The other night, as I was scrolling through social media right before bed (never advisable, yet there we go), a question popped up in my mind: What am I even looking for?
As soon as I’d asked, there was a candidate answer: I’m looking for words that can get through to me right now.
Something rightly pitched, a mix of reassuring and galvanizing. Something my heart can rest in. Words in which I can recognize myself as already good enough, as part of the solution, just as I am, right now — without needing more ability, courage or energy.
Huh. Isn’t that interesting?
I’ve been reflecting on this need and how to care for myself right now. How to be kind and gentle while navigating frightening newsflow, another cold, and my work — including that of sharing my workshop ‘Embodied Values in Academic Writing’, which starts on the 11th of March.
This workshop is something I am really looking forward to. I want to give it every chance of reaching those of you who’d like more clarity and self-trust in your approach to individual and collaborative research writing.
But I know that I need to back off from the idea of pushing it out. It doesn’t make sense from where I’m at, nor does it align with the workshop’s ethos of exploring values in a way that affirms the goodness of who we already are.
So I’m going to share something that nourished me recently, in the hope that perhaps it might nourish you, too. And then, I’ll connect it to the theme of the workshop so that you know a bit more about where I’m coming from and whether it might be right for you.
(If you want just the bare bones, please skip ahead to Key details below and/or the offer page.)
Enter Sharon
I didn’t find what I was looking for on social media that night, but I realized I’d found some very good words a few days earlier.
This was in a piece by Dr Sharon Blackie, a psychologist with a background in mythology and folklore. Sharon, one of my wise elders, wrote this just a few weeks ago.
“Fairy tales remind us…” the passage begins, but whether or not fairy tales themselves happen to interest you is really not so relevant:
Fairy tales remind us that there’s only one question we really need to ask about the meaning of life, and then to answer – each in our own uniquely gifted way. That question isn’t just how we survive, but how we survive with integrity, insisting on seeing life as beautiful all the way up to our final, dying breath. That’s always been the fundamental human question, and it’s still the fundamental human question – amidst all the soul-shattering sound and fury – today.
A pause to let that sink in.
Are you letting out a sigh? Feeling your heart alive in your chest a little more? Feeling your spine a little lengthened and strengthened?
You may or may not: we don’t all resonate with words in the same way, or resonate with the same words, and that’s only a good thing.
But ah! for me this does it. This gets through, sets me straight in the best of ways, grounds me in a foundational yet doable task. As a researcher, I love that this task consists of asking and then answering a question. As a person who has a strong need to do things her own way (we all do), I love that I’m directed to my unique gifts, which also comes with the reassurance that I already have what I need. But best of all? These heart-enlivening, spine-strengthening words: how do we survive with integrity?
Exploring values in academic writing
Integrity and values are bedfellows, so naturally there are parallels between Sharon’s words and the upcoming workshop ‘Embodied Values in Academic Writing’.
In this workshop, we will explore values as resting places, places to ground yourself in your research and writing. They’re points from which to act, and we can’t act from everywhere at once.
It’s restful to know where you’re grounded. This clarity allows you to say, ‘I know what’s most deeply important to me in this moment, and I’m at peace with the limitations of that.’
This workshop may be right for you if you:
- feel overwhelmed by the demands of writing and publishing, and are longing for more inner calm, centredness, and self-trust;
- are less clear than you used to be about the principles and priorities you work from, and wish to come back to greater clarity;
- find yourself in tension or conflict with a coauthor, collaborator, superior, editor, reviewer — or even more broadly with your academic environment — and want new tools for tending to your writing and your relationships with care;
- are simply curious about what you’ll learn and discover about the kind of writer, researcher and person you are in a guided inquiry that connects values to writing.
Key details
Embodied Values in Academic Writing
- A 3-part workshop via Zoom
- Tuesdays 11 March, 25 March and 8 April, 3-5 pm CET.
- All sessions are recorded so even if you can’t make all of them live, you’ll be able to follow along with this experiential inquiry.
We start next week! There are, as of the time of writing, 6 places left.
You can find more details on the offer page.
Please reach out if you have questions.
And if this speak to you, please join! It would be lovely to have you be a part of this.
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Meanwhile, I hope you, too, are finding ways to care for yourself and let yourself be cared for, amidst all the soul-shattering sound and fury.
It is, and will always remain, so important.
warmly,
Catelijne
Reference: Sharon Blackie’s piece, ‘The meaning of hospitality’, from which the quote comes, is available on Substack for paid subscribers.
Photographs on this page: skylight by Jinsoo Choi, reflective sphere by Yeshi Kangrang.
