Diminutive delights are little things that make us happy. I picked that up from one of my favorite authors Sarah Ban Breathnach who wrote Simple Abundance, a simple calendar journey to an authentic life. It is an old book for me but I love it anyway and every so many years I take it down from my shelf and get into my morning ritual again.
I wake up at 6:30 a.m., brew tea, set my capsules in a little saucer and sit on my porch with Simple Abundance and my journal. I read her piece for the day then write my Morning Pages, which sometimes draw something from what I have read but more often not. Usually it’s just something that occurs to me. Sometimes it makes sense, other times no, but eventually I get an insight that helps my life.
This ritual is my first diminutive delight for 2015. I love it, have stuck with it for a month meaning it will probably become a habit. Diminutive delights are — well, — simply delightful. Like waking up and wanting to have longganisa and eggs for breakfast, opening your fridge and finding, voila, you have the ingredients so you cook and enjoy it. Like watering your plants and discovering your sampaguita has so many fragrant blooms. Or waking up in the middle of the night to see the full moon staring at you. Or finally finding the battery charger for your dead camera meaning you can bring it back to life again.
Or — I wrote about my writing classes I suspect at the wrong time. It came out the Saturday of Pope Francis’ visit, when even I was glued to my TV watching that wonderful compassionate man. So I got replies, enough to make one small Saturday morning class. But I have time and energy for more classes so let me try again.
I have been teaching creative writing on and off since 1990, almost 25 years. I used to call the course Joy of Writing, but now call it Discovering Writing. It is an eight-session course held once a week for eight weeks. I charge P10,000 for these eight sessions and require 50 percent payment on the first day to ensure your attendance. Put your tuition in an envelope, write your name in front and hand to me before class begins. Then the other half on the fourth session. I don’t accept students who are below 21 but you can be 120 years old and still enroll. Classes will be held at P. Guevara Street, San Juan, Metro Manila.
I teach an innovative writing process. It requires that you write and read out loud and I don’t humiliate anyone publicly. The first session is the most important of all the sessions so you cannot be absent then. After that we follow this schedule:
Session 2. The Shift. This session takes you further into the method and makes you more familiar with it. Then we begin to learn techniques.
Session 3. Recurrences. This session teaches you the value of breaking the rules you were taught by your English teacher in school.
Session 4. Images. That explains itself, doesn’t it?
Session 5. Metaphors
Session 6. Creative Tension
Session 7. Editing
Session 8. Your Graduation Piece, which we will discuss early to give you enough time because this piece is important to your creativity.
There are only two things I promise. One, you will find your own voice. Two, you will enjoy yourself.
At the end of every course I ask for an evaluation. Here is what one of my students wrote: “On the first day I said I took the class to develop my own voice. The classes did not focus on grammar or rigid rules — you find those in textbooks. It focused on writing’s more spiritual aspects. It taught me how to know and understand myself more. It taught me to dive into the past I thought was already irrelevant. It taught me how to conquer writer’s block and how to make good use of my emotions. It taught me to write before I work so I can de-clutter and see all that’s going on. I joined the class to develop my own voice and I’m going home with much more than that.”
Right now, I have a class that will end on March 14. I would like to start a class on Saturday afternoons from 2-5 p.m. starting on Feb. 21, every Saturday until April 18 and another class on Sunday afternoon from 2-5 pm starting on Feb. 22 until April 19, making room for the Easter celebrations. I was also going to start classes on Friday morning and afternoon but I didn’t get much of a response. I need a minimum of five students per class.
If you are interested in making my diminutive delight a little bigger you may email me at barbarac.gonzalez@gmail.com or text at 0917-8155570. Or enlist in the comment section of my blog twee.life
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Please text your comments to 0917-8155570.