"And it was then that in the depths of sleep
Someone breathed to me:
"You alone can do it,
Come immediately."
an except from The Call by French poet Jules Supervielle

In one of my creativity classes, Wanderers, Vagabonds & Pilgrims, I have the participants read the complete poem The Call and then I ask them to answer these two questions:
What is it that you alone can do?
What are you waiting for?


I alone can write the book that needs to be written, the book that is being dictated to me, downloaded from the ancestors and the gods.
I'm waiting because I think I need more information.
I'm waiting because I'm afraid that what I'm being shown will change, deepen, enlarge, clarify before I get it written.
I'm waiting for that perfect first sentence to come to me.
I'm waiting until I have enough uninterrupted time to finish what I'm afraid to start.


I must remember that writers write.
Waiters wait.
I am a writer.
I write because I have to.


Ingrid, the Rune Woman
Changing Lives With Ancient Wisdom
Awaken Your Hunger

Our English word Journey comes from the French word for 'one day.'
So how far can you travel in one day?
I asked this question in one of my recent creativity classes, Wanderers, Vagabonds & Pilgrims.
The answer for me depends on the mode of transportation.
In a plane I imagine I could fly halfway round the world, to a foreign country, to different food, language, customs, terrain.
On foot, well, I've walked 10 miles in one day and that was a lot so I imagine it would not be much farther than that.
Riding my motorcycle is a different story.  A few years back I actually rode 781 miles in one very long, exhausting day.
By car, perhaps farther.
By boat, I could travel out into the ocean, from one island to another, up river or down stream.
If I travel in my mind in an arm chair, I could go back in time and forward into the future, through stories and memories, past hunches, dreams, love affairs, hoped for new relationships, places I'm afraid to go for real, places that don't exist except in my imagination, because I know I've never seen them on any maps.  
I can travel the road of fear, or down the path to sin.
Some people in the class said they travel in circles, endless repetitions.  Others said they journey when they cook recipes from other lands.  And of course, there's the kind of travel we all can do when we read.
Where did you go while reading this?
I write because I have to.  I am a writer.
Ingrid, the Rune Woman
Changing Lives With Ancient Wisdom
Awaken Your Hunger

What if you decided to go on a journey and never return?
Would you write about it along the way?
What would you wear, what kind of clothing, what kind of shoes?
And if you could only carry along three items, what would they be?

It doesn't matter where you're going; a journey will always change you. 
It doesn't matter if it's a literal journey or a journey inside yourself, movement of any kind creates change.
Change causes fear and anxiety because it's always about the unknown.
Helen Keller said, 'avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.  Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.'
 
On January 1, 1953 Mildred Lisette Norman, the Peace Pilgrim, set off on a personal pilgrimage for peace.  She was in her mid forties when she began her walk.  Over the course of 28 years she walked more than 25,000 miles, touching the hearts, minds and lives of thousands of people all across North America.  She went on a journey from which she never returned.
Hers is a fascinating story.
Peace Pilgrim:  Her Life And Work In Her Own Words

If you were to set out on a pilgrim's walk, what would it look like?
Life is a journey.
Life is change.
As I journey through life, I write.


Ingrid, the Rune Woman
Women Of The Always

Today marks the one year anniversary of the death of Alice Herz-Sommer.  At her death, she was the world's oldest pianist and Holocaust survivor.
The award winning Nick Reed produced a short documentary about her life titled, The Lady in Number 6.  It's most definitely worth watching.
"Along with her six-year-old son, Raphael, Alice was imprisoned in the Theresienstadt concentration camp where her most enduring memories are of her helplessness and inability to feed her child or to answer his many questions about why they and so many others were being subjected to the indescribable nightmare of the Holocaust.
Yet Alice found a way to survive the terror of the camps – a means to look beyond the horrors of day-to-day life in order to recall and cherish what was joyful, pure and noble about her fellow man. Alice survived through music…"
What is it that you do, that you love so much, it would make it possible to look beyond the difficulties, challenges and perhaps even horrors of life and live with joy and happiness?
I write.
Ingrid, the Rune Woman
Changing Lives With Ancient Wisdom
Awaken Your Hunger
Women Of The Always