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Carol
Adrienne's work and teachings have been a great
inspiration to me! In August of 1998, about four months after my
father passed away, I read about one of Carol's
workshops in a Learning Annex catalog and
synchronistically found her book on a bookshelf at the
bookstore. The themes of her teachings were
familiar and comforting, as they confirmed the thoughts
and ideas my father had shared with me shortly before
his passing. Her books and workshops ignited my
spiritual curiosity, setting me on my soulful life path,
which led to the very creation of
SoulfulLiving.com! Carol's participation has been
an integral part of SoulfulLiving.com, at its soul
level! Thank you, Carol, with all my heart!
~Valerie, Founder and Soul, SoulfulLiving.com |
Writing to Heal
I first met Paula Ramirez three years ago at one of my
retreats on life purpose in Sedona, Arizona. Shy,
quiet-spoken, and serious, Paula spoke hesitantly about some
of her life dreams and desire to write. At the time, she was
principal of a new educational facility with the Texas Youth
Commission, a juvenile correctional facility. Today, Paula is
the supervisor of their English as a Second Language (ESL)
program. She is also a published author and a budding public
speaker. What happened in the last three years, I asked?
"When I cam back from Sedona, people noticed a change
in me. They said I walked differently and there was something
new in my eyes. I knew there was something different in me,
too."
Where We Are "Stationed" Has a Purpose
"I always felt that I was at the correctional facility
for a purpose other than that of being principal. I used to
stand in the hall as the students came in and look stern and
stoic. I was supposed to make sure that everyone entered the
building in an orderly fashion with their hands behind their
backs. We had about 350 students and I remember that sometimes
I would make eye contact with certain students. Normally, they
are not supposed to make eye contact with teachers except to
be courteous. It was as if my eyes were calling them and they
were looking back. At first, I thought it was because they
were Hispanic and I am Hispanic. Once in a while I would talk
to one of them. Invariably, they would be one of the youths
who had murdered someone. Slowly I began to see the
connection."
Two years ago on Valentine’s Day, Paula was invited to
visit a classroom to hear students read stories and poems they
had written. Many students could only read at a second or
third grade level so this was a big event for them. Paula
said, "One student stood up and began to read his story.
He said something like ‘Because of what I have done [killed
a man] a wife will not see her husband again. His children
will not know their father. His parents will not get to see
their son get older because of what I did.’ He mentioned the
gun he used, but he didn’t glorify his actions. He seemed in
immense pain.
"As he talked, I thought back to when my own father
had been killed when I was four years old. He was killed on
Easter Sunday at 12 noon. Tears started rolling down my face.
I wasn’t sure I could contain my emotions there in the
classroom.
"When all the kids had finished, the teacher expected
me to cheer the kids on for their progress. I realized I had
never talked to anyone about my Dad’s murder. I was afraid
of what the kids and the teacher would think if they found out
my own dad had been murdered, when they were on the other side
of this. I heard my inner voice say, It’s time to talk
about this. I stood up and said, ‘There is something you
need to know.’ I addressed the boy whose story had touched
me the most. I told him, ‘You are very correct when you said
that the murder changed my life and my mom’s life and my
brothers’ and sisters’ lives forever.’ I could see the
fear in the eyes of those students who were the capital
offenders. What I told them that day was that I was no longer
angry about my dad’s murder. I said I had learned to
forgive. I told them that we can turn around negative
situations by helping people deal with their feelings and the
consequences. Several students shared that nothing could
punish them more than their own remorse.
"That day I realized that the reason I had been placed
in this facility was to start a new type of healing. I wrote
up this experience as a story. Opportunities started cropping
up for me to tell this and some of my other stories about
being caught between the Anglo and Mexican cultures, even
though I was afraid to be so visible. The first time I went
public as at a conference on New Directions in
Corrections."
Releasing Pent-Up Emotions Creates New Flow
Life started to open up for Paula as she released the
pent-up emotional trauma. Creativity and healing flooded in.
Synchronistically, one day her nine-year-old nephew called
selling magazine subscriptions for his school She bought a
subscription to a magazine called, "Whispers From
Heaven." "I like their stories," said Paula,
"and they make it very easy to submit stories that have
touched people’s lives. I submitted my story about what
happened in that classroom and they accepted it. Needless to
say I was very excited!"
Once our path opens up, we must keep noticing other hints,
messages, or support for our new direction. Not long after
Paula’s story was accepted, her husband was transferred to
Austin. He kept encouraging her to apply at the central office
of the Youth Commission for another position. "I thought
he was crazy. Originally, I had not wanted to work for the ESL
program, but when I was offered the job of supervisor I
accepted. Now I see the deeper meaning of that opportunity,
too. This program has been a way to really understand and
appreciate my own Mexican heritage. I am more in tune with
myself and have a pride that I never had before. It’s as if
I am calling back a spirit that I didn’t know I had
lost."
The more we connect to our true values and have the courage
to express them in our life, the more life gives us
opportunity to expand. The key is to look for people, places,
or projects with which we resonate. For example, a year later
Paula felt drawn to attend a conference for women in juvenile
justice, and wondered what lay in store for her there. She met
five women from different states who were the first female
wardens in the juvenile justice system. Now retired, they were
speaking about writing as a way to find one’s voice. Paula
was fascinated. "One of the women, Tekla Miller, wrote The
Warden Wore Pink. She used a pink pen, wore pink clothes,
and the cover of her book was pink. I thought this was great.
They had been very encouraging to continue writing. When I
returned from the conference I was walking on air. I felt
really good about writing—lighter."
Be Patient With Your Unfolding Purpose
Sometimes a development takes time to become obvious. In
Paula’s case, it was a few months later that author Tekla
Miller sent her an email letting her know about an opportunity
to submit stories for an anthology with a publishing house
called Red Rock Press. Again, another story, My Paula, was
accepted. Paula, searching the Internet, continued to send out
her stories, despite receiving rejections.
During this period, Paula visited Ojo Caliente, a small
town in central New Mexico. In a gift shop she overheard
several women talking. One of the women turned around and said
to Paula, "You are not here by accident. We are all here
for a writing workshop. Join us tonight." Despite her
polite objections, they insisted, particularly after they
found out she spoke Spanish and their teacher was a
Spanish-speaking shaman. That evening she was introduced to
the shaman, and listened to the stories written by the women.
"There was a lot of pain in their stories," said
Paula, "But I was struck when the teacher said that the
real joy of writing comes from what happens after the
story is told or what happens after the painting is
done. Suddenly, I realized that was the message I needed to
hear. It helped me to move forward faster with my writing,
which began to take a different tone. I began to think about
what life is after the pain we have suffered.
"I was reading Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s
Way, and doing the morning pages [daily writing exercise].
I started thinking about my childhood working in the fields.
Because my mother had no job skills, all we could do to put
food on the table was to go out in the fields. My most vivid
memory is of working in the cotton fields. I remember how I
used to be so embarrassed to show up at school with scratches
on my hands from picking cotton. I sat down at my computer and
started writing the stories my mother would tell me while we
were working in the fields. I also included experiences we had
with the Border Patrol--times when I didn’t know what was
going on and was petrified. This is when the book title, Cotton-Picking
Life Lessons, came to me. I remember calling my mom and
saying, ‘Guess what I’m doing?’ She couldn’t believe
that I was writing about those days in the cotton fields when
she was teaching me to survive and make life better for
myself."
Reclaiming the Creative Content of the Past
I asked Paula what her mother told her. "Her recurring
theme was that because her father had not educated her, our
only option was working in the fields. In those days, it was
generally thought that a woman didn’t need to have an
education or job skills. She didn’t even need to know how to
read and write in either English or Spanish because the man
was going to do that. My grandfather didn’t realize that his
daughter might get divorced or that her husband might get
killed. Her message to me was get an education, be
independent, and be happy with yourself and by yourself. If
you get married, then more power to you, but don’t depend on
a man to make you happy. She was always so positive about it.
That was the message she built into every story she told me.
Ironically, Paula has been married for twenty-two years to
a wonderful and supportive man who urges her to keep moving
out of her comfort zone towards her dreams. Recently Paula’s
sister, following an intuition, introduced her to publisher,
Cassandra Castellanos Bell. Eight months later, Bell contacted
Paula’s sister to find her. Paula was ready to share her
dream about helping women transform their pain through
writing, and told Bell about Cotton Picking Life Lessons.
Bell loved the idea and agreed to publish the book, which is
coming out in 2004. "We are adding a component so that I
will be able to talk to women who feel a calling to write but
don’t know how to get started. I want to work with women who
may not be able to read or write so that they can have a
voice. I am so excited because I am also scheduled to speak at
an international multi-cultural conference next year.
"Cassandra also wants to get the message out to
pre-kindergarten and grammar-school kids. She is extremely
talented at converting stories into simpler, rhythmic language
with music for younger audiences to let them know that they
can be whatever they want to be. To be proud of their culture,
and live their dreams.
Paula’s website—now under construction--is
www.writingconnections.com. Her email is
Paula@writingconnections.com.
© Copyright 2003 Carol Adrienne, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.
Carol Adrienne, Ph.D.,
is an internationally-known workshop facilitator and
author whose books have been translated into over fifteen
languages. Her latest book is When Life Changes, or You
Wish It Would. Oprah hailed, The Purpose of Your Life:
Finding Your Place in the World Using Synchronicity,
Intuition, and Uncommon Sense a must-read. She is also the
author of The Numerology Kit. An electronic copy of Your
Child’s Destiny—a numerological guide for parents is
now available at www.CarolAdrienne.comm.
Carol is available to for keynotes, workshops, and seminars
and can be reached at Carol22@sonic.net
or (510) 528-2226 weekdays 10 am to 6 pm PST.
Visit
www.CarolAdrienne.com
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