Episode #8: A Writing Spa: Cucumbers Optional (featuring Anne Hansen)

Show notes:

Laying the first snowshoe tracks on a sunny day after a blizzard illustrates a fresh start as well as any. For students, beginning a new quarter after a bruising term of chemistry describes the same.  We search for a new start as the pandemic continues to wear us down, isolate us,  and curb our plans. It has forced us to find new ways forward. This new year brings a blank slate of possibility. 

In the first episode I explained how learning to podcast was one way I found to cope with this pandemic, new skills that would have eluded me for my lifetime. I also enrolled in a writing class, one that I had delayed for the past ten years, and of which more than likely would have been postponed for another ten. This episode's guest invited me to join her writing class, and contorted her schedule making it impossible for me to decline. I would soon find the experience one of growth and exhilaration, sensing the universe nudging me to lean into the difficult, the awkward, and the sometimes humiliating process of improving and learning. While the universe nudges, we resist, we hide, we avoid uncomfortable paths and situations that might be calling us to a satisfying life just on the other side of our comfort zones. 

I welcome Anne Hansen, of the Writing Spa, who has been teaching and helping to take the fear out of writing, since 1972 for nearly every age. She inspires this episode of a clean slate to start the new year learning something new, or, improving something familiar, or taking a risk to reach just beyond a comfort zone for a satisfying life.

Post Show Notes: What a pleasure to host Anne Hansen. She brings a light spirit to any conversation and the wisdom of a person teaching since 1972. Thanks for joining this episode Anne!