Days for Girls

I wrote last week about getting published in The Big Issue. I wrote an article about Days for Girls, which you can read more about it if you want to learn about the program itself! Here and here.

Writing the article about Days for Girls was easier than if I had been unfamiliar with the topic entirely. I knew a lot about the program because I was already in the process of helping plan a workshop for the program. I attended a DfG workshop back in March at the York Minster, and approached Beryl, one of the co-leaders, about running a similar day with Crafts with a Cause.

So we planned one for St. Columba's. I advertised far and wide. It was a big Crafts with a Cause project and it ended up being a success - we had about 25 people (participants and volunteers) at both the morning and afternoon sessions.

Here are some pictures.

Lots of planning later...it's actually happening! I showed up early to set up, closely followed by DfG leaders with their supplies.

We set up stations to complete various parts of the kit. In the foreground are the basis for shields.

Official DfG logo

Completed liners

Completed shields

The busy, buzzing workshop is underway.

Beryl, one of the Days for Girls co-leaders. She is incredible! I admire her and Issy (below) so much.

Working hard on liner pieces! (M, the man on the left, is a St. Columba's member who stayed to help ALL DAY.  He is a fab person and friend.)

Issy, one of the Days for Girls co-leaders. She's amazing!

I set up a stall for Crafts with a Cause items! (We sold three earrings...better than nothing I guess.)

Lots of people got to know each other or reconnected - reminded me yet again how small/sociable York is!

Many wonderful helpers and volunteers!

That's me!

A CWAC member-DfG participant sewing away!

Our completed kits! We made six whole kits and a bunch of random parts of other kits. 

The Big Issue North - I've been published!

An article I wrote was published in The Big Issue North!

This magazine is a social justice enterprise across England. It is published weekly by professional writers and journalists. Then it is distributed to vendors - places like churches, community centers, etc. These vendors have relationships with sellers. The sellers are people who might be vulnerably housed, homeless, or unemployed and looking to get back on their feet. They buy the magazine at 1.25 pounds off of the vendor and sell it for 2.50 pounds.

I've been a big fan of the magazine since I discovered its existence here, and have tried to purchase it from people selling it on the street. I learned about it when Carecent (the free breakfast cafe I volunteer at) was relocated to Trinity Methodist back in March temporarily due to construction.  Trinity Methodist is a vendor for the magazine.

Intrigued one Monday morning as I watched Joy (Trinity's Church Secretary) accepting shipments of the magazine, I asked her more about it. Joy was really helpful and put me in touch two of the editors of the Big Issue. I love love love the idea of writing as part of a good cause - whether it's creative writing therapy, slam poetry, motivational speeches, or this, a magazine that empowers people to improve their lives.

All I wanted originally was simply to know more about The Big Issue, because it was such a fab new concept to add to my growing list of Ways to Write for Good, but the editors asked if I was pitching an article to them.

This is one of those things I call a God-nudge. For a very long time, I've been saying I would like to try my hand at getting published in an online or print magazine. It was kind of an idle, Oh, that would be cool someday! type notion, but it stemmed from a deeper desire to continue honing on my craft. Here was an opportunity staring me in the face - I couldn't say no!

What commenced was a whole lot more work than I anticipated. Writing is fun and natural for me, but this was...something else. I pitched an initial concept that was rejected, but then I pitched the idea of writing about Days for Girls. (I'll be writing more about Days for Girls itself soon - I've been very involved in this program!) Then I had to research more about the international organization and our local group, interview the participants, and write the actual piece. 

Luckily, interviewing and research was made much easier for me because I was in the midst of preparing for St. Columba's own Days for Girls workshop along with the two women who run Days for Girls here in York. I went to a bunch of activities with the dual purpose of preparing for our own workshop AND I also got some information for the article. Beryl and Issu wanted to know what was going into the article, so the back-and-forth took a lot more effort than I originally intended. But it was a good learning
experience.

But now, six weeks after starting the whole process of pitching my first real piece to a real publication, it's gone to press! When the editor told me it was going to be published this week, I knew I wanted to buy like a thousand million copies.

In the end, I just got three. I went directly over to Trinity Methodist yesterday morning to pick them up, and it so happened that another editor from the mag was there visiting! It was fun to chat with him and some of the sellers.

It's exciting to see my name in print, I can't deny it. Having a byline feels deeply, happily satisfying. What's even more exciting is to know that the piece is spreading the word about an amazing cause (again, more about Days for Girls soon!).

You can read the first page here and the second page here. I can't find an online link (yet).

If you want to learn more about street papers, you can do so here. If you, too, have a good idea for a magazine like this, give it a shot! The editors were really encouraging and it was a very good experience.

Words that rest on my heart.

I read two quotes recently that resonate deeply with me. Maybe you know what I mean - that moment when you have read something that bypasses the cerebrum and goes straight to your core. Words that elicit an unconscious "Mmmm" of recognition or a slight arrest of your breath. If you have words that do this for you, I would love to know what they are - what words make you hum.

On the surface, these quotes are pretty different. But to me, how they feel when I say them aloud and let them rest on my heart, it's like looking for the beginning and end of a circle.

"Be patient and tough. One day this pain will be useful to you." (Ovid) 

Patience, toughness. Two words. If I could hold these in my hands, they would be glass orbs. Round, smooth, hefty. Patience and toughness.

"How often things occur by mere chance which we dared not even hope for." (Terence) 

Hope is lighter, a shimmering net between each of us and our own personal long, dark well of sadness.

Ethereal Hope gives birth to her daughters, solid Patience and weighty Toughness.

These words that oppose on their face, but are relatives to each other underneath. They make me hum with a recognition flowing from deep inside.

I learned this year about a crafting group called Peaced Together for women who have experienced trauma, and someone told me recently about one of their activities. The women make a weaving. In addition to choosing pretty colored fabrics, they must pick a piece of cloth that is ugly in order to represent hardships in their lives, and weave it in with all the rest.

What would the color of your sorrow be?

I feel when I read certain words what those women must feel when they look at their weaving. This is what I feel: A sense of life as looked at from the highest, most comfortable cloud.

My body: Arms that embrace, toes that squeeze the earth, wings to fly. My soul: Patience and toughness, weights to ground me. Hope, to help me rise up.

From this vantage, I see both beautiful ugliness and ugly beauty. Pain and patience, toughness and hope. I see an infinitesimal glimpse of what God must see in all of us to love us so much.

The hardship intertwined with happiness. The joy with sorrow.

Not at peace. At peace.

All of it, woven in different colors, different cloth. All of it, the same tapestry.

The Purple Man

I met The Purple Man!

The Purple Man is a big deal in York. Everyone knows The Purple Man. As I passed him the other day on the street, I said, "I'm writing about you!"

He looked very intrigued (I didn't know he allowed himself to talk, I'd always thought he was a mime) and said "Oh? Why?" 

I said, "Well I'm writing about York's street buskers." (It's for another writing project I'm doing, not this blog...although now I am writing about him on this blog.) 

And he said, "Well I'll give you an interview."

He handed me his purple paintbrush and I held it up like a microphone. He told me that he started doing what he does 11 years ago when he made friends with a Syrian refugee whose entire family was killed in a bombing. He wanted to collect money for the orphans left by the carnage to have toys. So each year, he takes the money he collects and buys toys. Then he and his friend (who apparently also dresses up in purple and collects money elsewhere - who knew) actually go to the Syrian border and deliver the toys. 

What an amazing backstory to this York staple! 

Honestly, I was feeling a little flustered so I didn't ask him all the other questions that popped into my head as soon as I started walking away. Why did you decide to go with purple? Why this street always?  Do you get bored? Cold? Hungry? When do you pee? How much money have you raised? Deeper ones as well - what do you see in Syria? What do you think of the current conflict? How do you get the toys to the kids now? 

So many questions. I'll need to interview him again, if he lets me.