Composting chaos to make space for joy

How a recent group writing exercise provided unexpected therapy, and what it has since inspired.

Hello Soul Joy readers! Because of the times we are living in, I’m taking a detour from my usual poetry and spiritual nature musings to share a recent joyful happening in my world.

When not writing, meditating, parenting or communing with nature, I lead writing workshops in nature and coach folks in writing on Substack. Through these workshops and coaching, we’ve created a small community of dedicated, creative and visionary writers who have also become dear friends. Four times a month, I hold Open Office Hours online and once a month we meet in-person (with a few folks attending online) for a longer support session.

While our monthly sessions are always a wonderful mix of mutual support, laughter and creative “work”, it was at our most recent one — held the Saturday after our current president was sworn in — that things got real. All anyone wanted to talk about — all anyone could talk about — was the difficult mix of shock, sadness, anxiety, horror and righteous fury we were all experiencing from having watched democracy implode in just 5 days’ time.

After an hour of emotional processing and working ourselves into a tizzy, I realized we needed to shift gears if we wanted to get any writing done.

So I introduced a writing game I call 5-Minute Flow, where I give participants a starting sentence, then they write for 5 minutes without stopping. Sounds easy, right? And it is! …except there’s one more thing: every 30-45 seconds, I drop a random word or phrase that everyone has to seamlessly factor into their writing.

It’s actually really fun!

Our group started off well, writing confidently with the starting sentence. Then — just as they were hitting their stride — the first phrase dropped. I intentionally made it incredibly ridiculous. Not surprisingly, there were groans and some laughs, but everyone pressed on. By the time I got to the 3rd or 4th word, folks were getting used to the interruptions and were more relaxed. After five minutes had elapsed, everyone was astonished — how could the time have gone by so quickly?

When prompted to read theirs aloud, each person protested that theirs wasn’t any good. But read it they did, and in each reading, we all became progressively more amazed. Each piece was a combination of serious, silly, and emotional, and all contained elements of what we had just been lamenting in our preceding conversation. In this short and simple exercise, we had somehow processed immense emotions about very challenging topics, and we all felt lighter, as well as full of awe and wonder! We had just composted some truly rotten stuff and made it into fertile creative ground. And that was nothing short of miraculous!

A week later, as I was reading the absurdity that is the news right now, I was struck with a realization: we need to compost this shit too!

And now we have a way to do it. My dear Soul Joy readers, may I present…

The Weekly 5-Minute Flow!

Each week, I’ll create a 5-minute recording where I’ll give you a starting sentence, then I’ll drop words or phrases every 30-45 seconds for you to incorporate into your 5-minute continuous write. But these won’t be just random words or phrases, no — they will be the most mind-blowing, absurd, infuriating and outrageous words and phrases appearing in the news that week. Because of course, these are exactly the things that most need to be composted!

While this will be an offering for my paid subscribers, I’ll do a free-for-all once a month so that free subscribers can play too. If you are brave enough to share your 5-minute compost in comments or a DM, I’ll include your writings in the next installment and comp you for a month!

As this seems the sort of thing that should be posted on a Saturday, I’ll post my first free-for-all 5-Minute Flow on Saturday, February 8th. If you have words or phrases from the news that you’d like me to throw in the mix, please post them in the comments here and I’ll work in as many of them as I can.

In the meantime, please enjoy the entries written by our group two Saturdays ago — even if you weren’t privy to our pre-game discussion, you can get a sense of what we were working through!

5-Minute Flow from 1/25

Starting Sentence: The Age of Aquarius has dawned.

Word Prompts:

• fluffy bunnies

• cactus flowers

• emergent technology

• gaseous fumes

• cloaked UFOs

• underwater aliens

• princess puppy

Group Composting Entries:

By

Susan Moffitt

:

The Age of Aquarius has dawned, shamans are blowing sacred smoke, children are making daisy chains, the most powerful fall to their knees, struck by the light of the heavens.

Fluffy bunnies emerge from rabbit holes, no longer afraid, cactus flowers glow magnificently in the desert sun, all over the world people are turning towards one another with hope and grace.

Emergent technology is eschewed for pen & paper, paint & canvas, as neighbors drop by with fresh cookies instead of texting.

Gaseous fumes from the mouth and soul of the president get sucked back down into the lower realms.

Cloaked UFOs reveal themselves to allies to escort the fearless to other dimensions. Underwater aliens rise from the bathypelagic zone and appear on the ocean's surface.

The princess puppy snuggles into the royal arms of an ancient Crone surveilling the scene with a cryptic smile on her lips.

By

Jeannie

:

The Age of Aquarius has dawned. People are beginning to wake up from the sleep of their own deception. They are finally beginning to see that transforming the world within them is the only possible way to save the world without.

The fluffy bunnies of their hopes and desires are emerging from their holes and sending them on wild chases around the cactus flowers. Try to catch one and beware for you might fall into the dangerous spikes surrounding you!

The spikes are your self awareness. No emergent technology can deceive you from the recognition of how you, we ourselves have contributed to this catastrophe. The gaseous fumes are permeating the planet but the villains creating them are not on the outside but the result of our own digestive system. The cloaked UFO's cannot save us either, for they are concealing our own hypnosis and are the creation of our own cognition, just like the underwater aliens screaming insults at your prejudice.

How will we recover, you ask? How will the fluffy bunnies be saved and returned to the gentle princess puppy without being eaten?

Calm yourself. Find a carrot. Begin to sing a song of comfort and condolence. Be kind to yourself and all others. Forgive.

From

RavenSquawk

:

The Age of Aquarius has dawned, friends! Let us lift ourselves from these dank segregated malodorous chambers and move together towards the light.

Can’t see the way out? Just follow the fluffy bunnies who instinctively hop along the path lined with cactus flowers, in all their geometric fractal beauty. The fluff of the bunnies and the prickles of the plants combine to create an emergent technology that will help us find our way.

The old program running through the brains and veins of humans has gone sour, and with the help of flora and fauna, we’re climbing out of this pit into a new dawning day, away from the gaseous fumes of the dying system. This is what rotten ideology smells like. There’s no escape from the stench, and so we must go.

As we make our getaway, we’ll keep watch for cloaked UFO’s that spy on us from above, spraying toxins like we’re ants to be exterminated. Just when we think we’re through the worst of it… underwater aliens enter the picture! Gah!!

And now… what’s this… ?!… Princess Puppy has stepped up to the microphone, barking with purpose. Curiously, we understand her vocalizations, and echo her impassioned sentiments. We yip and woof, whimper and howl, snarl and yowl. There are no words for this. We are beyond both words and human limitations that have long kept us ensnared in the trap of our supposed “supremacy”.

This is the time to set aside our differences, find our animal voices, come together, and bark it out.

From

Yaocihuatl

:

The age of Aquarius has dawned, because otherwise nothing makes sense right now.

Loving my fluffy bunnies feels like poky prickle cactus flowers. What about the emergent technology disconnecting me from feeling the fluffy side of life.

I go outside and can’t even distinguish the gaseous fumes, because right now seems like everything stinks.

There must be some cloaked ufo thinking, what the heck with the underwater aliens that own a princess puppy.

By

Grace Rose Whitehorse

:

The Age of Aquarius has dawned.

Drones are being regulated by neighborhood watch.

Technological power & profits no longer are prioritized over human health and life.

Humanity is stepping up to the plate of life, each alive & awake person contributing their gifts to their groups advocating for love & safety.

Safe harbors for all true human beings have been established.

Fluffy bunnies are available in each peace pod refuge for people to care for, love and play with.

Elderly love to hold them on their laps for petting.

Cactus flowers bloom in all the desert areas where trees and homes have been burned down.

People have found horticultural ways to use squash blossoms and other natural living plants grown locally as living food sources.

Emergent technology is taking precedence over drones of the past.

Drones are used to help humanity by dousing fires and helping keep people safe from policing by ICE targeting certain vulnerable populations.

Gaseous fumes have been transformed into organic ectoplasmic material that has been purified by O2 plastic research that can transmute toxic substances into biodegradable passive disposable in sand.

Cloaked UFOs and underwater aliens have been seen around the world. Some are red flag plants by the government to distract the public. Some are a bee alien cult that believe they are an alien from another galaxy.

Princess Puppy is a new child movie series that de-emphasizes gender issues and educates about how and where our ability to know who we are lies inside of us and not dependent upon other people or authority figures to tell children who they are or how they should be.

Light and love are our common shared reality.

Identity includes how we experience and know how our gifts can be realized and if best given in a partnership, small group or large collectives of people.

Our value and worth in our new world are determined by how we show up every day to contribute to the greater whole.

By

E. A. Wilkins

:

The age of Aquarius has dawned and the hippy grannies are up early. They are sunbathing naked, wearing their fluffy bunny slippers. They like to give the finger to people spying on them from behind the cactus flowers. It is those executives in business suits, sobbing that their Amazon packages have been lost in outerspace.

“What happened to the emergent technology that was promised me when I upgraded!” they whine.

The gases fumes of our pollution high above our heads and has turned the sunsets pink and red.

Quick call the National Enquirer: cloaked UFOs are flying illegally through our airspace!

The switchboard operator replies, “yes we know, they’re underwater aliens from the Florida Keys up to see snow for the first time.”

Editor in Chief Princess Puppy is tired of these tirades and crank calls, she needs a nap.

That’s all for now, fellow Joyful Warriors! Please add some words below to be composted, and share this post widely! More playfully composting writers means more joy in the world — which is how we turn the tide. 💜🌎🕊️

Big Love and Gratitude,
Carrie Dancing Bear

PS. If you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, angry or depressed — eg, anything other than joyful or playful! — please the share words, phrases or concepts that are producing those feelings. And then — even more importantly — play the game this Saturday. These are exactly the feelings that most need to be transmuted right now — I promise, you will feel so much the better for it.