Learn more about ENOUGH ALREADY here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\nZelda told Nancy that when she was a kid, she remembers hiding and listening behind the kitchen door to her mother and her aunt. Her aunt did all of the talking, complaining about her arthritis, her husband Irving, her varicose veins, her cough that came out of nowhere, her best friend Bessie\u2019s heart murmur, her best friend Esther\u2019s dumkuph of a husband, the high price of ground beef- and then she\u2019d cycle back to her aches and pains. She could tell you when it was going to rain precisely 37 hours before the first thunderclap sounded.<\/span><\/p>\nHere\u2019s the story, as Nancy tells it:<\/span><\/p>\nMy mother, Zelda continued, finally exasperated, having gotten not one word in edgewise for the entire afternoon, would yell, \u201cENOUGH ALREADY!\u201d It would stop Sadie in her tracks, and she\u2019d leave in a huff shortly after. And then her mother would say the same thing every single time.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThat woman, I swear, is loyal to her suffering.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe huff didn\u2019t last long, and there would be a repeat of the little theater piece in a matinee the very next day.<\/span><\/p>\nZelda would eavesdrop, and Sadie would complain, and Zelda\u2019s mother would say, \u201cEnough already,\u201d and when Zelda\u2019s mother\u2019s sister would leave in a huff, Zelda\u2019s mother would say, \u201cI swear that woman is loyal to her suffering.\u201d Rinse and repeat.<\/span><\/p>\nFor the last forty years, Nancy has facilitated writing workshops where she has been called \u201cthe midwife for words that want to get out.\u201d She jokingly calls herself \u201cEx-lax for stuck stories.\u201d One student described her writing workshops as \u201cIsn\u2019t it that writing thing up in Martha\u2019s Vineyard where, after women take it, they leave their husbands?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nNancy remembers laughing, then wincing. Or was it wincing then laughing?<\/span><\/p>\nBut her work for all these years has been to encourage people to take the chance of writing the tough stuff that happened to them, their traumas, their \u201ctiny murders,\u201d their deep sorrow- to get those stories out of their bodies and onto the page.<\/span><\/p>\nBut whether you\u2019ve written your story or not, some stories have staying power. We just can\u2019t seem to put them in the past and move on beyond them.\u00a0 Our hope is that this workshop will serve as a guide to help you, the writer, the complainer, the victim, the wounded, the hurt one, the empaths, the one who was called Sarah Bernhardt, the one who felt all the emotions for the whole family, who got sick because of what wasn\u2019t said in the home, who carried the family shame or the town\u2019s scarlet letter or the weight of the world on your shoulders- to finally once and for all turn the page on your old story and create a new narrative that suits The New Year, New You.<\/span><\/p>\nSo Nancy and I are teaching a weekend Zoom writing workshop called ENOUGH ALREADY. This workshop is for those who will declare, \u201cI\u2019m done. This is the last time I will write this and the last time it will have a hold on me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nYou can honor your history and have compassion for your \u201cparts\u201d without being loyal to your suffering, as if it\u2019s an albatross you\u2019ve adopted as your best friend. We\u2019ll help you ritualize the writing and honoring of your story, and then, tearfully if need be, the letting go\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nLearn more about ENOUGH ALREADY here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n
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