Writing Archives - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
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Writing

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Posted on June 11, 2026
in #Reading Poetry, Imagination, Reading, Writing
4 Comments

Few Words of Wisdom from "Nine Gates" Essays by Jane Hirshfield. A poem’s first draft feels as if there was something already there. Wisdom of your heart-mind encounters language and a poem might be born. Poetry comes out of emotional and intellectual experiences. Using stories, metaphors and simile. Just as clouds with sufficient water will rain, a human heart with sufficient feeling would find its most natural expression  in the images, emotions, words and music of poetry. Poetic forms appear when conventionalized habits of mind are tripped off allowing deeper grain to reveal. We see things as we are not as they are. What we see sees us. When we approach things with our full and unselfish attention they speak to us on their own terms and with their own wisdom. When we surrender...

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Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Posted on June 8, 2026
in #Reading Poetry, #Story Telling, Creativity, Flourishing, Oral Stories, Originality, Writing
0 Comments

Magnolia Blossoms, Ashby Ponds, 2026 Have you been tinkering with the poem you started in the class? Or perhaps wrote another one? Great job! Few facts about poetry: The craft of writing poems is deliberate, attentive, and it requires absolute concentration. It is simultaneously intuitive and inventive. Poetry emerges like the bursting of a bud. It grows and ripens like fruit.Poetry grows on us. It helps refine our thinking and enhances journaling. You may not want to become a poet but you learn to have a grasp on words and how they have power to stir deep feelings and emotions in you that you may not have experienced before. Reading poetry, like writing in a journal is a private, intimate experience. It stirs self-examination. It helps us deal with paradoxical emotions we don’t understand. Poems...

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Thursday, January 15, 2026

Posted on January 14, 2026
in Cooking, Journaling, Nonverbal Activities, Reading, Walking, Writing
4 Comments

A sketch from "Writing Meditation Practice," 2019 When you shine the light of awareness on yourself, you begin to awaken to an authentic life. With the help of daily journaling you begin to become conscious of what masks your Authentic Self. You pen down passing thoughts and emotions running through your mind like a broken record and leave them on the pages of the notebook. Journaling daily clears your mind and lightens your heart. More importantly, things about yourself are revealed to you which you were not even aware of.  So place the bubbling thoughts, not under your control, of bitterness, anger, resentment or sorrow triggered by a family member, a friend or social event on the pages of your notebook. Then watch the petty or vindictive thoughts, careless actions or unnecessary...

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Thursday, December 4, 2025

Posted on December 3, 2025
in Creativity, Journaling, Meditation, Nonverbal Activities, Writing
4 Comments

Our daughter, Zoon's Indoor Plants Writing Meditation Practice has five disciplines. Here are the taglines for each. Meditation: Align with the universe Journaling: Lighter mind, kinder heart Reading: Author as revered teacher Nonverbal activities: Letting imagination go wildCreativity: Get into the zone Writing Meditation Practice is painstakingly slow but measurable. Progress is not a straight line. But in meditation and journaling the practitioner feels it. You watch yourself changing from mindless to mindful with increased self-understanding. In turn, self-understanding increases self-compassion and kindness toward others. No outsider could or is keeping score of your inner self. With a year of practice you notice personal insecurities and fears slowly alleviate. You feel the cacophony of thoughts settling down, the physical discomfort changing to a relaxed body, and an indifferent heartmind turning kind and wise. You stop judging yourself and learn to live...

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Thursday, October 30, 2025

Posted on October 29, 2025
in Awareness, Reading, Reading Books, Writing
4 Comments

You know well the benefits of writing alone behind closed door as well as meditating and writing with others at retreats and groups. You’ve come full circle back to where you started as a beginner on your way to an advanced writer. How much pleasure do you feel as you practice in your study, at your Sacred Power Spot? Through years that space has accumulated a presence due to your meditation, journaling, and deep reading practice. It emits a spiritual aura that you sense when you enter the room. No longer do you feel alone. You feel grounded in the source of your creativity, your AS. The walls of this space are lined with books which you know well. The story of your writing life echoes from the pages of these...

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Thursday, October 23, 2025

Posted on October 22, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Nonverbal Activities, Writing
4 Comments

We all have had experiences of writing alone at home behind closed door, writing with a fellow writer, writing with a group of writers on weekly basis and writing at retreats. These are different experiences. For some writing alone the first thing in the morning or last thing at night in the silence of their study is the most productive way to write. For some others a gentle beginning with a short meditation and/or journaling session inspires them to write for hours.  What helps my flow start and continue for hours is to practice meditation, deep reading, and journaling in the morning. Then, working on my “formal” writing flows like a waterfall. (For decades, I journaled daily. But at some point I had nothing to pour out on the pages of...

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Thursday, October 16, 2025

Posted on October 15, 2025
in Creativity, Meditation, Reading, Writing
6 Comments

Once you dedicate yourself to something you feel passionately about, when follow your calling, the universe listens. It augments the skills required for you to do that you deeply desire to do. So stay in touch with your Authentic Self and pay heed to its whispers.   I experienced the guidance of my Inner Self in the spring of 2009. For years, I had been meditating, journaling and writing alone at home. I had reaped the benefits of these two practices in heaps and wanted to share them with other writers who were struggling with isolation and dithering before the creative flow would stream forth. At the same time an urge to invite writers to meditate and write together repeatedly nudged me.  I hesitated. What would I say? Who would want to meditate...

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Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Posted on August 25, 2025
in #Story Telling, Travel, Writing
2 Comments

Lewis and Clark Exploration (The Corps of Discovery) shifted into settlements when fur traders and explorers moved westward within a few years after the captions and their crew returned home. Within 30 years (1830s-1840’s) began large scale settlements by ordinary families. That’s from where small American towns west of Mississippi trace their origin. Such historic towns, nestled in beautiful landscapes, reflect the persona of the American people – down to earth and friendly, proud of who they are and where they live.  Before taking the Corps of Discovery voyage, we had visited cosmopolitan cities in the United States – New York, Washington, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles – and capital cities of the world – Cape Town, Beijing, Tokyo, New Delhi, London, Paris, Rome and Lhasa. We had gazed at great monuments and sailed long rivers....

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Thursday, February 27, 2025

Posted on February 26, 2025
in Daily Reflections 2025, Nonverbal Activities, Reading, Spirituality, Writing
4 Comments

In The Happiness Project: Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, bestselling author Gretchen Rubin writes that she had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places – a city bus. “The days are long, but the years are short,” she thought. “Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her own happiness. Reading her musings, I remembered how many decades ago it occurred to me that I could not change the world but I could change myself. But how? I reread the world wisdom books, researched new scientific literature on meditation and mindfulness, and read tons of...

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Thursday, January 23, 2025

Posted on January 22, 2025
in Journaling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Writing
4 Comments

What you pour on the blank pages of your journal can be compared with autumn leaves. The mountain of dried leaves of your mental trash is all biodegradable. It decomposes into mulch. You sow few seeds and they sprout in fresh green saplings. It often happens, that upon rereading your journal after some time, you gain greater insight into the things that happened. Personal events gather universal significance. You realize such exchanges and events, good or bad, are human. You’re pleasantly surprised at where one year’s journaling has led you.  When I don’t journal for a while a restlessness gnaws at me. My mind feels muddled and overwhelmed with mosaic of petty thoughts and feelings. And when I do journal, it helps me heal my wounds, clear my mind. It affects the...

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