Elephant Tales

What's as unnecessary as an elephant needing a bicycle? Elephant metaphors abound in speech and literature.

Kings of Siam offered a rare white elephant to noblemen who had fallen out of favor. The cost of feeding and caring for the creature destroyed the recipient.  This evolved into using “white elephant” to refer to an expensive and wasteful construction project.

Then a white elephant became an undesirable possession. A white elephant sale attracted individuals who found value in others' discards. In his story, "Hills Like White Elephants," Ernest Hemingway led the reader to decide the value.

An elephant in the room refers to an obvious situation no one wants to acknowledge.  When the elephant changes colors, a pink elephant refers to a drunk person's hallucination.

The elephant test refers to the difficulty describing an elephant. One just knows it when one sees it. In one story, six blind men had the task of describing an elephant. Each felt a different part and described the animal from that reference point: the trunk, a tusk, an ear, a leg, the stomach, and the tail.

Have you heard anyone say that they hope to “see the elephant” ? Individuals traveled miles to view an elephant in a circus parade or under the big top. As a result, any overwhelming experience could result in seeing the elephant.

P. T. Barnum advertised his elephant, Jumbo's size which led to referencing the name as a synonym for colossal. (Elephantine, is another synonym, though it also refers to ponderousness.) Dumbo from Disney fame has discovered its name thrown around in disrespect.

Other elephant attributes include superior intelligence and memory. Since they have poor eyesight, based on observations in zoos and circuses, they are not bothered by mice as some have believed.

Create your own elephant metaphors for a story or poem. Or, try the fox, chicken, frog, snake or donkey.

Peel the Orange

How often do you react to a situation you perceive as conflict rather than consider it a two-sided conversation?  No one likes to compromise because it feels like a defeat when each person involved must relinguish something. Consider a flow of the three C’s – Conflict. Calm. Conversation. Creativity. Collaboration.

In order to achieve collaboration, a calm must precede conversation and negotiation. Consider a simple scenario. With one orange and two individuals, one wants a drink, the other wants to make orange cake. If they split the orange in half, they will not have a desired result.

Moving to the next level of thinking – creativity and compromise, they need to take time to consider what each person actually needs from the orange. One person needs the juice, the other needs the pulp and rind. If they compromise in this way, both will have something not considered before; not half of what’s needed.

The next time you find yourself in a conflict situation, consider the other C’s.

l. Move away from the heat and emotion of the conflict. Discuss a subject far removed; even the weather.

2. In calm conversation, discuss what each person needs. Take notes, do not talk, just listen to the other person’s viewpoint.

3. Take time away and write what you heard. Make two columns.  In the first write what you heard.   In the second, respond with your needs and views.

4. Consider how a third situation will move beyond compromise and into collaboration.

5. Return to conversation. Develop a metaphor to represent the idea of collaboration. How can you peel the orange?

This technique requires creativity, patience, time and thought.  You will benefit from the results and wisdom gained. 

Harvest and Writing Time

I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. 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.
                      - Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903 in Letters to a Young Poet


Autumn brings a time of vibrance and change. Glimmers of orange, crimson, magenta, and flashes of gold permeate the days. As shades of blue search for a turn, gray flannel consumes the clouds. Landscapes arouse with lightning, thunder and showers. Scents of cinnamon and cider fill the air along with aromas of smoke from chimneys. The breeze tastes of wood smoke and promise.

Nature’s multiple personality during the fall season reminds us to consider possible changes and pursue, rather than judge, our writing.

It becomes a time to explore and pile questions upon questions instead of a search for answers. A pondering of  “…and then what” provides possibilities. 

We mine for more understanding if we permit the questions to climb upon one another. They will wrestle for opportunities we have not considered.

Consider these ten questions. They will spark others as you write to them. Respond only with more questions. See what happens.

l.  How would you answer Rilke’s question:

"...ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write?"

2.  How are you with your writing?

3.  What biases affect your writing? The best way to combat biases involves recognizing their existence.
     Will you list and write to them?

4.  What amuses you about your writing?

5.  How do you write about what feels wrong?

6.  Do you celebrate your strengths in writing?  In what ways?

7.  How do you provide constructive feedback for your writing?

8.  If you considered your heart’s desire about your writing, what would it involve?

9.  What do you write away from? How can you bring it closer to you?

10. What’s the greatest question your writing nudges in you?

Take time to involve yourself with the questioning process. 

Just Three Things

“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. 

These three are your greatest treasures.”  

 -  Lao Tzu

How do you define simplicity in your life?  

When do you discover and reveal patience each day?  

Focus on your compassion and when you initially understood its concept.

Search beyond these abstract ideas for descriptions of how you achieved each of these treasures.  

Have you taught them to others?   

If you're still pursuing one or all three things, write about that journey also.

Always Ready

People of accomplishment rarely let things happen to them. 
They happen to things.
- Leonardo da Vinci

The United States Coast Guard has a motto, "Semper Paratus" (always ready).  It's a motto for everyone to work toward. 

When life surprises us, we need a backup plan. 


How do you prepare in advance? Organization begins with a simple mindset. Do you have two or three extra tissue boxes, paper towels? Don't forget the toothbrushes and bathroom rolls.  

Nature shows us how it prepares.

Consider your preparedness habits.

       Are you ready for the unexpected?




            Find ways to create beyond challenges. 




Get ready. 




Start today to define your motto of semper paratus.

Choose a Direction

When arriving at a choice in the road choose a direction to travel.

Pause and linger. 

Steep yourself in the mystery of a transition that looms. 

Pay attention to the feelings that arise as you visualize the experiences awaiting along each path. 

Some areas are paved with cement; others with leaves or grass.

Alter the direction.

Change it to let curiosity finds its way.

Shapes and shadows create moods.


Barriers and bridges beckon. Where do they lead? 

Call on memories of water crossings for guidance. 

Engage in all the sounds
and scents on the journey.

Create stories from discoveries.

Become receptive to inspiration revealed in a crossroads experience.

Hummingbird Tales

I saw it all from my green sky.

I had no more alphabet

than the swallows in their courses,

the tiny shining water

of the small bird on fire

which dances out of the pollen. 

- Pablo Neruda

If we consider possibility that dinosaurs evolved into birds, imagine Brontosaurus Rex shrink into a hummingbird body. What a change had to occur from a bulky creature who walked on thick legs and shook the earth with each step? 

An amazement of technology, the hummingbird can fly upside down and backwards while dipping its beak and tongue into flower nectar.

Where did the jewel of glitter first open its eyes? In Peru and other South American countries a variety of hummingbirds exist. They flew to the rain forest and the high peaks of the Andes. Hummingbirds arrived in Argentina and Mexico. One species even made it to Alaska.

The Quechan people of present-day Ecuador tell stories of how the hummingbird represents a variety of attributes such as wisdom, optimism and agility. 

One story tells of a fire in a forest where many animals live. The hummingbird carries single drops of water back and forth from the pond to try to put out the fire. When the other animals ask why, the bird replies, "I am doing what I can."

Find your hummingbird connection.

Welcome the First Day of Autumn

Autumn leaves don't fall; they fly. They take their time and wander                                   on this, their only chance to soar. Reflecting sunlight, they swirled and sailed and fluttered on the wind drafts.  Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owen

Autumn arrives in stealth. 
A click crisps the morning air.
Trees replace green with reds, oranges, yellows.
Sparkled by moonlight, harvest time begins.

Does seasonal change signal a need to make your own adaptations? What needs to change color in your life? 

Let the hidden emerge.

Autumnal awareness increases connections to elevate the spirit.

Discover expanded freedom of creativity and choices.

Find a true reverence for life.

Explode in self-expression.

             Explore passions.

Follow nature's examples. Nourish your roots and strengthen your foundation.

Upgrade your self-care.

Add a tingle and hint of humor to situations.

Notice a rose's smile

Invigorate the influences that nurture and support you.

Percolate with smiles.











Be like Snoopy and leaf peep.

"I can smell autumn dancing in the breeze. The sweet chill of pumpkin, and crisp sunburnt leaves." — 𝑨𝒏𝒏 𝑫𝒓𝒂𝒌𝒆 

Learn to Accentuate the Positive

I feel renewed from an old song by Johnny Mercer :

You've got to accentuate the positive,
Eliminate the negative,
And latch on to the affirmative,
Don't mess with Mister In-Between.

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium's
Li'ble to walk upon the scene.

To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark.
What did they do just when ev'rything looked so dark?
Man, they said "We'd better accentuate the positive
"Eliminate the negative
"And latch on to the affirmative -
Don't mess with Mister In-Between, no, no,
Don't mess with Mister In-Between."


Life throws a variety of challenges at us each day. We can choose to see them as flat lines of negativity or take action to draw a vertical line through the horizontals. Taking action always makes something happen to keep us moving, regardless of mood. Humor colors life with vibrancy. 

The next time you feel frustrated or angry, see if you can hold your breath longer than your anger.

These exercises will help you create more Positivity in your life:

1. Focus on your sense of humor to provide buoyancy in all types of weather. Laughter strengthens the stomach muscles and releases chemicals in the brain, such as serotonin, to elevate the mood.

2. To practice laughter, begin with a breathing exercise. Take five breaths in and five out through the nose. After five repetitions, let the out breath go with: ha ha ha ha ha. Notice how energized you feel. Remember this exercise the next time you feel stressed.

3. When a negative emotion crosses your mind, write it down. How often do you write frustration, anger, worry or fear? What emotions counteract them? Give them names and write a dialogue between the opposites.

4. Make three columns and list your three greatest accomplishments. In each column, write ways you accomplished these Feats of Fantastic. Keep the list with you and add to it. Include problem solving techniques, strategies and anyone you contacted for assistance. If you feel frustrated during a challenge, refer to the list to see how you succeeded in the past.

Take time weekly to write about what makes you feel good about your accomplishments. Also probe in writing choices that get in the way of what you want to achieve. Continue to ask what you learned about yourself and how you meet challenges. Bring these talents to a new situation?

5. Who is a Hero in your area of expertise or life in general? How does this person achieve success? How do you suppose this person greets failure?

If you spend time working on the above five areas, you will develop Positive habits that will grow into your Best Friends during times of need.

What will you write about in one of the areas today?

A Search for the Forgotten Self

"It is the child who sees the primordial secret of Nature and it is the child of ourselves 
we return to." ~ Lao Tsu

Take a walk to discover a self you've forgotten. Languish with each step.

Focus a cell phone on photo only. Turn off distractions like calls or texts.

Breathe and take in nature's nuances. 

Notice something unusual.

Listen beyond noise. Hear clicks, clanks, and bird song. 

Use fingers to surround textures. 

Breathe in for changes in scent. Revel in plants and flowers that greet.

Birds wheel in the breeze. Watch them.

Let every new sensation chase away fears or unwanted thoughts.

Imagine a world beyond the distractions of frustration and anxiety.

Poise yourself to uncover a treasure or two.

You may say I'm a dreamer
 but I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
 and the world will be as one.

      "Imagine" - John Lennon

Imagine Goodness.      

                   Believe!  

                         Catch up with that forgotten self.

Antidote for Anger

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.

She's 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

Move Your Child's Mind

Do you recall your childhood association with words? Did you create names for animals and plants? Did you tell stories?

Where’s your child’s mind today? Do you still have a loving relationship with words? 

Frederick Smock, a teacher of creative writing, learns daily from his students to think with a child's mind. One student astonished him with her words when she wrote from the point of view of a coconut. “I never have to go on vacation because I carry the waves inside of me.”

Expose yourself to possibilities and let your words scurry around corners and under bushes. Look into the sky to capture connections. Consider all your areas of knowledge: animals, insects, gardening, travel, economics, and relationships.

How will you communicate the awareness that makes your days and nights glitter? Let your words flee and flourish. Delight in metaphors to tell your stories.