Enjoy Halloween

Halloween decorates neighborhoods and malls.
   
Ghosts, witches, and goblins abound at every corner. 

Skeletons shake in the breeze.




Pumpkin designers become more creative each season.

Write a fable or poem about a Halloween happening. 

Choose a costume to describe yourself.

Imagine a cat in a artichoke costume.
Transform a carved pumpkin into a story of flight.

Write about a haunting at Halloween. Who lives here and what evil lurks in the shaded rooms?

Imagine what happens in the turret?  Creep around to the back where you hear dogs growling.

What does the full moon inspire?

Create clankings and eerie sounds that arise from the basement.

Do you dare open the front door?

"I dropped the candies into the children's bags, thinking: You small mortals don't realize the power of your stories." ~ Karen Russell

Boo!

Punctuation at Play

Play with punctuation.  After you've responded to each of the ten choices, do a freewrite to combine them.  

Let your life sentences emerge.

Observing your life:

l.    Describe a comma (a pause) you've experienced.

2.   What felt like an ending (a period).

3.   Include a parenthesis ( ).

4.   Use an action verb to push the punctuation.

5.   What connection has a semi-colon made for you?

6.   Add a dash of -

7.   Entertain ellipses to begin or end . . . .

8.   What does a colon offer your list of fun or fantasy?

9.   Question the quesion mark that appeared before a choice.

10.  In what situations do you feel possessive like an apostrophe?

Have fun and live your life as an exclamation point!

The Thrill of Creativity

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address

In her book, YOUR CREATIVE BRAIN,  Dr. Shelley Carson shares the psychology and neuroscience of creativity. A Harvard psychologist, Dr. Carson defines creativity as something novel or original and useful or adaptive to some portion of the population. She focuses on the distinction between originality and creativity. Carson indicates that many things are original but aren’t particularly creative.

Psychologists used to believe the left brain analyzed with an involvement of sequential thinking and the right brain handled creativity. 

The movement developed toward the front-back brain division. The front brain became the gatekeeper and controlled the input from the back brain. 





Now we think it’s more complicated than either model. It depends upon which stage of the creative process you’re in.

Dr. Carson feels contentment is the enemy of creativity because the creative mind constantly hungers for stimulation.

Creativity involves novelty-seeking. Studies of cognitive behavior have shown you can change brain activation states, alter neurotransmitter levels and the receptors for those neurotransmitters and receptors. Dr. Carson believes, “if we have the ability to change our brains with cognitive behavior therapy, why not use that power to become more novelty-seeking and more creative?’

Carson adds, to increase creativity, “keep learning new things. Take courses, read widely, and learn how to play a new instrument or how to cook Tuscan food. Learn, learn, learn! Second, try not to judge the things you’re learning. Keep an open mind. Everything you learn is a possible element that may make its way into some future creative idea that you can’t even imagine today. And the more open-minded you remain about what you learn, the more likely you are to see how it can be combined with other information to form a novel and original product or idea." 

What could you do to develop a novelty-seeking ability in your life today?

Celebrate Autumn

A haiku is a short Japanese poem where nature links to human nature. It captures a moment and usually consists of 17 jion (Japanese symbol-sounds) arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern.

Rather than saying how a scene makes one feel, the poem reveals details that caused the feeling. 

In the simplicity of daily life, a falling leaf or opening petals, haiku shows us how to see into nature's life. Then we can gain a glimpse of enlightenment.

Like all Japanese arts that connect with the spirit of Zen, haiku invokes sabi, solitude, aloneness or detachment, and wabi, the spirit of austere and serene beauty.

A season always reveals the message.

On a leafless branch

A crow's settling

autumn nightfall

                 - Basho

Examples: http://www.big.or.jp/~loupe/links/ehisto/ehisinx.shtml

Thinking in the rhythm of Haiku provides exercise for the mind. If you combine this concept with a walk in a natural setting, you will have a Walk-u. Study the Haiku form before you go, take a few with you. You do not have to follow it exactly in your three lines. Keep your senses open.

Take a walk for 30 minutes. Stop occasionally and write three lines. Look up and around and write three lines. Notice connections. See how many series of three line observations you can write in the time limit. 

Celebrate autumn with haiku. 

How to See

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.

Reframe Lost

"Worrying is the most natural and spontaneous of human functions."  - Lewis Thomas

“You slow down, you may stop altogether. You’re lost. You’ve got to find, and soon, some way to proceed, and so your senses are wide open, for the time being, everything and everyone is a potential source of information.” - Tony Hiss

Raise worrying to a height never considered.  Replace it with the idea of getting lost in possibility by wandering throughout your mind without a map.

Lost means an ability to give up certainties. Move beyond the comfort that controls your world.

Faith includes fears and confusion.

Life offers possibilities when you permit yourself to get lost.

Cheer with expectancy and creativity.









"That thing the nature of which is totally unknown is usually what you need to find, and finding it is a matter of getting lost." - Rebecca Solnik

Reframe lost and wander into wonder.

Objects and their Meaning

What can you contain in a box? Which items need to move outside? If you hide something inside, an opportunity to discover magic and mystery waits. How long can it wait?

Boxes also mean limitation but Jack-in-the-Boxes permit "out springing," Then discovery occurs.

From East of Eden by John Steinbeck:

You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said,
"Why don't you make something for me."
I asked what you wanted, and you said,
"A box.'
"What for?"
"To put things in"
"What things?"
"Whatever you have," you said.
"Well, here's your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts - the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation. And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you and it's still not full."

Write about an object that has meaning for you.  Describe it in all its dimensions and see where the freewriting takes you.

Go Wilding with Words

Words tug like magnets. They greet from signage, menus, and roar from upside down. They tantalize by association with scents, sounds, and tastes.

Arrest Rust!  Can't keep up with rust so dust it.  There's a music group from the eighties - Rust Never Sleeps. Extend it to Rust Never Rests. Rust has power.

                                                            Jump your wires to possible.

Set up for a Word Playground

Choose a word that has more than one meaning. Also, it must bring in sound, scent, texture and taste.

Here's a chart of early connections.

KNOT could exist in a tree, a muscle, or a ship's speed. Tie a knot to make it SECURE.
Then it could unravel and smell like creosote used to protect it.   Imagine the sound of a knot rubbing against a ship's sails.

A freewrite from the scent to the ship might develop into a story or poem.  Add a wild notion or two


LIGHT also provides delight in play. She lights fires beyond the radiance of a son. Candles sputter as a scent wafts throughout the attic. ENLIGHTEN takes one to another level. He does not want to feel left in the dark. Drip. Drip. Drip.  Is that the candle or. . . a nuisance in the night?

Writing to communicate an idea requires word choices. If we play with words on a daily basis, they will travel our synapses and appear in a variety of wonders during the writing of a story or poem.

Start with ball and think bawl also.  Then search the dictionary for less familiar words to play with.

Go word wilding.

Pause for Positivity

Pausitivity - The feeling of joy and optimism that comes when you stop 

to take a moment to restore and nurture yourself. 

- M.H.Clark

Frustrated with life's details, we often avoid "pausitivity" and reflection in our daily lives. Our culture has created an avoidance behavior because the media irritates with negativity. 

Awareness becomes the first step to alter the apathy. It has to start with each individual taking responsibility and extending it. Then communication will headline positive people who make a difference.

A positive attitude does not mean sign waving. Thought patterns require reorganization to consider, "What can I do? What are five ways I can solve problems and make changes today and then tomorrow?" Shout out what works.

Start with family and friends. Focus on success from the past in order to motivate for the future.

Why point out what's wrong with politicians or use "shoulds" in conversation?  Strive for ways to instigate change in yourself first.

We need more life coaches and less critics. 

If one person can reach just one, it makes a difference. Alter your kaleidoscope and put thought into five ways you notice greatness in daily life. Show how you have used opportunities to gain positive results.

Share solutions with your family and friends and urge them to pass ideas forward.

 "Write as often as possible, not with the idea at once of getting into print, but as if you were learning an instrument." ~ J. B. Priestley

Approach the Day in New Ways

In a pattering of rain, puddles and reflections encourage ways to view nature upside down. What fun to notice how leaves relax in their morning spa.

Spokes of spider webs drape from the bridge railing. Dappled with beads of dew, the lines refract rain. Fir trees stand on their heads as squirrels twist down oak trees in search of breakfast.  In the ponds, ducks venture upside down to feed beneath the surface, tails wriggling in the breeze. Even the herons appear to search for a reversal.

When we take the opportunity to break from the ordinary and move out of a mind set, it clicks our imaginations into a fresh gear. Ideas and ways to view our life's challenges appear from the inside out with a variety of connections.

Notice the leaves in communal hugs on a park bench. What a better world we'd have if everyone shared a morning upside down and inside out.  

What do you have hiding inside?

Approach the day upside down. Go inside and out.

A Curiosity Chase

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”  - Albert Einstein 

Have you discovered a note on the pavement and taken a peek?

Do you sneak around corners and peer past angles to discover what's there?

Let collisions of petals

and dew inspire.

Find sounds and scents that mingle memories.

Chase Curiosity Today.

Rebel and Create

"Sometimes breaking the rules is just extending the rules. Sometimes there are no rules." 

~ Mary Oliver

"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method." - Ishmael from Moby Dick by Herman Melvill

The word, oxymoron (from Greek ὀξύμωρον, "sharp dull") means a contradiction of terms.

Ishmael refers to whale hunting but he also means the art of storytelling. 

Develop ideas about "careful disorderliness." Let opposites collide.

Play by creating a meaningful chaos, planned messiness, directed improvisation. 
Challenge your fun with playful experiments.

Consider the joy and power of rebellion and creativity. A determination to revolt against the usual may stimulate discoveries in living a an imaginative life. 

Find a personal call of non-violent disobedience.

Rise and overthrow a stale notion, overworked idea, or any status quo you've experienced. Your vitality will soar as you shed numbing habits and traditions. 

Extend the rules. Pursue a rebel's jubilee. Rebel and Create.

A Pen in the Clouds

 

Trungpa Rinpoche advised pausing to look at the sky or stopping to listen intently. He believed in using gaps in life and called it, "poking holes in the clouds."

Take time to notice the space between breaths.

Discover a gap between thoughts.

                  Stay in a moment of awe.

                                  Relish an instant of curiosity.

Pause for creativity to take over.

Remain present without negativity or judgment.

Find a pen in the clouds and write into the mystery.

Plant the Seeds

A Buddhist saying indicates that when you plant seeds, you don't dig them up every day to see if they have sprouted. You water them and clear away the weeds.

Plant metaphorical seeds of creativity you will cultivate in the coming days.

Set a time to write for fifteen minutes a day without a goal. Let the notions and nuances scatter on the screen or page.

When you keep up with writing exercise, ideas and projects will take root and bloom, word-by-word.

Get Ready to KRE8

Think of yourself as an observer, a spectator fascinated by all that whirls and dances about you.  Life comes together. Bubbles burst by confusion. Cold and heat surround stillness and motion of day. You might notice parting and reuniting mingled with smiles and the glisten of faces. Ears tune into a symphony of sounds and raucous beats.

Discover a place free from the chains of routine. Go into a personal space where you can admit aspects of life you've forgotten.

Observe with wonder and curiosity at an opportunity not taken. Develop a metaphor like an unfurled scroll where you write and draw a new life, another beginning, a renewed earth.

Create an invisibility. No one can find you but you can see stars born, the sparks of insights, flames bursting into light. A scent swirls into questions. Gradually what's no longer needed releases.

Renewed strength attracts courage and a true sense of self.

Move to write from and toward your center.