Welcome to the Life-triggered
Writing Studio
“This is the place where life happens & soul takes note.”- JSR
WRITING WORKSHOPS — Using AWA (Amherst Writers and Artists) Methods — 2024-2025 CALENDAR (Under Construction) 
SACRED GROUND Stories reveal Divine in human 
BLOG (look over her shoulder as she practices the art of “life-triggered-writing”) 
STORY-CHASE . . . ENTER HERE if you found an invitation to the Rich Story-Chase 
CLUB 28 — Trying on the Bible-based 28 fundamental beliefs of Seventh-day Adventism
There are moments in life when everything comes together — when past, present, and future are all standing there, in the same place, looking you right in the eyes. How do you feel with them all together — standing there, in the same place, at the same time, looking at you? Try this: Describe the three stances . . . (Write yours before you read mine or it can accidentally take on characteristics of mine) . . .Continue reading by clicking on the picture.
Ground gone . . . My feet have left the ground, my heart hangs midway between hallowed home and the unknown. . . I wonder who we would be, if we let the spaces where our feet are, be the spaces where our ears hear and eyes see. . . I invite you to . . .imagine your pen (or keyboard) as a paintbrush or camera. Point it inside, to your internal landscape — your thoughts, wonderings, words or images and capture them quickly with lists, drawings, incomplete sentences even. . . Quinn. What will he look like — muscles on top like when we was competing with his college pole vaulting team, or still thin and lithe as someone who eats what he likes and moves when he wants to move? His brother was very thin when he finished military training, gaunt with an institutionalized face, far-away at-attention stare with razor sharp movements. But, he is not his brother. He is himself, in his own military branch with his own life-sized purpose there. He signed papers the day after he told me, told me last, and has barely called. . .(Click on the picture to read the whole post).
I invite you to close your eyes and think of someone, from memory or imagination, well-known and familiar to you — and make a list of the first 5 things about that person that come to mind . . . When I close my eyes, I can see him still, coming out of the back room where he spends time, doing the things he does. . . When I close my eyes, I can still see him, driving the big, burgandy bike up the long concrete driveway. . . When I close my eyes, I can see him still, looking at the trim, blonde he has had next to him for more than thirty years. He watches her with a crooked smile on his lips, like he knows exactly what mischief they are about to get into and remembers all of the ways she has enticed, teased, and tendered him. . . It only took a few concrete details about my friend John Jones, to let you experience him too. (Click on the picture to read the whole blog).
Click on a picture to land in that writing practice blog
Sacred Ground
(Click on the picture to find those on Sacred Ground)
If careful, we see fellow-kind walking their sacred ground. If watchful, divine light illuminates life and reaches out as story to wrap us in one space.
“As for me and my house . . .”
This is a story in three parts — of one too young whose own life he took, of a family that turned house of mourning into house of praise, and then, of a community sending satan away with shouts and songs . . .
The words that follow may seem unrelated to the world’s story of death, or even to the story of him that you know, but they are words that I witnessed God speaking bigger than human understanding on that March day in 2022. . . (Excerpt from Under the Mango Tree . . .)
(Photo credit: Madison Avenue Photography)
“I wonder which hat a widow wears . . .”
Silent as she walks back, the whole, entire length of Vern’s Table— touching his newspaper pirate hat, his green dragon plush hat, cowboy hat, yacht captain’s hat . . . as we’ve seen her touch him a million times . . .until, off the stage she steps, joining the audience, listening to others talk about him, hearing sermon about wonders to come . . . we can almost see the thought occur
I wonder which hat a widow wears . . .when she has put all of her husband’s hats away?
Dear One — Daily Devotion Letters
What if we are separated from one we love and desperate to connect . . .we decide to write a daily letter. . .but what story is big enough as we yearn for them, crave their voice and touch, grieve our lost time together?
(Please click on a picture for the corresponding devotional)
“In real life, I miss you so much. I want to hold your hand and hear you laugh–I want to talk and talk and talk about big and little things . . .it’s desperation making me write these letters because I must have a carved-out space, safe from this life place and time of being separated. In these letters I will blatantly speak the God-Story. I have nothing bigger or better or more urgent to share.” (Storytelling While We Wait excerpt)
“It is my hope that you; first believe the voice you hear calling you, and second, allow yourself the experience of saying yes – to being overwhelmed by His presence – bigger than you and more than you, so you may live beyond you … Just try it once, and you will never want to live as “merely human” again. (Merely Human excerpt)
“I pray that you feel God’s presence in the supernatural might of all things natural. I pray that you believe God’s commitment to relationship between Himself and all things living, through our seasons of starts and stops. I pray that we continue to watch for and live in the spaces, where matter ends and Divine begins.” (Power Big Enough for Order excerpt)
“May the sounds of God and Spiritual drown out all enemy talk and silence athiests. . .May you realize how narrowly we’ve missed being gods, so you remember how much your God loves you. You are His image on this earth, given charge of His handcrafted world, given the Genesis-charge . . .May you walk with purpose through this place He created, knowing He is your daddy-Jesus and the Lover of your soul! (Happy Between 2 Psalms excerpt)
The Wedding Chronicles
The Wedding Chronicles started with …
90 days away and today I wake with a God-call — claiming my engagement as well as the marriage to come. He has reached out, touched my mouth, and said, “Look! I’ve just put my words in your mouth — hand-delivered! Let me catch you up on our backstory. I have been single, divorced, and a solo parent for 10 years — and now, I am 90 days away from being a married, co-parent, and life-sharer. (Click on Bride’s pre-wedding picture to read more)
Writing Triggers
I dare you to click on this picture . . .for you will find yourself there!
Rich Writing Studio 