Geertje Couwenbergh columnist en schrijver - Geertje Couwenbergh

365 Dagen Schrijven
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365 Dagen Schrijven
Masterclass
The Work©
Workshops
Schrijfbegeleiding
Contact
- Boeken
- Over Geertje

Geertje Couwenbergh columnist en schrijverSylvia Faasse2017-10-31T13:49:37+02:00

365 Dagen Schrijven
Masterclass
The Work©
Workshops
Schrijfbegeleiding
Contact
- Boeken
- Over Geertje

geertjecouwenbergh

A drawing? A person? A big mess? Breakfast this mo

A drawing? A person? A big mess? Breakfast this morning?

Set your timer to ten minutes and bite into something you made.

I made (even those words are powerful) a wooden platform at my pond last Sunday -that you can feel free to admire on slide 2. My handy person Paul was abroad until July and it took me about a week to have the thought: I could try doing it myself. I then acted on the thought - which involved considerate effort, facing the patriarchal forces at Hornbach (both inside and out) and planning and then a full day of digging and hauling cement tiles up and down -and finally the thrill of drilling.

I grew up with a dad who made everything so I learned to make nothing. Then I was in relationship with someone slightly more tool confident than me. It's only been since the last few years that I have just decided to do something myself - often because like, who else is going to do it, which is a great motivation to make something.

The things I make are wonky and imperfect, because I am an inherently impatient person and making things level is just one thing too much in this life for me to worry about. The mirror I waited Someone to hang up for me is tilted (slide 3) and I have decided imperfect is my signature.

The wonkiness of the things I make (hardly the case for the mirror, but I guess it shows how low the bar is for me to feel that way) is a reminder that I Made Them which somehow, in my tiny Earthling Life, feels like a small proclamation. Of what exactly, I'll be pondering over my pond the next weeks.

PS: planting needs to be filled out - I will send a picture in August of the Vision I had.

PPS: I didn't make the trees that gave their wood or the screws or the tiles. So anything I make is ultimately co-created, but it's less fun to say after a whole day of work.

#365daysofwriting
#365tageschreiben
#365dagenschrijven

(want me to send you a daily writing prompt? Go to my link in bio)

It takes a village to become a writer. ✒️❤️

Gisteren stuurde @geertjejanssen me deze screenshot van haar schrijfgroepje. Het was mijn droom om met mijn nieuwe Masterclass schrijvers met elkaar te verbinden omdat ik geloof dat schrijven niet gaat over in je eentje heel hard afzien. Schrijverschap, zoals alles
wat sappig is en ertoe doet, vereist een heel ecosysteem: gezelschap, voeding, netwerk. Alles om je constant te herinneren dat je niet de enige bent op dit waanzinnige pad.

Inmiddels draaien er volop samenwerkingssessies met schrijvers die elke week, soms wel vier keer per week samenkomen! In eerdere groepen met studenten rolt het ene boek na het andere eruit. In de laatste live Q&A van de Masterclass deelde een schrijfster dat ze zich haar hele leven al schrijver voelde, maar het sinds de Masterclass en het samenkomen met haar buddies echt is. Ze schrijft sindsdien elke dag. Beter dan dat wordt het niet voor mij!

Ik ontdekte zelf de kracht van co-workingsessies in de Know Your Flow community van @_.ruby.may._ en leerde daarna een hele reeks onderbouwde en wetenschappelijk bewezen tools van @alexander.thijssen over de magie en effectiviteit van samenwerken in afgeblokte
ruimte-tijd.

Wil je ook een samenwerkingsgroepje vinden? Mijn Duik Dieper Masterclass biedt die infrastructuur - en OMG nog zoveel meer. Meer informatie via link in bio.

Slide 1: de samenwerkingsgroep van @martinkleinschaarsberg
@ietetigchelaar inekedejongtop @bettieverbeek14

Slide 2: mijn huis is een halve permanente filmset nu ik de
maandelijkse lessen van de Masterclass opneem EN de boekbesprekingen.

Slide 3: writers' village met @geertjejanssen tijdens onze
Schrijfvakantie op La Palma

Slide 4: Live Q&A - elke twee maanden komen we live samen

#duikdieper #jaartraject #schrijfopleiding #boekenclub #coworking

Happy as a clam when I'm around plants 🌾 Last

Happy as a clam when I'm around plants 🌾

Last week, @emesedeana and I visited @domainedechaumontsurloire in the Loire Valley, France for their annual Festival du Jardin, which is exactly as gorgeous and lush as it sounds.

I stumbled upon this festival years ago, and ever since I try and make a yearly pilgrimage.

I honestly think I could live there.

(@domainedechaumontsurloire if you have a job for me, I'll take it, I can do more than lift up toy poodles that are not interested in smelling lilacs, I promise. )

Go go visit, it's from April through November, full of plants, beauty, art, thoughts and French ✨🇫🇷🌹🍀 - it really doesn't get better than that.

If we were friends I'd text you this about my week

If we were friends I'd text you this about my weekend.

Wanting what is can feel crazy. Or put more dramat

Wanting what is can feel crazy. Or put more dramatically in the words of the sage @florence Welch: happiness can hit you like a bullet in the back.

I overheard Byron Katie say this during one of her highly recommended 'At Home with BK' sessions that she offers every (!) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday through zoom. (hands down my favorite by effect of the covid pandemic).

I've had some weird experiences with lack of worry recently - in situations where that was NOT the script. It IS weird. When, by some grace, I can divorce the story of 'this is terrible', or 'this shouldn't be happening' what is left, sometimes, is just this weird-ass-feeling of peace.

I love everyone who is reminding us that joy IS revolutionary. Pleasure IS resistance. But the actual felt experience of peace can take some getting used to - probably because it's so radical.

PS: I loved this 16th century lady in this painting because to me, she looked like me having a weird experience. Turns out she's a total baddie AND painted by another woman. @themosthappy78 explains:

"This exquisite portrait celebrates the talents of two incredibly gifted and accomplished 16th-century women. The sitter is lute player and singer Lucia Bonasoni Garzoni and the artist responsible for this striking painting is none other than the Bolognese painter Lavinia Fontana. Both women had highly successful artistic careers and I just love that their talents are immortalised in this stunning depiction. This highly detailed portrait has been lauded as one of Fontana’s ‘most accomplished surviving works in this genre’."

(Lucia Bonasoni Garzoni, c. 1590, by Lavinia Fontana. National Gallery of Art, Washington)

BOOK DISCUSSION “Courage in war and courage in t

BOOK DISCUSSION “Courage in war and courage in thought are two different courages.” -Svetlana Alexievich. I recorded my book discussion on Nobel Prize for Literature winner @svetlana_alexievich_ epic book 'The Unwomanly Face of War'.

That morning I realized an amazing mathematic coincidence: Alexievich published her book 40 years after WWII, I'm asking my students to read it again 40 years later. The day I recorded my book discussion turned out to be the exact date of the 80th celebration 'Victory Day' in Russia… even I thought that timing uncanny.

The story of the 'Great Victory' is the exact one Alexievich chisels away at in The Unwomanly Face of War -or at least adds to it the then largely unheard voices of the over 800.000 women that served in the Soviet army. 'The history of war has been replaced by the history of victory', she writes in 1985. The patriarchal, linear, masculine narrative of war.

I think reading Alexievich book is more relevant than ever. In a world where it's easy to become prisoner of the One Story, the overwhelming multitude of women's oral history that she spaceholds in this book feels like an antidote. An antidote to falling prey to the algorithm of One Story - whether it is about yourself, your nation, what's Right and Wrong. One Story, historically, leads to war.

'Courage in war and courage in thought are two different courages', she writes. 'I used to think they were the same.'

In my eyes, literature is one of the best ways to strengthen courage in thought. Thank you @svetlana_alexievich_ for all your books.

If you are interested in my book discussion of The Unwomanly Face of War, you might want to consider diving into my Masterclass (Dutch only for now).

#theunwomanlyfaceofwar
#duikdiepermasterclass

Make a list - or dig into one in particular. I of

Make a list - or dig into one in particular.

I often tell the story of my initial surprise at the succes of the 365 Days of Writing. 'Everything is an entrance into writing, into your mind' I was taught by Natalie Goldberg. But in all my interactions with you, my beloved fellow write-enthusisasts, I get it. Getting a prompt from someone else allows you to step into your world in a new way. Fresh or unknown perspectives.

I so love hearing about your journeys. I will share some new prompts (meaning outside of the 365 Day course) here, and if possible, show you where I come up with them.

In this case, slide two, me literally NOT wanting to leave an antiques barn in Drenthe last week where a family of house martins also took up residence. Given that I'm obsessed with swifts and I grew up amongst antiques (my dad had an antique store) I never wanted to leave.

Then I noticed how much good things come in twos.

In order of slides:

#linathemiraculous & @maxstromofficial
(seeing both makes my heart sing)

nettle & lemonbalm
(current fav tea combination from my garden)

lying down & watching another Earthling
(I found this bee half-dead in my kitchen window and I put it on a ragged robin where it feasted and recovered)

my dad & my van
(my dad has helped me convert two vans which is beyond precious to me)

coffee & my garden
(obvious)

If you want to go on the full 365 Days of Writing journey with me -
follow the link in bio.

#365daysofwriting
#365dagenschrijven
#365tageschreiben

Who brings out the best in you? I've been playing,

Who brings out the best in you? I've been playing, creating, collaborating for close to two decades with @lisettekreischer - and we're back at it again.

We were introduced #wayback by @yogiteaeurope for whom I organized one of my Yoga Clubbing events (yes, really, and it was fun and wild). I will never forget Lisette entering the room phenomenally, with a huge Mary Poppins like suitcase that spilled examples of her creations and visions. I was blown away and have been ever since.

We then went on to write a book together (my first, not Lisette's) where we casually, funkily, discussed the ten biggest themes of life. I must have been mid-twenties and joined Lisette's once-in-a-lifetime and real life power girl squad, Veggie in Pumps. It involved exquisite styling (we had three stylist on the squad) lots of high heels (remember high heels?) and wonderful gigs for organizations like @wakkerdier and @cleanclothescampaign .

Lisette was the vision, force and mastermind behind this all, yet somehow saw something in me that was not even clear to myself back then.

Yesterday, someone dear said that my friend @lizzie.lasater and I brought out the best in her. It touched me and made me think of how I have always felt around Lisette. You bring out the best in me.

And we're far from done innerpreneuring together.

Last week we spend time together to brainstorm - and yes take breaks at the antique barn next door (with swallows coexisting amongst the antiques, two of my favorite things!) and visited @kloosterinhuissen for something truly new and unique. But with a legend like Lisette by my side, we can #createbeauty.

🤓Some historic collabs in the visuals, among which #veggieinpumps a.k.a. the combustion of incredibly potent women @diekedee_womensalchemy
@kyradevreeze @marloesengelhart iamadea and
@roos.rutjes

legendary BBQ voor de varkens @wakker_dier

#10wysdewijsheidsrevolutie (inclusief book trailer with guest appearance by none other then @roannevanvoorst ! )created with @altamiranl publisher.

@kloosterinhuissen

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