One of the many things I love about my writing classes is that I don't have to always show up in a good mood! I just have to show up willing to tell the truth. I have found anger, confusion, and grief great motivators to write but so are hope, excitement, and joy. What are your favorite fuels for the writing fire? The Fuel of Feeling (Surrender Your Weapons: Writing to Heal by Valley Jane, 2017) We do not have to arrive at writing practice in the perfect mood or even a good mood. We can come to the page with every and any feeling we have. We can show up angry, grieving, jealous, sad, confused, exhausted. We don’t have to apologize for our feelings or explain them away. We can use them as fuel to drive our narrative forward, each feeling lending itself to a different kind of expression. I believe that when we write tired we are often more vulnerable and have less energy to put up our usual filmy walls of resistance. Anger can add force to our words while sorrow might soften them. Each emotion brings a different aspect of our lives and ourselves to the page. I have shown up to my notebook red hot with fury and doubled over in grief. I have entered the page confused, uncertain, unsure. Almost without fail, I emerge from my writing practice feeling differently than when I entered it. The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual act of writing transmits and transforms emotion. The stories we write become carriers of those feelings, that, suffused into our words, can be felt by our reader. We know when we read something fueled by emotion that was born in the heart or the body as opposed to a wholly clinical academic piece pried from the head. Our bodies respond when we read words written with the fuel of feeling. We don’t have to turn away from the page because we aren’t in the right mood. Every mood we have has something different to say, another piece to add to our story.

What a remarkable Conversations with the Goddess workshop we had today! I drew the Sedna card (Inuit Eskimo and Alaskan Goddess of the Sea) from the Goddess Guidance Oracle deck not once, but twice--and everyone's writing about infinite supply was beautiful, kismet, and connected. I'd love to share a tiny excerpt of my writing here and invite @Cate Fitt, @Susan Buniva, and @Erin N to do the same! Goddess, it has recently come to my attention that things in my life are not happening on my time-table, nor are they going according to plan. My plan, at least. I did not plan to be down for the count for 6 weeks nor to keep experiencing more f-ing growth experiences. Please advise. Your confused devotee, Valley Jane Dear Valley Jane, Goddesses are forged through the fire, not on the beach drinking mai-tais. Sedna found her power through the forced surrender of her deepest pain, creation is born from the destruction of what came before. Please release your old ideas about time or plans--clinging to them will only slow you down. Let go or be dragged! It's always right now now now where everything is perfect already because you are the soul you came here to be, in a constant state of becoming. Honey, give yourself grace for showing up in human form--a notoriously difficult situation to inhabit. You got this. Love always, G. Please join me for more Convos with the Goddess next week, 9/1 at 2 PM EST. Add to your calendar here! XOXO, Valley Jane

(from about 2015) I am wearing the last of my mother's nightgowns. When I brought them home, I could hold the pile up to my face and breathe deeply of her lingering presence. They were the only nighties I wore for years, until one by one, they became ragged and torn beyond use. I don't know why the blue one lasted longest despite fraying cuffs and thinning fabric. These night gowns were my mother's final wardrobe.Her everyday wear when she had grown too frail to do more than walk with help from the pink recliner where she slept to the swivel chair by the table and television. She called it her command post, where she greeted her stream of caregivers and visitors, watched Jeopardy and cheered the UConn Lady Huskies basketball team. She reminded me of a baby bird the way her short silky hair stood up like pin feathers and her mouth would stay open from her attempts to breathe naturally.

Hello writers! If you missed our lunar eclipse workshop yesterday, here are the prompts...it's not too late, the eclipse energy is still strong. Spend 8 minutes free-writing on the two questions below and share in the comments if you'd like. What right now is being eclipsed out? What right now is being eclipsed in? We'd love to read what you write :) Thank you @Lisa Loving, @Cate Fitt, and @Beth Jasper for your beautiful writing in the worshop...I'd love for you to share! Here's mine: What's being eclipsed out? Centuries of bullshit, co-dependency and people pleasing--even with my DOG! Over-editing. That eternal critic shapeshifter who sneaks around in different costumes. Can I eclipse out waiting for my ship to come in and learn to sail my own damn boat? Can I eclipse out the straight jacket of good girl, good wife, good mother? Can I eclipse out the illusion that I have to be good in order to be loved? What's being eclipsed in? Trust in the ever winding curvy-ass spiral road of my life. Trust that I won't accidentally Thelma and Louised myself off cliff or get stuck in the endless maze of traffic on 64. I'm eclipsing in trust in the sacred Goddess essence of my being in this transitory time of my life between known worlds and addresses. I eclipse in vigor and enthusiasm and exuberance for what I do, for what we share for being wholy alive. I eclipse myself back into the center of my very own life.

Hey writers! This morning on substack I shared a piece of writing about my changing body --a vulnerable subject! I find that writing and sharing about the stuff that hurts most helps it heal fastest. Would you be interested in a workshop where we write bravely--and with great love and support--about our bodies together? Let me know in the comments! ANNNND....I hope you'll join me today at 1 PM EST for writing today's Full Moon Pisces Eclipse--a powerful portal for transformation. Here's the zoom link! https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87855038036?pwd=WELzLklmBYAfp0UaplVo1s0zJLByzW.1