. Hop over to the website, groundedspiritproject.com, for more information.
This episode is episode 0, to give us a chance to introduce ourselves, and the project, in a little more depth. So, what is the Grounded Spirit Project? Lucia:
L:
I like to think of the Grounded Spirit Project as a launchpad for writers in the field of spirituality and community-building. A structure that can take you by the hand and help you in every single moment of the process, from writing to publishing, to maximize your potential as a writer and spiritual leader. That’s how I see yourselves.
G:
So, how are we going to do that? We’re going to be offering a whole range of tools, aren’t we?
L:
Yes.
G:
Of tools, of services and support, mentorship, courses, editing services, translation…
L:
Yes, everything you need, basically, from the moment have the will to write something, whether it’s because you just want to share you own personal spirituality or because you need to write as you role in your community… to starting to write, getting in front of that blank page, or that blank screen and actually starting to write, and forming the habit of writing, and then learning to be a good writer, as good as you can be. And then finding readers in whatever way you want to… share your writing, whether it’s online online or through self-publishing, or traditional publishing… you know, getting the word out there. And in every single one of these steps there is a series of skills and tools that you need to have and we have them and we want to share them with you. And part of the project is having this podcast
G:
Absolutely.
L:
which is the Writing Spirituality Podcast
G:
I just want to interrupt you for a moment there and say that, of course, although we are talking about writing and readership, we are also talking about speaking and listening, because you write to be listened to and I think a lot of the listeners of podcasts, in particular, will be writing for an audience that they going to be speaking to, perhaps, rather than necessarily writing to be read. So it’s all inclusive, wherever your audience is, wherever you’re going to find them, we hope that we are going to be able to help you with your writing projects.
L:
Absolutely, yeah.
G:
So, that’s this podcast, Writing Spirituality, which is really a weekly check in, or appointment with yourself as a writer and it’s a point, a moment of accountability, as well. If you can make it a regular commitment. We’re making it a regular commitment to be here, and we want you to make a regular commitment to join us.
L:
And commitment is really all it takes, often. Because I find that, with the people that I help develop the habit of writing, these people have ideas, they have the skills to write… they might not be super expert writers, yet, but that’s what you get when you actually write regularly and having a habit to write is half the battle, I think. So if you can make an appointment with yourself to be here every week and to do some of the exercises that we’re going to be offering you, then, really, you’re halfway there.
G:
Yeah, that’s a good point. You’ve already started to talk about what we going to be doing– exercises. Everyone is running for their exercise mat, no, not that kind of exercises, writing exercises, but that’s not all it’s going to be about. So, after this introductory, this eposide episode 0, we’re going to be following a four week arc. And they’re going to be three weeks that are going to be discussion of texts and prompts, exercises, tips. We’ll talk about those a little bit more in a moment. But then the fourth episode is going to be an interview with someone who is writing in this particular space of spirituality and we’re going to be talking to them about what they do, how they do it and how they get their writing out there.
L:
Yeah and I think that’s another 4th, at least, of getting your writing out there, is to see how other people do it and also see all the different ways in which people are doing it. Sometimes we are very restricted in what we think writing is. It’s like, as you said before, Gwyneth, sometimes writing has the purpose of being heard, not of being read and there are people out there doing Twitter, or self-publishing, or doing little chapbooks, or having a blog, or one of the so many ways in which you can get your work out there and… I think that we have so much to learn from the people who are doing it.
G:
Yes, conversations with other people about how they’re getting their words out there and how they’re sharing them with their communities, I think that is very definitely going to be a learning experience for all of us.
L:
And also, we all face different challenges when it comes to writing, right? Some people may have an easier time getting started but then they get stuck, other people might just struggle with grammar, or with whatever, other technical aspects, and by seeing how writers and authors have overcome their own difficulties we can learn from that and get tips to overcome our own difficulties.
G:
Very much so, but the three episodes that are at the beginning of each of these of three-week arcs, those are actually, I think, going to help more with the technical aspects, because in those three episodes, each week we’re going to chose a text that we’re going to be looking at, as writers. And we’re going to be looking at the techniques that work or don’t work so well, and we’re going to talk about, generally, about writing. But the texts that we’re going to look at, aren’t necessarily going to be from the spiritual space. I think that there’s a lot that we can learn from all sorts of writing. So, Lucía, you and I , we’re going to choose texts that we think might be useful, or that have caught our attention for some particular reason and that we’d like to share them and discuss them.
L:
Any text that helps you become a better writer, but reading it as a writer, not as a reader, will work, but also I think that it’s going to be interesting to see where are the boundaries of spiritual writing. Because sometimes you can… I can find…spiritual lessons in things like gardening books and… it all really depends on your definition.
G:
Certainly. I’ve got some ideas from novels where there are passages that I think I want to share and get out there, because I see something valuable in them, but, yeah.
L:
Yeah, the very first prayer that I started using as a teen was something that I got from a novel.
G:
Okay, I thought you were going to say was something you got from a gardening book.
[laughter]
L:
It was not “plant two inches deep” or anything like that. It was from a fictional religion in a book, and they had this little prayer that helped me enormously in terms of fear and I find that book, for me, was almost scripture for a while. So, I think it’s going to be very interesting to see where something is spiritual or not, but at any rate, the goal of this podcasts is not to go into philosophical questions, which I’m, unfortunately, prone to, as a student of theology,
[laughter]
but to really see the techniques of writing by learning from good pieces of writing out there and reading them as writers.
G:
Absolutely.
L:
In a critical way.
G:
Yeah, and as well as doing the reading, we’re going to be offering prompts, tips and maybe if you’re listening to this and you’ve got some ideas of tips that you think are going to be helpful to others, then you can send them in to us and we’ll be able to use those, if we think they’re appropriate for sharing with the rest of the audience. We’re also going to be looking at questions that we hope that you’ll be sending in, so, do send us your questions… I’m talking about writing questions, now, not spirituality questions, as Lucía just said, it’s not going to be a philosophical discussion, hopefully not too philosophical, and we’re not going to be answering your spiritual doubts.
L:
Yes, generally, our writing students or mentorees, they usually.. there’s a few things with which almost everybody struggles, but when it comes to writing spirituality, I find, there are specific things that are hard, and we’ve already seen that in our workshops. So, if you have any trouble writing in the field of spirituality, send us your problem and we’ll try to discuss it here, because chances are, if you’re struggling with it, someone else is struggling, too.
G:
And even if we don’t have the answers, perhaps someone who’s out there listening will have an answer and it will get answered eventually that way.
L:
Yeah.
G:
But we’re already talking now about being involved, because we very much want this to be a community. And we’d like you to become involved with the podcast and the best ways of doing that, and of making the most of the podcast are by doing the prompts and the exercises, even if perhaps you don’t feel like it, or setting time aside during your week to read as a writer, wherever the text you’re reading, even if it’s only for a very short time, stop just following the plot because you want to know what happens at the end of that novel. Actually stop and look at it. Work out what clues are coming in, what information is being given, sentence links and style of words, all sorts of aspects of the writing that as readers we tend to ignore.
L:
Yeah.
G:
So take time to do some reading as a writer.
What else can we do? Lucía, what else can we do?
L:
Yes, it’s like I tell people just set your timers to 15 days… oof, 15 days…
G:
15 days?
[laughter]
L:
Write for 15 days or don’t try it!
[laughter]
G:
You’ll get a lot done.
L:
Right.
[laughter]
G:
Nope.
L:
Set a timer for 15 minutes. And just, you know, do the thing. Do the reading, do the writing for 15 minutes just straight and then be done with it. That’s the best idea. That’s the best way to do it.
G:
And also, perhaps, after each episode, have a think about what you’ve heard in that episode and set yourself a personal goal with the next episode as a deadline for your writing, so… because deadlines do actually help focus the mind and we’re going to be bringing these episodes every week and so, when the next episode drops, you need to have your own goal fulfilled in some way.
L:
Yes, if you’ve ever done the national novel month… Nanosomething…
G:
NaNoWriMo
L:
Yeeees, that they do in the States. You know that, you know, setting yourself an impossible goal, like writing a novel in one month, actually helps you to almost write a novel in one month and this is very important. One of the problems with writing is that it’s a very solitary thing to do and it’s very difficult to give yourself deadlines and it’s very difficult to do something if there’s no one you are accountable to. So you can use this podcast as your accountability partner.
G:
Absolutely
L:
And give yourself deadlines. But do it compassionately. Don’t give yourself an impossible deadline that is just going to make you feel low, you know, low self-esteem, or think “Oh, I’m a failure. I didn’t manage to write my 5,000 perfect words this week.” No, just a small, a small, goal.
G:
5,000 words is one thing, write 5,000 perfect words is a different goal. Write 500 words, perfect or otherwise…
L:
Yes.
G:
It’s still writing. It’s still valid. Everyone can choose their own goals and be accountable to themselves but also we’re hoping to make a community, here at the Grounded Spirit Project, so, if you go to the website, you’ll find more about that and you’ll also find us on social media.
L:
Yes, so that way, writing will not be such a solitary endeavor. We can actually support each other and be each other’s partners in this.
G:
And, as we said, if you’ve got questions and ideas, tips and prompts that you think might be useful to share, then do send them in. And also share with others, share your writing, and share the information about the Grounded Spirit Project and about this podcast, Writing Spirituality.
L:
Are we missing something, Gwyneth, about this introduction to the podcast?
G:
Well…
L:
Mmmm, who are we?
G:
Absolutely. Why are we qualified to run this? This is actually a very good thing that we ought to be talking about. So, who are we?
L:
Who died and made you Queen?
G:
No, nobody, nobody, right. I’m Gwyneth Box and, what’s your full name, Lucía?
L:
Oh, it’s a handful. It’s Lucía Moreno-Velo.
G:
Okay.
L:
Is my accent sexy? Because that’s one of my goals in life.
G:
I don’t know. I’m not gonna comment on that one. [laughter]
L:
Okey, good.
G:
We are creative writers and we’ve published in a variety of media and a variety of ways. We’ve published online and in print, through traditional presses, through self-publishing, through small presses, anthologies, contests… So we got a range of publication credits.
L:
And our day job is copywriting and translating, so we…
G:
That’s your full-time day job isn’t it?
L:
Yes.
G:
Mine isn’t so much that, although I do, yes, copywriting, translating, editing…
L:
Yeah, I do that, too.
G:
I run a creative agency. So, that’s actually that side of the creative agency. But we also, we’re teachers, mentors, course leaders. We’re members of the writing community and in fact that’s where we met. We met in the writing community in Madrid.
L:
Yes.
G:
The Madrid Writer’s Group.
L:
Yes, and we’re also… for a few years now we’ve been writing within the field of spirituality in a project that we started together. And we’ve published three books this far. So we’re not just writers, but we’re also spiritually engaged and interested in mindfulness, in mental health, well-being, and how… building a new way to be late to the Divine or to Spirit… so that everybody can, you know, fully develop the spiritual side of themselves in a way that’s free and individual and I’m going off on theology again. Stop me!
G:
[laughter]  Well, I think that, because of the pandemic, yeah, I think it’s become a little bit easier, there’s more willingness to be talking about spirituality and mental health. These are issues that are much more visible… they’re always  been there, but I think there’s a lot more visibility, a lot more willingness to speak about them and I do think that there is an area where there’s an overlap of spiritual and mental health, and that people arrive in that area by different paths and different journeys, but there’s almost this do-it-yourself spirituality now.
L:
Yeah.
G:
And I think that that’s really one of the spaces that we are very much looking at.
L:
Yes, yes, definitely. I think that one instance of writing we haven’t spoken about is that writing can also be therapeutic and spiritual so you might want to write spirituality for yourself and not to share with others, and to develop your own spirituality or for your own use and that’s also valid. And we’re also here to support you in that. So, I do see a tendency to have a more personal spirituality today, as opposed to, let’s say, the 20th century. So a lot of people are defining themselves as “spiritual but not religious” and what that means is not that they don’t believe in the Divine or that they don’t have a relationship with the Divine, what they mean is that they don’t subscribe to any fixed organized religion that they know. So there’s this boom of people that are looking for their spirituality and they still need guidance they still…l they’re interested in content about spirituality, they’re interested in knowing how other people are developing their own spirituality and anything, from very practical exercises on how to how to breath, for example, [hollow sound] I just knocked my microphone. Sorry about that. [laughter] or more theological debates on how we relate to nature, to the environment, and to other beings, animals, plants and other humans, social justice and so on. All of these things are out there, and they all are within what I see as spirituality. So if you write in any of these fields, I think you are a spiritual writer even though I write in a very specific field, which is how we started the project. Gwyneth? You wanna talk about that so I can shut up for a while?
G:
[laughter] Obviously, yes. I can take over now. Yes. We came together in lockdown. Lucía, you asked me, didn’t you?, if I would help you just with a single blessing that you were writing for a Pagan memorial service.
L:
Yes.
G:
And when I helped you edit that, which I came at the very much as a poet and didn’t think I was in a spiritual space when I was looking at that with you and you then realized that you had more that you wanted to say. And that grew into a book, A Wound in Time, which actually then grew beyond that into the Modern Pagan Prayers series of books and there are now three. But we’ve now realized this is a potentially much bigger project and it’s more useful to a far wider audience than the Modern Pagan Prayers was likely to reach, which is where the Grounded Spirit Project has come from.
L:
Yes, the Modern Pagan Prayers is us as writers. And even though I’m a writer, I reached out to you as an editor because, as a writer, I know about the importance of working in a team and having someone look at your work and help you and hold you accountable. So that’s putting my money where my mouth is. It’s really important. No matter how much I’ve written in the past, or maybe because I’ve written a lot in the past, I know that writing alone is a bad idea. It’s much better to have someone to help you. But that was us as writers. The Grounded Spirit Project is us as teachers, and accountability partners, and helpers. It’s like… yeah, if I think, as I do, about the project as a launchpad, that’s… you know, we’re going to be there to prepare everything and to hold you by the hand and help you get into the rocket and help you build your rocket and, you know, countdown, and you’re going to do your own flying and go off into outer space. Right? That’s how I see myself, as a cheerleader and someone… and a coach. I think this is what the Grounded Spirit Project is.
G:
And I think that came because we realized the collaborative experience of writing the Pagan Prayer books was amazing. It really was, I mean for me it was a reminder of how much comfort and consolation writing can provide and how… how a project can be truly collaborative, how it can be something more because it isn’t just your own project. And it was it was pure joy to write those books. And I think that this really is now the Grounded Spirit Project and specifically the podcast Writing Spirituality is a little bit of giving back from what we’ve learned through that writing together.
L:
Yeah. Yes, it is.
G:
So, do we want to say a little bit more about ourselves personally?
L:
Okay, so I am… do we have to say our age?
G:
Oh, good Lord, no.
L:
No, we better not.
G:
Nobody wants to know how old we are.
[laughter]
L:
We are very young… and still have lots of experience. That sounds naughty. I’m… I live in Madrid, I actually live in a beautiful area, a wooded area in the mountains near Madrid and in a very spiritual town that has lots of wonderful legends, but that’s for another day. And I’m married to a French woman who I met in college and we have two children. We have a daughter who’s 17 and a son who’s 15…
G:
And I think your daughter is going to be very cross. She was 18.. she’s now 18 already.
L:
Ah! She just turned 18, yes, yes, yes. But she’s still living at home, which is very, very upsetting. Yes, she just turned 18. So, my wife’s a baker and I am, as I said, an editor, a copywriter and a translator full time. In my free time,  I like to write because, you know, of course after writing full-time what you want to do is just keep writing, right? [laugther]
G:
Of course. What else is there to life?
L:
Yes, yes, but I also like crafting and walking in the woods, which is just.. actually a spiritual experience for me. I am… religiously I identify as a Pagan and what I would like to do right now… since the pandemic, my life is changing a lot. We just started a business. We’re starting the Grounded Spirit Project… is just like I feel things are moving and it’s very exciting. I would really, really like to do more mentoring and more teaching, and helping writers out there and maybe just switch to do less translation and more mentoring than I’m doing now. It’s just like that would be, that would just be wonderful. And also to have a real garden, not just some small pots in a windowsill, yeah.
G:
Okay.
L:
How about you, what are you doing and how do you see yourself in the future?
G:
Oh, the future is always difficult, so I’m gonna start with the past. I’m British and I was born in England and I was brought up in a fairly traditional home. I’ve lived in England, Scotland and Wales, and in the States, in California, for a couple of years, and then in Spain for a long time and again, we won’t go into details of how long. But it’s when I was in Spain, that’s where I met Lucía.
L:
Yep.
G:
And I don’t tend to think of myself as having any particular religious or spiritual affiliation, but I did grow up in quite a cosmopolitan area, where there was a wide range of cultures and customs, and tolerance was probably one of the most important concepts I was taught as a child. I’ve always loved words and I’ve been writing poetry all my life. There is a poem somewhere around that I wrote when I was ten which, I think, won an award. And I look at it and I still got a handwritten, and I got two different versions and you can see the difference, and you can see that I was working to improve it, and I’m still having trouble with my line breaks, that’s one of my [inaudible] when it comes to poetry. But yes, I think of myself as a poet first and foremost when it comes to writing and through writing, though, you can create worlds, as sometimes, as we said, those worlds that you’re just creating for yourself, and sometimes you’re writing them to share with others. So, at the moment I’m not doing a lot of writing. I’ve had quite a dry period, other than writing the prayers I was writing with you, Lucía. That was not a dry period, that was unbelievably productive. But the… I don’t know, the personal writing hasn’t been happening recently. I’m sure it will again and that’s something that I will say to everybody out there: if you do feel that the blank page is quite daunting, it won’t be forever. It might… it almost certainly will come back, that need to write, because for me, I think, writing is very much a need. So, at the moment I’m living right in middle England, very close to the forests where, the forest of Ardennes I suppose, from Shakespeare. So, yes, I’m also in a lovely part of the world and I think that one of the really exciting things about this project is that it is already international. He haven’t even started, it is an international project, and so wherever you are out there, we are absolutely delighted that you’re out there, and we’re hoping to make this a community, an international community of writers.
L:
And we’re even more international because we have… we have a workshop coming up in Boston, in April, so, yes, we are going to cross the sea, virtually.
G:
Virtually, unfortunately.
L:
Because we¡re not actually going to go to Boston, but we are going to be holding a workshop on writing prayers at Harvard Divinity School Program for the Evolution of Spirituality. They’re having their inaugural conference on Ecological Spirituality. It’s on April, April 27th to April 30th, 2022. So, you should know that you can join from anywhere in the globe and I believe that… well, if you’re a presenter, it’s free. If you’re not a presenter, there might be a small fee to pay, but I think they’re trying to make it really accessible, so hop over to the Harvard Divinity School website and look us up. We’d love to have you if you want to do a wonderful workshop on writing prayer.
G:
And that’s just one of the workshops that we’re going to be running, because, as we said, there are going to be all sorts of resources through the Grounded Spirit Project, so it’s not just going to be this podcast but I think that’s probably enough about the podcast for the moment. So, just a reminder to get involved. If you go to groundedspiritproject.com, you’ll find all the social media links, and you’ll find the podcast, and the script, and links and notes for each episode…
L:
And if you join our community through the website, you’re going to get a free… journal
G:
A free journal, a digital journal
L:
Yes.
G:
A Month of Mindfulness.
L:
So you can start writing right away. [laughter]
G:
Yes, so that’s got inspirational tips and thoughts for each of the 30 days of the month. So, A Month of Mindfulness if you sign up for our newsletter, which we’ve yet to decide how often that newsletter is going out. [laughter]
L:
So you’ve got two pieces of homework for, right, for next week. The first one is: take your calendar and mark next week’s episode, so you don’t miss it. And, two, go over to the website, sign up, download your journal and commit, promise yourself that you’re going to, at least, start writing it, and give yourself the next episode as a deadline. How about that?
G:
Sounds good to me.
L:
Yeah, that’s fairly easy to do.
G:
Okay, so, if you’ve got any questions, tips or thoughts to share, send them to hello at groundedspiritproject.com and we may feature in the podcast. And don’t forget to leave a review for the podcast and share it with your community.
L:
And we will see you next week.
G:
Don’t forget to write. Bye!
L:
Bye-bye!