October 6 : Online Sangha Creative Writing and Meditation
If you don’t want to write, you can draw, collage, compose music, whatever art form feels right for you today. Whatever issue you are contemplating, bring it in to the Sangha, and spend time contemplating and reflecting on new meaning. We are always on the search for meaning.
Process:
Our meditation process begins with an affirmative script. Today’s choice was by Joyce Rupp, from her book Open the Door: A Journey to the True Self (https://joycerupp.com/open-the-door/)
You stand outside the door
reading one more book about how to open the door.
You note in your journal one more thought about what it might be like.
Yet the longings of your heart remain.
Let today be the day you open the door of your heart…” (Joyce Rupp)
Meditation:
Today we again invite Medicine Buddha into our meditation, to heal and comfort.
(https://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-invoke-the-medicine-buddha/)
Writing Process:
Writing Prompt from Writing Coach in a Box by Alan Anderson (https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/advice/why-put-writing-coach-box)
Want Need and Do
Whenever you want to make sure that your story is focused and your characters have a good grip on the reader, ask yourself three simple questions:
What does this character want?
What do they need?
What are they doing about it?
Sourced from Alan Anderson’s Writing Coach in a Box
We write for 25 minutes, and we do not expect it to be anything but a bad Draft 1. Here is what I wrote today: it’s ‘bad’ writing, but it’s the beginning of something that will be developed, or won’t be, for my new script, Mrs Weaver at the End of the World. I post this to assure anyone considering joining us that we don’t have to be good writers. We need to be committed to good writing. And that takes time and process, turning up to the page, or the canvas, day after day.
MARGI’S WRITING ATTEMPT TODAY, OCTOBER 6:
Below is a rough first draft (the only thing changed from the first write on the page is punctuation, so you can read it more smoothly…)
This is a conversation between Mrs Weaver and her creator, Margi
Draft 1 of Many
(or it may end up in the bin)
Zac Callaghan and the results of Pancho, his dog…Pancho must have known how much we all love this book…he loved it too… The YA book is The Boy Maeve, by Kai Ash, a delightful and profound tale about a young boy growing up in a female body.
What do you want? What do you really want? I want community, to build my community, as I did back when I created The Belonging Trilogy. We met each week for over a year and a half, brought creative tasks to the table, and shared scones, lime cookies, and lots of tea. We created together, growing each other’s ideas as we prepared for the HOME season at La Boite. I want to build that again.
How do I do that now? The world has changed so much.
To build.
Begin with Want. Your desire to create community. But your big want, Mrs Weaver, everyone’s big want, is to be seen. And there is the tension. The version that you present to the world, and the actual inside landscape version of who you are in this moment.
That is the tension. Mrs Weaver, you wish to be Lady Bountiful. But inside? you are scared? Are you scared, Mrs Weaver? Are you scared?
Mrs Weaver (sometimes aka Margi) holds her fear close. It’s so close, she doesn't even see it. But it creeps out. Oh yes. It does. I see it when you get up in the morning. The legs creak and your feet hurt. It’s that ankle, isn’t it? I have one too. You’re old Mrs Weaver. Old and fighting off frailty.
Mrs Weaver puffs her chest up and stares so hard at me. Her neruodiverse eyes stare hard. Dark brown. Stare-right-through-eyes.
It’s not fear, you ridiculous woman. It’s anxiety. I am anxious. Anxious about everything.
Anxiety can be motivating. Sometimes. And sometimes it can squash you.
Like this morning.
I made a beautiful cup of tea.
Boil the jug with fresh water.
Assam tea leaves.
Wait for it to brew.
Pour the milk into a tiny bowl ready to add after brewing.
sit in my chair, reach for my book
time passes
I forget the tea
I am distracted by the latest post on Facebook. This time, Facebook, but yesterday it was The Guardian. Or was it Substack. Do you understand how much anxiety a missed cup of tea causes?
Beautiful tea leaves, handpicked in northern India and flown to The Tea Centre in Brisbane Arcade. I bought heaps Just in case.
That’s your anxiety again. Fear of missing out. FOMO.
Mrs Weaver, did you know that 1 in 4 people in Australia suffer from anxiety at some point in their lives?
Mrs Weaver puts her hand up, like a stop sign:
STOP
But this is not just an occasional worry. it’s far more than that. It’s not motivating. It is crippling.
I can’t concentrate.
I can’t sleep.
I can’t carry on with my life.
Mrs Weaver, you stop!
It sounds so general. Almost cliché.
General is real, she yells back
There’s even a name for it.
Generalised Anxiety Disorder. GAD.
I know this! I trained as a therapist.
I know you did. So did I.
But is it wise to label this thing that keeps you from sleeping?
Can’t you just accept that, for now, you cannot sleep?
No.
And that’s as far as I got today. What I am enjoying in the writing is the dance between the writer, (me) and the character, Mrs Weaver. I am not sure how that can be staged, but at this stage of the game, I don’t mind not knowing. And of course that is when you turn to your collaborators.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow will see me in the Zoom room once again, meditating, calming my mind, and then writing from a prompt. See you there, if you are up for it,
Margi
Photo by Dead Puppet Society, as part of a Creative Development, The Princess Theatre, Brisbane August 2025