Writing Prompt #22

the relief of summer rain + the full buck moon

We had a few days of rain in Washington after a long, hot dry spell. When I woke up to the cloudy sky and wet yard, I felt relief throughout my whole body. It will be hot again this weekend, but the rain helped to quell some new wildfires in western WA and I appreciated the chance to take a break from watering the garden. Plants were drying out faster than I could keep up! I spent the day inside, writing and reflecting.

Writing Warm-up:

Describe the feeling of rain in summer. If you are in an area that hasn’t had rain in quite a long time, you could reflect on that longing or need for moisture.

Writing Prompt #1:

The Full Buck Moon is today and with it brings a sense of newness. “The full Moon in July is called the Buck Moon because the antlers of male deer (bucks) are in full-growth mode at this time. Bucks shed and regrow their antlers each year, producing a larger and more impressive set as the years go by.”

What is new with you this summer? What newness do you want to embrace in the second half of this year?

Writing Prompt #2:

Summer Memories

Sadly the rains in other states have caused catastrophic flash floods. As a mother, my heart goes out to all the families, but especially the parents that lost their children at summer camp. This interview with a former camper from Camp Mystic in Texas is so heartbreaking, yet I was touched by her crystal clear memories of that place and the connection to nature she formed at this camp.

What is your earliest and/or most impactful memory of being outside in nature in the summer? Were you at a camp or a family member’s house? What did you learn and who were you with? How did your body feel? Did you everreturn to that place?

You can hear her interview on The Daily podcast

You can also hear and read interview with Joanna Macy on visiting her Grandpa’s farm as a child in Emergence Magazine. Her organization, The Work the Reconnects, has reported that she is on hospice now. I will write more about her later, but her work has been really important to me and many others.

There’s nothing that can happen that will ever separate me from the living body of earth.

-Joanna Macy

Finally, I want you encourage you to check out the newest issue of The Hopper! There is some wonderful new work that will inspire your environmental and ecological writing projects.

When used for cider making, a hopper is a wooden or metal box that collects fruits before they are funneled down through a chute to the crusher. In old Vermont towns, it was common for the community of growers to share one cider press instead of each farmer purchasing and maintaining their own. Come fall, people would cart their apples or pears to the farm that kept the mill, and into the hopper their fruits would go—often mixing with the products of a neighboring grower.

The Hopper believes that in order to refashion our lives to accommodate the knowledge we have of our environmental crisis, we have a lot of cultural heavy lifting to do. To reacquaint ourselves meaningfully with the natural world we have to turn our interpretive, inquisitive, and inspired faculties upon it. Through what we publish and the communities we encourage, The Hopper seeks to be a leader in this cultural re-centering.

For questions and concerns, please reach out to the editors at editor@hoppermag.org.

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