Notice Words

"Don't shoot the messenger. Edit the message."  
- written on a wall.

Approach your day to notice where words and actions affect others in a positive way. Share a smile, a few sentences of gratitude and a compliment.  Those expressions become your high art.

Write with ferocity today. 

Applaud everything around you. 

Make peace with irritation. 

Use words to burrow into frustration.

Irrigate the soul with positivity. 

Change your attitude and watch how it soothes another.

Count how many judgments you can avoid. What would
their opposites sound like?  Write them.

Tell someone to expect an Amazement in an hour.

When a negative rattles toward you, twirl its pace and add a laugh.

Write one-liners and share them.

Win the world's attention word by word.

Beyond Bewilderment

"Human beings are in a state of creativity 24 hours a day."  -  Raoul Vanergem

Many consider creativity only in its relationship to an art form. They forget that everyone displays a creative sensitivity a thousand times per day. These appear in connections, distinctive thoughts and novel ideas. Unexpected perceptions arise around every corner. 

Observing forms and structures in nature provide Aha! understandings.

Restless originality and intentions abound in problem solving during daily activities. Paper clips and rubber bands often serve beyond the obvious. If we remain open to different uses for common objects, we will benefit from the creative process.  

Track creative notions, problems solved in unique ways, fleeting impressions and thoughts for a day.  

Keep a list and write about the connections and possibilities. 

Reveal ways you move beyond bewilderment with ideas and results.

Truth or Perception

"The truth of our lives is always smoke and mirrors." 
- William Giraldi

No one perceives events as they really unfold. Our ability to alter facts has enabled us to survive in this challenging world. In recall, creativity weaves in the details.

To understand how perception alters an event, consider three people who observe a car wreck from different corners of the street. Angles, moods, and times of observation change recall and affect where each person places blame.

Marcel Proust felt in order for it to be meaningful, we must change the truth a little to remember it. If we embellish for self-protection, will an event stay with us in meaningful ways?

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “A lie may be told by a truth, or a truth conveyed through a lie. Truth to facts is not always truth to sentiment.” Stevenson continued, “To tell truth is not to state the true facts, but to convey a true impression, truth in spirit, not truth to letter, is the true veracity.”

Are we storytellers by nature?

Emotional memory differs from factual memory because of the psychological colors added. Moving away as an observer helps to process an unfortunate or stressful situation.

Write about an emotional experience. 

Play the storyteller and add texture to the scene. How does emotional distance benefit the story?

Curiosity Questioning

If you awaken and feel gray like the sky, shake it off with creativity.

Pick up the pen.



Write 25 questions or random thoughts. Begin, "Today, it occurs to me . . . I wonder . . ." Don't stop writing until you reach 25. Let those wild fingers go.

l. Today the sounds of water and tapping keys make me consider how laughter affects the weather.

2. I wonder why coffee brewing arouses my sense of smell more than tasting it.




3. Flying geese make sounds like rusty hinges when hey fly overhead.

4. I wonder what happened the first time someone looked up at the stars.

5. Will we overpopulate the other universes and trash them also?

6. Does the sun hold his breathe when he dips behind the sea?

7. Are people naturally negative and need to hold vertical poles to make pluses out of their flat lines?

8   Maybe the earth is twirling faster than our brains.

9. I wonder how many writers made words from alphabet soup?

10. The moon looked like someone had taken a bite out of it but it still splashed light on my wall.

11. The lizards are everywhere in all sizes. How do they run faster than I do?

12. I advised students to take their characters to the zoo and it helped.

13. The cantalope loped down my throat.

14. Everyone needs to take a partial day of "fallow."

15. It takes discipline to become playful.

16. Why must we give up our childlike engagements with life?

17. Good habits need more encouragement. They work hard too.

18. Imagine taking a train for several hours and writing until your fingers cramp.

19. Do trees snicker when we pass?

20. Do seahorses think about racing or pulling chariots?

21. Who invented how to eat artichokes?

22. I'd like to chat with my parents for a day about what they miss most about life.

23. Oh for a thick, butterscotch malt with chunks of coconut in it.

24. Do pigeons get dizzy from their heads jiggling when they walk?

25. What causes bubbles?

By now you feel lighter,  with a bit of laughter to make you feel more spry.

In Honor of Our Military

Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o'er,

Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,

Dream of battled fields no more.

Days of danger, nights of waking. 

                   -Sir Walter Scott

After the Civil War, the government created a holiday to honor the Union and Confederate soldiers who had died in battle. Union general John Logan chose May 30th because it did not honor the anniversary of any battle.

When World War I ended, they extended the idea to honor all United States soldiers who died in any war.

In 1968, Congress's Uniform Holidays Act severed the link between Memorial Day and the original date, changing it instead to "the last Monday in May" to allow for a three-day weekend.

Memorial Day has become a holiday for families to remember anyone they have lost (veteran or otherwise), to lay flowers at grave sites.

For those unable to travel to the graves of their loved ones, there are websites like FindAGrave.com, where one can create a cyber-monument and leave a "virtual" note or bouquet.

Hypers and Hypos

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. That is my substitute for a pistol and a ball.

- Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Consider your "hypers" as well as what Melville considers the "hypos" 

What really gets to you?

What do you do when you feel frustrated and need a reprieve from life's challenges?  

How and what do you write when it's "high time to get to the sea"?

Beyond Failure

"To undertake a genuine spiritual path is not to avoid difficulties but to learn the art of making mistakes wakefully to bring to them the transformative power of our heart."

- Jack Kornfield

Does the cherry tree exclaim how hard it works during spring?  Do you hear shrieks of exasperation?  Of course not. The tree goes about its business of treeness and pushes auxins. The pink floods out of the petals. They drop and illustrate the street. 

Why does the notion exist among human beings that effort equals result?  The "Little League" mentality that everyone gets a trophy for hard work insults the process. What happens when a batter swings at the third pitch and misses?  He's out!  It doesn't matter how hard he tried. The effort did not produce a result.

In the publishing world, editors cannot observe the effort put into a piece of writing.  They judge the words that bounce upon the page. The black squiggles either hold their attention or they don't.  

In the construction business, if a carpenter works all day measuring, cutting, hammering and at the end of the day looks up to see the windows sag, corners don't match up and in one rain the roof will leak, does he say, "I worked so hard?"  No!  He can see that he needed to focus on the details.

Many individuals fear making mistakes when learning something new.  Failure assists the process. Success comes from feeling comfortable with risk and error.

Imagine the man who loves to work with his hands. He carves boxes designed with robins and roses. Purchasers love his work. One day he decides to take a ceramics class to learn how to throw pots. He spends four weeks throwing clay and the pots lean right and left. Some have thin sides and heavy bases. 

The wheel races, his fingers slipping in the water. Drippings cover him with gray. He's worked so hard with his hands but this new procedure defies his understanding. The result does not represent his accomplishments of the past. What has he learned from the process?  He thought he could just crank it out as an artist but did not realize the nuances and techniques necessary to learn a new skill. Will he keep going and doing? That's what matters.

Hard work has value as it improves discipline and provides the opportunity for results.  Many times one must fail in order to succeed when learning a new skill.

Consider how "hard work" translates into result or did just the opposite. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face.  We must do that which we think we cannot."

Let failure inspire and become the First Attempt in Learning.

Listen to the Flow

"If you listen to the river long enough, if you stand on the bottom rung and tune in, the river offers unity with all things." 

-Herman Hesse

Herman Hesse wove river symbolism throughout his novel, SIDDHARTHA.  He revealed the river offers access to all knowledge if you tune into it and let it slip beneath you. Your patience will reward you, if you believe delving into the flow has something to offer.

Through his character, Siddhartha, he reveals the music of life, "all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events..."

Chose a symbol from nature, such as a river or the sea. Let it accompany and guide you in your flow as you listen and write with its rhythm.  

Hear the voices
 and respond to them. Write with sounds and scents. 

Discover life's music.

Textures of Love

"Love calls us to do the things in this world."   - Richard Wilbur

". . . migratory musicians/one last/ word before /I go back with wet shoes, thorns /and dry leaves/ to my home:/ vagabonds, I love you/free far from the shotgun and the cage." - Pablo Neruda from, "Ode to Bird Watching."

Pablo Neruda, one of the most loving poets, forms an authentic attachment to life. Calling on unlimited sources of inspiration, he writes odes to an elephant, a pair of socks or a bar of soap. He calls them all to life and reminds us of the interconnectedness of all things and beings. Compassion and humor populate his poetry.

At the end of, "Ode to Bird Watching," Neruda leaves in frustration at not getting close enough yet he makes peace with his love of the birds' wildness and inaccessibility, " . . .messengers of pollen/matchmakers/ of the flower, uncles/ of the seed/ I love you,/ingrates/ I'm going home,/ happy to have lived with you/ a moment/in the wind.

What is Love?  Poets and writers have nose-dived and bellyflopped into its lakes and caverns for years. Everyone has experiences and expectations. Which are real? Has the notion of Love become a distorted part of our imagination and desperation? How does it transfer beyond the human form?

Peel the Artichoke

Love is an artichoke

all layered in secrets.

Hear the cricket snap of leaves

petals tipped in silky maroon.

White whiskers protect

the heart.

Cook warm,

squirt a tang of sweet lemon. 

Push and pull to savor the green,  

see how the leaves fall away. 

Once at the heart,  

ah the tingle, oh the sheen.

                      - Penny Wilkes

What do you make of Love?  Does the word by itself send ripples and thrills. 

Do memories bring shudders?

Where does Love begin? 

How do we learn to Love from the inside out free from expectations and doubts?

Write an approach to Love you have not considered before. 

Examine layers and textures.

Imagination and Economics

Dr. Sally Livingston, professor of literature at Ohio Wesleyan University, studies how the imagination can become economic or how economics is imaginative.

Livingston reveals, "The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines economics as, "The production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Among many meanings, imagination is defined as, "creative ability, ability to confront and deal with a problem." Combining the two words creates a dynamic that reveals economics discovers meaning through the problem-solving nature of imagination. 

Livingston includes the turnip's tale, Repularius, in her book, Subversive Narratives: Fairy tales, Fables and Frame Stories. Written in the 1200s, the tale tells of two brothers. The elder has inherited family land as a result of a new practice where the oldest receives the family riches.

Forced into a peasant class, the younger brother works as a farmer. He grows a huge turnip and asks his wife what to do with such a wonder. She advises to give to the king. The king is pleased and gives the poor brother riches.

When the young man returns to the village, his brother is furious because his brother is now richer. The elder brother thinks that if a lowly turnip could generate such wealth, his own worth will become multiplied. This brother has already begun to think in the new economic paradigm in which wealth multiplies wealth. He decides to give his riches to the King as an investment strategy.

When the king asks his wife what to give as a return gift, she says, the turnip.

The fairy tale focuses on how medieval society used literature to work out the dangers of the new economy with its greed. It reflects anxieties of the time and helps us understand how human beings reacted to the economic changes.

The fable has evolved through time.

In the 19th century, the Brothers Grimm rewrote the tale to create a sense of German national identity. The poor brother becomes a farmer not as a last resort, but so that he might prosper.

Even today the turnip's tale exists in various forms in several counties. In one story, the turnip is pulled from the ground where everyone from the father to the field mouse helps. It is later eaten in a community meal.

Livingston feels,"fairy tales do absorb a society's concerns where they are re-created."  She leaves it open for us to wonder how a contemporary version reflects our own economic imagination.

Examples of the turnip tale:

http://russian-crafts.com/tales/turnip.html

http://jimandnancyforest.com/2005/01/the-tale-of-the-turnip/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJdRZBzLzxE

Shine Up Your Whines

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”  - George Bernard Shaw 

Do you worry too much and have serial complaints that take up brain space?

Stop the chatter and take up a pen or go to the keyboard. Write, don't whine.

l. Use awareness to learn about your complaining moods. Who or what sparks your whine tones? What area three ways to eliminate or minimize your exposure to these sparks that set off your flames? Add a humorous line.

2. Gratitude saves the day. Write three things, people or opportunities that make you feel grateful. Don't stop with three!

3. Take a breath before you gripe. When you feel a whine whirring about in your brain, toss a thought in its path. Write about overcoming blame. Keep thoughts handy for the next toss for gripe deflection!

4. Let creativity spark your troubles. Start with positive statements and write a few humorous lines about how to solve problems.

Think of a whine. Turn it around and make it shine!

Meet Triumph and Disaster

At age nine, while training to play competitive tennis, I had the opportunity to visit the Wimbledon tennis courts in England. My father pointed to the sign over Center Court which read, “Meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters the same.” 

He encouraged me to think beyond any impossible challenge to make I’m Possible my mantra. The words of the sign stuck with me. I did not really understand their meaning until I had to deal with winning and losing in high school tennis tournaments and other interscholastic sports. 

Years later I discovered the quotation came from the poem, “If” by Rudyard Kipling. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=175772 

One of the most important strategies I developed involved my outward attitude. I began to realize how it affected my opponent. I learned to judge a missed shot with an inner laugh and straight face. Positive body language worked to my advantage. 

My efforts to prevent my competition from observing my frustration took a long time to establish. I had to make it authentic from the inside out. As I developed my self-confidence when losing, I realized the power I had over an opponent. My ability to keep in touch with I’m Possible turned many games around in my favor. I also gained strength from my opponents’ frustrations. 

This also applies to the writing process.  Never permit your opponent - whether disguised as frustration with your writing or a cranky mood - to dislodge that belief you have in yourself. 

The more you discover about yourself, the more strength you will bring to all of life’s encounters in relationships, writing or competition. Each win or loss will provide more experience for the next level of achievement. 

Writing about your life's opponents will always help you learn ways to defeat them.  Then, on a day when those imposters of Triumph or Disaster intrude upon your feelings and focus, read about the ways you charged beyond the challenges. Build upon these skills for the future.

Write your accomplishments. 

How do you achieve success? Write your feelings and frustrations. 

How will you overcome them? What does failure mean? 

Let humor become your ally. Do not look back but continue writing onward. 

Record all of your efforts.

Playfulness Explored

Plato said, "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."

Play promotes curiosity, seeks novelty, teaches perseverance, and invites creativity. It even nourishes the immune system. Each person has a unique play personality. When one gets in touch with it, the pleasures and fun abound. 

Animals have a lot to teach human beings. If you've ever dangled a string in front of a cat or played ball with a dog, you've seen their playful expressions in action. 

In his book, THE GENESIS OF ANIMAL PLAY, Gordon Burghardt, a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee, reports playful behavior in lizards, turtles, and birds. Even fish have been known to amuse themselves.

Stuart Brown, one of the authors of PLAY: HOW IT SHAPES THE BRAIN, OPENS THE IMAGINATION AND INVIGORATES THE SOUL, believes in the necessity of play for children and adults. Brown's organization, the National Institute for Play, focuses on making human play a "credentialed discipline in the scientific community." 

Children have lost touch with tree climbing and scouting for discoveres in nature. Computer games attract them more than wriggly creatures, birdsong, or flying clouds. 

Nagel Jackson writes, "The truly great advances of this generation will be made by those who can make outrageous connections, and only a mind which knows how to play can do that." 

Play in a freewriting exercise reveals attracts ideas that will evolve into stories and poems. Problems find solutions through activities that have no specific goal. They flow in a fun process. 

In today's fast-paced world, taking time to play - really play - feels frivilous to many. 

BECOME PLAYFUL. You may have to work at it.

How will you play in your writing today? Dangle words and images, make connections and search for nuances. 

A few play starters:

What would you do with a teapot, a jar of maple syrup, a parakeet and a harmonica?

Create a story about a cardboard box you can crawl into, a blanket, a flashlight, bananas and daisies.

Go for a walk and choose five items. Touch, smell, listen and notice their characteristics. Play and Write.

Make faces at someone and write their reactions.

Teach a mockingbird your school's fight song. 

Create a sand castle with a crocodile.

Go for FUN today.

Turtle Notions

During childhood, I traveled internationally with my parents. Spending months on ships at sea, water became an image to investigate. Hotels revealed spaces to explore. I had a house to return to for some of the school year.  Home defined itself from experiences.

I never felt homesick because I learned self-sufficiency by studying turtles.Turtles carry their homes on their backs. Exposed and hidden at the same time, they symbolize strength and perseverance. They have all they need. Cocooned and protected, they stick their necks out.

I discovered turtle fables. A turtle represents creation, endurance, strength, cunning, longevity, and stability. Turtles provide happiness, protection, and good fortune.


The turtle’s shell figures in many tales. Zeus invited a turtle to a party. When she declined the invitation and said, "There's no place like home," he put her house on her back. In China a turtle shell formed the vault of the heavens. Vishnu, the Hindu god, changed into a turtle's shape to carry the world on his back. For many Native Americans the world rides on the back of a giant sea turtle.

I raised turtles and also enjoyed swimming with them in Hawaii.

Later, experiencing college life, marriage, and a move to another state for several years,  the turtle image continued. With another move, I  learned that some days are for turtling and learning about the deep self.

During that focus period, I asked which attributes would perform for me each day? 

In how many ways could I surprise myself with creativity and humor?

I've learned to shine my best attributes from the inside out.

How to live like a turtle: Semper Paratus (always prepared)

You have all you need for a life of amazement and amusement.
        Always believe from the inside out.
            Stay unaffected by negativity from beyond the shell. 


Stay Buoyant. Patient. Steady. Relentless.

Remain secure but never hiding from challenges.
     Love from the inside out.
         Power yourself with energy for a life of wonder.

Take a turtle day to discover your life metaphor and explore it.

Sky Adventures

When evening clouds collect to a broil, the sky critters gather.

Attracted by a dolphin, the trio of hummingbirds begin their adventure. They attach to a fin to fly upside down.

Often a hand in the sky will reach for a little friend.

When shapes shift they reveal a terrier with a branch in its mouth.

Dolphin play with a whale tail eases the sun into its nightly nap.