How to Live Like a Turtle

Keep your head high in all types of weather.

Float worries away.

Face challenges with Power.

Relax in the sun and sea.

Swim and eat and sunbathe. Then rest and begin again.

Thrive in tranquility.

Chill with your Best Buddy.

Reasons to Laugh

Did you know that five-year-olds laugh 400-500 times a day? Grown-ups laugh only 15 times a day on average, says Leigh Anne Jasheway who believes laughter is the best medicine.

Jasheway is concerned that people are, "peppered daily by angry talk radio and news media reminding us to feel angry or to panic." She claims, "levity is the opposite of gravity."  We need to express ourselves in laughter.

Studies reveal that laughter produces basic mammalian benefits of reducing tension snd fear.  

Check out rats laughing:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-admRGFVNM.

Create a humor antidote to your frustrations.
Laugh about the weather.
Giggle when you make a mistake and try again.
Enjoy a few ha ha ha moments when you're at a low ebb.

You will discover how the funny bone takes over to energize the mind and spirit.

Take a negative situation and turn it into a laughter solution.

Just get silly!

Add Texture to Writing

Promote zest in writing by adding elements of texture. Explore a variety of surfaces, materials, and natural substances. Discover the nuances.

Express temperature by revealing the intensity of heat or frigid air. Walk with barefeet on grass, sand, and hot pavement. Describe the sensations. Use your fingertips to explore fabrics and flowers.

Examine roughness and silkiness in leaves and petals. Feel the breeze on your face and eyelashes.

Walk in sea spray or rain. Study pigments and dragons in shadows.

Make notes while experiencing all imaginable textures.  Create your own words to reveal texturization.

Petalize your writing while noticing whiffles and stiffles in geraniums.  

Granulate and pebblicate words that sound like layers of gritiness.  Add the scents of edges and odor in roughness of stones.

Invent colors. Let light and dark swivel into sentences. Look for shapes and contours that reveal stories.

Follow a butterfly's shadow dance.

Imagine a fish having to describe finning and tailing in a stream. 

Describe a bird feathering in air.


Discover textures and write with the wind.

What We Need

The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds. - The Dalai Lama

                                                                          

We need to search for those who make a difference in our lives.

Think of the person you would identify as an individual in each area.

Who makes peace in small ways?

If you need a healing, who arrives?

Restoration requires imagination. Identify your restorer.

Storytellers assist with their views from the past and present.




Find your friends and family in the questions.  




Then, GO LOVE!

Delve into the Darkness

Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time.  - Hermann Hesse

When dealing with circumstances that unnerve, delve into the darkness with the breath. 
Avoidance prolongs anxiety. Breathe in four breaths; out five. Keep the rhythm going to experience the anxiety.

Don't try to bury the frustration with solutions. Sit with it and work with it. Stay in the moment one breath at a time.

Consider an image like a hot coin. Develop the details and watch its power decrease.

Creativity will help you change after a focus on the problem.  

Take a break.

Notice scents and sounds.  











Change channels from the chaos into a stillness. Use the breath to push into a place of wonder and rest there. Develop imagery that soothes and settles.

Continue the breathing process to capture ideas that nurture you alive. 

Include music, love of roses, or a swim in the sea.

Define aspects of your journey. Let them enliven from the first imagery of despair.

Delve into the darkness and arise in light.

Go KRE8tiv

Do you find a face?

Curiosity

      Revelation

             Eagerness

                   Awareness

                       Timing

                           Imagination

                                  Verve

                                       Intrigue

                                           Travel

                                                 Yeses

Daily, respond to the letters of Creativity to see where they lead.

Think in opposites of your first responses.

Try something never attempted before.

Go for a walk on a different route than usual.

Search for images in pavement, water splots, clouds.

Change routines. Get up earlier. Sleep later.

For five bad experiences, substitute five great ones.

Ask children how to do something and observe their creativity.

Connect a sport to your work.

Try tasting food for its variety of textures.

Choose a color, sound and scent you do not like. Connect them.

Squint and find a different view.

Make a list of five impossible things.  How will you make each possible?

Think about five common items and how they were invented. Do you have an invention?

Go KRE8tiv.

Negotiate with Inconvenience

To lighten the seriousness of the book of humanity we need to add bubbles, stars and butterfiles  . . . and a magic carpet or two 

- Jeffry W.  Myers

How well do you deal with inconveniences?  Would you barter to get rid of them?

What would you negotiate to replace the issues?

Would you trade the sorrow of an emotional loss for a day of lost keys?  Will you replace the pain of a physical illness with stepping in chewing gum?  Would the irritation of home repairs replace a friendship gone awry?

Or, do you need the reminders of life's challenges in order to appreciate the splendors?

Negotiate with inconvenience. Turn it around. Add your notions of bubbles, stars, butterflies, and a magic carpet.  

Try a feather or two.

Think Like a Weed

Many individuals have no appreciation for the dandelion. Its root tenacity makes it difficult to remove from lawns or flower beds. 

The dandelion thrives as an opportunist. It sneaks into tight spaces or wedges against concrete to show how nature dislikes a vacuum.

Dandelion evolved from the French word, dent de lion that refers to the tooth-shaped leaves. Some Italians call it pisacan (dog pisses) referring to their prevalence near sidewalks. 

Northern Italians like the word, soffione (blowing). In this stage the flower turns wispy and creates seeds overnight. 

French call it pissenlit, (piss in bed), apparently referring to its diuretic qualities.

Each seed has a parachute to twirl into position and add color to boring landscapes.

Today, notice what some people call "weeds." Observe how they sneak into and consume cracks in the man-made world. They show us how to deal with unfriendly circumstances.

Most of life's daily challenges create tiny fissures of irritation where we need flowers to bloom. Frustrations include: stepping in chewing gum, losing and misplacing items, feeling gravity's tug on grocery bags, and spilling liquids - to name a few. Rarely do major life occurrences propel us to agony the way these incidentals take over our moments with ferocity.

How can we turn these aspects of our lives into productive use?  Humor solves most of these infringements upon our delicate balance in life.  We need to work on becoming indefatigable as weeds.  Then move on to shine up our funny bones to view the process. 

Identifying with wildflowers will brighten our days.

Think like weeds and laugh past obstacles. 

No Cure for Curiosity

Eleanor Roosevelt believed curiosity became a child's most useful gift. For Dorothy Parker curiosity cured boredom. She felt curiosity had no cure - thankfully. Albert Einstein claimed he had no talents. Life turned him "passionately curious."

Curiosity begins in wonder. It travels like sparks once the fire ignites.

Looking up the word in the dictionary will reveal something else along the way. 

Mysteries emerge in areas that we take for granted. While the media conjures negativity; our minds can search for positivity from the ruins.

By snagging a snapshot of attention, ideas leap in. 

Playfulness and imagination extend the image.

What happens ?

Words in response to pictures help reflect and interpret the world. They form a relationship. 

Sentences search a world of paradox and investigate with creativity and positivity.

Find the pirate in the petals.









A duck peeks from a rose.

Drivers Amaze Me!

Driving habits of local residents amuse and amaze.  Just when I think I've seen it all . . .

Looking for street parking the other day, I watched the van in front of me as it turned left into a driveway. No, it turned a circle and another . . . in the middle of the street.  One more circle and the driver found a parking place.  Later when I walked by the parked van, I noticed it running with a dog in the driver's seat.  Hmmmm.

I drove around a car parked in the middle of the street that had no driver. Two men talked on the sidewalk. Finding a parking place isn't necessary when you see a friend on the sidewalk. 

The stop light on red, a line of cars snaked into the intersection west as I drove east. The car next to me in the turn lane could not turn left because of the line of cards when the light turned green.  She had a window down. I asked, “What is going on?’  She laughed, “A woman is trying to parallel park.”

No driving rules exist in my city; just recommendations. Everyone rolls stops without concern for pedestrians in the crosswalk. Cars are running while double parked as the driver jumps out to get a quick smoothie.  

A woman who fills the front seat of her car and drives with her stomach turns left into my walking space with a coffee in one hand and cell phone in the other. "Hello," I wave."  Her face reveals a startled expression but she continues up the hill and around a bend,  stomach to the wheel.

A complicated task for drivers of all ages. driving requires people to see and hear. They must place close attention to other cars, traffic signs, and pedestrians.  Drivers must react to events, judge distances, and speeds. They need to monitor movement on all sides of the car.

I want to make signs to hold up to alert these individuals. Do they not understand that they are driving a dangerous weapon? 

For some motorists, their dog should drive for safety reasons. 

Chase Excellence

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection 

we can catch excellence.- Vince Lombardi

We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already." - J. K. Rowling.

What would it mean to chase excellence instead of perfection? If we live from the inside out to discover our powers of insight, the magic will appear and engage creativity.

Living with curiosity captures details by observing what others miss. The eyes, ears and nose perk. Fingers search for sensations. Practice in letting the mind wander trains one to open to possibilities and nuances. 

Notice the heart shaped petals reflected by hearts on the stamens. Imagine how an ant might stretch its legs. Textures offer a twirl of designs in the flow of mystery.




Excellence abounds in nature.  

In the unfurling of a poppy, a few imperfections exist to give it a personality.

Do you see a dancer about to twirl as the shades of pink unfold?

Investigate the patterns.

What would a bee's eye view reveal?

Summer's Word Nourishment

When you think of word nourishment, what comes to mind?  Does your writing involve all your senses and include the richness of imagery?  If so, you nurture others with this style of writing.  

They become fed by having the ability to move into the sensory world you have created.  

Readers will recall the great chef you became and the food of words you offered.  Their stomachs will fill as taste buds tingle.

Consider meals you have spent with family and friends.  Focus on the details of outdoor cooking in the summer. Recall the sizzle of meat upon the grill, tang in the air that floated barbecue sauce and sweet scents to the table.  

Have you tried to prepare ethnic dishes from around the world? Many experiences nourish a life of words and food.

Recipes inspire word usage in condensed forms.  If you read and follow the directions, cooking flows easily.  Similar to writing, you can ad lib and add to taste also.  That's the fun of a free flow of words and fixing a meal.

Write about summer cooking and spice it up.