Tonight I did my first volunteer training to become a facilitator for Write Around Portland. They are an amazing group that runs dozens of writing workshops every year, along with running readings and publishing anthologies of the participants' work all for a diverse group of folks who wouldn't otherwise have access to such things.

Tonight I did my first ten-minute writing from a prompt. You'd think I'd come across this sort of thing in my writing life, but no. I've always avoided any kind of "free write" scenario. The workshops this group runs makes heavy use of the prompt, write and read lay out, so I'm going to have to get use to it. I wanted a challenge for myself and now I've done gone and gotten it. I let my heart bang against my ribs and did it. There was a fair amount of panic in having to be there, in a circle of strangers, writing without thinking too much and then reading what I'd written without shaking too much, but I did it. And honestly, what I wrote was better than I expected it could be. And I participated more than I thought I would. And I liked the other volunteers. Maybe this is the leaf. Watch me turn it over.