My Nugget: Spontaneity brings hope
On Sunday 23rd June I did something spontaneous, I seized the opportunity for to book a creative poetry workshop with Georgie Jones and jumped at the chance. She had announced it on her instagram post and she was doing it at Lincoln Arts Centre the very day after! That’s an hour’s drive for me. She had two 2 hour workshop slots on the same day and I could make the morning session. Hip hip hooray!
Now I have been following Georgie on instagram (@georgie_jonez), in my opinion, she writes and speaks most eloquently. For me, the words that roll off her tongue are pure delight. The subject matter of the workshop also appealed immensely to me. The workshop was called ‘Writing hope’ and we were invited to explore hope, what it means to us, and how we might cultivate it in our daily lives when we’re all living in an increasingly unsettled world.
Georgie took us through a series of little exercises which I would like to now share with you, should you choose to do the same. I found the whole experience most uplifting and I had no idea what to expect as it was the first time I’d booked in for a creative poetry workshop. Here’s what we did:
Make a list of small things that bring you joy (about 1 minute) and share it with someone if you choose.
Pick one of your list above and delve deeper into why and how it brings you joy, use it as a springboard for your creative writing. Again share if you wish.
Make a list using the words ‘HOPE IS…’ share if you’d like.
Then replace the words’ HOPE IS’ from the above list and substitute it with I am/You are/We are
For example, instead of ‘Hope is looking on the bright side’ it will be ‘I am looking on the bright side’
I chose to write my joy about Acroyoga for the second exercise. The upshot of this is that whatever we came up with is going to be used in an exhibition/gallery installation called ‘The Calendar of Hopeful Things’ at Lincoln Arts Centre. If you can make I believe you’ll find this exhibition most uplifting and inspiring. You don’t even have to book. It runs from Oct 24th - Oct 31st 10-16:00, click the button below for more info.
