Podcasts about rosemerry wahtola trommer

Jess, Sarina, Jennie and Jess are all here to talk about taking a break from various angles: the mechanics angle, the guilt angle, the fear angle, the identity angle and inspiration angle. Mechanics. * Leave yourself notes about the project when you leave off, for example, “The next thing that needs to happen is this…” so when you come back, you know how to get back into the project. This is Sarina's daily practice, but it really helps when she has to leave a project behind. This can be especially helpful when you have to go away for an unexpected emergency. * Jennie adds that the only way you can do this is if you have a place to keep and find those notes to yourself. In one of your 47 notebooks or in the document itself? Or, as Jess adds, on the side of the cardboard box you use for trash in your basement workshop that you almost recycle by accident. * Jennie also notes that you have to have intentionality, to know what you are writing so you can know what comes next, whether that's in your outline, inside outline, or whatever. * Jennie has a little notebook she brings on vacation with her and she downloads those ideas into that just before going to sleep at night when she's away. * These vacation inspiration moments are much like shower thoughts, part of the magic of our brain unhooking, getting into deep default mode network, and becoming its most creative. * Sarina mentioned an article about how walking makes you more creative, also a study in why tapping into the default mode network is so effective as a practice. Fear * The only way to get over this is to sit down and do it. Open the document. Just start. * Jennie points out that getting back into a manuscript when it's disappeared feels horrifying but it's much easier than it sounds and has happened to one of our frequent guests, Sarah Stewart Taylor, when her then-toddler created a password for the document that was not recoverable. She had to give in to the fact that her book was gone, and recreate it out of her memory. Guilt and Identity* It only took Jess until her fiftieth year to figure out that her process - of walking, gardening, beekeeping, musing - is a part of writing, and that's cool. * Can you be a writer if you are not actively writing? Yes, if research, planning, thinking and otherwise cogitating is a part of your writing process. Get over it. The words have to land on the page eventually, of course, but if you are doing both, have grace for the not-actively-writing part of the writing process. #AmReadingTess Gerritsen's series set in Maine (The Spy Coast and The Summer Guests) and, once she finished those two books, Jess went back to The Surgeon, where it all started for Tess Gerritsen. Stay tuned for our interview with her! Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary (Don't watch the movie trailer if you plan to read the book!)Sarah Harman's All the Other Mothers Hate MeAmy Tintera's Listen for the LieRosemerry Wahtola Trommer The UnfoldingRichard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club (coming to Netflix in August!)Janelle Brown's What Kind of Paradise Want to submit a first page to Booklab? Fill out the form HERE.Writers and readers, KJ here, if you love #AmWriting and I know you do, and I know you do, and especially if you love the regular segment at the end of most episodes where we talk about what we've been reading, you will also love my weekly #AmReading email. Is it about what I've been reading and loving? It is. And if you like what I write, you'll like what I read. But it is also about everything else. I've been #AmDoing: sleeping, buying clothes and returning them, launching a spelling bee habit, reading other people's weekly emails. Let's just say it's kind of the email about not getting the work done, which I mean that's important too, right? We can't work all the time. It's also free, and I think you'll really like it. So you can find it at kjdellantonia.com or kjda.substack.com or by clicking on my name on Substack, if you do that kind of thing.Come hang out with me. You won't be sorry.Transcript below!EPISODE 458 - TRANSCRIPTKJ Dell'AntoniaWriters and readers, KJ here. If you love Hashtag AmWriting, and I know you do, and especially if you love the regular segment at the end of most episodes where we talk about what we've been reading, you will also love my weekly Hashtag AmReading email. Is it about what I've been reading and loving? It is. And if you like what I write, you'll like what I read. But it is also about everything else. I've been ‘hashtag am-doing', sleeping, buying clothes and returning them, launching a spelling bee habit, reading other people's weekly emails. Let's just say it's kind of the email about not getting the work done—which, I mean, that's important too, right? We can't work all the time. It's also free, and I think you'll really like it. So you can find it at KJdellantonia.com or kjda.substack.com or by clicking on my name on Substack, if you do that kind of thing or of course in the show notes for this podcast. Come hang out with me. You won't be sorry.Multiple SpeakersIs it recording? Now it's recording. Yay! Go ahead. This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone. Try to remember what I'm supposed to be doing. All right, let's start over. Awkward pause. I'm going to rustle some papers. Okay. Now, one, two, three.KJ Dell'AntoniaHey, I'm KJ Dell'Antonia, and this is the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast, the weekly podcast, while writing all the things—short things, long things, pitches, proposals, fiction, nonfiction. And somebody told me they thought this was a recorded intro. And I just want you to know I do this live every time, which is why there's this, come on, there's more variety here, people, and you should know that. Anyway, here we are, all four of us, for we got a topic today. But before we do that, we should introduce ourselves in order of seniority, please.Jess LaheyI'm Jess Lahey. I am the author of The Gift of Failure and The Addiction Inoculation. And I laugh, because when you said seniority, all I could do was think of us in our little eave space in my old house, down the street from you, not knowing what the heck we were doing. But yeah, we've been doing this for a long time now. You can find my... you can find my journalism at The New York Times, at The Washington Post, at The Atlantic, and everything else at Jessicalahey.com.Sarina BowenI'm Sarina Bowen. I'm the author of many novels. My new one this fall is called Thrown for a Loop, and it will be everywhere that books are sold, which is very exciting to me, and all about me at Sarinabowen.com.Jennie NashI am the newest of the co-hosts, and so happy to be among this group of incredibly smart and prolific and awesome women, and I'm the founder and CEO of Author Accelerator, which is a company on a mission to lead the emerging book coaching industry. And you can find us at bookcoaches.com or authoraccelerator.com.KJ Dell'AntoniaI'm KJ Dell'Antonia. I'm the author of three novels, the latest of which is Playing the Witch Card, and the most televised of which is The Chicken Sisters—Season Two coming soon to a Hallmark network near you. And I'm also the former editor and lead writer of The Motherlode, making me our... well, and Jennie too, like the crossover. I've done too many different kinds of writing—probably should have stayed in my lane. Oh well. And our plan today—as we're recording, it is summer. And a pretty frequent thing that happens in the summer is that you need to put your project down for a little while, because you have house guests, because you're going on the kind of vacation that does not involve working, because you just need a break or you're sick. That's not really a summer thing, but it definitely happens. Anyway, we wanted to talk about how, you know, what—what do you do to make that work better?Jess LaheyI think a lot about being a parent and needing to take a break too. And you know, this is something I talk a lot about with, you know, other writers who are sort of struggling, especially since I read a lot about parenting—who are struggling to—with that guilt of, you know, like, I feel like I owe my time to the words, and I feel like I owe my time to the children. And finding a way to take a break from the words and not feel guilty about not being with the words can be really, really hard, especially when you're going gung-ho on something. So I want to make sure that we figure out a way to have a break without guilt. That's like the big question I get a lot—is, how do you, you know, either from the parenting or the writing side?KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd I was thinking about it more from a mechanics side.Jess LaheyYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaHow do you put this thing aside for a week or two weeks or even a month? And know where you were?Jess LaheyRight.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd come back and feel like it does not take you forever to dig in.Sarina BowenYeah. Um, so we've got the guilt question. We've got the mechanics of how to do it. And I would just like to add a layer, which is the fear factor.Jess LaheyYeah.Sarina BowenI have this thing where, when I walk away from a manuscript, I become afraid of it. So it seems scarier when I take a break. Like, even if it's not true—that I don't know where I am or that I become unmoored from the channel of that book and it seems intimidating to go back to.Jess LaheyCan I add one more layer as well? And that's the identity factor. You know, if I identify as a writer, what am I if I'm not actively writing something? And that messes my head up a lot. So I would love to add that added layer in as well and make sure we discuss that.Jennie NashWell, and I have something totally different from all of those, which is that I often find when I go on vacation, I am more inspired and motivated to work on my project than I was in my real life. It tends to light a fire under me. So then I'm faced with that choice of, you know, wanting to really lean into it. And, you know, just like a really small piece of that story is, I love to write on airplanes. I just love it. Give me a very long flight, and it's—I just want to work and not talk to anybody. And, you know, it's awesome. So I feel some guilt around that. When I'm with my family, it's like, don't talk to me, don't watch movies. You know, I'm—I'm enjoying my plane time, doing my work. So I have that reality.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, that's the choice that you have to start with, is, am I just, you know, can I not? Am I—do I need to accept the reality, which is that this is a beach trip with extended family and some, you know, my—to multiple generations, and I inevitably am going to be the person who is cooking and figuring out where the garbage has to go in the Airbnb? I should, you know, I—I will feel better if I just accept the reality that I'm not going to wake and work. Or, you know, is it a—is it a trip where you can schedule some work time and want to? Or is it a trip where you affirmatively want to give yourself a break? Or is it also, I mean, I sort of think that the last possibility—well, there are probably multiples—is I just want to touch this every day. So I feel like you can kind of—you're like, you're either like, just—no, not going to happen, not going to pretend it's going to happen, not going to feel the guilt. That's the—that's where we are. And there's sort of a, I just want to open the file every day and keep it warm and friendly. And on, you know these three—three days I have an hour.Jess LaheySo let's do this. Let's—let's do mechanics first, since that's the real nuts-and-bolts stuff, and then we'll talk about all the touchy-feely stuff after that. So let's do mechanics first. It sounds like you have thoughts, KJ…?KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, I was actually thinking that Sarina did this pretty recently.Jess LaheyYeah, that's true.Sarina BowenYeah. Like, you know, I, um, I have found mechanically that leaving yourself notes every time you walk away from your manuscript is a good thing. So this is sort of like a best practices in your life idea, where I will have a writing day, and it's done now, and I'm going to get up and go do other things in my life. If I pick up my notebook, and I write down where I am—like, okay, and the next thing that has to happen is this—like, it could be really short or not. But taking better notes about the structure of the thing I'm working on is serving me on so many levels that it just slots right in here. Like, I took a big trip in April, and I thought I might work, but then I didn't, and I really seamlessly came right back in, because I knew where I was, and I avoided a lot of my own fear. So, if the practices that help you become a good day-to-day writer also can be practices that help you in this very instance, the mechanics of picking up your book again are that you left yourself a note right in your document, um, or in your notebook, that says, and here's what I think is supposed to happen next. And, yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's going to be gold for an unexpected break too, because that happens, you know, right? You get one of those phone calls, and it's a week before you're back or more.Sarina BowenYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. I love this practice. This is one of those things I forget to do.Jennie NashI feel like I—I feel like I have to add to that a couple things. That the only reason you can do that is, A, if you have a place to take notes, which—which could be your, the document itself that you're working on. But Sarina talked about a notebook, right? You have a place that you know, that you can find that, which is not an insignificant thing to have, or...Sarina BowenCorrect!Jennie NashRight?! Or, in the case of me, it's like, I have 47 notebooks. Well, which one did I put the note in?Sarina BowenRight.Jennie NashBut then the second thing is, I mean, this is something that I find so inspiring about the way you work, Sarina, and it—and it's a thing that I teach—is you have to know what you're writing, you know, in order to know where you are, what the structure is, and what you're doing, and to ask those—like, you have to have done the thought work of what, what it is you're trying to do and what your intention is. Otherwise, you sort of don't ever know where you are or where you're going. So...Sarina BowenRight, but that's on two levels. Like, you could—let's just say you have successfully written yourself an Inside Outline, you know, the way that you do it—you still might need that granular thing.Jennie NashOh yeah!Sarina BowenLike, you might know where you are in the arc of the book, but you might actually need the note that's like, "And now we're going to wash the dishes." I mean, let's please not put that in the novel, but you know what I mean.Jennie NashYeah, yeah. But that intentionality of, on the big picture, what am I doing, and on the small picture—in this chapter, in this scene, in this moment, and with this character—what was I... how'd that fit into the whole? What was I thinking? And those things are not—they're not easy. Like, we're talking about them like, "Oh, you just..." You know, like I was saying, what if you have 47 notebooks? That literally is a problem I have. It's like, I know I wrote this note down, and I don't know where I put it—digitally or analog.Sarina BowenRight. I confess I actually do still have this problem. Like, even with all of my best practices, like, put into—sometimes it's like, well, is that in the document, or is it in my notebook? And then—or I thought about it at four in the morning and actually didn't write it down anywhere. And I'm looking anyway...Jennie NashOh, I do that too. I absolutely do that too. I'm convinced that I left a note while I was driving—that's a thing I often do. I'll leave—I'll have Siri write me a note, and then somehow it doesn't appear, or it's like, I know I did this, I know I asked her to do this... you know.Jess LaheyI actually have—I was doing the recycling, and I realized that I was in big trouble because three sides of a box I'd had down in the basement with me while I was working on a project—I was doing something with my, getting some beehives ready—and I was listening to an audiobook that is research for a project I'm working on, and I had scribbled some really important notes to myself about how I was supposed to start a chapter on. And it was a great start. It was like a whole paragraph on the three sides of the box, with an old Sharpie I found down in the basement. And then I realized I almost recycled, like, some really useful outline stuff.Multiple Speakers[all laughing]Jess LaheySo normally—no, so I actually have them. While you guys are talking about something else, since we do see each other while we're recording this, I'll show you later. But the thing that I normally do is either in the document, like right where I left off, or in my main notebook, because I am so bad at finding those notes that I have strewn all over my office or on the side of a cardboard box.KJ Dell'AntoniaI have had the problem lately of I'm not in a manuscript, and that it's much easier when you're in a manuscript to come back to a manuscript, but I'm in a notebook full of assorted random Blueprint challenge, you know, like trying to—I'm, I'm in figuring out where this is going mode, which means I do a lot of thinking while I'm not working that then hopefully I go and write down. But it also means that I frequently sit down and I'm like, well, am I going to think about who these people are? Am I going to think about what the plot is? What am I going to do? So I've been trying to leave myself like a task, something that will, that will just get me, get me back in, because sometimes that's the problem. I, you know, I open the notebook, and there's no obvious thing to do, and the next thing I know, I'm buying running shoes.Jennie NashWell, since we're talking about nuts and bolts, when I said that I often get inspired when I go away or go on vacation and I want to work, I'm not talking about I'm going to go sit in a library or coffee shop for three hours. What, what I mean by that is I often have ideas that I want to capture, and so I have a little notebook that I bring on vacation, and what I like to do is go to bed early enough that I can download all the things I thought that day. I need that space and time to—if it's, if I'm working on something, it's in my head. It's not going to not be in my head. And so the one sort of new mechanical thing that I, that I do, is have that "vacation notes notebook" with me.KJ Dell'AntoniaI always carry one, and I never use it. So there's that.Jess LaheyI get—I am at my most inspired to write when I specifically can't write, which is usually behind the wheel of my car. So I use, in my car, I have been known to, you know, either scribble on things—which, totally don't do that—or to record myself on my phone. But then, audio things, I'm particularly bad at going back and listening to; that seems like it's just too much work. So those tend to get lost a lot. I need to come up with a better system for that. But it is predictable that if I am in a place where I cannot physically write, I will be at my most inspired to write.Jennie NashJess, that's kind of what I'm talking about. That's what happens to me, is I might say I'm leaving all work behind. I'm going off the grid. I'm not doing the thing. And that's when I most want to do the thing. And I, like, my brain seems to really get inspired. What? What do you think that's about? Is that...Jess LaheyI, you know, I, I was very worried that it was my sort of, um—sorry, what's the word I'm looking for? It was—it's my, my brain's way of saying, "Oh, you couldn't possibly work now, so let's have some of the best ideas so that you seem like a good little doobie writer, but it's physically impossible for you to write now." It's just a really weird thing, and maybe one of the other things I thought about is that I'm often listening to a book that I'm really into, which also inspires me to write. I've been listening to a lot of really great books lately, and you can't listen to a book—even one that inspires you deeply—and actually write at the same time, which is another quandary.Sarina BowenYou know what, though? This is not uniquely your brain messing with you—like, this is shower thoughts.Multiple Speakers[Overlapping: “Mm-hmm.” “Sorry.” “Ohhh...”]Sarina BowenBut everybody—everybody has those great ideas in the shower, and it's because you have unhooked yourself. You are just in there with the shampoo and the conditioner and that razor that you probably should change the blade with, and like, you know, there is nowhere to write and nothing to do. So your brain is like, I am free right now to unclench and actually solve this problem of chapter 17, and that's what—that's what happens.Jess LaheyIt is my duty, whenever we mention this, to bring up that—years ago, Ron Lieber, the write... uh... the "Your Money" columnist at The New York Times, told me that he has a waterproof little whiteboard situation that's— that lives in the shower. He and his wife, Jodi Kantor—amazing writer as well, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, even— that these would be people who might just need a waterproof whiteboard in the shower with them.Sarina BowenBut would that ruin the magic…?KJ Dell'AntoniaIt might just...Multiple Speakers[all laughing]Jess LaheyIf you had a place to write it down, your brain would—like—be... your brain would say, "Sorry, I'm not coming up with good ideas."Sarina BowenBecause I don't think I am willing to take this risk. I take a lot of risks in my life, but this one—like; we do not mess with the shower thoughts. I think, I think...KJ Dell'AntoniaSo, so what do we do if you didn't do any of this? If what—you know—what are—you're listening to this podcast, coming back from your trip, and you're like, I... was writing... something...Sarina BowenYou know what, though? I almost feel that we should point out the fact that, like, that is kind of unlikely. Like, somebody should feel welcome to take this trip and to have all those thoughts, and even if you didn't write them down on your whiteboard in the shower or on your handy notebook, like, I would argue that unhitching yourself in the first place possibly leads to a lot of creative development that, even if you don't capture it in the moment, is still with you. Like, I had this fantastic trip in April. I thought I was going to work, and then I did not, and it was, like, the best two weeks of my life. So then, the other day, my husband said, “Hey, there's a new article you need to read in The Athletic,” which is a New York Times sports blog, and I have just pulled it up so that we can recommend it, about how walking makes you a better problem solver. And the framing story of this article is about a retired baseball coach, but, um, but then, when they got around to studying it, um, they said this question planted the seed for the first set of studies to measure if walking produces more creativity. In the series of experiments, Oppezzo and Schwartz [Marily Oppezzo & Daniel L. Schwartz] asked 176 college students to complete different creative thinking tasks while sitting, walking on a treadmill, walking outside through campus, or being pushed in a wheelchair. In one example, the students had to come up with atypical uses for random objects, and anyway, on average, the students' creative output increased by 60% when they were walking.Jennie NashThat's so cool!Sarina BowenAnd the article is—it's so cool—it's called An MLB manager found value in long walks. Research suggests it's a ‘brain-changing power'.Jess LaheyI have put a spot for it in the show notes. And I should mention that this is all part of what we call the default mode network. This is the—the part of our brain that is the wandering, most creative part of our brain. And we can get there lots of ways. Walking is a fantastic way to do it.KJ Dell'AntoniaSarina, if you do have the fear of the manuscript when you're coming back to it, like, take—you know, travel back in time to maybe when you were a little less confident in your abilities. What do you do to get past the fear and sit down?Sarina BowenThere is only one solution, and that is sitting down. And I'm not so great at this—like, when, when the fear creeps up on me, in spite of my best intentions, man, I will do anything to avoid that sucker. And then when I finally do, and I wade back in, almost every time my response is, Oh, this isn't so bad. I know where—I kind of remember now. It's going to be fine, you know. But it's so easy to put off work out of fear. It's—it's the—it's the one big obstacle. Like, I don't put work off for other reasons, you know, because I'm tired or whatever. It's because I'm afraid that there's something fundamentally wrong with the project, or fundamentally wrong with me, and that is almost always what's keeping me from doing good work.Jennie NashThere was, back in the day before computers became what they are now, people would frequently lose manuscript drafts. It was just much harder to save your work. And I can't—I can't explain exactly what changed, but it was. People frequently lost huge chunks of their work if they didn't actively back up. And when I was a new coach and working with writers who would lose their manuscripts, they would be—understandably—beyond devastated. And this often was full manuscripts, just unrecoverable, full manuscripts. And it was true that if they sat down to recreate what they'd written, it would really flow from them, for that same reason—it was still in their brain. They—they had—they'd written it, so there was a sense that they had, they owned it, and they could sit down, and it was kind of quite remarkable. And I would confidently say to them, just sit down, start writing. I think it will come to you, and it always did. It's very interesting.Jess LaheyThere's an example—we've interviewed Sarah Stewart Taylor many times now, and she tells the story of, a long time ago, her youngest managed to crawl across the computer in such a way as to create a password for the document itself, and there's nothing that can be done. She was on the phone with Word—with Microsoft—for a long time, and they're like, look, this is a password you created. We can't—that's not recoverable. So she had to go and recreate—I believe she was about a third of the way into a book—but she said that it actually flowed really well, and that, you know, she'd had it, it had been cooking and stuff like that. So that massive fear of, oh my gosh, how am I going to get back into this project when it has just disappeared? It turned out to be not a thing—that it actually came really easily to her.Jennie NashJess, you're bringing all the very weird stories today, and I'm so here for it—notes on boxes, babies making passwords.Jess LaheyYeah, well, and the hard part—the funny part about that—is like, you cannot recreate a toddler, essentially, like bashing away at your keyboard and creating a password that's never coming back. Sorry.Sarina BowenThere is a writer—she once gave a talk that I heard—a very successful young adult author, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and she apparently wrote a discovery draft of the novel to, like, figure out what it was about and then deleted it and started over on purpose.Jennie NashOn purpose?!Sarina BowenYes, and everyone in the room gasped because, of course, you know that I just rather, like, been in a lot of pain. I'd rather have oral surgery than delete my first draft of a novel. But, um... but yeah, if she was unafraid to get back there after that kind of break, then I think we can all handle it.KJ Dell'AntoniaThis is true. I've never deleted a draft, but I have just gone—poofft—"Let's, let's, let's start again." In fact, almost every time. Kind of sad. I'm doing it now, actually, but it's not a full draft. Anyway. So take the breaks, right? That's what we're saying here.Sarina BowenYeah, take the break.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou can break however you do it, you know, whichever thing you pick, and if you don't do what you thought you were going to do, that's cool, too. It's going to—it's going to be fine.Jess LaheyCan I mention something that has—so that now that we've sort of done mechanics, we've done a little bit about the fear thing, the—the identity thing—has been really hard for me, in that I have these two books that I've written, and I've written a bunch and researched a bunch of things over the past couple of years, and people keep asking me, what are you writing? What are you writing? And the reality is, like, I'm not. I'm working on something, I'm researching something, and I've written a lot of things. In fact, now I'm holding up my cardboard box pieces—I found them. But the day—I'm not, like, meeting a 1200-words-a-day goal. And sometimes I feel really... I feel like a fraud. I feel like a massive fraud. Like, what kind of writer is not actually sitting down and writing 2,000 words a day? And that's incredibly difficult for me. Like, I don't deserve to call myself a writer, even though I have a couple of books out there and I wrote—you know—did all this other stuff. But the thing that I have—there are a couple of things that have really helped—and one of those is to understand that and have some grace for myself around what I happen to know full well what my process is. Yes, I wrote a couple of book proposals that didn't turn into books, but it was only through writing the book proposals that I discovered that those books weren't something that I wanted to write, and only through doing all of this research on audiobooks and writing on the side of cardboard boxes. That's the way I've written every one of my books. And it's not—it's just what works for me. And so having a little bit of this, you know, this feeling of insecurity as a writer, I don't think is—I don't think is unique to me. I think a lot of writers feel this, and it's...KJ Dell'AntoniaNo, all the rest of them are...Jess LaheyAll of them are really...KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, no, everyone else is just like, well, of course. No, I'm not an imposter.Jess LaheyBut what's great is when I sit down with other writers and I say, what is an integral part of your process that isn't actually about putting the words on the page? That's not some bogus, like, excuse for not writing. You know, the gardening is part of it, the—the research is part of it, the listening to audiobooks is part of it. The writing—or the walking—is part of it. And it's not just a part of it. It is an incredibly important part of it for me, and—and understanding that and owning that about myself has been really a good thing for allowing myself to not—I'm not productive when I just feel guilty or like an imposter every day. It—that's not good for my process. But none of you ever feel that, right?KJ Dell'AntoniaOr apparently the people around you…Jess LaheyThe other thing that has been—well, the other thing that's been really, really helpful is the—and especially from the parenting perspective—is, or the marriage perspective, or the dog perspective, or the bees perspective, is I need to be fully committed to the thing right in front of me when I'm doing that thing. And if I'm feeling guilty about not being with the words when I'm with my children, or not being with my children when I'm with the words, that is awful, too. And so I have found that when I have to let go of all the other stuff and be fully, 100% in, I'm highly distractible. And so if I'm not fully in the thing, and that—all that guilt of not being over there doing that other thing—that's just taking away from the actual process of writing or researching or whatever it is, or taking care of my bees. I have to be fully in the thing I'm in and not feel guilty about not doing something else. And that's been a growth moment for me, too. It only took me—how old am I? I'm 55 now, and I got there somewhere around 50, I think.Jennie NashThere is also—I mean, I—I love what you're saying, and that is a thing to strive for, for sure—to be, to be present in whatever you're doing. But there is also this idea—I always think of it as mental real estate—that you leave for your project, for your idea, for your writing, for your book. That you, that you have a space in your brain devoted to that, and that you visit, whether or not you're producing words. And I think that that, too, is writing. I think, in some ways, that's more writing than sitting at the keyboard. I mean, I always object to the process of just putting words down. And a lot of the things that challenge writers to do that, because they skip that part—the thinking part and the having-the-part—you know, the real estate-in-your-brain part. And I think this connects to the shower—shower thoughts, right? You're gardening or beekeeping, you're walking, you're thinking, you're writing proposals and throwing them out. You're doing all that, that, that's writing. That's the—that's writing in my mind.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd it's not... I mean the other thing we do say a lot is, you know, "Good writing comes last."Jennie NashYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou've got to do the other stuff. So you can do it on vacation, or you could not do it on vacation. This—I don't think—we just—maybe I—this was my idea, and I think maybe I just needed the reassurance. I have a couple weeks coming up where I'm probably not going to do anything, and I just needed a reminder that that's cool. That's cool. It's all right. It's going to be okay. That's what I—if y'all could just pat me on the head and say "it's going to be okay."Multiple Speakers[Overlapping voices: “Mm-hmm,” “Sorry,” “Ohhh...”]KJ Dell'AntoniaSix or ten times an hour, that might be about what I need.Jess LaheyWell and one of the other things that has been really cool this summer is I've been on a streak of really good books. And every one of those really good books that I've been reading has made me like, Oh, I could do this. Oh my gosh, I could do that. I could write like her. I could I could write this other thing. And it's, it's all that energy is good and it's all a good thing to sit on a beach and read a book, or sit in the woods and read a book. It's all great.KJ Dell'AntoniaAll right, everybody, go collect some energy. Hey, on that note, who's read something good lately?Jennie NashI want to hear all these great books, Jess.Jess LaheySo I really have been on this roll. I've already talked about Atmosphere in an earlier podcast, the Taylor Jenkins Reid thing. But then I've been on this Tess Gerritsen jag, because we're—I'm interviewing Tess Gerritsen later this week. You guys will get to hear her later this summer. I am... Sarina and KJ, I believe, read the first of her new series that she has set in Maine and with a couple of retired CIA agents and spies in Maine. And then I enjoyed those so much that I went all the way back to the beginning—to her first book, The Surgeon, which I didn't even know was turned into this whole series called Rizzoli and Isles. It's a television show—I had no idea. And now I'm deep into Tess Gerritsen land. I'm still—I found out that there's going to be a movie of the book by the guy who wrote The Martian, Andy...Sarina BowenAndy WeirJess LaheyAndy Weir, thank you. And I was warned very specifically on social media not to watch the preview—the trailer—for the new movie that is going to be coming out with Ryan Gosling later on this summer, because it ruins the book. The book is called Hail Mary… Project Hail Mary. So I very quickly turned away from social media and said, Ooh, I better read the book really quickly before anyone ruins it for me, and I am enjoying the heck out of Project Hail Mary. So it's been really fun. Yeah.Sarina BowenI am reading a book that KJ put into my hands. And the fun part is that I don't remember why she put it into my hands, you know. Like, why did I pick up this book? Like, it happens all the time. It's called All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman.Jennie NashWhat a great title.Sarina BowenYeah, like, I picked up this book, and my husband said, oh my God, what a great title. And so, yes, that's super cool. And it's very voice-y. And the—the flap copy has the—a premise that smacks of a thriller, but the voice isn't like all deep, dark thriller. And so I think maybe the contrast of those two things might be why KJ put it into my hands. But I am enjoying the fabulous writing, and I'm—I'm still at the beginning, but the way she introduces characters is really sharp. So even that alone is like a little master class on introducing characters.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, that was why I gave it to you, was that we'd been talking about, you know, the voice, and also because we'd been talking about, like, funny thrillers versus thriller-y thrillers. And this isn't funny, but it's super voice-y. It reminds me of the one you pressed into my hands, which maybe is a little funnier—Listen for the Lie.Sarina BowenYeah, yeah.Jennie NashWell, I'm reading something very different, which is not—not very beachy. I go to a yoga class that is taught by a middle grade English teacher, and she runs her yoga class sort of like English class, where she always starts with a poem and throughout the class, she refers back to the poem in a very embodied way that you're doing the yoga around. And then she reads the poem again at the end. It's—its spectacular. She's—she's so popular at our yoga studio that you have to, you know, fight your way in. But she read a poem by a woman named Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer—and that's Rosemerry like Christmas Merry, so: Rosemerry. And the book is called The Unfolding. And I say it's very different from what you are all mentioning because this woman experienced the death of her young son and father in very close proximity, and her poems are ostensibly about grief, but they're just filled with joy and hope and delight. And, you know, it's kind of that thing you're talking about, Sarina—that it's—here's a book about tragedy and grief, but it's—there's something about the voice that just is—is fresh. And they're just—they're just stunning, just absolutely stunning. And I have gone and ordered all her books, of which there are—are many. So she's a new voice to me, and I just—I can't get enough of them. They're incredible.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, here I am going to go back to the fiction summary read-y thing. I am very late to The Thursday Murder Club party, but it is joy. It is so much fun—really your sort of classic Agatha Christie stuff, but way, way funnier and more entertaining, with a dash of elderly spies. So we're on that theme. And then I also want to mention, just because I liked it so much—and I'm not sure I want everyone to read it—What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown. This could be your lit fic read of the summer. It's somewhere—but—but it's still a page turner. And I thought the premise was extremely great. Basically, it's: what if the Unabomber had also raised a young daughter with him in the woods on all of his theories, back when the Unabomber was living in the woods, and inadvertently involved her in his first kill before she got away? And now she's an adult looking back at what happened. And Janelle Brown is a Silicon Valley person. She's really steeped in this culture. She really knows this world. It's a really good book—plus super entertaining.Jennie NashI love it.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's it!Jess LaheyI love it when we have a lot of good stuff, because there have been a couple weeks this year where we were like, I was just let down this time around. But yay, I'm loving this.KJ Dell'AntoniaAll right, I think that's it for us this week, kids. Remember, if you support the podcast, you get bonus content every week right now, because we are killing it. You might get Jess's Soup to Nuts series, where she is coaching a fellow writer on creating a nonfiction proposal that also will work with her speaking career. You can join me and Jennie on a weekly basis as we flail our way through the beginnings of writing a couple of books. And of course, on a monthly basis, we've got the Booklab, where we look at the First Pages of novels submitted by listeners. And if you'd like to submit to the Booklab, that'd be great. Jess will put the link in the show notes.Jess LaheyIndeed, Jess will. And until next week, everyone, keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game.The Hashtag AmWriting Podcast is produced by Andrew Perella. Our intro music, aptly titled Unemployed Monday, was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the Deep Rooted Healing podcast, I read a beautiful poem I found called, "Hope" by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. I also share reflections on why I needed to find this poem today, how it is helping me in the process of writing my first book of poetry and how being someone who deeply feels is both incredibly challenging and profoundly important for my well-being. I share how fears, doubts and worries have been showing up about bringing this book into being and what I am doing to navigate those. May we all continue to find the hope and courage we need to share our most authentic selves in whatever ways truly call to us. And so it is. I'm Emma Freeman, a poet, mixed media artist, Reiki Master, Massage Therapist, Medium and Teacher based in Wisconsin. I am sober, a Highly Sensitive Person, an empath and part of the LGBTQIA community. You can learn more about me and what I create at www.deep-rooted-healing.com. Find me on Instagram @deeprootedhealing. Find me on Facebook

Can poetry be a form of medicine? Dr. Diana Hill explores this profound question with poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer on the Wise Effort Show. They discuss the role of poetry in emotional processing, grief, love, and connection. Diana shares how Rosemerry's poetry has personally influenced her life and work. Rosemerry reads some of her poems, discusses her daily practice of writing a poem everyday, and offers insights into how poetry can help us be present with our pain and transform it. Drawing from her own experiences, especially the tragic loss of her son, Rosemerry explains how metaphors and a daily writing habit can serve as healing practices.Join this insightful conversation to discover the therapeutic potential of poetry and how it can guide us through life's most challenging moments.In This Episode, We Explore:The Power of Poetry in TherapyRosemary's Personal Journey with PoetryDaily Writing Practice and Its BenefitsEmbracing Imperfection and TruthSharing Personal Grief PubliclySuggested Next Episode:Episode 138: Holding Space for Yourself and Others With Tom ParkesRelated ResourcesGet enhanced show notes for this episodePre-order my upcoming book, Wise Effort: How to Focus Your Genius Energy on What Matters Most, and receive special pre-order bonus gifts.Want to become more psychologically flexible? Take Diana's "Foundations of ACT" course.Diana's EventsReserve your spot in Diana's Costa Rica retreat in 2026!See Diana at an upcoming eventConnecting With DianaSubscribe for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.Leave a 5-star review on Apple so people like you can find the show.Sign up for the free Wise Effort Newsletter.Become a Wise Effort member to support the show.Follow Diana on YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Diana's...

In a time when parents face rising pressure to get everything right, this episode offers something rare and essential: a deeply honest, poetic, and practical conversation about the transformative power of self-compassion.Join Marin Montessori School's Head of School, Sam Shapiro, and guest Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, celebrated poet and parent educator, as they explore what it means to parent with grace instead of perfection. Drawing on both research and lived experience, Rosemerry offers a path toward parenting that's emotionally sustainable—and deeply human.Together, they discuss:What self-compassion really is (and why it's not indulgent)How it benefits our health, motivation, and relationshipsThe link between grace for ourselves and connection with our childrenThe latest science from Dr. Kristin Neff and the field of self-compassion researchWhy embracing our own imperfections is a powerful parenting actWhether you're navigating daily struggles or simply looking to show up with more presence and care, this conversation is a powerful reminder: we teach our children not by being perfect—but by being real.

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer knows grief. Her dad and son died in the same year. Like her latest book, The Unfolding, if this interview were music, it would be in the key of grief. Rosemerry shares how her daily writing practice helped her navigate the days and weeks following her son's death. She also explains how we can hold opposite things that may both be true. We can let go of the tired stories we tell ourselves and find new metaphors that better serve us. You can find Rosemerry's work and learn more about her poetry here: https://www.wordwoman.com/

➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from! If you've been following along, you know yesterday was the Gathering of the Guests and 20 of Cream City Dreams' previous guests got together to share coffee, conversation and connections! This week on the Digest, hear how it went, plus an invitation for newsletter subscribers and a permission to BE BIG from poet, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. So many incredible Milwaukee women at one table. Maybe YOU can join us next time, make sure you're on the newsletter to find out when! Support the show

Sarah Peyton is a Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication. She teaches people how language changes relationship and the brain. She works with audiences internationally to create a compassionate understanding of the effects of relational trauma on the brain, and writes about and teaches people how words change and heal us.Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is a poet. She has 13 collections of poetry, and her work has appeared in O Magazine, A Prairie Home Companion, PBS News Hour, American Life in Poetry, on fences, in back alleys, on Carnegie Hall Stage and on hundreds of river rocks she leaves around her town of Placerville, Colorado. Her most recent collection, Hush, won the Halcyon prize. Devoted to helping others explore creative practice, Rosemerry is also co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast on creative process; co-founder of Secret Agents of Change (a surreptitious kindness cabal); and co-leader of Soul Writers Circle.In This Episode:Sarah's WebsiteYour Resonant Self: Guided Meditations and Exercises to Engage Your Brain's Capacity for Healing, by Sarah PeytonRosemerry's websiteThe Unfolding: Poems, by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer---If you'd like to support The Trauma Therapist Podcast and the work I do you can do that here with a monthly donation of $5, $7, or $10: Donate to The Trauma Therapist Podcast.Click here to join my email list and receive podcast updates and other news.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-trauma-therapist--5739761/support.

CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from! Links I mention this week in the Friday Digest! Persisters Listen to their episode from this week! (the PERSISTers)Poem from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer's new book The UnfoldingAndrea Scher - Moonflower Oracle CardsHanan Refugees Relief Group - donate today!And tune in next week for another incredible Milwaukee woman, living her dream in the Cream City! Support the show

Sarah Peyton is a Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication. She teaches people how language changes relationship and the brain. She works with audiences internationally to create a compassionate understanding of the effects of relational trauma on the brain, and writes about and teaches people how words change and heal us.Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is a poet. She has 13 collections of poetry, and her work has appeared in O Magazine, A Prairie Home Companion, PBS News Hour, American Life in Poetry, on fences, in back alleys, on Carnegie Hall Stage and on hundreds of river rocks she leaves around her town of Placerville, Colorado. Her most recent collection, Hush, won the Halcyon prize. Devoted to helping others explore creative practice, Rosemerry is also co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast on creative process; co-founder of Secret Agents of Change (a surreptitious kindness cabal); and co-leader of Soul Writers Circle.In This Episode:Sarah's WebsiteYour Resonant Self: Guided Meditations and Exercises to Engage Your Brain's Capacity for Healing, by Sarah PeytonRosemerry's websiteThe Unfolding: Poems, by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer---If you'd like to support The Trauma Therapist Podcast and the work I do you can do that here with a monthly donation of $5, $7, or $10: Donate to The Trauma Therapist Podcast.Click here to join my email list and receive podcast updates and other news.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-trauma-therapist--5739761/support.

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer has been writing and sharing a poem a day since 2006—a practice that especially nourished her after the death of her teenage son in 2021. Her daily poems can be found on her blog, A Hundred Falling Veils, or a curated version (with optional prompts) on her daily audio series, The Poetic Path, available with the Ritual app. Her poetry collection Hush won the Halcyon Prize. Naked for Tea was a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award. Her most recent collections are All the Honey and The Unfolding. In January 2024, she became the first poet laureate for Evermore, helping others through this platform to explore grief, bereavement, wonder, and love through the voice of poetry. She is the co-hosts of a podcast on creative process called Emerging Form. This episode was recorded live at TACAW in Basalt, Colorado. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this guided meditation, led by Julie Potiker you will be focusing on your gifts and what it is you need right now. She completes the meditation with the poem, "At the Market", by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer."At The Market", by Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerNow when I walk through the marketI think of how someone else herebeside the stir-fry cart and the tie-dye tenthas just lost a belovedand is hiding tears behind sunglasses.Not knowing who they are,I try to treat everyone with kindness.Meanwhile the day is beautifulfor everyone, no matter how whole,how broken our hearts. It gathers us allin a grand blue embrace.I stroll through the gift of a Fridaymorning surrounded by arugulaand strawberries, muffins, lilies,and all these other fragile hearts,all of us saying Excuse me, Good morning,How are you, It's nice to see you today.-At The Market, by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer(from "The Unfolding poems").Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Air Date - 16 December 2024OMTimes Radio is honored to welcome poet, teacher, and workshop facilitator Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer to the VOICE RISING SHOW. Rosemerry will join host Kara Johnstad for a heartfelt and profound conversation about her latest poetry collection, The Unfolding.In The Unfolding, Rosemerry delves into the paradox of grief as a form of praise, capturing the sacred connection that blossoms from living wholeheartedly, even in the face of profound loss. Written after the deaths of her son and father, these poems embody both sorrow and celebration—heartbreaking yet uplifting, somber yet playful, even solemn and sexy.Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer's poetic voice offers surprising invitations to embrace the beauty of life, even in its most challenging moments.This episode will explore how grief, love, and nature intertwine and how poetry can serve as a healing practice—returning us home to ourselves and the beauty around us. We'll discuss the healing power of nature, the role of praise in her daily life, and how writing and connecting to our voice allows us to enter and honor the darkness of grief while keeping hope and light alive.Join us for this intimate exploration of love, loss, and the transformative power of poetry, and discover how each of us can use our voice to heal, inspire, and shift harm to harmony in our world.#RosemerryWahtolaTrommer #Poetry #VoiceRising  #KaraJohnstad #Music #Interviews #Voice#TheUnfolding #PoetryForHealing #GriefAndPraise #HealingThroughPoetry #TransformingGrief #EmbodyingPraise #PoetryAndHealing #LoveAndLoss #HealingWithWordsTo get in touch with Kara Johnstad, go to http://www.karajohnstad.com/Visit the Voice Rising show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/voice-rising/Subscribe to our Newsletter https://omtimes.com/subscribe-omtimes-magazine/Connect with OMTimes on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Omtimes.Magazine/ and OMTimes Radio https://www.facebook.com/ConsciousRadiowebtv.OMTimes/Twitter: https://twitter.com/OmTimes/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omtimes/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2798417/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/omtimes/

The Sun (Conscious Self) in Sagittarius squares Neptune (Dreamer) in Pisces inviting you to shift beliefs that are self-deceptive and lean into beliefs that activate your inspiration visionary nature. Venus (Relational One) in Aquarius trines Jupiter (Wise One) in Gemini enhancing your love nature. Chani says with this cycle "risk everything for joy." Winter Solstice arrives in the Northern Hemisphere as the Sun enters Capricorn on December 21st. Pause to honor the gift of darkness to see more deeply into the mysteries of your inner light. Connect with your ancient ancestors who celebrated this holy seasonal shift.Podcast poem: "Grace" by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (www.wordwoman.com)Support the showUse Sheila's referral code to shop for astrology books and gifts at Chani: https://bit.ly/4a3AfqMGo to Sheila's website for information on workshops, online courses and to subscribe to her weekly newsletter: https://www.ontheedgesofchange.comFollow Sheila: https://www.instagram.com/ontheedgesofchange https://www.pinterest.com/ontheedgesofchange

I'll be honest with you: the "great unraveling" is as real as the "great turning." They've always been happening at the same time. The unraveling was already accelerating, and now (late 2024) to see a democratic election process choose a path of more, worse, faster harm to our planet and our fellow human and more-than-human beings? It's been... deeply discouraging. For many I know, it's been devastating.And at the same time - always at the same time - I feel so blessed to have had a conversation with Cynthia Jurs about this. We spoke about that devastation, and our bewilderment, and how we keep going. We also talk miracles, activism, practice, awakening, and so much more. Cynthia's life has been devoted to embodied, engaged, sacred activism for the healing and protection of Mother Earth for decades. She is a spiritual teacher who doesn't describe herself as one, and I love learning from her.Interviewing Cynthia with me in this conversation are Erin Geesaman Rabke and Carl Rabke, of Embodiment Matters. We talk about Cynthia's stunning new book, Summoned by the Earth: Becoming a Holy Vessel for Healing Our WorldU.S. politics and the question: "Is this the flaming end of the patriarchy?"the interconnectedness of all lifecultural polarizationthe 4 sections of Cynthia's book: "answering the call," "hearing the cries of the world," "becoming a holy vessel," and "collective awakening"reactivity and activismpeacebuilding, and choosing not to fan the flames of blame, separation, and violencecomments from astrologers on this historical momentand Cynthia's profound experience in Greece at the Oracle of DelphiAs much as I enjoyed hearing everything Cynthia had to say on these topics, I valued hearing the way she spoke about it all. I hope you do too. May this conversation serve your healing and the healing of our world.Note: There are a number of times when Cynthia, Carl, Erin or I reference teachers and teachings, ideas and terms, that might not be familiar to you. (Many of them I've heard of for the first time in the last few years!) So, I've compiled some links with more info in the show notes. If you hear a name or a term and you're wondering who or what that is - or if you simply want to take an internet wander down some of our favorite paths related to indigenous wisdom, ecological belonging, spiritual growth, global healing, etc. - come to the show notes at turningseason.com/episode44 and find my bulleted list of teachers and terms that we mention in this conversation.You're invited to… Take Heart: Embodying the Great Turning | A 10-week course facilitated by Leilani Navar and Erin Geesaman Rabke, with special guests Cynthia Jurs, Francis Weller, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and Lydia Violet HarutoonianThis series is for you if you're looking for helpful teachings and tools, a place for beauty and for grief, and a kind community. We'll be looking to Joanna Macy's teachings about the "Five Vows of the Great Turning" to help us orient, navigate, and stay heartened in these times, giving our lives to the Great Turning while also living in the Great Unraveling. We're so excited about it and we'd love for you to check it out if you're curious.More about Cynthia Jurs:Cynthia Jurs has immersed herself deeply in the study and practice of Buddhism for over three decades, annually spending time in solitary retreat and receiving teachings from many great masters. In 1994 she was given dharma transmission from her root teacher, Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and became a Dharmacharya in the Order of Interbeing. In 2018 in recognition for her many years of study and practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and her devotion in carrying out the Earth Treasure Vases, she was recognized as an Honorary Lama at the root temple of Kushok Mangden Rinpoche, Tolu Tharling Gompa, in Nepal. Cynthia says that she holds these titles and dharma affiliations lightly. She shares that her true source of refuge and spiritual inspiration is Mother Earth; Gaia. Inspired by her thirty years of pilgrimage into diverse communities and ecosystems, today Cynthia is forging a new path of dharma, connected to the Earth, in service to Gaia, deeply rooted in the feminine, honoring indigenous traditions, and teaching an embodied, engaged, sacred activism through meditation and prayer, ceremony and ritual, pilgrimage and council.About Turning Season Podcast:Serving up heartening doses of Active Hope in this Great Turning toward life-honoring, life-sustaining ways of being human. This is a series of deep conversations with people who are rising to their own unique roles in this worldwide shift. This show is for every one of you who's aware of our multiple crises, feels your love for life on earth, and is finding your way to participate in cultivating ways of life we can believe in, making a life honoring present, even in the face of an uncertain future.

How does creativity help us meet a difficult time? In this episode, co-hosts Christie Aschwanden and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer talk about ways that creative practice can nourish us, how it can help us envision a way forward, how it helps us to widen the lens and see beyond the moment, how it helps us embrace paradox, opens us to connection, and more. We hear from previous guests poet Jack Ridl and astrologer/filmmaker/novelist/musician Holiday Mathis, plus from listeners in our Facebook group, too, This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substack.com/subscribe

We hit our first technical interruption in over seven years this week, when an operating-system update froze Lizzie's computer. We'll be back on track next week, but in the meantime here's a repeat of our most popular episode from back in 2021, which draws on the work of our cherished friend Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. We're conditioned to think of ourselves and other people as in need of fixing, and it makes it so difficult for us to open to one another's beauty and mystery. So what if we could cultivate eyes and hearts of wonder at the luminescent half-moon of one another's presence, and receive one another as rivers do as they give their power and beauty to one another? Hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribe Support Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife Turning Towards Life, a week-by-week conversation inviting us deeply into our lives, is a live 30 minute conversation hosted by Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn of Thirdspace.  Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google, Amazon Music and Spotify. Here's our source for this week: Love Though I am undeniably broken, I come to you with no need to be fixed. I come to you the way one river Meets another river - not joining Out of thirst, but because there is so much power And beauty in giving oneself To another, in moving Through the world together. I come to you the way the half moon Comes into the yard - I could be more Whole, but in the meantime, I will bring you everything I have. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer ahundredfallingveils.com Photo by nousnou iwasaki on Unsplash

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I'm your host, James Navé. This week, we're joined for a fourth time by poet, teacher, and podcaster Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, a devoted practitioner of daily poetry for nearly two decades. Together, we explore what it means to Rosemerry to “live poetry.” She speaks to the soul-deepening practice of poetry as a way of experiencing life in its fullness—a delicate dance of grief, joy, curiosity, and acceptance. We discuss her philosophy on self-compassion, how poetry tunes us into the subtleties of our bodies, and why even moments of struggle or uncertainty can be creative openings. For Rosemerry, the poetic journey is one of constant exploration, where even the smallest moments offer potential. “What if we treated our bodies like our poetry?” she asks, drawing an illuminating parallel between artistic and personal growth. This episode also touches on the resilience of creativity—how poetry can serve as both a witness and a response to life's most significant challenges, including Rosemary's journey through profound loss. Through poetry, she reveals the layers of emotion we all carry and how the written word can connect us to the shared experience of being human. Join us as we journey through Rosemarie's philosophy and poetry's remarkable capacity to connect, comfort, and awaken us to the beauty of everyday moments.

(Aloka Earth Room) Short Reflection & Guided Meditation | Earthworm Practice for the Anthropocene II | Online Wednesday-Mornings. Poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, 2024.

(Aloka Earth Room) Short Reflection & Guided Meditation | Earthworm Practice for the Anthropocene II | Online Wednesday-Mornings. Poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, 2024.

CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from! This week - a Digest from the other side of the election. It's been a week. I'll share the Milwaukee women who are inspiring me in the aftermath of the election, and two poems by a new favorite, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. Short and (bitter)sweet this week. But we have to get up and keep moving forward. Venice William's poem in full: You are awakening to the same country you fell asleep to.The very same country.Pull yourself together.And, when you see me, do not ask me"What do we do now?How do we get through the next four years?"Some of my Ancestors dealt with at least 400 years of this under worse conditions.Continue to do the good work.Continue to build bridges not walls.Continue to lead with compassion.Continue the demanding work of liberation for all.Continue to dismantle broken systems, large and small.Continue to set the best example for the children.Continue to be a vessel of nourishing joy.Continue right where you are.Right where you live into your days.Do so in the name of The Creator who expects nothing less from each of us.And if you are not "continuing" ALL of the above, in community, partnership, collaboration?What is it you have been doing?What is it you are waiting for?And if you want to hear more about Venice Williams, go back and listen to the episode from Season 2 when Shelly and I talked with Venice about where she got her start and what inspires her to keep going. A timeless conversation about dreaming in Milwaukee. Support the show

Emmy and Natalia read some poetry and Scripture and blessings to help us all through this chaotic and overwhelming and anxious time. Because we all need it, whenever we need it.    Support the show and what we do here: www.patreon.com/cafeteriachristian   Resources from today's episode: “Blessing in the Chaos” from The Cure for Sorrow - by Jan Richardson First Nations Version: https://firstnationsversion.com/book/first-nations-version/  Romans 8: 31-39 Lamentations 3: 19-30, 49-57 Luke 6, Matthew 5  John 18:33-38 Book of Common Prayer  Traditional Collect for the Nation Contemporary Collect for Social Justice excerpt from Madeleine L'Engle from Rhythm of Prayer - by Sarah Bessey  “For the Nation” from Ordinary Blessings, by Meta Herrick Carlson “For Feeling It All”, from Blessings for the Lives We Actually Have, by Kate Bowler  How to Love the World, by James Crews  Hope, by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer   

- Imogene Pass Closure Continues - K-O-O-K nears completion - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer unfolds into grief and praise

Hoy practicamos una relajación sanadora para cuerpo y mente. (Apta para conciliar el sueño.) Primero les comparto unos conmovedores poemas de Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. Después hacemos un corto ejercicio de respiración alterna y pasamos a la sanadora meditación guiada. Hoy hubo una quietud especial, ojalá disfruten la sesión. Sesión grabada en vivo en Espacio Silencio : únete aquí: https://www.ilanaospina.com/ https://www.instagram.com/ilana_coachmindfulness/

Written in the key of grief and the melody of praise, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer sits down with Raghu to discuss her newest poetry book, The Unfolding.Enjoy your own copy of The Unfolding to read Rosemerry's heart-opening poems! Purchase the book HEREThis week, tune into Rosemerry and Raghu's conversation on: The loss of Rosemerry's son and fatherLiving through seasons of extreme griefUnderstanding the gift of a poemOppositional feelings experienced at the same time (pain + joy, etc.)Recognizing how desperately we need eachotherThe Grand Quilt, The Medicine of Surrender, and more poems written and read by RosemerryBrave prayers and the things that open us / help us growInspiration from Gregory Orr and Leonard CohenHow grief strips us naked and makes us vulnerableRaghu sends us off with a beautiful Kabir poem from the book Painting from the Palette of LoveAbout Rossemerry Trommer:Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is an American poet associated with Colorado. She was Poet Laureate of San Miguel County, Colorado from 2006–2010, and was named Poet Laureate of Colorado's Western Slope by the Telluride Institute from 2015–2017. Most recently, Rosemerry published The Unfolding, a book of poetry exploring grief. Rosemerry was featured on TEDxTalks to discuss the art of changing metaphors and created an album of poetry called Dark Praise with Steve Law. Check out Rosemerry's website, Wordwoman, and her daily poetry blog, A Hundred Falling Veils. You can also join Rosemerry in an immersive daily experience of poetry and reflection on the Ritual app.“So many people reached out to help me… they'd say, ‘What can we do?' And I'd just say, ‘Open me. Help me stay open. Please, help me stay open.'” – Rosemerry TrommerSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I ran across acclaimed poet, Rosemerry Trommer, several years ago in a volume where she shares about the loss of her son, Finn, who took his life at age 16. I had never read anything on grieving that touched me so deeply, that held so much wisdom, such a deep affirmation of love. I went on to read her collection All the Honey, and now her new one, The Unfolding. These books are filled with Post-its: I didn't realize how much I needed Rosemerry's words to remind me of what most matters. In our interview we talk about the key themes in her poems: grief, love, opening to what's difficult and what's beautiful… saying yes to life.

This week, Christie interviews Rosemerry about her new book, The Unfolding, out on October 1st. Do her a big favor and pre-order it now at this link. Rosemerry explains how the poems came together, how she structured the book and why the cover is pink. It's a wonderful conversation we know you'll love. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is a poet, teacher, speaker and writing facilitator. Her daily audio series, The Poetic Path, is on the Ritual app. Her poems have appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, PBS News Hour, O Magazine, American Life in Poetry, and Carnegie Hall stage. Her most recent poetry collections are All the Honey (Samara Press, 2023) and The Unfolding (Wildhouse Publishing, October 2024). In January, 2024, she became the first poet laureate for Evermore, helping others explore grief, bereavement, wonder and love through poetry. One-word mantra: Adjust. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substack.com/subscribe

Poet and writer Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer shares her latest collection of poems, All the Honey, and delves into the complex nature of grief and love following her son's death.

There may be no greater pain in life than that of losing a child; the gaping hole felt when a young life is abruptly cut short, leaving parents to deal with a void that can be difficult to comprehend, and a journey to make sense of the heartache that follows. For poet Rosemerry Wahtula Trommer, the pain is palpable and the grief — the kind of grief only a mother can know — remains unwavering . Tragically, her son Finn took his own life just before reaching his 17th birthday. In the wake of this unimaginable tragedy, Trommer found herself irrevocably changed; it was through the power of words and poetry that she began to find solace amid her sorrow. Despite the lasting  grief in her heart, Trommer is also profoundly grateful to her son. “He my teacher.  How much that boy taught me all the things I didn't want to know. I never wanted to learn that things couldn't be fixed. I never wanted to learn that I couldn't be perfect, that I couldn't make the world the way I wanted it. And he taught me again and again and again, how to say yes to the world as it is.”  Reflecting on how she now sees the world, Trommer is struck by  “the sweetness and the bitterness, the joy and the grief, the love and the loss and how, as humans, this is what we're asked to meet over and over and over.”   Grief, Trommer says, demonstrates a powerful paradox. It’s central to who we are as humans. It’s “ever mysterious and ever changing and so deeply sorrowful and so profoundly loving,” at the same time.   “Maybe this is the thing that's most exciting for me right now – is this sense of not believing anymore that we're supposed to be happy. That in fact, some of the most profound, wonderful life-affirming, moments have been so difficult.”   “Meeting Your Death” Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer  Because there are no clear instructions,I follow what rises up in me to do.I fall deeper into love with you.I look at old pictures.I don’t look at old pictures.I talk about you. I say nothing.I walk. I sit. I lie in the grassand let the earth hold me.I lie on the sidewalk, dissolveinto sky. I cry. I don’t cry.I ask the world to help me stay open.I ask again, please, let me feel it all.I fall deeper in love with the peoplestill living. I fall deeper in lovewith the world that is left—this world with its springand its war and its mornings,this world with its fruitsthat ripen and rot and reseed,this world that insistswe keep our eyes wide,this world that openswhen our eyes are closed.Because there are no clear instructions,I learn to turn toward the love that is here,though sometimes what is here is what’s not.There are infinite ways to do this right.That is the only way. Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.

Moonshine Family Traveling Medicine Show featuring Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer with Steve Law and special guest Craig Childs will be Saturday May 18th at 8:30 pm.

This Sunday, First Universalist joyfully celebrates New Member Sunday, a testament to our community's growth and resilience. Worship Leaders will guide us through a reflective conversation on the essence of openness. They invite us to examine how vulnerability, grace, and kindness are more than spiritual practices—they are vital for deepening our communal bonds. This service challenges us to dismantle the barriers that often lead to isolation, making every interaction a profound connection. As we celebrate this enriching occasion, reflect on your journey: What is your next step toward deeper engagement in our community? Join us for a transformative experience. Worship Leaders: Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, Meleah Houseknecht, Rev. Jen Crow, Liz Farmer, Matt Keller Opening Hymn- Building Bridges (:27) Call to Worship and Words of Welcome (4:37) Wisdom Story (10:39) Singing Together- Come and Go With Me (20:14) New Member Welcome Ritual (21:41) Prayers and Cycle of Life (28:50) Practice of Giving and Receiving (37:17) Offertory- If You're Out There by John Legend (43:07) Reading- Safety Net by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (46:06) Anthem- Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand) by Diana Ross (47:18) Message- A Community of Practice (49:35) Closing Song- Love Will Guide Us (1:08:06) Benediction (1:10:00)

How do we take up our right size in the world? Not in some fixed, rigid way but as a responsive way of engaging with what is called for in each situation and context? When we see that in some way ‘too big' and ‘too small' are both ways we try to control situations, maybe we can open to the emergence of something more fluid, more adaptive, and more sensitive in us. Something that asks of us to be of service to life, and responds accordingly. Hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribe Support Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife Turning Towards Life, a week-by-week conversation inviting us deeply into our lives, is a live 30 minute conversation hosted by Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn of Thirdspace.  Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google, Amazon Music and Spotify. Here's our source for this week: Right-Sized A response to Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer's Big What if this the year to learn to be right-sized? I learned on the playground to  Flinch from arrogance. ‘Please – don't leave me.  I promise not to get Too Big.' But the cost, I've learned, is dear.  Trading potential for false modesty,  Dampening power with every apology,  Neglecting my impeccable edges  With every hedge. But then I remember  What the rabbis knew. They stretched wide a red silk thread.  At one end: Arrogance.  At the other: Not humility – but  Playing Too Small. They knew playing small was just arrogance by a different name.  Placing comfort above contribution.  Our gifts withdrawn from the world,  For the price of fitting in. ‘What if holding back is stealing?' So in the middle, they placed a pair of right-sized shoes.  Yours.  Mine.  The right-sizing that awaits us all. What, I wonder, will it take for you to grow into your right size  The one that seems Impossibly large, and  Obnoxiously loud? Clownish as these shoes seem now, prone to stumbling,  At first you'll feel the fool.  Some People will have Things To Say.  Some may even walk away.  (In this modesty-mad world, they're yet to clock  that claiming your shoes  does nothing to keep them from theirs.) But every now and then you wake up to the truth.  That it's the world that's wrong - not you.  These too-small shoes will no longer do. So take your credit where it's due.  And when no-one offers it – give yourself a spoon daily. Take your space  Trading in the apologies for gratitude. Minimise your emotions no more –  They too deserve to expand to the full. Fill your circle with champions  And learn to see yourself with the wonder of their eyes. And when you hit your stride, and weather whatever,  Give up the surprise. When those shoes once vast grow snug,  Be sure to celebrate well.  Acknowledge yourself, and your people, and the view. Until another pair of shoes calls to you  Between arrogance and avoidance  On that red silk string… You Are Needed.  And this is no time, no world,  For stealing.  Debbie Danon, Jan 2023 www.debbiedanon.com Photo by Michael Wright on Unsplash

Kristy Elesko (she/her) wants you to have a great massage. A massage that feels safe, empowered, and like your body's needs are being met with certainty and accommodation as needed. So, she's sharing her brilliant tips for how to find a massage therapist who works with all bodies, key questions to ask the clinic receptionist, and how to advocate for your body's needs. Kristy Elesko is a massage therapist and massage therapy educator in Victoria BC (lands of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples). She has a diverse practice where she treats health care workers, new parents, infants and patients of every size. A list of fat friendly/weight neutral providers.Please connect with Kristy on her website and Instagram. This episode's poem is by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and is called “For When People Ask.”You can connect with Fat Joy on the website, Instagram, Fat Joy newsletter, and YouTube (full video episodes here!). Want to share some fattie love? Please rate this podcast and give it a joyful review. Our thanks to Chris Jones and AR Media for keeping this podcast looking and sounding joyful.

Air Date - 08 January 2024Journey into Endarkenment: A Conversation with Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerEmbrace the beauty of the dark and discover the transformative power of endarkenment in our upcoming Voice Rising Show! Join Voice Visionary Kara Johnstad in conversation with American poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, as they explore the profound depths of creativity, passion, and revelation through Rosemerry's new spoken-word album, “Dark Praise.” In a culture that often celebrates only the light, Rosemerry's journey to embrace darkness has brought forth a rich tapestry of wisdom that promises to inspire your own creative journey.Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, known for her lyrical poetry and unique storytelling, has been recognized for her exceptional contributions to the world of poetry. Join us as we delve into the significance of endarkenment alongside enlightenment and how embracing the dark can open doors to essential self-discovery and connection. Learn how writing about our fears can lead to profound revelations and how the collaboration between poetry and music enhances the power of spoken word.Don't miss this opportunity to explore poetry as an oral and aural art form and gain insights into Rosemerry's extraordinary creative journey. Mark your calendars for an illuminating conversation that celebrates the transformative power of the dark. Stay tuned for this enlightening episode on the Voice Rising Show.Visit Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer at https://www.wordwoman.com/#RosemerryWahtolaTrommer #VoiceRising #KaraJohnstad #Music #Interviews #VoiceTo get in touch with Kara, go to http://www.karajohnstad.com/Visit the Voice Rising show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/voice-rising/Subscribe to our Newsletter https://omtimes.com/subscribe-omtimes-magazine/Connect with OMTimes on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Omtimes.Magazine/ and OMTimes Radio https://www.facebook.com/ConsciousRadiowebtv.OMTimes/Twitter: https://twitter.com/OmTimes/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omtimes/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2798417/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/omtimes/

I'm privileged to be a spiritual director. Each time I begin a session, I use a quote or poem or prayer.  As I share one of these with you, see what might catch your attention. Maybe there's something here for you today. Today's offering is titled Self Compassion by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. The post Poem/prayer 18 – Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

Tamara Walcott (she/her) knew she ‘wasn't born big for nothing.' In only four years, she went from not working out at all to breaking two(!!!) Guinness World Records (check out the video here) and becoming the strongest woman in the world. Tamara shares what it was like growing up fat, how it felt walking into the gym for the first time, and the way she uses her personal growth journey to better support her kids. Plus, her favourite affirmations and biggest dreams!Tamara Walcott is a multi world-record holding powerlifter, mompreneur, and speaker hailing from the small island of St. Croix. Tamara's story of mental reset, perseverance, and triumph is an inspiration. Tamara Walcott has claimed the title for the heaviest raw deadlift and most weight moved in the world by a woman after deadlifting 636 in September 2021, moving 1620 pounds in July 2022 and breaking her record again on the Strongwoman stage in March 2023 by lifting 651 pounds. She has been featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Oprah Magazine, ESPNW, Sports Illustrated, Barbend, and more.Please connect with Tamara through her website and Instagram.This episode's poem is called “Belonging” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.After recording the interview, Sophia asks each guest 10 unexpected, unrehearsed questions designed to go even deeper. Check it out by subscribing through Apple Podcast Subscriptions or Patreon for as little as $2.You can connect with Fat Joy on our website, Instagram, and YouTube (full video episodes here!). Want to share the fat love? Please rate this podcast and give it a joyful review. Our thanks to Chris Jones and AR Media for keeping this podcast looking and sounding joyful.

This week Wes and Todd sit down with Fine Art Photographer, Marisa S. White. Marissa discusses pancakes, digital art, AI, art festival categories, photomontage, portfolio reviews, process, technology, the compulsion to create, the encouragement she received in her youth from her father, the support of her husband, Surrealism, Magritte, clouds, Carl Sagan, meditation, spirituality, sizes of work, pricing, editions, presentation, Namibia, art festivals, printing, workflow, vulnerability, fear, goals, gallery representation, business tips, social media, art scammers, commissions, Art Store Fronts, PX3, contests & awards, exhibitions, and boldness in photography.Join us for an in-depth conversation with Marisa S. White. Check out Marisa's work at her website www.marisaswhite.com Follow Marisa S. White on social media:Instagram - www.instagram.com/marisa_whitesparks/@marisa_whitesparks Catch Marisa's work in person at these upcoming exhibitions and events; G44 Gallery – www.g44gallery.com“Above|Below”October 6th thru the month of OctoberOpening Reception – Friday, October 6th, 5-9pm Surface Gallery – www.surfacegallerycos.comThe Space Between, A Photography ShowGroup ExhibitionThe Month of October True North Art Gallery – www.truenorthartgallery.com“Dark Praise”Special Event – October 26th, 2023Collaboration with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Steve Law.

“Grief cracks you open. It makes us vulnerable… I feel vulnerable.”  ~ Christie Aschwanden “A creative practice prepared me for grief.” ~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer This month, we're offering you a feed swap. Emerging Form, co-hosted by poet Rosemmery Wahtola Trommer and journalist Christie Aschwanden, is a podcast about creative process. These two friends cover everything from the business of creativity, to cultivating openness and pleasure, to meeting failure as part of the process. Whether they're talking between themselves or inviting other creatives to share some of their journey,  their conversations are always encouraging and insightful. In this episode from Emerging Form that we're sharing with you, Rosemerry and Christie sit down with each other mere weeks after Rosemerry's son, Finn, has died and Christie's father has suffered a stroke. They explore how profound loss has impacted their relationship to creativity, what they're noticing in their impulses to write or not write and how their tender, cracked open hearts are taking in what each moment has to offer them. To find out more about this episode, listen to the episodes referenced, and subscribe to the newsletter, visit the show notes. Want more time with us? Join our Patreon.

The glow of a golden light of compassion surrounds you in this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with the poem, "How It Might Continue", by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.How It Might ContinueWherever we go, the chance for joy,whole orchards of amazement -one more reason to always travelwith our pockets full of exclamation marks,so we might scatter them for otherslike apple seeds.Some will dry out, some will blow away,but some will take rootand grow exuberant grovesfilled with long thin fruitsthat resemble one hand clapping -so much enthusiasm as they flutter back and forththat although nothing's heardand though nothing's really changed,people everywhere for years to comewill swear that the worldis ripe with applause, will filltheir own pickets with new seeds to scatter.-"How It Might Continue", by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, from "How to Love the World, Poems of Gratitude and Hope", edited by James Crews.Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.comThis podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

I'm Anita Lustrea and I'm privileged to be a spiritual director. Each time I begin a session, I use a quote or poem or prayer.  As I share one of these with you, see what might catch your attention. Maybe there's something here for you today. The post Poem/Prayer 8 – Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

As the poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer teaches us, even as the whole world can seem to be falling, we have a choice whether to contribute to isolation and fear or to a vast net of generosity and kindness in which we hold one another. Perhaps when we feel most afraid and most isolated, it's the time to ask ourselves the other side of the question too - are we willing to receive and be open to the support that's there? Because our turning away from receiving is also our turning away from giving. This week's Turning Towards Life is hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. Turning Towards Life, a week-by-week conversation inviting us deeply into our lives, is a live 30 minute conversation hosted by Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn of Thirdspace.  Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google, Amazon Music and Spotify. Here's our source for this week: Here's our source for this week: Safety Net This morning I woke thinking of all the people I love and all the people they love and how big the net of lovers. It felt so clear, all those invisible ties interwoven like silken threads strong enough to make a mesh that for thousands of years has been woven and rewoven to catch us all. Sometimes we go on as if we forget about it. Believing only in the fall. But the net is just as real. Every day, with every small kindness, with every generous act, we strengthen it. Notice, even now, how as the whole world seems to be falling, it is there for us as we walk the day's tightrope, how every tie matters. By Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer from her newest book ‘All the Honey'

This is a short podcast featuring a poem or prayer. I'm privileged to be a spiritual director. Each time I begin a session, I use a quote or poem or prayer.  As I share one of these with you, see what might catch your attention. Maybe there's something here for... The post Poem/Prayer 4 – Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

in which Ann Marie Brokmeier, Tyler Mendelsohn, and i talk grief, poetry, and their intersections! where to find Ann Marie: instagram - @annmariebrok where to find Tyler: website - https://tylerkmendelsohn.com/ instagram - @tyler_k_m other things referenced: Ada Limón - https://www.adalimon.net/ Ada Limón Bomb Magazine interview - https://bombmagazine.org/articles/ada-lim%C3%B3n/#:~:text=AL%20I%20think%20poetry%20is,it%20out%20into%20the%20sky After the Fire by Ada Limón - https://scalar.fas.harvard.edu/resources-for-loss/after-the-fire-by-ada-limn The Uses of Sorrow by Mary Oliver - https://www.reddit.com/r/Poetry/comments/zn67zr/the_uses_of_sorrow_mary_oliver_poem/ The Art of Losing, edited by Kevin Young - https://kevinyoungpoetry.com/the-art-of-losing.html Grief by Stephen Dobyns - https://www.poemist.com/stephen-dobyns/grief Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams - https://poets.org/poem/landscape-fall-icarus Final Notations by Adrienne Rich - https://genius.com/Adrienne-rich-final-notations-annotated Watching My Friend Pretend Her Heart Is Not Breaking by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer - https://braidedway.org/watching-my-friend-pretend-her-heart-isnt-breaking/ Life After Death: IV by Laura Gilpin - https://www.reddit.com/r/Poetry/comments/xmlp33/poem_life_after_death_by_laura_gilpin/ What's Your Grief - https://whatsyourgrief.com/ other things i meant to reference: Death Tractates by Brenda Hillman - https://www.weslpress.org/9780819512024/death-tractates/

Esther is joined by award-winning poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer to discuss her new book, All the Honey, and her upcoming performance and workshop in Loveland.  The Loveland Poet Laureate Program and Columbine Poets: Northern Chapter will host Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer for a Friday evening performance (May 12th) at the Rialto Theater and a Saturday morning workshop (May 13th) in Rialto's Devereaux Room. Both events are fundraisers. For more information: Performance, May 12th 7:00pm Workshop, May 13th 9:30am To Follow Rosemerry: All the Honey by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Daily Poetry Blog  The Poetic Path on the Ritual App Poetry of Presence and Companion Guides

April is National Poetry Month and we put together this special episode to pay tribute to the late poet, Mary Oliver.  Special guests James Crews, Danusha Lameris, Ross Gay, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and Ginny Gay will read one of their favorite Mary Oliver poems and share why the poem is meaningful to them.  Whether you are a fan of Mary Oliver's work or are just learning about her for the first time, we hope you'll be inspired by some of the beautiful poetry in this episode!   For more on this episode, click here!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In This Episode, You'll Learn: Learning to not resist the pain and grief of a terrible loss to find healing What it means to trust in life, even when the worst thing comes true How poetry embraces life's greatest paradoxes Asking the question “is this the path of love?” Using the word “Hello” as a way to greet what's going on within her How to embrace the unknown and cultivate trust during life's unpredictable moments Learning to boost personal growth and mindfulness with the help of powerful mantras How to can unlock potential for inner change by embracing curiosity and openness Ways to leverage life's triggers as opportunities for self-discovery and introspection To Learn More, click hereSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Leaning into love is leaning into grief,” — Sarah Davis  In this week's episode, co-hosts Naila and Sarah muse on our conversation with poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and all she gifted us with her openness and generosity. Inspired by how she's being guided by her word of the year — “hello” — we share our own words for 2023. We also talk about our willingness, and protectiveness, when it  comes to publicly inviting others into our own grief journeys. As we continue to encourage listening to these conversations for threads of our own stories and truths, we dive into the questions our time with Rosemerry sparked in us. This led to some truly candid moments about caregiving, processing grief, reconciling relationships after death and supporting grievers. We hope you'll reflect along with us. Visit Breathing Wind's Instagram to share what these questions inspire in you. To find out more about this episode, other resources mentioned, and subscribe to the newsletter, visit the show notes. Want more time with us? Join our Patreon.  

“I really trust life itself to rise up and help me meet the things that I cannot control. I trust love to show up and help me meet the things that I cannot control.” ~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer In this week's episode, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer cries and laughs her way through an expansive and nourishing conversation about grief, creativity and love. We talk with her about poetry as a practice for meeting each moment, her unfolding journey through devastating loss and where those experiences of creativity and grief intersect. She also shares how she's been carried by an immensity of love since the death of her son Finn, in the same year that her father died, and how grief has deepened her trust in that love while inviting her, over and over again, to say yes to the world.  To find out more about this episode, other resources mentioned, and subscribe to the newsletter, visit the show notes. Want more time with us? Join our Patreon.  

Word Woman, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, returns with Raghu to dive deep into poetry, spirituality, silence, grief, love, trust, and listening. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer lives in Southwest Colorado with her family, served as the third Colorado Western Slope Poet Laureate (2015-2017) and was a finalist for Colorado Poet Laureate (2019). Her poetry has appeared in O Magazine, on A Prairie Home Companion and PBS New Hour, in Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry, in back alleys and on river rocks. Rosemerry is the co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast on creative process; and teaches and performs poetry for addiction recovery programs, hospice, mindfulness retreats, women's retreats, teachers and more. For more info, poetry books, and daily poetry offerings please visit, WordWoman.com"To be a wide open listener, that's the real invitation of any poem. People say they need to find their voice; actually we need to be wide open listeners. That's what's really being asked of us. How widely can you listen? How openly can you listen?" – Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Image: Rosemerry and her daughter definitely succeeded in making a delicious chocolate beet birthday cake. What is success? How have your ideas about success changed over time? Who is someone you think of when you think of a successful person in your field? How has their success made an impact on you? What risks have you taken for success? In this conversation, co-hosts Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Christie Aschwanden explore the importance of role models, external vs. internal markers for success, and what happens when you meet your goal posts–how does that change your ideas about success? Links: Christie's LWON essay about people who make their beds (Rosemerry) and those who don't (Christie)Judyth Hill on Emerging FormTim Green on Emerging FormRosemerry's first poem in Rattle.comRosemerry's Poetic Role Model Ellen Bass This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substack.com/subscribe

Interview with friend Will O'Brien on the politics of the Gospel of Luke. Will discusses how to read the gospel with a communal lens instead of an individual lens and answers questions such as: Do we have to be voluntarily poor? What is Sabbath economics? How to engage with Christian Nationalists? Also in this episode, the pastors discuss some talk back about what to do with the abuser in our church. As always, Spiritual Show and Tell to end the episode: dying wisteria, Watching My Friend Pretend Her Heart Isn't Breaking by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, and Untamed by Glennon Doyle. //Notes// -Interview with Will O'Brien- Will O'Brien: willobrien59@gmail.com Alternative Seminary: alternativeseminary.net The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone: https://www.amazon.com/Cross-Lynching-Tree-James-Cone/dp/1626980055/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=: Bartimaeus Institute: https://www.bcm-net.org/study/bartimaeus-institute Revolutionary Mercy: How Gospel forgiveness challenges our social order: https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/revolutionary-mercy Bread and Justice: Lessons in Prayer: https://www.pulpit.org/bread-and-justice-lessons-in-prayer/ - Spiritual Show and Tell - Power, Violence, and Binding and Loosing in Matthew 18:15-20, https://earthandaltarmag.com/posts/adgq2btuel0vhvly4kfulyetha8404 Watching My Friend Pretend Her Heart Isn't Breaking by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: https://twitter.com/nktgill/status/1547572269995569152?s=20&t=OSC0Xy2zD4u5G_m7zpsCvQ Untamed by Glennon Doyle: https://untamedbook.com/ //About this Podcast// Resist and Restore is a podcast by Circle of Hope. We're extending the table of our dialogue! Tune in bi-weekly as the Circle of Hope pastors—Rachel, Julie, and Jonny—sit down to dialogue about faith, God, Jesus, the spiritual life, and everything in between. Available on Spotify, iTunes/Apple Music, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more. //Contact Us// Website: https://circleofhope.church Email: ResistandRestorePodcast@circleofhope.net IG/TW: @circleofhopenet YouTube: https://youtube.com/circleofhope FB: https://fb.me/CircleofHopePhillyRegion Help keep the show running! Contribute at: https://circleofhope.church/share

In this episode of the Poetry Edition of the Reformed Journal Podcast, Rose Postma interviews Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer about her poem "Bioluminescence." Rosemerry has been publishing her poetry daily on her website A Hundred Falling Veils for the last 10+ years, and is a co-host of the podcast Emerging Form. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reformed-journal/message

Meditation: Path of Love - This heart practice opens with the intention to bring a kind presence to whatever arises. After arriving with a body scan, we are guided to meet all experience with an open tender awareness. The practice ends with a poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer called “Is this the Path of Love?”

(Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC) This heart practice opens with the intention to bring a kind presence to whatever arises. After arriving with a body scan, we are guided to meet all experience with an open tender awareness. The practice ends with a poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer called “Is this the Path of Love?”

(Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC) This heart practice opens with the intention to bring a kind presence to whatever arises. After arriving with a body scan, we are guided to meet all experience with an open tender awareness. The practice ends with a poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer called “Is this the Path of Love?”

Thank You by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer It's not as if the door can decide: Open. Closed. Locked. Unhinged. The door is ever at the mercy of the hand on the knob, the shoulder that smashes it, the wind that abruptly slams it shut, the smile that swings it wide as noon. Long ago, I learned every moment has a door, and that those doors never open themselves. That is why, standing here, I am astonished to see, through no effort of my own, a door swings open. And how sweet the surprise when I see on the other side of the knob, your hand.

Glenn Steckler, Larry Steckler, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: Stories from the Age of Covid Glen Steckler grew up on Long Island, New York, and attended St. Lawrence University. After graduating he worked for his father at Gernsback Publications where they launched … Continue reading →

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is a poet, storyteller, and human who sees and speaks from truth. In this episode, Rosemerry shares some of the poems that have changed the way she sees the world and herself in it. She reminds us of the power of believing in our own worth and our own beauty, that we are the narrator's of our own life. Rosemerry has been writing a poem every day since 2006, and shares her advice on how to find poetry that moves you. This conversation will move you, and remind you that there's nothing to fix about who you are and how life is meeting you in this moment.

Blake Spalding is co-owner and chef at Hell's Backbone Grill at the edge of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Blake is more than an advocate for the land--she is in deep relationship with the spirit and the body of the land. As a brilliantly sensitive human, Blake talks about how ritual and poetry give her courage to face the suffering and pain we are all experiencing in the shadow of patriarchy, white supremacy, and other systems that keep us sick. Her resiliency as she lives a life of activism and advocacy is proof of the radical courage of her heart. Her work is to feed people, and Blake's hearth is always open to seen and unseen friends and allies. In this episode, Blake reads the poems of Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Denise Levertov.

Poet, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, joins Raghu to discuss poetry as a spiritual path, meeting the blank page with trust, and the joyful daily practice of giving it away.Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer lives in Southwest Colorado with her husband and two children, served as the third Colorado Western Slope Poet Laureate (2015-2017) and was a finalist for Colorado Poet Laureate (2019). Her poetry has appeared in O Magazine, on A Prairie Home Companion and PBS New Hour, in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry, in back alleys and on river rocks. Rosemerry is the co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast on creative process; and teaches and performs poetry for addiction recovery programs, hospice, mindfulness retreats, women’s retreats, teachers and more. For more info, poetry books, and daily poetry offerings please visit, WordWoman.com

What does it take to not just say 'yes' to our lives and to one another, but to bring our beauty, dignity, creativity and imagination in response? It's a different path to take from 'turning away', and equally different from 'passive acceptance'. Being a human affords us this possibility - that when we encounter fear, shame, wonder, injustice, confusion, or hope, we have the chance to muster a response that brings something new into the world. This episode of Turning Towards Life is a conversation about what it is to hold what we would rather not hold, and to answer it with beauty, hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace (http://www.wearethirdspace.org/) in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/turningtowardslife/) to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website (https://turningtowards.life/) , and you can also watch and listen on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/turningtowardslife/) , YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. Our source this week is chosen for us by Lizzie, and is written by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (https://ahundredfallingveils.com/2021/02/25/saying-yes-2/) . Saying Yes And could I, like this picture frame hold any image I was given? I think of the news last night—how I would rather not hold what I saw there. I think of what I learned just yesterday about myself and notice how I would rather push the image away. But could I be like this picture frame that will hold anything and in so doing honor its importance? Honor everything, no matter how mundane, no matter how frightening, as something worth knowing, something essential to what it means to be alive, a soup can, perhaps, a petunia, or a scream. How easily the frame says yes to the world, takes it in, anything, with no judgement, and offers it whatever beauty it has. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (https://ahundredfallingveils.com/2021/02/25/saying-yes-2/) Photo by pine watt (https://unsplash.com/@pinewatt?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/visual/991b65ca-5a9c-4aea-ab10-60e21afaa749?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

For Auld Lang Syne         —Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerWe’ll drink a cup of kindness yet,says the song, and I would give youthe cup, friend, would fill itwith whiskey or water or whateverwould best meet your thirst.I fill it with the terrifying beautyof tonight’s bonfire—giant licksof red and swirls of blue that consumewhat is dead and melt the iceand give warmth to what is here.I fill it with moonrise and snow crystaland the silver river song beneath the ice.With the boom of fireworks and with laughterthat persists through tears. WithLilac Wine and Over the Rainbow and Fever.I toast you with all the poems we’ve yet to writeand all the tears we’ve yet to weep,I hold the cup to your lips,this chalice of kindness, we’ll drink it yet,though the days are cold, the nights so long.         —Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer ____The Next Storm ComesAnd suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.         —Meister EckhartAnd suddenly you know it’s timeto shovel the drive. For though snowstill falls, at this moment it’s onlythree inches deep and you can still push it easilywith your two wide yellow shovels.Yes, it’s time to start something new—though it doesn’t feel new, thisshoving snow from one place to another.In fact, your shoulders still feelthe efforts of yesterday.But with each push of the shovels,the path on the drive is new again. At leastit’s new for a moment, new until snowfills it in. Then it’s a different kind of new.How many beginnings are like this?They don’t feel like beginnings at all?Or we miss their newness?Or they feel new only for a momentbefore they’ve lost their freshness?There is magic in beginnings, says Meister Eckhart,and sometimes we see beginnings all around us,a new path, a new promise, a new meal.A new prayer. New snow fall. A new song.Is it too grand to call it magic, this new calendar year?Too grand to call it magic, this momentaryclearing on the drive? Too grand to be magic,this momentary clearing in my thoughts?Or is it exactly, perhaps, what magic is—something we allow ourselves to believe,despite logic, despite reason, something that bringsus great pleasure, makes us questionwhat we thought we knew, our senseof what is possible changed.—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer_____Watching The Wizard of Oz on New Year’s Eve, I Think of a Resolution toward PeaceAs for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.—The Wizard to the Tin Man, The Wizard of Oz, Frank L. BaumGive us hearts that breakwhen we see how cruel the world can beand hands that extend toward others.Give us eyes that weep when we feelthe beauty of home, andlips to speak love, to apologize.Give us courage to say what must be saidand ears to hear what we’d rather not hearand eyes that will not turn the other wayfrom anyone in need.Give us brains that are wiredfor helpfulness, compassionand curiosity. Yes, let us ask for heartsthat break and break and growbigger in the breaking. Let uslove more than we think we can love.And the cup of kindness, may weever remember to drink of it,let us share it with each other.         —Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at emergingform.substack.com/subscribe

"It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be authentic." --Eric Gilbert, musician and friend   A virtual party hosted by Shelter in Place to celebrate the long-awaited new year! It’s an immersive audio experience, as Laura takes you around the Shelter in Place “house,” exploring different themed rooms, and meeting interviewees and listeners along the way.   Heard at the party: Sarah Ago, Anna Buchanan, Emily Chandler, Mattéa Davis, Sarah Edgell, Laura Park Figueroa, Taylor Fraser, Bart Garrett, Katie Garrett, Eric Gilbert, Elaine Grant, Anya Marchenko, Miko Marks, Muoki Musau, Edissa Nicolás-Huntsman, Katie Semro, and Andrew Ong. Seen at the party: Sean Donnelly, Christine Ferrouge, Nina LaCour, Andrew Calof, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Christie Aschwanden, Joyce Sanchez, Kirin Khan, Christopher Williams, Roxane Beth Johnson, James Jones, Mark Charles, Jen Sheedy, Hilary Davis, José Sanchez, Samantha Lee, Elmer Yazzie, Erica Huang, Shea Gilbert, Jana Riess, Sanjna Selvarajan, Marco Ambriz, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, Keith Watts, Tino Dinh, Meera Nair, Kara Lee Corthron, Chicava Honeychild, Nancy Agabian, Betsy Andrews, Debra Brehmer, Robyn Kraft, Caitlin Grace McDonnell, Leah Mueller, Jessie Serfilippi, Claudia Smith, Taté Walker, Vernon Keeve, Karyn Kloumann, Caroline Roux, Kelly Goldsmith, Jimmy Graham, Neil Pinkham, Georgia Wright, Amira Karaoud, Celine Gounder, and Teresa K. Miller. To see the 12 days of delight we sent to email subscribers, head over to the Extras page.  Episode transcript   Party co-hosts:(The Squad, our fabulous first class of apprentices) Eve Bishop Melissa Lent Gabriella Mrozowski Isobel Obrecht Winnie Shi Sarai Waters   We'd like to thank you for sharing Shelter in Place with your friends! When your friends subscribe using the link below, we'll send YOU a special thanks! https://refer.fm/shelter Shelter in Place is now part of the Hurrdat Media network. Hurrdat is a digital media and commercial video production company based in Omaha, NE. Find more podcasts and learn more about other services at HurrdatMedia.com.

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer – The Gift of PoetryAired Monday, December 7, 2020 at 11:00 AM PST / 2:00 PM EST / 6:00 PM GMT / 7:00 PM CETPoet and storyteller Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer gets audiences to wake up and take on their creative endeavors. She helps people find poetry in their own lives and tell their own stories. Join Voice Visionary Kara Johnstad and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer in a heartfelt conversation on the voice of poetry Honoring our stories and stilling our insatiable thirst for beauty and truth by starting a writing practice. What makes a poem want to sing into the night? How can we let poetry unfold with ease? Is poetry medicine for the soul? Can we learn to bend into a poem and like a willow, surrender at its feet?About Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerRosemerry co-hosts Emerging Form, a podcast on creative process.She teaches poetry for mindfulness retreats, women’s retreats, scientists, hospice, and more. Her poetry has appeared in O Magazine, on A Prarie Home Companion, in Rattle.com, and in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry. Her most recent collection, Hush, won the Halcyon Prize.To get in touch with Kara go to http://www.karajohnstad.com/Visit the Voice Rising show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/voice-rising/#RosemerryWahtolaTrommer #TheGiftOfPoetry #VoiceRising #KaraJohnstad

We thought it couldn't get any worse. We were wrong. A story about drugs, sex, and money, and why even in the face of fear, we're not giving up hope.The information I cited about Toxic Cyanobacteria can be found here and here. You can find Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer's daily poems here.------Follow Shelter in Place on Instagram and Facebook at @shelterinplacepodcast or on Twitter at @laurajoycedavis.As always, you can find more show notes, sign up for our newsletter, and support this show at shelterinplacepodcast.info.Use the code SHELTER when you buy wine from our sponsors winesforchange.com or brickandmortarwines.com and get 10% off your order. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Listening deeply, lovingly and fearlessly to one another is among the most nourishing and life-giving practices we humans can take up, and yet many of us have few places in our lives where we regularly do this. Perhaps that's because laying out a 'table made of listening' for one another, one that is open enough and solid enough and safe enough, calls on us to welcome parts of ourselves and others that we often push away. It turns out that the practice of listening to one another, difficult as it may be to start with, cultivates exactly the kind of welcome of ourselves that allows us to be a welcome to others. And that this is something deeply needed in the world and in our lives right now. This episode of Turning Towards Life is a conversation about conversation, hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace (http://www.wearethirdspace.org/) in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/turningtowardslife/) to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. We’re also on YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website (http://turningtowards.life/) . Our source this week is brought to us by Justin, and is written by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (https://ahundredfallingveils.com/about/) :  Setting In every conversation there is a table made of listening. Sometimes the tables are beautiful, solid, clean—the kind that can support anything you put on them. Sometimes, they’re like the tv dinner trays of my childhood— a little rickety, but they’ll do if what’s put on them is light. Sometimes they’re so cluttered that whatever’s placed on their surface is almost immediately lost. Let tonight’s table have a small vase of flowers and a candle perhaps, nothing else. May it be small enough we might see each other’s eyes, might notice every nuance of breath. Whomever I am most nervous to invite, may I invite them. And though the tea is just a metaphor, may I offer. May they accept. - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Photo by Alvin Engler (https://unsplash.com/@englr?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText&fbclid=IwAR0ActG_N7gPZaz7wLQKJW0Z2l2aGXBibscxY5TGlLl1_hFls_OUvwW3_Jk) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/table?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText&fbclid=IwAR1Dqu1XALxtoi8hRC99Rfxl9C1Vll0HxWTi3jH1uP5geMOg8s3z5wcUXs0)

Erin Cassidente shares about Christ's call to forgive, despite how difficult or frequent that may be. She couples this with the call to seek justice, reading Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer's poem, "In the Steps of RBG."

by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

- San Miguel County considers increasing lodging capacity - Telluride increases enforcement of Valley Floor dog restrictions - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer looks for connection in new book of poetry

How about we find a way to live without permanently being annoyed that things aren't just as we'd like them? Might that not be a path to some joy? Could we give up the way we exhaust ourselves (and often others!) by our attempts to push life around, to control it, to have things just our way? A conversation about creativity, relationship, what happens when we let ourselves fall into life, and giving up trying to herd cats, with Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace (http://www.wearethirdspace.org/) in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/turningtowardslife/) to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. We’re also on YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website (http://turningtowards.life/) . Our source for this week is written by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (https://www.wordwoman.com/) , from her book 'Naked for Tea (https://www.wordwoman.com/books/naked-for-tea/) ', and brought to us by Justin. Perhaps it would eventually erode, but... Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer That rock that we have been pushing up the hill—that one that keeps rolling back down and we keep pushing back up—what if we stopped? We are not Sisyphus. This rock is not a punishment. It’s something we’ve chosen to push. Who knows why. I look at all the names we once carved into its sedimentary sides. How important I thought they were, those names. How I’ve clung to labels, who’s right, who’s wrong, how I’ve cared about who’s pushed harder and who’s been slack. Now all I want is to let the rock roll back to where it belongs, which is wherever it lands, and you and I could, imagine!, walk unencumbered, all the way to the top and walk and walk and never stop except to discover what our hands might do if for once they were no longer pushing. www.wordwoman.com (https://www.wordwoman.com/) Photo by Pablo Heimplatz (https://unsplash.com/@pabloheimplatz?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText&fbclid=IwAR3MUzHA6amXJzJNjEa3hKv2-5A-zz63sFfMKpbAvjcV2z7WxyrlS76PSs4) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/rock?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText&fbclid=IwAR2HTTGy5Xw5D97hHS9qQDovkLvCgJuxwS2I3jIefKfE0tJ0rnYDvngHL-E)

Episode #41 welcomes Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and her most recent book, Naked for Tea. Rosemerry has been a regular contributor to Poets Respond and the Ekphrastic Challenge for years. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer lives in southwest Colorado and is the author of eleven collections of poetry. Her poems have appeared in O Magazine, Rattle.com, TEDx, in back alleys, on A Prairie Home Companion, and on river rocks she leaves around town. She’s taught poetry for Think 360, Craig Hospital, Ah Haa School for the Arts, Weehawken Creative Arts, Camp Coca-Cola, meditation retreats, addiction recovery programs, hospice, and many other organizations. She’s won the Fischer Prize, Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, the Dwell Press Solstice Prize, the Writer’s Studio Literary Contest, and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. As Colorado’s Western Slope Poet Laureate (2015–2017), she created and curates Heard of Poets, an interactive poetry map. She earned her MA in English Language & Linguistics at UW-Madison. Since 2006, she’s written a poem a day. One-word mantra: Adjust. Naked for Tea was a finalist for the 2017 Able Muse Book Award. For more information, visit: https://www.wordwoman.com/ As always, we'll also include live open mic for responses to our weekly prompt. For details on how to participate, either pre-recorded, via Skype, or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Run-on-sentence poem. Write a prose poem consisting of one long sentence (commas and other punctuation OK). Next Week's Prompt: From the perspective of a ghost or spirit. The Rattlecast will be livestreaming on YouTube, Facebook, and Periscope.

In honor of Mother's Day, Laura shares this very special bonus episode, a conversation with Emerging Form's hosts, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Christie Aschwanden. They talk about motherhood, creativity in the time of COVID-19, and what the daily practice of creating has taught them during this time of life in a pandemic. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Emerging Form is a podcast about the creative process. It’s a discussion between a poet and a science journalist, recorded over wine. Episode 1 introduces hosts Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Christie Aschwanden as well as the podcast’s patron saint, poet Jack Mueller. And the hosts wrestle with what it really means to be in service … Continue reading Episode 1: Introducing Emerging Form → This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at emergingform.substack.com/subscribe

A long (and long overdue) episode of conversations with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, multimedia multi-threat. Rosemerry spoke to her birthday twin Uche then Kierstin in 2017. Uche and Kierstin also talk Wayne Miller, Dylan Thomas meets Drake, Lawrence Durrell's "Nemea" and more.

Excerpts from the Poets' Co-op TV Episode 54 featuring Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer reading at her Liquid Light Press Book Launch Party on February 24, 2012. She is reading from her chapbook, The Miracle Already Happening, Everyday Life with Rumi released by Liquid Light Press in the Winter of 2012. (See www.liquidlightpress.com for details.) The reading was held a Ziggie's Lounge in Denver, Colorado, and this excerpt includes three poems for the book, "Rumi Goes to the Beach," "Rumi Goes to the Kindergarten" & "Dear Rumi." Please see www.videopoetry.org for more great poetry.

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer on the Poets Co-op TV Show on CCTV 54 in Louisville, Colorado, on March 7, 2010 . An excerpt from Episode 30 of the Poets Co-op TV Show featuring Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer performing Confession of a Stay at Home Mom, Moving Toward Smoothfully and After Having My Manuscript Rejected by Ghost Road Press. Please see www.videopoetry.org for more great poetry.