The Writing Group

Facing Change

Change, altering the paradigm, adjusting fire etc. can mean several things good or bad.

Changes are inevitable. The way we face those changes are the key to life. Examples include having a baby. Your whole world, lifestyle, everything changes. You can do nothing without factoring the needs and interests of that little human you have created.

Another change is in working or careers. We all have to inevitably change our work either through retirement or just having to leave a job. Again it requires out internal problem solving skills to figure out how we pay our bills, etc.

With all change there can be a sense of loneliness. One cannot face life change alone. We must seek help, comaraderie, assistance.

Change can be difficult but also wonderful. Stable environments are boring. Change needs to happen and moves all of us to, hopefully, better things.

As Americans we love change. It is a fundamental part of our government. We change our President, Congress, mayors and school board every few years. Our laws are designed to change, to live in a way. No law is static either due to increasing restrictions on enforcement or punishment or lessoning of some. Americans have the opportunity to change their environment for better or worse.

Change is acceptance of risk. Life is risky. How we analyze, plan and execute for those risks, those changes can determine the outcome.

Infants become toddlers. Toddlers become kids. Kids become teenagers. Teenagers become young adults. Young adults become adults, parents, career folk, retirees, grandparents and so on and so on. Change, good or bad, is life.

~Lisa Green

The Writing Group: Foreword

The people who contributed to this collection of pictures, poetry and prose range roughly in age from thirty to eighty. Some live or have lived in the Tedford Shelter or in their cars or in tents in the woods; some live in subsidized housing. Some are unemployed; some live on disability checks; some have part time or seasonal jobs; others are retired.

What we all have in common is The Gathering Place at 5 Tenney Way, Brunswick, which is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. for coffee, snacks, companionship, cards, puzzles and on Thursday afternoons for writing.

Over the past four years, I’ve hosted anywhere from one to a dozen writers who have shared stories, laughed (a lot), and cried (a little). I usually throw out a general topic—the first, as I recall, was “Scars,” and the latest, as I write this, was “Doors I have Walked Through--- although people can (and do) write about anything that is on their minds. Some of the topics I’ve given will be self-evident as you read; other topics won’t matter: what’s important is the response. Some of the pieces have been edited from grammar and spelling, but we’ve tried to maintain the original voice and content.

When we first began writing four years ago, some people thought we were having an English class, so they moved as far away from our table as they could; when we began sharing what we’d written, however, they can back, at first to listen, and then over the next few weeks, to join us.

Why? For many of us, writing is a way to make sense of the world, especially when our minds are looping around a particular problem. What I’ve also learned is that all of us need to be heard—listened to, respected—especially if we’ve fallen on hard times and feel that no one care anymore.

What else have I learned over the past four years? Probably the most important thing is that despite common stereotypes, homelessness and poverty have many faces, many voices and that both homelessness and poverty go far beyond not having a physical place to live or a specific job to get to. “Homeless” might mean losing a job that has given you an identity for twenty years, losing a spouse, a child or a friend, losing your health. “Poverty” may mean any number of spiritual or emotional deprivations.

Someone once said that going into The Gathering Place, he couldn’t tell who was a volunteer and who was a client. Four years of writing and listening to stories have shown me that’s because there really isn’t that much of a difference between any of us.

--Rick Wile
Writing Group
The Gathering Place