Allyson Whipple

Category: Ambitions

  • Soulard Haiku Walks Launch in October

    Soulard Haiku Walks Launch in October

    I’m thrilled to announce that next month, I’m launching a quarterly ginko (haiku walk) series around the Soulard neighborhood. The first event takes place on Saturday, October 26th at 9:30 a.m. It’s free, family-friendly, and open to anyone in the St. Louis area.

    I’ve wanted to start hosting ginkos in St. Louis for over a year now, but with everything else I have going on, it kept getting pushed to the back burner. Finally, though, I realized I could start hosting them in conjunction with the Soulard Restoration Group Community Involvement & Events Committee.

    Here are my goals for the series:

    1. Provide free haiku education in a digestible format.
    2. Provide space for people to practice writing haiku without worrying about critique or judgment.
    3. Create a family- and beginner-friendly event.
    4. Explore Soulard and learn about its unique history.
    5. Recognize that haiku can be written in any environment, and that urban spaces are just as legitimate haiku spaces as pastoral ones.

    We will meet at the Soulard Community Garden and spend 90 minutes learning about haiku, walking, exploring, and writing. The event concludes at the historic Soulard Market, a great place to explore at the conclusion of events.

    If you have any haikurious friends in the St. Louis area, forward this post along to them!

  • Five Strategies for Completing the Buson Challenge

    Five Strategies for Completing the Buson Challenge

    Last week, after at least five failed attempts over the past four years, I finally completed the Buson Challenge. The goal of this challenge is to write 10 haiku a day for 100 days. Other than that, there aren’t many guidelines, though you can hear Mike Rehling talk a bit about it in his 2020 HSA conference talk here: YouTube link. 

    Even if you dare to write badly, writing that many haiku in that short a time is difficult. So if you think you want to give this a try, read on for some tips that finally helped me make it to the finish line.

    1. Get a challenge buddy

    This attempt at the Buson Challenge was the first one where I put out the call for an accountability partner. I found one in the haiku Discord group I’m part of; we started on the same day, and occasionally sent each other updates and drafts. We didn’t check in every day, but just often enough to keep each other motivated and on track. Knowing there was another person in it with me helped me stay focused. Plus, I appreciated having someone to share both my good and bad writing days, who really knew what it was like to not feel the creative spark but to show up and write anyway. Even when your community is small, having community at all is a game-changer.

    2. Don’t overthink it

    Most days, you’re going to write at least a few haiku that are duds. That’s okay. If you get too hung up on trying to write 10 absolutely skillful poems a day, I think you’re going to struggle unnecessarily. Don’t worry if they’re good enough; just write them down. If, after your 10 poems, you have a creative burst and want to write more, write more; you don’t have to limit yourself if your creativity becomes completely unbridled. Don’t worry if you think you’re repeating yourself thematically (you probably are). Don’t worry if your haiku feel repetitive; sometimes that might be true, but sometimes it might just be your perception after trying to write so many haiku. Just get the writing done. All you have to do is write 10 haiku a day. Let that be good enough. 

    3. Have a tracking system

    When you’re trying to do something every day for an extended period of time, having some sort of tracker helps you stay organized and on track. You can do whatever you want; in the past, I’ve just used a spreadsheet with the day and the number of poems I managed to write. This time around, I set up the tracker in my bullet journal. I I had the date, what day of the challenge it was, and the number of poems I wrote that day. I also had a space to keep track of my extras (described below). Using the tracker made it easier for me to remember what day I was on and to keep myself motivated. It wasn’t just an organizational tool; it was a concrete depiction of my challenge progress. 

    4. Bank your extras

    You might think that there’s no possible way that you might write more than 10 haiku a day. I know I was surprised when one morning, I attended a haiku group and drafted 14 poems during the writing period. On one particularly emotional day, I drafted 23 haiku and senryu. Days when I drafted more than 10 were few and far between; I only wrote extra pieces on 6 out of 100 days. Still, those extras mattered. While one of my challenge buddies chose to apply their extras to the next day (so if they wrote 12 one day, they only had to write 8 the next day), I chose to bank mine for days when things didn’t go as planned. I kept a running record of how many extras I had in my haiku bank, and on one of the 7 days I didn’t manage to write 10 poems, I simply applied the extras toward that day, and adjusted my banked amount accordingly. I still completed the challenge with 13 extras! 

    5. Plan a reward

    In theory, writing 1,000 haiku in just over 3 months would be a reward unto itself. However, sometimes you don’t just need a finish line; you need a shiny trophy at the end of it. So decide how you’re going to celebrate. Maybe you’ll buy a new notebook (since this challenge is a great way to fill all those half-used ones lying around), or a haiku anthology you’ve had your eye on. I decided to make myself a set of stickers for crossing the finish line. Making myself a medal wasn’t practical, but stickers sure were! And the best part is, they’re easy to share! I’m mailing them out to my challenge buddies. (If you’ve completed this challenge in the past and would like a sticker, I’m happy to mail you some as well! Just message me at my contact form.)

    While the Buson challenge could be considered a once-in-a-lifetime writing event, I actually find myself wanting to try yet again. I’ve decided I’ll start another round on January 1st, 2025. Starting the new year with a big writing challenge sounds fun. I’ll be posting more about those plans in December to keep those who want to join me in the loop.

  • On Building: An Interview with John Cline

    This post concludes (for now) my four-part series on home equipment. I actually decided to record this interview rather than conduct it via email. John and I have so many great conversations, and I often wish I could record every one, so I always have the memories of the interesting or funny things someone said.

    I recorded this interview with the Voice Notes app on my iPad while I was visiting John in London, where he’s working for the month of May. It’s not my preferred setup, but it was nice to just capture a slice of what our morning coffee chats are like. Ultimately, I decided to post the audio of this interview, because I think people will get the most from listening to John talk. It runs just over 40 minutes; feel free to pause and come back to it as needed. I’ve also provided a transcript. I hope you enjoy!

    Given the length of the interview, I’ve opted to post the transcript as a PDF rather than make a giant page.

    equipment-interview-transcripDownload

    I hope you got some insights from this interview. If you have any questions for John or me, mention them in the comments!

  • So you want to build your own reformer

    As of this writing, I’ve now assisted my partner John in building three pieces of equipment: a reformer, a Pedi-pole, and a Cadillac. (Shout out to his mom, Linda, who has been the true helper ) I chose to go the DIY route in part because of the high price of large apparatus. Since John has taken on these projects for free, I’ve just been paying for materials. I’ve come away with some insights about the process. I will always be an advocate for DIY. When it comes to Pilates equipment, here are three things I think you should consider before giving it a go.

    1. I recommend having previous experience with woodworking or carpentry. So far, none of the projects my partner and I have attempted are beginner pieces. Even the Pedi-pole was deceptively tricky; while not an advanced project, I would say it required an intermediate skill level. A Cadillac might look simple, but building a structurally sound piece that can handle weight from a variety of bodies is a challenge that requires prior knowledge. And while I’ve found a number of intrepid DIY equipment builders that post instructions, the issue I’ve found over and over is that they make assumptions and skip steps. (No shame on them, though . . . writing technical instructions is a specialized skill as well!) That doesn’t mean they’re unusable, but it does mean you’ll have to rely on prior experience to fill in the gaps. (Confession: I have none of these skills. It’s all John. I get to do basic sawing, drilling, and finishing.) If you don’t have any experience, you’ll want to work with someone who does. (Though they might not be able to help you for free.)

    2. I recommend having access to workshop space with a variety of tools. John doesn’t have his basement workshop set up yet (in part because he’s been too busy building out my studio), so he’s had to drive out to his mom’s farm, where there’s plenty of space and a variety of hand and power tools. Whether you have a tricked-out garage (or a friend does), or you have access to a maker space, you’re going to need room to work, and you’re going to need tools. Don’t be surprised if you end up having to buy some new pieces. When building my Pedi-pole, John couldn’t find pre-threaded pipe at the correct height, so he ordered a thread cutter to do it himself. Fortunately, the world we live in makes it pretty easy to buy what you need, but the costs can add up. 

    3. Recognize it will take time (and probably longer than you think). You do save money when you build your own equipment . . . but what you’re really spending is time. For some people, the trade-off is totally worth it: it’s the only way they could afford equipment, and/or they genuinely enjoy the work itself. John spent probably 100 hours building my Cadillac, when all was said and done. (Though part of that did include driving to five different Lowe’s locations in three different counties because the conduit we wanted was out of stock.) There will be setbacks, there will be supply chain issues, and there will be mistakes. You might have to do things over. You might break something and need to repair it. I don’t say this to deter you. I love the DIY route, and I’m grateful I was able to take this path. I do want people to understand the challenge that comes with it. 

    For the final installment of this series, I’ll be publishing an interview with John about his experiences as my equipment maker. If you have a specific question for him, drop it in the comments! 

  • 9 Intentions for 39

    I had a fantastic birthday week. We had a family birthday/Easter dinner out at the farm, I got to spend lots of time outside, got plenty of good snuggles with Astrid, and then John made spaghetti carbonara, which is one of my most favorite foods. I’ve also had plenty of time to think about what I want to deliberately nourish and cultivate in the next year of my life. Here are my intentions.

    1. Keep the kitchen table clean. I’ve struggled with clutter my entire life. It’s probably genetic. (If you’ve ever seen my dad’s office or car, you can’t help but think there’s something innate in my DNA.) Honestly, most of the time, it doesn’t bother me. But clutter on the kitchen table drives me bonkers . . . and yet, whenever I clean it, the pile is back within a week. Lately, between the work we’re doing on the house and how stressed I’ve been in my professional life, it’s even worse than usual. This is the year that changes.

    2. Maintain a consistent budget. You’ve heard of yo-yo dieting . . . my unhelpful habit is actually yo-yo budgeting. But as I approach midlife, get serious about self-employment, and now have a mortgage on top of my still-unpaid student debt, it’s time to get serious. There are a lot of structural problems of life under capitalism that I cannot change, but what I can do is do my best to work with what I have. To do that, I actually need to budget.

    3. Fall in love with cooking again. I love food, and before COVID, I enjoyed cooking. Then, months of having to eat at home (plus constant supply chain issues) meant cooking began to feel more like a chore. And when I moved to St. Louis and went back to working in an office, cooking began to feel even more like an obligation I resented. But I have a fantastic cookbook collection (which I couldn’t resist adding to this weekend), and I hate seeing all those fun books sitting in my kitchen unused. I want to find a way to recapture the enjoyment of preparing food.

    4. Practice Pilates without an end goal. I’d only been a Pilates student for about 18 months when I ended up on the teacher training path. I’m grateful that I have been able to complete a comprehensive training. It’s also true that half of my life as a practitioner has been spent working toward this goal. I am excited to be able to simply practice, explore, and learn on my own terms.

    5. Get back to inbox zero. I used to be the kind of person who could zero out their inboxes every day. And that felt great. For whatever reason, I haven’t been able to keep up the habit, but looking at an inbox with over 100 messages just brings me down. So I want to bring myself to a decluttered inbox again.

    6. Fold my clean laundry within 24 hours. I haven’t been keeping up with this task, which is wild to me, because honestly, I kind of like folding laundry. Just put on a podcast and go! I don’t love an overflowing laundry basket any more than I love an overflowing inbox. So it’s time to queue up those podcasts and make time on Monday nights!

    7. Resume carrying a notebook everywhere. My big move and career change depleted my creativity. Yesterday was the first time in over two months that I’d written haiku. Because my creativity has been stagnant, I’ve gotten out of the habit of carrying a notebook with me to catch ideas. But that’s not helping my creativity, either! So the time has come to remind myself to be open to poetry.

    8. Go through that backlog of old notebooks. This has been on my to-do list for . . . way too long. I don’t want to toss out good material, but I’m tired of a thick stack of notebooks taking up space on my desk. I don’t think I’ll feel fully settled into my life in St. Louis until I go through all the writing from my past life, keep the good stuff, and let go of the work that doesn’t have spark.

    9. Rest. Working full-time and building up my self-employment means that many of my waking hours are accounted for. I’m definitely one of those people who stays up too late because I’m trying to maximize my free time and actually pursue my hobbies or spend time with John and Astrid. But sleep and general rest are essential for wellbeing, and this year, I’m making space for that.

    This new year of life is off to an exciting start! John and I have spent a lot of time working on getting my home studio together. I can’t wait to reveal the finished work later this year! I have a lot of projects and ambitions on the horizon, and I can’t wait to see what happens between now and the time I reach 40.