Word Whips!

In a previous post, I mentioned Pandora's Collective (www.pandorascollective.com) - an organization whose mission is "Promoting the Arts That Inspire the World to Take Notice of Itself". One of their ongoing events is called Word Whips. This caught my eye because I love the title...makes me think of a tasty treat you put together with just a few ingredients...like whipped shortbread! (Just to prove how easy it is to make something so yummy, I will include the recipe at the bottom of this post).
Word Whips takes place on the 2nd Tuesday of the month on the North Shore and on the 4th Tuesday of the month at Britannia Library on Napier St, just off of Commercial Drive. I went to the Britannia location last night and quite simply, I found pleasure in every bit of the evening. I had a nice 30 minute drive to unwind from a busy and emotional Tuesday. Once I found the building I drove about a block away, parked my car and stepped out in to the late evening sun, making sure to remember to bring my water bottle with me. I get thirsty when I write. It was 6:36 pm. I was a few minutes late, but for the first time in my Taurean life I didn't feel that I would be struck down by lightning for this crime. In fact, I even looked around enough as I walked to notice a really cool gardening feature in someone's front yard. And I wasn't the least bit self-conscious that I was going to be entering a building I didn't know, looking for a group of people I'd never met, to do something I'd never done before. That is very unlike me!
I walked into the quaint library and noticed my heart rate was still normal! (So strange, who is this girl?) I spotted an eclectic group of 6 people to my immediate left, sitting around two conjoined tables, scrap paper in front of each person and more in a pile at the centre of the table. These people have to be writers, I thought.
After brief and friendly introductions, the host Bonnie Nish, who is an executive director of Pandora's Collective, announced that our theme that night was Light. Our first source of inspiration? A burnt-out lightbulb, to which we had ten minutes to write. All day I had ached to write about my mother as I have been experiencing a sudden renewal in my grief over her passing. How could I pass up this opportunity to relate this lightbulb to the moment of my mom's final breath? And so I wrote and freed myself, if only temporarily, of that moment.
I further surprised myself by volunteering to share my work. We wrote to probably another 4 or 5 prompts, all encompassing the theme of Light, and I shared about 3 in total. Every time anybody shared we offered snaps (I learned this is how the Beatniks offered appreciation when meeting in coffeeshops so as not to disturb patrons of the shop they were in), as well as smiles or tears. When we gave verbal feedback, it was always positive. I really liked that my pieces weren't torn apart or analyzed. They were just accepted. I found this group to be a safe and nurturing environment for artists of all stages; we certainly were a mixed crew.
I've got the next Word Whips written in my daytimer. God willing, I'd like to make this a regular event in my life. I will post some of my work here, too. And I have a very strong feeling I will also present this work to the public at an open mic...sometime, somewhere...you'll read about it here first!
Thanks for reading...
Oh, yes, the recipe for whipped shortbread!
1 lb. butter (softened)
1 cup icing sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cornstarch
Whip butter, add sugar and whip until light. Add rest of ingredients and beat until fluffy. Drop from spoon onto ungreased sheet. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.