The Pen and the Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy

by Brenda Miller, Holly Hughes

It can be difficult to create space for our spiritual lives in a world crowded with distractions. "The Pen and the Bell" is about how to achieve mindfulness and creative fulfillment in spite of long to-do lists. It's about gaining access to our deeper selves in the workaday world, and bringing forth this authentic self in our writing. With both meditative and writing exercises in each chapter, it will help you awaken your creative soul and find a more rewarding life.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Brenda Miller is the author of Season of the Body and co-author of Tell it Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction Her newest collection of essays, Blessing of the Animals, is forthcoming from Eastern Washington University Press. Her work has received five Pushcart Prizes and has been published in many journals, including Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, The Sun, Utne Reader, The Georgia Review, and The Missouri Review.

She currently lives in Bellingham, WA, with her dog Abbe and her cat Madrona, both of whom are acting as muses for her next book, where she is an Associate Professor of English at Western Washington University and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Bellingham Review.

Reviews

[Charity · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm vacillating between a 4-star rating and a 5-star rating. Basically, I really enjoyed this book, but I wanted to wait until I went through and did several of the exercises before I decided for sure whether I just "really liked it" or thought it was "amazing."

Many times, I find books with two authors to be tedious and disjointed in style even if I find the content compelling, but I think the teamwork model works well for this book. Miller and Hughes address the topic for each chapter through an essay each, headed by the author's name. For the exercises, they draw from a variety of sources, from traditional religious practices (from Buddhism, which one might guess from the title, as well as Judaism and various Christian traditions) to books on writing and meditation by authors like Julia Cameron and Thich Nhat Hanh. They both seem to have had a reading list similar to mine, which might be part of why I connected with them.

The quotes, poem excerpts, and personal anecdotes they include are well-chosen and serve to elucidate the chapter topics well. I read this alongside The Sacred Way by Tony Jones, which outlines a variety of spiritual practices from Christian traditions, and I found that there was much overlap between the suggestions Miller and Hughes give in this book and those Jones gives in his book. For example, the practice of lectio divina, or meditation through close reading, appears in both texts. Miller and Hughes take it in a different direction than Jones does, and it was interesting to see the two (or rather, three) different takes on the same mindfulness practice. It helped me see other ways that I could take a practice and make it my own.

I'm planning to use this book and its prompts for the next ROW80 round in which I will be participating beginning October 1st. I'll plan to update on my blog (and here if I can remember to) as I see how well the book works for me in practice.

[Christine Hiester · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this book 6 stars I would do so in a heartbeat. This is a book, like Seven Thousand Ways to Listen by Mark Nepo, that I will return to again and again for the way it opens me up to greater wisdom and creativity. The authors' writing styles, reflections, and stories seamlessly companion each other through each chapter and the prompts allow for deepening. Many books with prompts come across as hokey and on the surface; not The Pen and the Bell! I would not consider myself a "writer" but I write often, and poetry is one of my main contemplative practices. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

[Mariah Critchfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the different chapter topics were well chosen overall, and I appreciated how digestible each of them were. In each chapter, Miller and Hughes each have a page or two of commentary on the topic and then there are several prompts for contemplating followed by several prompts for writing. This is a book I plan to revisit as I drive to become more consistent with writing and more mindful overall.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by two women whose workshops I have enjoyed, this book is a blend of writing instruction and spirituality. The idea is to learn to slow down and really look, really feel, really open up the mind. The authors alternate personal reflections, offer a wonderful selection of poetry and prose as examples and provide exercises in contemplation and in writing for each chapter. It’s a beautiful book. New writers seeking instruction on how to write or how to sell their writing won’t find it here, but all writers can find a way to add depth and power to their words.

[Shel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book to dip into for inspiration. There's nothing here about how to write a novel, short story, or even an essay, but the book says much about what to put into sentences and paragraphs. It offers food for the process, nourishment of the writing life, and companionship on the journey.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine volume for a spiritual writing group or small group study or for individual reflection, with writing prompts, this joins a collection of spiritually grounded creative writing practice books.