I received this email today. Not sure why, but I like what it says.

Hi Dear Creators,

A few of you were away ill today, so please make sure you send your pieces round to the class well beforehand, ok?

I don’t usually write notes like this, but here goes:

What a strange semester this is. There is something unusual afoot. I have never experienced a semester before, in over 25 years of teaching,where so many people–faculty, students and others–keep crying out how they feel overwhelmed, barely keeping their feet, late with everything, unable to keep up. Luminous as this radiant fall is.

What is happening? I had an interesting talk with Jon after class that got me thinking. Is it “the recession”? What a deceptively simple word for a massive calamity. Is it the way the cool web of the internet winds us ever in? That we struggle to find that solitary calm in the woods that Phil wrote about? ….Students are sleeping in their cars. Working two jobs and trying to study.

I am writing this to say this is not your fault. I know you are trying your best. If you feel out of control, you are not alone. Something bigger than us as individuals has created a slow, invisible sense of something out of balance. A large invisible creature moving us forward. I’d love to talk briefly about this next week and how we can use our writing to find that inner balance.

So here’s my suggestion: let’s acknowledge that something is happening to the best of us and that it’s not our individual fault; that we will all just try our best; and, above all, have compassion for each other. Forgive yourselves if you feel you are not quite managing to keep up. That doesn’t mean you have to stop trying, or slacking off from class, hell no! 🙂 Work as hard as you can. Make it meaningful to yourself. But be gentle with yourselves. Right effort, as the Buddhists say.

And above all, let us use the creative writing, the creative process, to open us up to creative energies, the color of the imagination,the passions of our senses, the sustenance of that feeling when you get the one thing right, that sustains and nourishes us, and gives us that deep confidence.

In a world which is also miraculously beautiful, radiant, mysterious, luminous with life.

And these witchy leaves!

Stay well, stay balanced, believe and trust in yourselves, be kind to yourselves, get your essays in, and I look forward to seeing you all next week.

Anne McClintock