Newcomer’s is one of a growing number of voices inquiring about these age-old issues from a new perspective—speaking about a shift in our culture, insisting that the religious right holds no monopoly on faith.
Through her songs, she asks: What is the nature of justice? When is it finally time to forgive or let go? Where do we turn for strength?
“I see a great opening now for people to explore their spirituality,” she told a reporter before the workshop began. She is open to all and says people now don’t want to “put faith in a small container.”
She told the standing room that was participating in the learning track, “Writing as a Spiritual Practice,” on Saturday, Aug. 1 to be aware of their surroundings or “you miss the presence.” As a writing exercise she challenged her students to write a short sentence about some life-experience from today. To write about life experiences “you have to be there” she said.
Another exercise she had the group complete was 10 minutes of uninhibited ‘stream of consciousness’ writing. “Don’t stop, don’t think – don’t let the mental critic get in the say.
“If you stop writing, the mental critic will jump in and tell you ‘everything you’ve ever written sucks’, or “What would your mother think?”
Her philosophy, as noted on her Web page, www.carrienewcomer.com, examines the idea that things are not always as they appear; that good exists at the center of things; that life is a process of transformation; that there is value in simple things; that wholeness is not beyond our reach.
