Writing About Animals

Our writing for wellbeing workshop Animal Magic, for Creativity and Wellbeing Week 2016, was held in The Kipling Gardens, Rottingdean on Wednesday. 

The idea for the workshop came from our experience of pet bereavement amongst our own families and friends and the little support there is for people experiencing this type of loss.

The Rose Garden was perfect for quiet thought and inspiration.

The intention was to provide a space for those who wanted to write about an animal they knew and loved - past or present.

To begin we read Mary Oliver's poem: For I will Consider My Dog Percy.

Then we got to doing our own writing. We wrote about  a Lurcher, a Newfoundland, a black cat, an otter, two more cats - a boy and a girl, a tortoise, a Staffie and a Dalmation. 

Much enjoyment was had in the process of writing and later in listening to each other's stories and poems and chatting about them. Thanks to the Open Arts Cafe for their hospitality and allowing us to use their space when rain looked likely.

"Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift. It is not the least reason why we should honor as well as love the dog of our own life, and the dog down the street, and all the dogs not yet born. What would the world be like without music or rivers or the green and tender grass? What would this world be like without dogs?" Mary Oliver