Finding Your Voice: Writing and Storytelling with Amy-Lyles Wilson

This episode features the extraordinary Amy-Lyles Wilson, a multi-talented writer, editor, creativity coach, and spiritual companion, who shares the profound influence of her aunts, Theora and Vannie, on her life's work. From Aunt Theora's mystical paintings to Aunt Vannie's bold life choice to move from Mississippi to Greenwich Village, Amy uncovers how personal narratives shape our lives and bring us closer to each other. Discover Amy's diverse roles in editing, storytelling, and leading writing workshops and spiritual retreats, all designed to help others discover and share their unique voices.

Thank you for listening.

Be sure to visit the Restless to Renewed website for pictures and more information about episode guests at www.RestlesstoRenewed.com.

Chapters

• 0:22 Sharing Stories
• 7:45 Writing Workshops and Obituary Reflections
• 16:19 Fostering Creativity Through Writing Workshops
• 22:28 Exploring Creative Outlets Through Storytelling
• 30:17 Amy's Writing Workshops and Retreats

Transcript

Janice: 0:22

Welcome to Restless to Renewed: Women Redefining the Middle Years and Beyond. I'm your host, Janice Neely, and I want to thank you for listening. My guest today is Amy-Lyles Wilson, a woman with many, many talents, and on her website Amy describes herself this way: “ I'm part writer, editor, part creativity coach, part spiritual companion and all heart.” Welcome, Amy. 

Amy: 0:40

Thank you, Janice, glad to be here. 

Janice: 0:42

Amy, you amaze me with your range of creativity. It's true, I look at your website, but I've known your editorial skills, but oftentimes I think we think of editors as very you know, detailed and so forth. You're a very creative person, too in other aspects.

Amy: 1:11

I enjoy doing it all actually.

Janice: 1:13

Well, I had a really good time poking around on your website Hamblett House, correct? Correct. And reading about your Aunt Theora Hamblett. Am I pronouncing her name correctly? Yeah, that's right. Aunt Theora Hamblett. And on the website you also write it is the sharing of our stories that saves us. So what do you mean by that statement and what influence did your Aunt Theora have on your work? 

Amy: 1:35

My Aunt Theora she was a great aunt really and we just always called her Aunt Theora. But when I was younger my mother would take me to her house. She lived in this kind of big house off of Main Street in Oxford, Mississippi, and she had lived out in the country. She taught herself to paint. I had two sort of creative twigs in my family tree Janice. Everybody else was a banker and a lawyer, so I gravitated to those two. But Theora sort of scared me when I was young because she really might have been a mystic, because she was so in touch with her intuition and she had these religious visions and dreams and she would paint those. But every time I went to her house it just smelled like old age and turpentine. And I was too young to get it, that she was really talented and ended up having her art in some museums and a gallery show in New York and things like that. She didn't go, but you know, somebody really saw her and appreciated her for her talent. So that's one reason I wanted to name my little company Hamblett House, in honor of her, and then the other one was my Aunt Vannie, who was just a fabulous woman who left a really, really, really small town in North Mississippi when she was 18 and moved to Greenwich Village and never looked back and she just was my hero because she made her own life. She never married, so she was a good example for me to know you could be alone and be okay, because I didn't marry myself until I was 41. And I was convinced I wasn't going to marry.

Amy: 3:00

So, yeah, so that's about Theora Hamblett and it's the sharing of our stories that saves us. That I really believe with all my being. And I believe it for a couple of reasons. One that I don't think we can ever be reminded enough that we're not alone. And I think, even if you know that intellectually, if you're up at 3am with some sort of concern or problem or challenge, you may think you're the only one in the world with that challenge and certainly your situation will be specific to you. But I can about 99 percent guarantee you somebody else is in a similar position. And if I'm working with a group, in a writing group, in a writing circle, and one person is able to say I had this abortion and I've never gotten over it, you know, just to hear that and invite that for someone else to be able to say, well, I had this thing that still haunts me, and so that's why I like that saying and it's just really at the core of what I do.

Janice: 4:02

That's lovely and I'm going to circle back, but I love both of their names.

Amy: 4:07

I do too, aren't they great? Yeah, I got a lot of good ones in my family. I got a Eunice Eula. I am from Mississippi after all, so yeah, Well, I love it.

Janice: 4:17

So the stories are very important and I agree and that's what we're doing here on Restless to Renewed. But I know that on your website you offer multiple services, so we've got a lot to cover today. Great, and you're an editor, you are a SoulCollage facilitator and you do writing, workshops and retreats. So in addition to that, I see you do coaching. Is that for individuals or groups, or how do you do that?

Amy: 4:44

Yeah, the coaching so far has been with individuals and I've started calling myself a story coach and I didn't know that was a thing. But apparently other people are calling themselves that too now, because I have been an editor and a writer for a long time and I just am at the point now where I really enjoy helping people get their story started Like in our world we would call it almost developmental editing, right, helping people take the notebooks and the scraps and their box of memories or research on a topic and making it into a book. I no longer do things like proofreading and line editing and things like that, so I'm really more of an ideas gal with that. I do have to be detailed, like you said, when I'm editing, just not doing quite as much of that to make a little more room for my own writing, for one thing. But also I find that coaching people really just to give themselves the space and the permission to tell the story they're called to tell that story they just haven't been able to tell yet, or the one they know might matter to somebody, or if it just matters to you, right, the first person you tell the story to is yourself.

Amy: 5:51

And then I'm a spiritual gal. So I also think you're telling it to the divine. You know, those are the two, whatever you call God or what might be bigger than yourself, right, then, if you want to share it with other people, be it your family and friends, or try to share it with the world, but those are very different parts of the process. You know there's personal writing and then there's writing for the public. So I just think that everybody has a story to tell that will matter to somebody, and so I love working, Janice, with writers who think they can't write or people who have been told their story doesn't matter.

Amy:: 6:21

So I'm not your gal if you want to tell a story that's going to go to the Times bestseller list. I'm just not. I'm more about the process. I care about the product and I want it to be as solid and appealing as it can be, but I'm really more about the process, because I think the process of writing does so much for us, regardless of where we are in life, but especially those of us at midlife and beyond. You know, you could just think of it partly as a life review: what have I done and what might I still want to be able to do? Right, right, mostly with individuals.

Janice: 6:51

Okay, that makes sense, though, because it's their story, but this is an important time when we start to reflect on our history and our family history and what we've accomplished in life. And then there comes a point when you start wondering about what other people have done in your family history or family tree, and I really missed out on a lot and I think a lot of people do because that's not important to us until we get to this stage of our life. I'm not saying there aren't people that don't enjoy it, but we're so busy, and so I missed out. I think about my grandparents and wish I would have just sat down with them and heard their story. So it's important, I think, for people listening, to think about. There will be a day when somebody wants to hear your story. It may not be now.

Amy: 7:41

That's right, exactly right, and that's what I tell the people I work with. So, yes, that's what I do, mainly with individuals, but I'm also starting to help people, and I do this in workshops, but helping people go ahead and write their obituaries, because I think that's also an important form of life review. You know, and I just had a family member die unexpectedly, and I'm going to harp on this for years to anybody who will listen. I don't care what your age is, but certainly if you've made it to midlife or older, if you haven't, just because it helps your family members and friends, but also it's a way for you to make sure that the things you really care about are shared with others upon your death. That's so interesting. That's one of my favorite things right now.

Janice: 8:2b

I don't know if I've ever heard of anybody doing that before.

Amy: 8:22

I call it your own obituary so that you can make sure it's like you want it.

Janice: 8:27

Yeah, well, I know that people have written it, but I didn't know that there were people out there that could help you do that like you do. Yeah, interesting, this is exciting. So what are some of the other titles of your workshops, your writing workshops, and also when you go to a writing workshop? If I were to sign up, what could I expect to happen?

Amy: 8:46

Really, the writing workshops I do are all about space and permission. They're not about critique, because I think critique in groups can really shut people down just with one you know unintentional, misguided comment. Now, if you've got a group of people who say they've been working on their novels for eight years, well then they're ready for critique. That's a different deal. The people I work with are really, I like to think of us as journey women and journeymen writers, so we're not trying to be famous or anything like that. So those can be tailored to just about anything is what I'm trying to say. But I do own your obituary. I do one called telling your life story before it's too late, the art of aging, you know something on finding your voice, those kinds of things. So those are just a couple of the ones that I do, and then another one that I really enjoy doing is one of the first ones I did when I started doing this work is called the language of loss, putting grief into words.

Amy: 9:37

I work with hospices, sometimes with that. I work with Alive Hospice, a good bit offering that Also did your own obituary with them. Alive Hospice could have been offering that also did own your obituary with them. Alive hospice is a hospice here in Nashville, tennessee, and so those are what I really like to do, and if you came to one of my workshops, you could expect a welcoming environment, the freedom to be the writer you are, whether that's a new one, an out of practice one, a wannabe one or a think you can't one. Those are the people I really love to work with, the people who think they can't write or didn't get the support they needed even to try to tell a story for themselves, and most of them are three hours in length. They're generative in nature, which means we don't bring in outside work that we've worked on. We write in response to prompts that I create and offer, and then, if you want to read, you can read.

Amy: 10:28

You'll never be compelled to read your work aloud, but if you do in the group and I like to keep them pretty small, 12 and under for the intimacy factor and the confidentiality factor you'd be invited to read, and what we would respond to as a group would be what we thought was strong, what we remember and what we might like to know more about. So we're not going to say things like oh Janice, how did you survive that awful thing. We're not going to do that. We're going to keep it to the page. What you've shared on the page is what we're going to talk about and we're not going to ask leading questions and things.

Amy: 11:05

And I'm really not a confrontational, bombastic kind of person. But that's the hill I'll die on if somebody asks you a question that's too personal. I mean I won't freak out on anything, but I will redirect it pretty quickly because that space has to be safe enough for people to tell the stories they need to tell. So it'd probably be two to three prompts within the three hours, with, you know, breaks and things like that, and then some free writing time. I might just say free write for 10 minutes or write about what you thought of on drive over here, or something like that, and then the themed workshops would. Of course, the prompts would all be geared toward that theme. I also lead a group that's been writing together monthly for really about 15 years now. It's been very fun to see, and we just do prompts all over the place. It might be a poem, it might be an old picture. I find it might be a piece of dialogue, that kind of thing.

Janice: 11:54

Is that the Pilgrim Writers? Yes, I saw that on there, right, yeah, yeah. What I think would be interesting from what you just said is that the people who didn't think they could write have a place to come and work through that or learn what their gifts are. But I also think that with writing your own obituary, people might be touched by that thought, even if they've never even considered themselves interested in writing. I'm wondering.

Amy: 12:25

A lot of that too, I think there are plenty of people more talented than I about, because I've never written a novel, right. So if you want somebody to teach you the top 10 tips for writing a novel, you can find somebody to do that, and I think it's harder to find people you can just write with in community, regardless of your writing quote, unquote abilities or experience.

Janice: 12:46

Yeah Well, I can imagine there's a lot of people that would have a fear of even starting, but I think that your process sounds so gentle and so welcoming that anybody could probably sit down with a computer or a pencil or whatever and start.

Amy: 13:02

I hope so. I mean that's the goal and it's worked so far. I think pretty well yeah.

Janice: 13:08

Okay, when you talk about the prompts. I don't know if you want to give this away or not, but can you describe one of the exercises?

Amy: 13:16

Oh, yeah, sure, the Pilgrim Writers Group meets in my home and so I have a big basket of just objects I find at estate sales and things. So sometimes I'll just throw objects out and invite you to pick the one that strikes you first, without worrying about why. You know, just pick it and go write what comes up in you. We use that phrase a lot. Pilgrim Writers write what comes up in you. For example, one of them is a wooden spoon and I will get lovely stories about baking cakes with grandmothers, and I'll also get stories about, you know, being hit with one. And that's, if you'll allow me the word, beauty. That's one of the beauties of this kind of writing and community is that everything matters and your story won't be mine, but I guarantee you we have something in common, right? Yeah, we share a lot, and then there might be a lot of dialogue.

Amy: 14:09

I overheard at the coffee shop and just say start with this and see where the writing takes you. And then also, if you're just not in the mood for the prompt I give, if it just doesn't do anything for you, you're welcome to write about what's ever on your heart. So people who come to the pilgrim writers offerings are some of them are working on longer works and so they might integrate the prompts into what they're working on, like maybe they wanted to write about a scene with a grandmother in a witness booth, right, so you can tailor the prompts really for whatever you might be working on, or you can just enjoy the time at the table writing, and most of the people I write with that's. When they write, it's three hours at my big old table and that's what they need and that's what they want and they don't care about doing it. Don't need to do anymore, most of them. Some of them write every day. Some of them want to be published in half, but most of it is writing to know yourself better.

Janice: 15:00

Yeah, I am a very verbal person, maybe not articulate, but I'm verbal. But things don't seem as real to me unless I say them out loud, and I know there's people that's the same with writing. That's when it becomes more real to you. Yeah, so you accommodate writers of varying skill levels and backgrounds, and how do you encourage creativity and originality? And I know that's with the prompts, that's part of it. But are there other things that you do?

Amy: 15:37

Yeah, and I meant to say in the workshops, I'll also always include a little reading about craft and a little something inspirational, whether that's something from Julia Cameron or one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, you know, whatever that might be. So there's always not only writing, but most of it is because that's the goal. So that's one way I do it. And then also, when I have nervous people, my first timers, and some of them really are nervous and don't speak much the first time, you know, it's all natural to me now, but it's not to everybody, and so I encourage creativity. Well, really, like you said, through these prompts I might have an exercise for a timid writer, maybe a reading I can share. I have a bookcase full of resources. When things like that and the main thing I've seen over the years of doing this, janice, is really helping people give themselves permission that's really the biggest thing, I think, because they either think they aren't creative because they're not a famous artist, or they don't know how to paint, or they haven't written a novel or whatever, and really all of us will not make it to a bestseller list, and so that might be hard.

Amy: 16:41

If that's our goal, right, if we're just writing for writing sake or for ourselves, or it might feel like it's not worth it, but it is, and I just try to encourage the heck out of people that that's true.

Amy: 16:53

So I guess that's the way I do it, with a listening ear, a willingness to help them with if they won't critique or if you know offside that's a different hat I put on if they want resources or if they need to just be with other people who write, you know, because writing can be a lonely business. I think that's why you see writers go to coffee shops and rent little co-working spaces and do things like that, and so I love to write in community. We'll write from 15 to 20 minutes per prompt, okay, so it's quiet while we're doing that. So I'm doing my own thing, but for some reason I feel better having other people in the room with me. It's just easier, and I've heard a lot of people say that you don't even have to really talk to me. But I just like knowing you're there, trying to find the words right, along with me.

Janice: 17:37

Well, I think that this is not even close to what you're doing, but even if you went to a yoga class or you went somewhere else, being with people that are doing the same thing is a form of encouragement. Yeah, and when you talk about writing for yourself I've talked about this before In my mind I couldn't draw, so I was not creative, or I couldn't do this or I couldn't do that and when you do it for yourself, if you draw a picture for yourself and you don't feel like it has to be seen by others. It's amazing what comes out.

Amy: 18:09

Yeah, exactly right. And see, you don't have to share in my workshops. I mean, I hope you will, you know, but you don't have to. So maybe you're just getting started. Then I would encourage you just to come right or just to get to the page, however you can, and then maybe one day you'll want to share it, maybe not, you won't be compelled to, and so I think that gives people some freedom. You know there's a lot of research now out about creativity in your daily life. It doesn't have to be writing or art, it could be how you arrange flowers, and some people might think that sounds hokey, but I think it's really helpful finding ways in your day where you can just show your innate artistic slash, creative style. It doesn't have to be writing. I hope it will be, but it isn't.

Janice: 18:51

As long as it brings you joy, that's right. Anything you do, whatever, yeah, so can you share a story or example of how your workshops have helped participants with their stories? Are you able to talk about anyone, and you don't have to name names, of course.

Amy: 19:05

I won't name names but I'll go back to Own Your Obituary, one that we did because I had two nuns come and it was so sweet having them there when we did through a live hospice and we're going to offer that one again. But they were so dear and so genuine and connected to the whole process and they spoke to me afterwards and said they were charged with writing the obituaries of the sisters as they die. And because a lot of nuns are passing away, it means an older group for the most part and that's why they wanted to come and they said it really helped them think about how to honor their sisters there. So that's one example. And then one I helped a church group start at an Episcopal church here in town and that was Telling your Life Story and I just brought in prompts and we met for about six weeks and 10 years later they're still going and so they've really been appreciative of getting that going and they just come together and share what they've written and do prompts and it's great.

Amy: 20:03

I'm fortunate in what I do because I really get some pretty quick feedback on what's working and what might ont be working, you know. But in the what's working part. It's lovely how people will reach out to me and say just the opportunity to sit with other people and write or be in a room where I didn't feel judged either from grammar or the content of my story, because we don't worry about grammar or split infinitives. I mean, I still have to look some of that stuff up. Janice, I'm not listening to you for dangling participles and it's really a form of holy listening and that's where my spiritual direction training just fits right in, because it's all about holy listening.

Amy: 20:41

Spiritual direction training just fits right in, because it's all about holy listening. You know there's been authors in the past that didn't use correct grammar, and I think context is important, and so if they're not doing that, that's fine, okay. 

Janice: 20:50

Okay, what materials or resources do participants need to bring and do you provide anything? And we've talked about the prompts, so that would be your supplementary materials.

Amy:  21:06

Sure, just this will sound silly. Just bring yourself really is where we start. And then bring your laptop or your favorite journal or an old notepad and something to write with and I always have extra notepads and always journals. I'm one of those people who has too many empty journals and then there'll be some other takeaways. I always have at least one handout to go home with you, because I love a handout myself and I also think it helps prompt you later when you might want to write again.

Amy:  21:34

You know, because even if we use a poem as a prompt, I'll give you a copy of that to take with you, because what you write today in response to that will differ from when you write a month from now. So I try to encourage people not to look at it as one and done with the prompts. You can get a lot of life out of some of these prompts. And then I'll usually always have an outside resource like a website or a book to recommend where you can learn more about writing or get encouraged. Or you know, for me, janice, creativity and spirituality are linked, and I don't know how I can really explain what I mean by that, but I know what I mean. Here I am supposed to be a wordsmith but I don't know how to explain it. But to me it means that something bigger than me is at work when I'm doing something creative. So it might be a spiritual handout.

Amy:  22:25

You know I've mentioned Julia Cameron, who combines the spiritual with the creative. It might be something like that. I sent you. I got the book on my shelf behind me. I never can get through it. I'm terrible.

Amy: 22:31

That's so funny. You say that because I do some teaching with the porch here in town. It's a lovely literary collective that does workshops and seminars and things like that for all levels, and I did an artist way group there one time and so we had 12 people that say I promise you. Eight of them said I've had that book on my shelf for 15 years and I haven't gotten all the way through it. So I think it's one we think we're supposed to have and then maybe just don't. But it's lovely when you fully engage with it.

Janice: 22:56

Yeah, I had a lady we interviewed on the show here and she said it changed her life and so if people haven't read it they might want to look into it. But it's a fair amount of work.

Amy: 23:06

It is, you know, and I think Julia Cameron would not agree with this, but I think you can dip in and out. If you can't get through all 12 weeks at once, do one through three or pick one to start is what I would say

Janice: 23:16

For somebody like me, that would work better. Yeah, me too I chase rabbits. So you have edited lots of books. I know that in essays I remember some that you did when I worked at the Upper Room Forgiveness, and some of those and you've done a lot of other writing. So I'm familiar with the religious publishing aspect of your work. I went on Amazon to remind myself about those different books and I saw your cookbooks. I couldn't believe it. I don't know why, but I never knew that.

Amy: 23:52

I would like for this to be a sexy story about how well I write and cook that somebody thought I'd be the perfect person to be a cookbook author but I don't actually cook. But I'll tell you how that came about. I moved here in 93 to work for a little publishing company called Rutledge Hill Press. They were later absorbed by Thomas Nelson and I worked with a really, really smart guy there named Bryan Curtis and after Rutledge Hill went its way, we all went our ways. He became a book packager, so he would put together the idea, the writer and shop those things around. And he called me and he said you know, I want you to do this gig. I want you to write some Southern short stories for this three-part book deal that I have in mind and my mother's going to do the recipes.

Amy: 24:44

And we just had a ball. We just had a ball doing it and Brian came up with all the titles. But that,Bless your Heart, Saving the World One Cover Dish at a Time. That's pretty great. I think I love that.

Janice: 24:54

So if you are Southern, you get it in a minute, but it was really lovely.

Amy: 24:59

And so I don't write a lot of fiction, I mainly write slice of life, creative nonfiction. I'm one of those writers who I think really most writers are. Even if they won't cop to it, they draw on their real life, whether they're calling it fiction or not. So most of those little Southern short stories in there came from my experience or my hearing or you know knowing of, and so instead of having an introduction to appetizers for that chapter, I wrote a little short story for them. So we had one on, you know, tailgating and baby showers. I did one on funerals where I relied on the experience I had after my father died and my extended family gathered to feed us and I just ate like a woman who'd been starved for weeks and that was really fun. So it's not really cooking for me, Janice. It was interesting to be on radio interviews and stuff and Brian kept telling me don't say you don't cook, and I was like but I don't, but it was great fun.

Janice: 25:51

Yeah, it's funny because I don't cook and I like looking through cookbooks.

Amy:: 25:55

Well, you know, I learned about you people in that process because I didn't know you existed, people who just like to read and play with cookbooks, whether they cook or not. But there are a lot of you out there.

Janice: 26:10

Yeah, yeah, I tell you, I was the cereal box reader. When I was a kid I was the phone book reader when in a hotel, we might need to talk.

Amy: 26:15

Janice, I don't know, that sounds a little weird, too strange, huh. 

Janice: 26:18

And the cookbooks cookbooks, yeah, I'll read those. 

Amy: 26:20

But it was a great experience and it's another reason I think I harp on communities because that came from a connection I made in doing the work that I love and I'm lucky that I get to do work I love. I know not everybody does, but Brian and I hadn't worked together in years when he called me for that you know, you and I were connected through Robin, but I still knew you from a distance.

Janice: 26:46

So it is, it's amazing, and when I thought about contacting you I wondered if she'll remember me, but she did so. It's wonderful. 

:

Amy: 26:50

Well, I want to mention one of the other books because I like just when it says You Be Sweet: Sharing Your rHeart With One Down Home Dessert at a Time, and I think that is another phrase in the South. You be sweet.

Amy:  27:06

That would be when I would leave the house as a young person. That'd be one of the last things my mother would say to me. You know, comb your hair and then you be sweet. I think it was those two. I like it.

Janice: 27:16:

I love it. You talked about what influenced you. So, in addition to your work at Hamlet House, do you have any other plans to add to your list of creative outlets or giving ideas that are coming down the path for you?

Amy:  27:30

Well, one thing you mentioned, I think briefly, is the SoulCollage work that I do and the people can find out about that at soulcollage.org, I think might be .com. I'm not sure I should know that. Sorry, we can Google it and it's lovely. I would call it a meditative art practice. It relies on imagination and intuition and it's not in the vision board category because you don't put words on your cards that you make. You make these little five by seven cards only with images, and you're just letting the images speak to you and you can use them in meditation or you know, to write to them. They're great journal prompts and it's been lovely for me to learn more about that because I've been so word based and learning to trust images. You know, like dream work is big in spirituality, right, and so images, and so that's really a lovely thing as well, and so I don't do that as much as I do the writing workshops, but it's complementary to that sometimes, especially if I'm doing work in churches or retreat centers, and I love working with older adults, and so I've led a few groups at retirement communities and have just been in contact with one of the Y's here in town to see if I can do something for the older adults Active older adults, I think they call it at the Y. That would be more of the same thing about the storytelling.

Amy:  28:46

So I don't know about anything completely different, except that on my list I want to learn sound healing, the sound bath stuff. I want to learn how to do that. I have a bad problem going to like a lot of these certificate programs. You know where you can go and learn these things and get all these quote unquote certificates. But anyway, I want to do that next because I think it'd be a good compliment for my work. It's just like it sounds. It's just lovely sounds with singing bowls and glass bowls and really helps you center down, as Howard Thurman would say.

Janice: 29:16

Oh wow, I've never heard of that. It's so strange. I'd never heard of SoulCollage until the first of the year. And I've never heard of that. It's so strange. I'd never heard of Soul Collage until the first of the year, and so hopefully we'll shed some light on that with this program. But if you do get that certification, let us know.

Janice: 29:33

I get it. I love looking at all these different little classes. It's so much fun. So is there anything else you'd like to say to the audience today? Before we close, I'm going to encourage them to come to your website, of course, visit it.

Amy:  29:46

The website is just my full name. It's not Hamblett House but that's the name of the company, but Amy Liles Wilson is the website, dot com. Just to reiterate that. I hope anybody listening who has not told a story that matters to them or they think they need to get out of themselves, even if it's just for themselves to see it on paper or on the screen or to pray with it or to publish it or anything, that I would just encourage you to take that first step and try to do that, because I think it'll be rewarding for you.

Janice: 30:16

Okay, thank you. Our time is up right now and I just want to let everyone know that Amy's an excellent editor if you need an editor, and she's available to lead writing and SoulCollage workshops. And you just said you were looking at going to the Y, so possibly going into churches, and we have some places around town here 50 Forward.

Amy:  30:36

Exactly, I haven't worked with them, but they're on my list to contact.

Janice: 30:40

I think they would be excellent..

Janice: 30:46

Great, and you do retreats also. I am leading one at St Mary's, Sewanee up on the hill in late June, co-leading that with my friend Robbie Pinter, who's a local spiritual director and writer as well.

Janice 30:54

Anyway, you can contact Amy by going to her website, and that's amylyleswilson.com and it's Lyles with a Y, and you'll be able to find her page on Restless to Renewed. Each guest has their own page and links to their website. So if you're unable to find her by yourself, just go to the Restless to Renewed site and if you like this program, I'm going to encourage you to follow along with our Facebook page, our Instagram, visit the website things change often and also, of course, like this podcast so that more people will be able to listen, and if you have any ideas or anything that you would like us to talk about, we're open to those thoughts also. So thank you everyone and we hope you will listen again. And thank you, Amy.

Amy 31:45

Thank you, I loved being here,