Writing with the Blue Moon
An excerpt from Rebel Wisdom invites you to write a Peace Note for May 31
If you’re here, you know we’ve just released a book called Rebel Wisdom, for women in midlife. It’s a collection of writing exercises and rituals organized into 12 chapters (each one corresponds with a full moon), so that readers can spend a full year going within, writing and exploring. Midlife tends to be a turning point, a time of reconsideration and even upheaval. We hope our book — and the stories within it — will deepen your curiosity about the path you’re on. And help you approach it with gusto!
This May, we have two full moons — a Flower Moon on May 1, and a Blue Moon coming up on Sunday, May 31. (Any time there are 2 full moons in the same month, the second moon is called “a blue moon.”) So, it feels like a very good time to get illuminated.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, underwhelmed, restless or stuck, consider channeling your own rebel wisdom. We believe that writing is an incredible tool for self-discovery and also a way of mapping your own transformation.
What kind of writing prompts are in Rebel Wisdom?
Our journal exercises are drawn from our 50+ combined years of teaching writing, and they invite you to explore particular words and images in new ways, to create a Pleasure Deck, to imagine a different kind of “dream house,” to build a creative pantry, to consider using your oven in new ways, to write letters of release and to answer questions that quicken your heartbeat, to design a journey or pilgrimage, even to re-examine your own hair color.
Below, you’ll find an excerpt from the May chapter of Rebel Wisdom. If you’d like to read more of our book before getting started, you can read the Introduction to Rebel Wisdom online. It explains who we are and why we felt moved to write this project.
Send a Peace Note (May excerpt from Rebel Wisdom)
A little backstory: Aimée has been working on the idea of “peace notes” for years. She once collaborated with members of the Plum Village Monastery on a prototype for writing peace notes within their online community, a way to reach toward someone you love, especially when you’re mad, hurt, or unsure what to say.
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Thanks for bringing your curiosity to the table. If you enjoyed this exercise, let us know in the comments! We’ll be sharing more excerpts in upcoming newsletters, along with monthly recommendations and rituals for exploring and enjoying midlife.
If you picked up a copy of our book, many many thanks. We priced Rebel Wisdom low in order to build community, not customers. And we plan to keep this newsletter free. We hope you’ll stay a while and get to know us, and possibly yourself, better.
And if the book has found its way to your nightstand, your beach bag, your morning coffee table, or your circle of friends, we would be so grateful for a brief Amazon review. A few honest sentences helps early readers find the book and understand what it offers.
We’re also dreaming up a small thank-you for the first circle of readers who take the time to review the book on Amazon, because your early support means a great deal to us!
May the Blue Moon bring your keener, wiser self forward. We feel the rustle of your feathers and send you joy across the woods.
~ Aimée and Tenaya