Nature's Miracles

Time to stop for nature's miracles

without cellphone delays.




When many of us require an audience,

the poppy never requests applause.

It needs to rise from the earth,

to shine with each morning's dew.

Reciprocate with a scent of awakening,

to flare magenta into a twirl.




Soon majesty of the moment will

attract a bee to nuzzle the future.

  

After Thanksgiving

After Thanksgiving week, think about these Six R’s for a Balanced Life:

Respect:  Work on self-esteem from your inside out. Share it with everyone. 

Reliance:  Enrich your talents and keep learning with insight.

Responsibility:  Make informed choices. Express gratitude.

Resilience: Don’t let any audience dictate your moods. Stay buoyant.

Renewal: Enjoy moments:  music, laughter, friendships, and fun.

Reverence: Find your dedication to family and friends. Discover your spiritual strength.

Try a rapid write. Start with a different letter of the alphabet. Take 15 minutes to write a wisdom statement extending from six of them.  

Happy Gratitude Day

“For each new morning with its light, for rest and shelter of the night, for health and food, for love and friends, for everything thy goodness sends. I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Research confirms the importance of Gratitude when felt and also shared with others. Subjects were asked to write for what they felt grateful. After ten weeks in the study, they exhibited major increases in their happiness scores, felt more optimistic, and better about their lives. 

They also reported exercising more and had fewer visits to the doctor following the experiment. The second group wrote about daily problems and situations that left them unhappy. These individuals felt comparably unhappy as a result.

"If [thankfulness] were a drug, it would be the world's best-selling product with a health maintenance indication for every major organ system," said Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, head of the division of biologic psychology at Duke University Medical Center. Oxytocin, the social bonding hormone, floods the brain and body with euphoria during moments of happiness and feelings of security that can result from a hug.

Gratitude helps us discover the wonders in life. Happiness and contentment result as by-products, especially when gratitude is shared.
Enjoy a Grateful Thanksgiving Day.

Ponder the Day Before Thanksgiving

The day before Thanksgiving provides time to ponder and celebrate gratitude for life's gifts: family, friendships, and discoveries in each moment. 

We live in a world of wonder and chaos but have the ability to bring balance through writing. Give thanks for each challenge as it turns into an exploration.

Celebrate your creativity with gratitude. 

Write a thank you note to anyone who has influenced your life. Then, thank someone mentally and self-reflect on his or her importance to your happiness. 

During the day, whenever possible, thank individuals for their smiles or kindness toward you. 

Keep a journal to express and share thoughts about emotional and physical gifts you’ve received. 

Consider a negative situation that provided guidance and insight. How did it offer feelings of gratitude?

List your gratitudes and explore the specifics of why they made you happy. 

Grow buoyant, float and fly.  A bit of humor conquers all.  

Appreciate what’s offered regardless of the form. 

Share your attention to detail and have a grateful day.

Get Present

Ode to the Present

       by Pablo Neruda

This

present moment,

smooth

as a wooden slab,

this

immaculate hour,

this day

pure

as a new cup

from the past–

no spider web

exists–

with our fingers,

we caress

the present;

we cut it

according to our magnitude

we guide

the unfolding of its blossoms.

It is living,

alive–

it contains

nothing

from the unrepairable past,

from the lost past,

it is our

infant,

growing at

this very moment, adorned with

sand, eating from

our hands.

Grab it.

Don’t let it slip away.

Don’t lose it in dreams

or words.

Clutch it.

Tie it,

and order it

to obey you.

Make it a road,

a bell,

a machine,

a kiss, a book,

a caress.

Take a saw to its delicious

wooden

perfume.

And make a chair;

braid its

back;

test it.

Or then, build

a staircase!

Yes, a

staircase.

Climb

into

the present,

step

by step,

press your feet

onto the resinous wood

of this moment,

going up,

going up,

not very high,

just so

you repair

the leaky roof.

Don’t go all the way to heaven.

Reach

for apples,

not the clouds.

Let them

fluff through the sky,

skimming passage,

into the past.

You

are

your present,

your own apple.

Pick it from

your tree.

Raise it

in your hand.

It’s gleaming,

rich with stars.

Claim it.

Take a luxurious bite

out of the present,

and whistle along the road

of your destiny.

In his poem, "Ode to the Present," Pablo Neruda advises us how to slip free and clear into the opportunity of the moment. The here and now feels so ripe and willing, so malleable. "Take a saw to its delicious wooden perfume."

Build a staircase. Climb into the present, step by step.

Write about the present moment with Neruda's verve. Seize the magic and free yourself.  Take a bite, another and another.  Fill your page with imagery and playfulness.

Find Your Write Obsessions

"Judge a moth by the beauty of its candle," said the poet Rumi.

Does your writing reveal an obsession with something amazing or amusing?  Do you write about aspects of life that confuse and confound? 

Make a list of three obsessions you would like to pursue that you haven't considered.

Write from deep inside. Develop a world of wonder. Add a spark of humor.

Find your write obsessions.

Celebrate Gratitude Week

“For each new morning with its light, for rest and shelter of the night, for health and food, for love and friends, for everything thy goodness sends. I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Research confirms the importance of gratitude when felt and also shared with others. Subjects were asked to write for what they felt grateful. 

After ten weeks in the study, they exhibited major increases in their happiness scores, felt more optimistic, and better about their lives. 

They also reported exercising more and had fewer visits to the doctor following the experiment. 




The second group wrote about daily problems and situations that left them unhappy. These individuals felt comparably unhappy as a result.

"If [thankfulness] were a drug, it would be the world's best-selling product with a health maintenance indication for every major organ system," said Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, head of the division of biologic psychology at Duke University Medical Center. 

Oxytocin, the social bonding hormone, floods the brain and body with euphoria during moments of happiness and feelings of security that can result from a hug.

Gratitude helps us discover the wonders in life. Happiness and contentment result as by-products, especially when gratitude is shared.

Make it a habit to share gratitude. Have a joyful Thanksgiving week.

Inspiration

It is what I was born for -

to look, to listen,

to lose myself

inside this soft world -

to instruct myself

over and over . . .    

                       - Mary Oliver

The inspiration you seek is already within you. Be silent and listen. - Rumi

Nature's scents, sights and colors provide an interlude and exhilaration away from the rush of life's activities.

Entering this world releases us into a slower and tranquil way of living.

We can instruct ourselves, as Mary Oliver says, by observing the patience of a black phoebe or a blue jay's hunt for lunch.

Humor arrives as an osprey entertains.

Joys abound when we lose ourselves while learning nature's life skills.




Keeping the ears open and the smile widened makes the day.

Superstitions and Rituals

"I would far rather be ignorant than wise in the foreboding of evil." - Aeschylus

The bird pardoner said, "The freed bird says a prayer on behalf of the one who has bought its freedom. He explained that he rode through town with the cage full of birds and people paid him to release one or more of them, the act of compassion gaining the customer forgiveness for some sins."
                        - from  The Blind Man's Garden, Nadeem Aslam

Some individuals believe that superstitious behaviors may keep away the perceptions of negative outcomes.  People knock on wood, throw salt, use phrases or rituals to avoid bad luck. 

According to the Journal of Experimental Psychology, scientists from the University of Chicago conducted experiments looking at behaviors that undo bad luck. They recorded how these actions affect individuals' perceptions of their luck.

First, the participants tempted fate by creating phrases with outcomes. They stated and filled in the blank, “no one I know will ever . . .” Participants knocked on wood because they believed the action would prevent that statement from coming true. Some threw or held onto a ball which did not have superstitious connotations for avoiding back luck.

The researchers discovered a pattern in the behaviors that people believed could undo a jinx. Actions such as knocking on wood or throwing a ball away from themselves helped volunteers to believe that they had avoided bad luck to come. 

Those who knocked on themselves or held onto a ball were less likely to think that the jinx had been successfully avoided.

“Our results suggest that the effectiveness results, at least in part, to the avoidant nature of the act and its impact on mental simulation,” the authors concluded.

While every culture has rituals for getting rid of misfortune, the study’s authors feel that most involve physically moving something away from the body.

Write a story or poem about rituals.  Describe how you avoid bad luck with a charm or a chant.

Chase Oddities

"People have a natural sense of wonder," Harold said. "I try to provide them with a little oddity now and then. Takes them out of themselves and away from their own troubles." 
- from SARAH CANARY by Karen Joy Fowler.






What mystified you as a child?

Recall observing someone "different" and your reactions.

What mysteries can you discover by hiding or revealing your "little oddities"? Create a character.

Follow shadows and search for peculiar.

Chase oddities.

Train to Write

As a four-year-old, I attended a football game at the Rose Bowl with my father. We settled into seats with hot dogs, peanuts, and Delaware punch. Excitement filled the stadium and rippled throughout my body.

My father's first advice, "Watch reactions. Don't just follow the ball." During warm ups, he pointed out ways coaches related to the players and how they responded. He talked a lot about the intensity of training that went into the game. He also encouraged my writing training in similar ways.

Training to write begins way before pen meets paper or fingers tickle keys. Making a friend of curiosity initiates a first step of preparation.Writers need to chase experience. Nourishing wonder involves all the senses to receive transmissions from life's stimuli.

How do you train to write?

Investigate ways to stretch and train before writing.  Squint and notice how it changes your perspective.

Delve into discoveries by doing what you don't usually do. Try different points of view.

Listen to music of all types.

Play!

Practice imaginative thinking by a search for nuances and connections.

Notice reactions to situations. Investigate cause and effect. 

When watching sports like a football game, go beyond a focus on the ball. 

Observe the body language, reactions, and responses of players. In what ways do they anticipate way before a play unravels?  How to they hide responses in body language?

Nurture awareness by seeking adventure with a child's eyes. Let go with no agenda or time keeping for a set period each day.

Questions add another dimension to training. What amuses? What confuses?  Which mysteries need investigation? Let self-discovery push to the edges. Remain open to possibilities.

Choose another art form to cross-train your writing. Draw or paint. Dance to enhance movement and rhythm. 

Develop a yoga practice for breathing and balance. 

Take advantage of life's disruptions. Use them for story.

Become restless and relentless. Then write about it.

Writing goes way beyond the basics of grammar and syntax. 

Let sports inspire new approaches. 

Start your training today.

The Brainy Black-capped Chickadee

The Black-capped Chickadee has an intense curiosity to investigate everything in its home territory. Their interest even includes human beings. They do not migrate but seek bird feeders easily. 

Try to say their name three times quickly and then chuckle.

Dr. Fernando Nottebohm of Rockefeller University in New York studied the ability of Black-capped Chickadees to recall locations of hundreds of stored seeds. His lab produced the first evidence that in the adult brain of birds with the learning of new behaviors, neurons are replaced periodically. During late summer and fall, brains of chickadees grow as the birds hide food, usually seeds, in their home range. By winter they know where to find their stash.

The hippocampus, part of the brain that grows, plays a role in spatial memory. Dr. Nottebohm suggests that when demand for memory space peaks, the chickadee discards cells that hold old memories and replaces them with new cells that store memories. 

Studying the ability of a bird’s brain to generate new neurons might uncover ways to replace brain cells lost due to injury, stroke or degeneration, as happens in diseases such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer's. 

The term, "bird brain," does not suit the chickadee.

The Parenting Experience

"Parenting is no sport for perfectionists," - Andrew Solomon

What does it mean to be a parent?  If you have not become one, what type of parenting did you experience?  Or did you discover a different parenting assisting the children of friends or relatives?

Andrew Solomon, a lecturer in psychiatry at Cornell, has studied families with exceptional children. In his book, Far from the Tree, he uses, "horizontal identities" to describe recessive genes, randon mutations, prenatal influences, values, and preferences a child does not share with his or her parents.

These identities also include: dyslexia, Down syndrome, disabilities, and psychological disorders, to name a few. Solomon believes, "unhappy families who eject their variant children have much in common, while the happy ones who strive to accept them are happy in a multitude of ways."

Solomon has spent time with hundreds of families. Watching them interact with their children, he says he witnesses, "a shimmering humanity." His work studies exactly what happens when we try to make more of ourselves.

Most families he works with feel grateful for experiences they would have sacrificed everything to avoid.

How do you differ from your parents in values, personality and motivation? Describe similarities in body language and feelings. If you have children or individuals you have raised from childhood, explore the relationships.

Reflect upon your benefits.

Explore Contentment

“The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.”

                                                 -  Henry Ward Beecher

Write about contentment that extends beyond a feeling of happiness.  What makes you feel Alive?

Develop a list of "common" things you enjoy.  Include five or ten.  

What does the sun feel like after a steady rain?  

Cherish a taste of boysenberries just picked from the garden.  

Recall a scent that brings a memory. 

Notice a heron, bluejay or sparrow and write about its movement and behavior. 

Sing a few notes of a song with words of delight. 

Revel in a dark night of stars and moonlight.

Deepen the experiences. 

Reveal how nature adds enrichment to your life.  

Respond to the details. 

Explore contentment in a story or poem. 

A Night's Palette

Poet Gary Snyder writes in, The Practice of the Wild, "Life is not just a diurnal property of large interesting vertebrates. It is also nocturnal, anaerobic, microscopic, digestive, fermentative: cooking away in the warm dark.

Examine writing ideas and notions that you have cooking away in the warm dark.

Celebrate the powers of the pen. Pay reverence to what's underneath, elusive, and uncanny.

Explore shadows, dreams, moonlight, and the depths. Catch reflections the instant before light moves into night.

Where do colors hide in the darkness.

As eyes adjust to night, how will other senses take over? 

Let sounds intrigue. Listen for a shish, wall creak, whirs, and rumblings.

 

Scents accost in cinnamon rolls and eucalpytus leaves.

Peel an orange and let the aroma find the night.

Feel cool and texture as fingers tap the keyboard.

Let curiosity out to play.

Use the night's palate to arouse instincts.

Write About Timing

One of the Butterflies

The trouble with pleasure is the timing
it can overtake me without warning
and be gone before I know it is here
it can stand facing me unrecognized
while I am remembering somewhere else
in another age or someone not seen
for years and never to be seen again
in this world and it seems that I cherish
only now a joy I was not aware of
when it was here although it remains
out of reach and will not be caught or named
or called back and if I could make it stay
as I want to it would turn into pain
                              -W.S. Merwin


Photographers and poets play with timing. We try to catch movement and attract connections.  The challenges arise to set amazement in focus or squint to revel in nuances of sensory details that swirl. Memories shuffle emotions. 

W.S. Merwin contemplates pleasure, memory, and what remains out of reach.  

What remains out of reach?  What will you call back and ask to stay? Write about the results.