We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meredith Heller a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Meredith, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I started writing poetry and songs as a young teen when I had left home and was living on my own in the woods, struggling with the big questions of who am I, why am I here, and how can I live a soulful life. I suffered with depression and teenage angst, and I didn’t feel like I belonged to anything except nature and creativity. Writing gave me a medium to express the immensity of the longing I felt. I found that when I wrote, I slowed down enough to name my feelings and explore every texture, and this helped to weave me into deeper belonging with myself. I wrote through my pain and confusion into clarity and acceptance. As I committed myself to a poem or song, and immersed in creative process, I began to feel that I was connected to something bigger than myself. It became my lifeline. I wanted to share this lifeline with others.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I write books and lead online writing workshops and retreats for a global community of women writers that focus on expressive writing as a tool for healing and self-discovery. After 30 years as a poet in the schools, I started working with adult women and landed my purpose. Having found my own voice through writing, I wanted to share this path with others. My passion is empowering women to believe in themselves, trust their creative instincts, tap their wild wisdom, express their truth, and ignite their hearts. You can join me for a workshop to explore and express the wild beauty of your heart along with a wonderful, loving, and inspired global community of women writers. You can check out my books to help spark your muse and get writing with Writing by Heart and Write a Poem, Save Your Life. My poetry collections include, Yuba Witch, River Spells, and Songlines. My new collection, Caterpillar Girl will be out August 2025. www.meredithheller.com

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I truly live for the feeling I have when I’m immersed in creative flow. It’s when I feel most alive, most connected to the great hum of the life. I feel present with the breathing, beating heart of the universe, and this makes me know why I’m here. As a nature poet, I spend my summers camping and living simply beside rivers and oceans. I get quiet and still enough to attune with earth’s wild rhythm, and then I listen deeply. I hear everything in nature speaking and singing in its own native tongue, and I am humbled and transformed. My self-assigned task is to find the words that express the ineffable beauty and mystery of life. In nature, I find the metaphors that help me navigate this human experience. Sculpting a poem until it sings, gives me a sense of accomplishment and it feels like an offering, a prayer, that I give back to life for having moved me so deeply with its beauty and healing.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was teaching music and dance to children for many years, and I had to stop because I was always getting sick. I mourned closing my business; it was my favorite thing I had ever done because it used every molecule of my being. I asked great spirit to please find me another path with heart-fire. One of the mothers whose kids I taught, said she was looking at at an old website of mine and asked if I still taught poetry for teen girls and would I do a group for her daughters and few of their friends. Within six months of leading that group, I had four more groups of teens girls, and we were on fire! I believe the world wants our passion and purpose, and it will not allow us to sit back and be idle when we have something juicy and enlivening to share.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.meredithheller.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meredith.heller.5

Image Credits

Photo credit pics 2, 4, 5: Vaschelle André