Stalk Questions

"Literature stops life for the purpose of examining it." ~ William Faulkner

Writers have posed and pursued questions since Socrates who said, "The unexamined life is not worth living," 

Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, ". . . and the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

American naturalist, John Burroughs wrote as he traveled. He claimed, "I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think. All the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see."

Discover ways to stalk the questions in writing.

Let longing and curiosity serve as a rallying cry.  Consider how to define "examine"?

How might you be, see, and do everything you love to do in writing?

Choose a writing quest where you ask questions that push to the limits and beyond.

The Wisdom of Well-Being

Thomas Jefferson wrote the pursuit of happiness into the Declaration of Independence yet today's researchers studying mind/body health do not like to pursue the term, "'happiness." They claim that its pursuit turns into a challenge to define or measure. As a result, expectations may get in the way of its capture.

John Monterosso, a researcher at the University of Southern California's "Brain and Creativity Institute," says today's Americans feel happiness is, "something we should be able to control and pursue." He encourages students to consider far-reaching goals rather than immediate success. Monterosso provides examples of learning a musical instrument or appreciating art which can open possibilities for future potential.

Defining the term, "subjective well-being," Arthur Stone, USC professor of psychology, indicates it contains three components: how satisfied you are with your life, (so-called hedonic experience, feelings of happiness, sadness, anger, stress and pain), and how meaningful your life feels.

In USC's Emotion and Cognition laboratory, Mara Mather studies the "positivity effect." She finds, "Young people still are seeking out information to improve their future well-being, while older people are focusing on the present moment and trying to optimize their emotional experience. They're priming themselves to feel good about life."

Using the word, "flourishing" rather than happiness, Varun Soni, vice provost for USC campus wellness, claims,"happiness can come and go, but flourishing endures." It acknowledges suffering and cultivates resiliency.

Consider what gives you a wisdom of well-being. Investigate feelings of contentment and joy mingled with concerns and considerations for future choices.

Sensory awareness bridges the gap between our moments and life's ever-changing nature.

Use a kaleidoscopic approach to find a life balance. Acknowledge the peaks and low points and develop an understanding of their necessity in life.

Discover the vitality of spontaneity.  

Learn nature's nurture by immersion in outdoor settings.

Find your music.

Add slides of gratitude, loving relationships, and creativity. 

Spin and twirl with appreciation, mindfulness, humor, fun, resilience, and determination. 

When frustrations or anxiety appear, use positive views to glide over them.


Let your experiences become the best teacher of well-being.

Laughter will energize all the body and mind muscles.

Find your kaleidoscope of words for well-being. Create them: Aroo. Blee. Crue.  

Write around, in and through ideas to assist with balance.

Make it FUN.

Daboo!

Sleep's Mysteries

During the first stage of sleep known as half-sleep,  rapid, electrical activity is replaced by slower, higher voltage activity. Sleep specialists cannot pinpoint the precise moment of falling asleep because the transition from relaxed wakefulness to sleep is so gradual.

Two types of waves (alpha and theta) occur together on the sleep monitor for several minutes, each seeming to fight for attention. In the transition, called hypnagogia, the individual is a passive spectator of random associations, neither awake nor asleep.

Artists, scientists and inventors such as Charles Dickens, Albert Einstein, and Johannes Brahms experienced moments of creativity during times of half-sleep. Thomas Edison napped in a chair holding steel balls. When he dozed, the balls dropped onto pans on the floor and awakened him suddenly. This aroused ideas of discovery.

Sleep scientists do not understand the causes and implications of these creative surges. They search for some connection between creativity and alpha-theta brain waves or between creativity and intense visualization. Many theorists believe the half-sleeping mind, removed from rational categories, can integrate opposites and accept uncertainty. 

Our cognitive restrictions loosen in half-sleep allowing for unusual and illuminating associations. For example, as he rose out of bed one morning, Einstein realized space and time are not separate entities.

The space between sleep and the edge of awakening remain mysterious and symbolic.  Meanings shift and deepen to create possibility.  Taking advantage of sleep's nuances may nurture creativity.


Keep a notepad by your bed and notice thoughts and feelings during sleep time. Do you feel creative notions appearing if you awaken suddenly?  Write your first thoughts and feelings upon awakening.  Where will they lead?

Enhanced Awareness

Have you ever discovered a state of enhanced awareness? 

In Japanese, the word, 'yugen'  captures an essence of truths too deep for words. It may include sensations where mystery and ecstasy linger. 

Awareness races through the blood and elevates the mind's perceptions.

It involves delving into the middle of wonder as images reveal in layers.  A flash around a corner awakens the experience. Sensations or memory fragments may trigger linked discoveries.

A gleam of light dapples the room. It brings scents of tuberose and stargazer lilies on a breeze from the garden. The Sssush and spill of water burble from a fountain where birdsong lingers. On the horizon a sailboat with spinnaker extended, slides above water. 

A cricket's rubbed legs receive translation by moonlight. 

Stay open to a 'yugen' sense of amazement. Follow the imagery in writing.

Develop a Style

Artists evolve a style. A voice and a vision reveal creativity in a variety of ways.

Style concerns itself with questions. What does it look, sound, and feel like? Voice presents through gesture, an inner truth, and hidden realms of meaning.

Promote your unique ways.

How do you shape reality and make meaning?

Do you rely on senses of color and texture or what you hear and taste?

Include your sense of humor and playfulness.

Develop into a receiver of sensitivity.

Search for your style and go for adventures.

Thought Patterns

Take ten minutes to pay attention to your thought patterns. What do your mental voices send as main themes?

Listen to the emotional tone.

Watch the thoughts like you follow a ping pong ball.

When the mind hops onto a negative or fearful thought . . . Stop.  Imagine a flowing stream that refreshes. Swim with it or fly over it.

Focus on positive thoughts and feelings. Share them with others.

Into the You

I’m going to lead you

into a you you don’t know ... 

Most people want

to go.  - Alice Notley

Where have you never ventured? 

Do you see a closed door or a curtain?  

Are walls made of stone or brick?  

How will you climb to the edge? 

   Can you see over the side?
 
 


Does it feel like a well, the sea, or a river?

Where does the flow go - in or out?

Does it loom like a mountain with a desert or flower field approach?

Take chances to discover new venues of you. 

Summer Play

The sea dragon
watches
for words.








Visitors arrive in pairs or threes,
their smiles eager for capture.

The sea performs in blue satin.

Waves whoosh to shore,

crackle into caves.

On torrey pine branches,
cormorants pose like banners.

Grass crisped by summer sun
mingles with musk of daisy
on trails of sandstone dust.

Ask to borrow
wings for one day.

Pay Attention to Intentions

Take the day to notice the intentions that move you. How do they result in your speech patterns?

Delve into your state of mind that precedes comments, responses, and observations.

What motivates you to respond?

Notice your need to control. Observe this desire rather than acting on it.

Take time to eliminate the shoulds.

Relax negative feelings about not being in control.

Observe without judgment.

Pay attention to your motivations and intentions.

Ask "Why?"

Escape Break

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everyone needs to learn how to escape and take a break. Regardless of your love of life and how motivated you feel, finding a refuge helps.

Choosing to find a place of safety instead of using coping techniques replenishes your strength, stamina, and inspiration.

Find a space to retreat for self-renewal.

A run or walk by the sea invigorates.

Working in the garden and digging in the earth soothes.

Observe the colors and scents. Discover bugs and creatures that inhabit the area.

Listen for birdsong.

Research has revealed that gardening releases tension and reduces stress hormones in the body.

Let go of judgments and opinions.

Allow each moment to provide invigoration.

Find your escape. Fill it with smiles and laughter.

"Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, 

the laws of the universe will be simpler." - Henry David Thoreau

How to See a Tree

During childhood, I spent most of my free time in trees. Climbing into a 30-foot magnolia provided my view of nature's magic. Butterflies visited along with ladybugs. Ants left trails to follow.

I escaped from my bedroom window by climbing down a jacaranda. A eucalpytus tree grew from three trunks that enclosed a space for hiding. My body fit with just my head peeking out. Oak trees also invited my climbing adventures. I adorned my friends with ribbons, balloons, and flags.

Pine trees coated me with sap. Apple, citrus, fig, and avocado trees provided treats. I marveled at the aromas and tastes. All seasons revealed opportunities to investigate the bounty of wood near my home.

Because of my friendship with trees, I believed they never died. I watched them transformed into doors, furniture, sculptures, and stationery. I collected decorated boxes that opened with a rush of scent.

Have you ever paid attention to a tree?

How to See a Tree

At first light, three men entered the forest.

The axeman downed a tree riddled by insects

seeing it worth only fire wood.

The logger brought a chainsaw with greed in his smile.

He would sell lumber and make a fortune.

The woodsman searched all day

playing fingers over bark and limbs.

His nostrils filled with scent of tree,

he honed planks suitable for

instruments whose living notes

might please a weary world.

Describe a childhood experience in nature that provided insights.

Make Something Happen

Do you see the heart or the wilting flower?

Examine the details. Consider today's choices.

Many discuss if the glass is half full or half empty. Describe the wonders of the glass itself.

Imagination relies on space. Painting and sculpture fill the emptiness. Stories and poems grow from the void. 

Writing notices the subtle and hidden, then adds to the blank page or screen.

Choose to make something happen in space.

Cultivate Curiosity

Endowed with curiosity, everything in life becomes possible. Linked with optimism and creativity, curiosity pushes limits.

Ways to heighten your natural gift of curiosity:

1.   Stay open to nuances. Nurture the ability to change your mind, unlearn and relearn.

2.   Ask questions like a reporter: Who, What, Why, When, Where, How? Don't feel content with easy answers. Ask more questions.

3.   Curious individuals never feel bored. Take advantage of 'empty time' like standing in line. Observe what's going on around you. Notice people's choices and listen. 

4.   Become a perpetual learner. Make learning fun and seek beyond the obvious.

5.   Read diverse publications and books. Explore what you don't know with a free mind.

6.   Use all your senses to explore nature daily.

7.   When puzzled, ask, "What if . . . ?"  "Then what . . . ?"

8.   If frustrated dig for buried treasure. Keep digging.

9.   Find ways each day to express gratitude for small favors.

10.  Keep exploring your mind's mosaics with a humorous outlook.

Stories of Good Intentions

Positive stories nourish like healthy food, clear air, pure water, and authentic love. We need them.

Stories of possibility encourage rather than bombard like the harangue of news narratives that show misery and woe. 

Heroes in fairy tales need to explode upon the scene. Beyond their magical gifts of invisibility, winged shoes, or a pot that brews a healing drink, these stories tickle imagination with goodness.  

Champions of these stories rarely receive their success out of luck. They have performed kind deeds or unselfish acts to earn the right. 

How will the hummingbird see the forest creatures from fire? Beak-by-beak he takes dew from roses. The sparrow brings his flock to assist.

Search for stories that reward good intentions 

Make them up.

Believe in nature's nurture.

Take an Alphabet Break

Feel stress and need a break from the ordinary?  See what happens when you verbalize the alphabet.

Take a walk. Begin with A and speak a noun. Author. Then go to B. Ballet.  C might become Cabbage. Keep moving through the alphabet with only nouns all the way to Z.  

Then use verbs. Start with Action. Go to Bat. Crouch. Dive. Elevate. Fabricate. Generate. Hallucinate! 

Then try it from Z to A.

Avoid thinking too much as you choose the next word. Let the synapses fire in glee. 

After the verbal attempt, do the same in writing. Don't stop, just write any word for the next letter. Have fun. Play and laugh.

Here's a start:

Afternoons the Babble of Creatures Directs Effervescence. Forests Garner  Harvests that Invest in Jelly.  Kindness Levitates Monkeys who Negotiate an Opinion of Pelicans in a Quandry.

Residents Select Turtles of Understanding. Victory Waddles on Xylophones to a Yellow in Zeith.

When you try this exercise, distraction along with concentration will help. 

You will feel renewed and ready for the next challenge of the day.

The Landscape of Self

Consider: Where have you felt most at home? Where do you feel comfortable in an environment?

Use your curiosity and imagination to create a landscape of self. 

Where did you come from?

List feelings as fast as you can. Begin with: joy, fullness, confusion, despair, contentment, silliness, seriousness, loneliness, boredom, excitement.

Next, list landscape-related words: mountain, peak, valley, hill, pebble, seaside, waves, twig, leaf, desert cactus, swamp, meadow, fence, garden pond, creek, sky, prairie. Combine feelings with the landscape imagery.

Open with, I come from . . .

You might come from a mountain of silliness, a twig of sarcasm, a tornado of anxiety, prairies of delight.

Add colors, sounds, scents, tastes and textures.

After you have collected imagery, do a free write.

Go in and circle images that mean the most to you. Where will you take them for further 
developement?

Fear as a Mentor

"To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." - Bertrand Russell

Why do we use our creative spirit to stimulate dread and disaster? Fears arise when imagination soars at ultimate speed. If worthy of thought, fears should serve to awaken the inactive part of intelligence.

Ask questions of that F word. Make Fear your mentor.

Consider names for three fears.  

Choose one and develop a dialogue. Ask for advice. Ask questions using humor, guile and trickery.

Create a mantra of words when fearful thoughts arise. Turn the letters into motivations.

F  -  Fun    Fervor    Fantasy
E  -  Excitement    Energy    Exercise
A  -  Awaken   Awe    Audacity
R  -  Reverie  Responsibility  Respect

Find inspiration as your truth-teller when employing fear as an honest friend and guide. 

Obtain advice from fear's stimulation. Its mentorship arises for a reason to educate you to tenacity.

Realize that most of your fears never hatch. Send them off like birds in flight.