Write Yourself Home

Johanna Franzel Wrote Something Important

I met Jones at a writing sesh in Mexico City. She helped me feel safe enough to become more vibrant in the world this year. No kidding.

How did she do it?

Johanna Franzel, aka Jones, is one of those luminous humans. She’s generous, curious, and fun without judgment. (Is it weird to say that if I have to be hospitalized again, I hope she’s there too?) Yes, it’s weird. OK. Scratch that.

But don’t scratch this: there’s a lot of peace that comes with acceptance.

Jones is an alchemist blending somatics and creative writing. She is an expert guide to connecting your body and creativity. Her new book, Write Yourself Home, is bound to be one of the books that I give as a birthday gift because I won’t want to loan it out. My copy will stay home, next to other books that remind me about how writing and my body can be best friends (Think The Artist’s Way by Jean Cameron and The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad).

Jones and Barragan

Mary: Why do you think I love you so much?

Johanna: Girllllll we’re kindred! My Bergstroms lineage bows to yours, and I think there’s soul recognition too: We’re folks who have come through shit, who know what it is to survive the lights nearly going out (or perhaps actually going out...) and return with the conviction that we will show up to life, guided by heart and joy and creativity. Plus, we love to swear and dance and find each other sooooo cute! Am I secretly trying to turn this into a love letter to you? Yes Mary, I am.

(Pssst… this whole article is a love letter to Jones).

M: How does your body feel today and what does that mean for how you can be in the world?

J: Over easy with a side of tired, salted nicely with contentment. The book and podcast are now out in the world, so it feels like I’m in a long, grateful exhalation. It’s also deep summer in Maine, and that is its own elixir: I’ve got plans today to harvest zucchini, garlic, tomatoes and basil. Just writing that makes me feel easier in my body. The bounty! The deliciousness! All of this fortifies me to go out and meet the world and this new visibility with a bit more ballast.

M: What was your favorite story about the writing process of this book?

J: This book was an exercise in very different kinds of time: On the one hand, I’ve been writing and rewriting it for the last 15 years. A lovely, albeit glacial, pace. Then we found a wonderful publisher who wanted the book... in 4 months. Eegads. Ice caps to hot lava! My breezy pace had to shift, so I hunkered down and became monk-like, though the kind of monk that has a job and a family and bills to pay. I got up at 5 a.m. and wrote till noon, saw clients in the afternoon, and returned to edit in the evenings. Once things got going, I discovered that I loved this flow and focus but needed to find ways to include movement - after all, a book about embodied writing written in a disembodied frenzy would defeat the point, no? So in the midst of it all I started running, a thing I’d always found both boring and dangerous (the worst combination) but suddenly became a necessary part of creative life. The writing, as it always does, led me back to my body, and vice versa.

game recognizing game

M: What do you hope readers take away from your book?

J: My wildest (and maybe only?) hope for the book is that it finds the readers it can support. That support could look many ways, but I imagine it igniting something for them, perhaps a way of trusting or caring for themselves, or of orienting to their bodies from the inside out, or even of joining the world without requiring their bodies to comply to a standard of health or okayness. I am just the tiniest bit obsessed with this question of how we live well - really well and fully - in the bodies we have, and I hope the book offers lots of material for living into that question.

This book, I mean come on

WHAT’S GIVING ME ENERGY AND HELPING ME FEEL MORE ALIVE THIS WEEK:

#1: Jones’ cute dog Rosie

Maybe you already heard about Roosie if you listened to Jones mention how cute she is on Dan Harris’ podcast, 10% Happier.

#2: Staying in a 500-Year-Old House

We’re in England this week visiting my husband’s family and feeling overcome with the history. For example staying in this super old house that used to be a hostel for monks. Can you imagine how many people looked out this window?

#3: This Little Girl

Who reminded me so much of little me. (Yes, I expect a sequin dress is in my future)…

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