On Community, Compassion, and Rewilding Your Inner Writer

Feb 18

I have been thinking a lot about community lately, and I wrote about that early this month on my Substack, Compassionate Writer. (You can read the full article here.)

In that article, I share how books have been an anchor in my life since my earliest childhood memories. I have made that anchor for myself into something more, though. With books and writing, I have made a compassionate community for myself and other writers.

If you are interested in cultivating a compassionate relationship with your writing and with other writers, I know how to nurture that. Here are three ways you can step into this new kind of relationship this spring:

April 17-20, 2026: Introducing the first retreat in the Rewilding Your Inner Writer Retreat Series for 2026 in Saugatuck, Michigan! You can learn more about that at https://www.cmcollab.com/rewilding-retreat-1. (I have early-bird pricing available this month.)

April 28 through June 2, 2026: ComPASSIONATE Writer Spring 2026 Cohort. I usually offer this live online group program/course twice a year. This year, because I am embarking on this new retreat series, I will only offer ComPASSIONATE Writer once. So, if you have been watching from the sidelines over these past five years, now is the time to join! This will be the 14th Cohort, and over 130 participants have been through this program! You can learn more about this program at https://www.cmcollab.com/course.

Finally, something that runs behind the scenes every month is my Writing Practice Community. It’s exactly what it sounds like, a weekly writing pracitce. We meet on Zoom every week and write together. Every session, we start with a check-in on what we are all writing, then I offer some spot coaching if needed, and then we do a quick grounding breathing practice to transition to our writing time. We write for about 45-50 minutes and then finish with a check-out on what we each accomplished during the writing session. If this sounds like the kind of support you are looking for, you can sign-up at https://www.cmcollab.com/writing-practice-membership.

My Monthly Reading List

If this isn’t a writing season for you, perhaps it’s time to pick back up your reading habit. I know if you’ve been away from something for a while, it’s difficult to know where to start, so I’ve decided to start suggesting a monthly reading list each month. February’s list features a collection of books spanning nearly 100 years and focuses on African-American writers:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, copyright 1969
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, copyright 1937

If you’ve already read some or all of these, I heartily recommend a reread! You will not have the same experience with these books as you did on your first read because you are not the same person as you were when you first read them. If you are new to these books, I’m so excited for you!

If you are restarting your reading habit, pick one or two of these to dive into this week. Visit your local library or bookstore and soak in the goodness as you peruse the shelves. There is community waiting for you there. There is community waiting for you in the pages of these books.