Hello. I am a writer, have been for 60 years. I told myself I would have to write a novel by the time I was 25, or I would never write, and so with one infant son, Marc, and one on the way, Greg, I sat down at 24 to write Waterwall. That is the reason we are here together. Since then, there are 20 or so books and plays and countless essays and other publications. To my surprise and deep satisfaction, I have lived a writer’s life, but writing is not one’s only activity, but rather one must, I think, be deeply engaged otherwise to have something worthwhile to communicate. Because writing is, essentially, a conversation and when I write, I imagine you reading, and I am responding, and so are you, and the bond is made – interconnection, interdependence, relationship.
I started another Blog, Ruin and Beauty, on WordPress, (https://deenametzger.wordpress.com/) and wrote the introduction to it on September 11, 2010. We will publish that essay here next. Everything I say in it, still stands, though the precipitating events may have yielded to others. Here is a paragraph from then. (The other essays on that blog will migrate here over time.)
I STARTED WRITING THIS BECAUSE I AM ANGUISHED ABOUT THE STATE OF THE WORLD AND SO ARE YOU. I cannot imagine coming to the end of my life and realizing that I didn’t do everything I could have done, that I was distracted or preoccupied, and I didn’t become everything I could have become to help save the natural world, the environment, the earth, all life, Creation. You reading this, most probably feel the same way; so let us begin and proceed undaunted on behalf of Beauty.
THERE ARE SECRET PASSAGEWAYS TO ANOTHER VITAL LIFE FOR THIS PLANET. You have to find yours and burrow through. You have a unique way waiting for you that belongs to you. It is the exact fulfillment of your life, experience, understanding, suffering and heart. As I have mine. Each of ours is distinct, but aligned and harmonious with each other’s. Restoring Creation is what we will do together.
For the rest of the introduction, I am a writer, a teacher, a healer and Earth advocate. I live at the end of the road at the border of Topanga State Park with a variety of neighbors including mountain lions, bobcats, raccoons, coyotes, squirrels, rabbits, moles, gophers, rattlers, and a variety of birds who come to the bird feeder every day or to drink at the Buddha fountain.
I have been engaged with bringing several new ways of thinking into the world. They include ReVisioning Medicine, the 19 Ways, and the Literature of Restoration. You will hear about them from time to time and, always, about the elephants whom I have met in the wild on many occasions over the last 20 years. I introduced Daré, community gathering on behalf of healing in 1999 and it has been meeting the first Sunday after the new moon since then, first on the land I inhabit and now online. (Find out about Daré here -- deenametzger.net). I assume you will hear about these and other engagements from time to time and, always, about the Elephants who I have met in the wild on many occasions over the last 20 or so years. Sometimes when a child looks at me curiously, I say, “Well, I am an Elephant,” because the likelihood is that a child will understand.
I do not know how often I will post on this site. It will not be regular, while I hope not too intermittent. My expectation is that there will be a mix of formal essays like this opening essay, and more conversational pieces, shorter, more urgent. Sometimes a poem. I don’t know. The creative process is mysterious and follows its own rivers and rhythms and my task is to follow it.
Thank you for the opportunity for us to spend time together. The books referred to above will be listed so you can acquaint yourself with them. The latest, La Vieja: A Journal of Fire, will be published on March 1, 2022.
