Real life is a lot of things. This practice can hold them all.
I love plenty of woo-woo stuff. Angels, Tarot cards, astrology, prayer, cosmic giggles – I’m here for all of it. I also ascribe to being here now, solid ground, and the power of showing up with awareness and intention in our everyday lives. After all, real life is where we live, work, learn, love, listen, and grow.
Experience the magic of “11s,” where everything is enough.
Tuning into The Sound of Real Life Happening offers us not only a powerful vehicle for writing practice, but also an opportunity to pay closer attention to our attention, deepen self-compassion, foster empathy, stumble on insights, and feel more connected to ourselves and the world around us.
Writing a list of 11 things each week is a simple but powerful act of mindfulness. It can be a way to generate material for other writing. And it can be surprisingly grounding and expansive.
This group will offer you a uniquely intimate and intensive experience of sharing the stuff of our ordinary lives. Rather than curating, censoring, or evaluating, we will simply give ourselves permission to show up as we are, on the page and with each other.
If there is one thing I know, it’s that we can believe that which we are actually experiencing. We can listen, touch, taste, smell, and see the stuff of our inner and outer lives. And we can write down what we notice, bringing truth to light and reconnecting with our everyday humanity by showing up to the page.
Practice & Community, Slow & Steady
Wednesdays
April 15-June 24
1:00-2:30pm EST
Weekly Email Treasures
Jena will send a weekly poem to your inbox.
You’ll select a word, phrase, or image as starting point; from there your 11s may go anywhere.
Most importantly, you’ll develop a steady practice of showing up, listening to your soul (or the dishwasher running, train in the distance, or dog snoring), and noticing what’s most alive for you.
Weekly Zoom Sessions
On Wednesdays at 1:00pm EST, we will gather in Jena’s Zoom room.
You’ll be invited to show up as you are, read your 11s out loud, and receive gentle reflections, encouraging comments, and the comfort of kindred spirits.
You’ll be surprised at the power of such a simple-seeming writing practice and structure!
Who & why?
If you long to write and want to cultivate more mindfulness and curiosity, this is a wonderful opportunity to begin and realize how doable it is to sustain your practice.
As a writing practice, writing “11s” does several things:
✨ Offers structure – Sitting down and starting can be the hardest part of writing. Writing 11 things gives you a way to step in.
✨ Provides freedom of movement – You know how sometimes you have a bunch of flotsam and jetsam floating around your brain? This practice gives you a way to move from one thing to another, creating space between thoughts and topics.
✨ Plants seeds – Maybe you have a topic you want to write more deeply into but you're not quite ready to go there. Writing 11s gives you a placeholder – and a portal – for things you may want to further develop down the road.
✨ Fosters community – Sharing your 11s in a small group is a marvelous, intimate opportunity to witness each other’s real lives unfold.
Oh, and why the number 11?
Well, my birth time is 11:11, so it has always had special significance for me. Some folks experience this number to have mystical qualities. No matter where you fall on the “woo-woo” spectrum, there really is something magical about this practice, from the perspectives of both writing and life!
I hope you’ll join me!
Cost + Registration
Prefer Venmo or check? Just let me know!
If this fee poses a hardship and you’d like to join, please send me a note.
Register by Friday, April 10.
“This practice is healing and nurturing in ways I never could have expected.”
“The elevens are giving me life!”
“This group has shifted something in me that has been blocking my view of what a writing life can be.”
“The 11s are drawing me deeper to the marrow of my life!”
“I had a breakthrough in my writing, and I am pretty sure this group had something to do with it. It felt really good to be able to find more words again.”