re-imagine and re-story your life and work

1. The Drama of the Moment: Zoom Writing Wordshop
   Zoom: Sun 29 Nov 09.30 – 12.40 R340 pp (12 max)
   To the pens Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. Coming back is not the same as never leaving. (Terry Pratchett)
   Dramatic moments are not always about living and dying. When the sky
   cracks open. They are about the silent and vocal in-betweens – when
   change knocks on your your front door, when a dream calls you to attention, when you pack a bag. All writing, in whatever genre – life story, fiction, poem play – is about drama. Paying attention to the moment, to how the present changes, to what happens next. The impact of weather.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Dec-2020-whats-on.pdf

Dear seeker of words and images

So absolute, it is
no other than
happiness itself, a breathing
too quiet to hear.
(Denise Levertov)

The Education of the Heart

In Thomas Moore’s book (1996) he pays tribute to the sources
that he drew from in Care of the Soul, Soul Mates and The Re-
Enchantment of Everyday Life.
In this letter I wish to pay tribute to four wellsprings, flowing
from an underground stream that I draw from to quench my living
water thirst. They speak, as mystic do, of abundant life beyond
the illusion of borders. These books/poems/stories have been
resonating in the world for years before I stumbled upon them.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Dec-2020-letter.pdf

Dear seeker of words and images
I saw grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out, “It tastes sweet, does it not?” “You’ve caught me,” grief answered, “and you’ve ruined my business, how can I sell sorrow when you know it’s a blessing?” – Jalaluddin Rumi

The Cup of Grief
Grief keeps the heart flexible, fluid, and open to others. (Francis Weller)
Peter Fox, my friend, showed me recently. Francis Weller’s, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief. (see youtube video Newschool Comonweal Oct 2016) So grief arrives once again on this month’s newsletter radar.

To write of grief is to write of love- not only in their spacial co-habitation but also in volume – the galaxies of words that have hosted these two shooting stars ever since the first person scratched the first signs and symbols of sorrow in the sand. This letter is rich in a scattering of quotes that have inspired my spaceship’s navigation in such a fathomless cosmos.

The cosmos nescientia – the cosmos of unknowing. Here be skydragons, hurled rocks racing through space. From an unfolding galaxy of light years of literature, I share a scattering, a handful of grief stars. They remain constant even in the unseen dazzle of the joy of the day.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Nov-2020-letter.pdf

1. Zoom: The Rough Writing Road: Keeping a Journal
   Sun I Nov 2020 09.30 – 12.40ish R340 pp (14 max)
   Why the rough road? It’s writing that has not been crafted or edited.
   Spontaneous. Rough also as in rough days. It’s the place of beginning.
   Many writers have kept journals. The journal is a
   vehicle for my sense of selfhood. It represents me
   as emotionally and spiritually independent.
   Therefore (alas) it does not simply record my
   actual, daily life but rather—in many cases—offers
   an alternative to it. (Susan Sontag)
   Journals inform and support all genres. As a think
   book a plan book an open-hearted one. Instants
   of inspiration. As William Blake says, kissing the
   moment as it flies. This wordshop will lead you into
   keeping that vital journal.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Nov-2020-whats-on.pdf

Ancestral Karma
Let’s begin with numbers 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024
These numbers = ancestral multiplication. We are at the bottom, the vortex, the focal point of an expanding V. Two parents, four grandparents , eight great-grand etc. etc. In 10 generations over 1000 people are alive in our cells, directly. Singing the chorus of our bodies. We are a choral work.

In Present Moment Wonderful Moment, Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us ‘If you look into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. You are the continuation of each of these people.’

One day we too will be ancestors. If we extend the other way, passing on genes and DNA to those who come after us, we’re into diminishing fractions – ½ ¼ 1/8 1/16 1/32 – half of us in our children , ¼ in our grandchildren, etc etc. Most of us concede that genetic influence, physical attributes, disposition, unresolved issues run down-hill, given that the past influences the present. This is so yet if we move beyond linear time, there are those ever-present moments that TS. Eliot writes of in his oft-quoted meditation:

Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Oct-2020-letter-1.pdf

Zoom meet and teach – mini wordshops

Hi Dorian, am already addicted to your zingy zoom and would like to join you for the next ‘word chops’…and find strength and joy
in the river of your unfolding. (Silja)

Folks connect, enjoy the company and experience, and in no time are writing away. Cost: R320 per wordshop of 3+ hours 09.30 -12.45 SA time
I create a space that is safe, supportive and encouraging
Please email me if you want to be part of this experience. I’ll explain how to prepare for the session and send you the zoom link to click on.
Beginner writers welcome. We re-experience beginner’s mind. No pressure to share. You can be a silent listener if you are more comfortable with that.

Here are 2 retreat/wordshop offerings

1.Families Ancestors and your story
Sun 13 Sept 2020 09.30 – 12.40ish R320 pp (12 max)
Our stories are gifts we give each other and gifts we leave behind us. For one day we too will be ancestors. In this wordshop we tell and write our stories and place them next to those of our family, immediate, extended and chosen. The idea of family can include not only blood but our spiritual tradition, culture and the line of those who share our passions.

2. Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo
bookings brcixopo@futurenet.co.za 039 834 1863

2a. Between First In-breath and Last Out-breath: The Art of Story-telling
Fri 25- Sun 27 September 2020
Ever since I heard my first love story I have been looking for you (Rumi)
Who is the who that Rumi alludes to? There is something deeply fictional about us human beings. We are the stories we tell about ourselves. Rediscover the lost art of story-telling. Experience the joy, presence, mindfulness and transformation that arrive when we engage with a tale, learn how to craft it and inhabit it. We begin to see our lives as a story, keeping pace with the rhythm of our hearts, balanced between the in and the out of our breathing. Be enchanted by Zen and other tales from many paths.

2b. The Poet Hiding Inside: How to live and write poetry Sun 20 –Tues 22 September 2020 I believe that poetry is a primal impulse within us all. …we are all capable of it … a small, often ignored corner of us yearns to try it (Stephen Fry) Do you love reading poetry? Do you yearn to write poems? Poetry is a way of paying attention, listening, being in the moment and observing the world. We enter the world of images, rhythm, sound and subtle rhyme. We open to our creativity and imagination. As we cultivate a sense of belonging, our words offers us relationship, presence and healing. We can all live poetically and find the words that balance voice and silence. Together we shine light into ignored corners and engage with the craft that calls us.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Sept-2020-whats-on-1.pdf

Dear seeker of words and images
I could be bound in a nutshell and count myself the king of infinite space
(Hamlet)
Shakespeare could have been writing in a lockdown phase when Hamlet
pronounces and Macbeth laments ‘I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound into saucy doubts and fears.’ In this Spring letter I return to the primacy of
the imagination. I suggest while we are inside a room, perhaps alone or zoomscreen bound, say on a writing retreat, we can enter the reaches of the
imagination to bring the outside world in and inside world out.

inside the outside then you will inherit the Kingdom (Queendom.)’
In the gnostic gospel of St Thomas we read ’when you make the outside the inside and My friend, Igno van Niekerk, photographer and author and I have been experimenting with zoomagine- three of many ways of opening up and out the zoom experience. – being in nature, entering memory and entertaining the imagination.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Sept-2002-Newsletter-1.pdf

Zoom – winter 2020 offerings

Days of social distancing can also be days of self-nearing, self- nourishing

Wherever you are in the world… you can be part of a ‘virtual’ group or enjoy one-on-one mentoring

The online support is alive and well – The Rough Writing Road Journal course, Poetry, Fiction, Writing your Spiritual Journey, Downtime with Dori, one-on–one mentoring and mini-wordshops

Zoom meet and teach – mini wordshops

Hi Dorian, am already addicted to your zingy zoom and would like to join you for the next ‘word chops’…and find strength and joy in the river of your unfolding. (Silja)

I invite you to these 2 zoom wordshops: (see below for themes). Folks respond positively. They connect, enjoy the company and experience, and in no time are writing away.

Cost: R320 per wordshop of 3+ hours 09.30 -12.45 SA time A discount if you subscribe to both wordshops = R300 x 2

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Aug-2020-whats-on.pdf

Dear seeker of words and images

Whoever is innerly silent touches the roots of speech (Rilke)

A recent dream offered this month’s theme. Two teams engage in a debate. The first sprouts forth, articulating wisdom and insight, adding irrefutable argument and reference. Brilliantly structured and delivered. Now is the turn of the other team. This team chooses to respond in silence for the length allowed – some 40 minutes. Despite provocation, jeering, hurled questions, they hold the silence.

In waking, in lucid dreaming I add for the silent team, four images they project onto a screen. The Buddha holding up a flower in his silent flower sermon. The Rilke quote prefacing this letter. Rumi. ‘Where the lips are silent, the heart knows a thousand ways to speak.’ And Jung on solitude.

http://dorianhaarhoffblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Aug-2020-letter-1.pdf