Cross Post: Christine Cissy White Becomes Nancy Slonim-Aronie’s Ass’t

It’s an honor to work, part-time, supporting Nancy and the Chilmark Writing Workshop. She is one of the Mothers of Free-Writing along with Natalie Goldberg and Laura Davis. I’m so grateful I was exposed to her style, wisdom and heart.

I was always a free-writer but had never done it in a group setting until I went to a Writing from the Heart workshop after reading her book.

To be seen, accepted, appreciated even when writing about the deepest and most tender subjects was life-changingly positive. I’ve been a Nancy groupie ever since. 

People are hungry for soul to soul sharing and caring. No, we are starving! For the fifteen years I’ve known Nancy I’ve asked her to make herself more available online. I tell her people WANT to know where and when her workshops are and want to stay connected with each other as well.

Nancy has resisted having an assistant or going all technical in any way. She likes to be as personal, intimate and informal as possible. And let’s face it, what she has done works. She’s going strong after 25-years.

She was just interviewed for a Boston Globe piece last week.

But without help and support, you might not know what Nancy does, where she does it or when. I have Nancy for over a decade and until she hired me as her part-time assistant, I didn’t know she had a column, monthly, done for the Vineyard Times or that she is regularly on NPR still.

Her work and writing about her work was nowhere to be found on her website (though they now are – here). She didn’t have a blog or a space for all of her fabulous students to share words and work either. 

She has grown the Writing from the Heart community via word-of-mouth testimonials and with the help of loving and loyal volunteers, writers and family (Joy, April, Nikki, Liz, Gerry and others). She has created a website, an email list and now a one-hour video. She had a radio show on Lime for a while as well.

But she was also resistant to get online or to blog. What if she couldn’t respond to everyone who wrote in? What if she didn’t have any time to write or teach or love?  What if it just felt strange to self-promote? Let’s face it, we all feel a little self-doubting or self-scrutinizing or attention grabby at times.

Maybe we’re just introverts who aren’t at ease doing the social media thing. Maybe we’re extroverts who feel tortured behind a desk.

But I believe in what Nancy does. I believe the world would be a better place if more people felt safe to be themselves, to have their feelings and to put them on paper and trust that the world won’t end. I believe that. I’ve felt that. I know how healing that can be and what great writing it can generate.

I don’t mind being Writing from the Heart pusher or marketer. I selfishly want more workshops, writing and videos and to stay connected to her students. I want that for myself and for others. She has embraced or at least allowed this.

I invite you to help me spread the word and share Nancy’s writing, workshop information as well as your own writing, art and photos.

I can be reached at [email protected] and we can grow the Writing from the Heart community together.

Christine Cissy White is a fanatic free-writer, mother and her website, www.healwritewnow.com is for trauma survivors. Cissy has known, loved and been writing with Nancy for 15 years.