Can you help us on Wednesday?

In three days time, on Wednesday the 1st of June, we're having a BLOGSPLASH. 

A blogsplash is where lots & lots of bloggers publish the same post on the same day. 

Our blogsplash will be an invitation to write us a small stone on our wedding day, the 18th of June. 

If you're willing to join us in our splash, the post and full instructions are here. 

You could also help by sharing this link http://www.fionarobyn.com/wedding/blogsplash.html on Facebook and on Twitter before Wednesday. 

We'd like to celebrate our wedding in style, with as many small stones as possible. You can help us make it happen.

Thank you : )

(PS less than 3 weeks to go! eek/yay!)

The colour of the leaves - the sound of the wind

"When I sit down in the bamboo and look around me, I am immediately struck by how much I did not include in my writing this morning... Realising the gaps in my recall makes me look more carefully. I look to the bamboo stems, stunning in their clarity, and as I do so, I feel shocked by confronting the chasms in my memory."
~Caroline Brazier writing in Acorns Among the Grass

In her new book Acorns Among the Grass: Adventures in Eco-Therapy, Caroline Brazier has a section about using writing in order to connect with the world. Her book rests upon the premise that we have much to learn from the Earth, and that really being in connection with the Earth can be a healing experience. Our small stone writing rests upon a similar philosophy.

Writing can be a useful way to sharpen the mind and connect with the world, but it can also dull our perception, for we all too easily get caught in words and the familiar patterns of our thinking, preventing ourselves from seeing the real things around us...
...We need to keep asking ourselves, "Is what I have written true?" and, "Can I put this more succinctly, more accurately, in more detail?"
Acorns Among the Grass

We can ask ourselves these questions when writing small stones too: Have I fallen back into old ways of thinking? Am I writing a cliché? Can I put this more accurately?

Write down what you see and hear and then look and listen again, at the world if you can, or in your memory. Have you seen or heard what was really there?

It's impossible to remove the subjective completely of course, but these questions, and writing small stones, are designed to bring us into contact with what is real.

Even the act of intending to write can make us look more closely - when we go into the world we go with these questions in mind. What are we really looking at?

Go into the world, touch what is real and write about it.

Wedding small stones!

A reminder - Fiona and I are getting married on the 18th June, and would like you to help us celebrate by writing a small stone for us that day. You can also help by letting other people know about the wedding small stones by taking part in our blogsplash on the 1st of June. Click here to help us celebrate: Wedding small stones & blogsplash

So – Kaspa & I are getting married on the 18^th of June. In less than four weeks. Eek!

I’m getting nervous about whether we’ve got everything ready for the day, and whether everyone will have a lovely time. But I can’t WAIT to be a married woman.

We're having a Buddhist ceremony (which apparently involves having water sprinkled on us) and I'm also looking forward to my favourite puddings - banoffee pie, chocolate cheesecake and summer fruits and cream. A little of each, I think ; )

As a way of making our day even more special, we’re inviting people all over the world to give us a special gift on the day by writing a small stone. And we need your help, river-of-stoners...

We’re hoping that people will pay attention to something on the 18^th of June and send something through to us, whether or not they’ve written a small stone before. We’ll put all these small stones on a website (when we get back from our honeymoon!) and they’ll be a wonderful record of our day.


We'd love you to take part, and we'd also love you to join our Blogsplash and post instructions on your blog on the 1st of June so that other people can hear about the project and get involved themselves. You can find out how to do this (and how to send us a small stone yourself) at Wedding Small Stones. We do hope you can help us.
   
In other news, we're also excited to let you know about our new self-study e-course, ‘The Art of Paying Attention’. The first of the four week-long modules (which also works well as a self-contained course) is ‘How to Pay Attention to the World’, and we’re offering this completely free of charge.

The course includes a Workbook (including essays, stories and exercises), daily emails, four short videos of Kaspa & I, and exclusive access to a private group on the Writing Our Way Home forum where you can share your learning with fellow participants.

If you’d like to find out more, click here. And here's me & Kaspa talking about the course in a bluebell wood...

So – wish us luck : )