Creative Wordshops Newsletter March 2026

Throw yourself like seed as you walk, and into your own field,
Don’t turn your face for that would be to turn it to death,
And do not let the past weigh down your motion.
Leave what’s alive in the furrow, what’s dead in yourself,
For life does not move in the same way as a group of clouds;
From your work you will be able one day to gather yourself. (Miguel de Unamuno)

Many Selves

Writing and storytelling can be blessed work in the sense of play. Here are two versions of a story (Tony Grogan illustrations) that speak many tongues.
Traveller Tzu-gung encounters an old man struggling i to irrigate his vegetable garden. Tzu-gung says, “There is a way to irrigate a hundred ditches in one day with little effort. Take a wooden lever, weighted at the back and light in front. In this way you can bring up water so quickly that it just gushes out. This is called a draw-well.”
Anger shows in the old man’s face, and he says, “I have heard my teacher say that whoever uses machines does all his work like a machine. He who does his work like a machine grows a heart like a machine, and he who carries the heart of a machine in his breast loses his simplicity. He who has lost his simplicity becomes unsure in the strivings of his soul, which does not agree with honest sense. It is not that I do not know of such things; I am ashamed to use them.” (This could be a cautionary AI tale)