Notes from The Writer's Corner

This week: The importance of safe spaces for creatives. Our session next week being the perfect example: Regulating the Writer Within [Writing as a Sacred + Healing Practice] with guest Sherry Sidoti.

In times of uncertainty and stress, our instinct is often to cocoon. That was just how I felt on Wednesday morning. I wanted to stay in my pajamas on the couch and numb my mind with some pointless TV show. 

But I had a memoir class to teach, so instead I got in my car and headed out. 

On the car ride over, one student called to ask if it was okay if they came late. They'd been consoling a relative who was struggling with how to process the election results. “Of course,” I said. “No problem.”

When I arrived, the mood in the room was dismal. Almost every student said, "I wasn't going to come but ...”

I honestly did not know how to begin class. Should I acknowledge what I could see everyone was feeling or just plow ahead?

But then I thought, how do you teach a memoir class and ignore what everyone is feeling? After all, I talk about the importance of the emotional truth almost every week. 

So we talked for a few minutes. There were a few tears but I could see everyone needed to let it out. 

Finally, I asked if we wanted to proceed with class the way we usually do ... a lesson, followed by our weekly readings from the group. Everyone agreed we should.

As I went through the lesson, shoulders began to settle and by the time we began our readings, we were all fully engaged with the work. The room, which just moments before had felt uneasy, became centered. 

It reminded me how important these safe spaces are. I have always known this and this sense of community is what I try my best to create in every class, Writer’s Corner session, or retreat I put together.

And yet, I also know I am not the center of any of it, it is about the whole—the coming together of like-minded people and being reminded that we are all flawed, beautiful, kind, scared, sad, and a million other things.

Human.

I guess all to say, if you are feeling a little lost right now, find those safe spaces (like this one) ... because creativity flourishes in uncertainty. And in it, we find connection.

It is not time to hide. It is time to sharpen our pencils and get to work!

What’s coming up next week …

Join us Monday for Regulating the Writer Within: Writing as a Sacred + Healing Practice
Sherry Sidoti is an author and yoga teacher. She is the founder of FLY Yoga, a yoga teacher training program and non-profit that offers yoga and meditation for trauma resilience on Martha’s Vineyard. She leads embodied memoir writing courses, somatic healing workshops, and yoga + writing retreats globally. Her musings, infused by 20-plus years of practicing and teaching yoga, healing arts, and mysticism have been published in Heart & Soul Magazine, Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly, Mystic Magazine, among others. Sidoti’s debut memoir, A Smoke and a Song received the 2024 Gold Medal for Non-Fiction/Inspirational with Readers’ Favorite Book Award, the 2023 Gold Medal for Inspirational Memoir with Living Now Book Award, the 2024 Grand Prize Winner Honorable Mention with Eric Hoffer Book Awards, Finalist for the da Vinci Eye Prize, and 2024 Finalist for National Indie Excellence Award.

If you missed our last session …

Thank you to our guest this week Celeste Fisher, who discussed how to keep going in the extremely competitive publishing industry (even when you are stuck). If you missed the live session, here is a link to the recording (Passcode: &0kbi5E+).