Take a Leap

In 45 B.C.,  Julius Caesar, the Roman ruler, aided by the astronomer Sosigenes, decreed that they add a day every four Februaries. They based this on the understanding that every year is essentially 365.25 days.

A true solar year is 365.2422 years, according to NASA. As a result, the seasons started a day earlier every century after the Julian calendar.

What leaps will you take today?

Find an adventure and jump to it.

Amaze yourself as you go into light and height.

Happy Leap Day.

Nudge Nostalgia

'Nostalgia belongs to the idea of progress and change and the idea of accumulation, accretion and storage." - Mary Ruefle

To discover how memories affect writing, pull a scene from storage and revisit it.

Reminders of youth include, scents, tastes, and songs. Move past melancholy. Let remnants of loss evolve into possibility moments.

The word, nostalgia itself sends sensations, quivers, and quakes. Move them into waves of possibility.

Rise and Recharge

"Give up yourself to others. Give up yourself to life. 

Give up struggling to make sense of it all." - Tao Shan

Imagine lowering a bucket into the sea of turquoise water. Fill yourself with wonder.

Turn on mellow music. Rather than identifying with thoughts, pull back and just observe them.

Look up at the sky. Consider the possible rather than trying to capture permanent.

Accept the day's moment-to-moment occurrences. Know your preferences and remain relaxed and accepting when they are not met.

Seek compassion with an open heart. 

Experience each day's offerings with wisdom, strength, courage, and freedom.





Permit your life to unfurl to a story of understanding. Let go of fear, anger, and negativity. 

"Follow the light, hide in the cloudiness and begin in what is." -Zhuangzi

Rise and Recharge.

Capture Dream Time

"There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls." - George Carlin

Emerge from dream time with attention, slow moves, and care. Enjoy the re-entry into reality. This will jumpstart your day.

For a few days keep a tablet by the bed and take notes about dreams as you awaken. If you wait too long they will escape. Capture images as quickly as you can.

Let dreams provide ideas for your write life.Use the clusters of imagery as mosaics for stories or poems.

Don't interpret or judge the imagery. Just makes notes of amusements and strange connections.

Off the Hook

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, 

move with it, and join the dance." 

- Alan Watts

Pema Chödrön promotes shenpa, which is Tibetan for,  “biting the hook” with our habitual reactions. Shenpa thrives on the insecurity of living in a world of constant change. 

Tibetans call shenpa, "that sticky feeling." We feel a tightening, a tensing, a sense of closing down. Then we experience a withdrawing. The tight feeling has the power to hook us into self-denigration, blame, anger, and jealousy. Emotions lead to words and actions that do not serve us well.

Chödrön writes, "When someone criticizes us, our work, or leaves us, we may bite the hook of grasping. When something unfair happens, we may bite the hook of rage. When we are disappointed, we may bite the hook of numbness." 

What would it look like not to bite the hook in an action of non-shenpa?




Chödrön's philosophy involves how to grow and learn from experiences. She advises not to waste time berating oneself for supposed sins. Learn and move on. 

If we cultivate clear sight, which Tibetan Buddhists call prajna, we view our life without deceiving ourselves. Once we observe the self clearly, we grow and gain strength for the next encounters. 

Consider how you talk to yourself concerning unhappiness. Do you malign and denigrate yourself to induce a wave of guilt that proves you are unworthy? 

"At moments like that, what is it you feel? It has a familiar taste in your mouth, it has a familiar smell. Once you begin to notice it, you feel like this experience has been happening forever," Chödrön says. She continues, "All we're trying to do is not to feel our uneasiness. But when we do this we never get to the root of practice. The root is experiencing the itch as well as the urge to scratch, and then not acting it out."

Learn to recognize when you get hooked in your experiences. Realize you have the wisdom to see your frustrations for what they are. 

The more you practice that realization the less control outside forces have on you. 

When negative feelings intrude, focus on the breath. Stay in the moment. Relinquish the need to react.

You'll benefit by not biting the hook. 

Feelings of freedom will take over. 

The Power of You

Rise above negative thinking regardless of attitudes floating around. Surge idealistic and positive beyond beliefs and strongly held ideas to evolve into renewed ways of thinking. 

The creative choice is yours.

Here are ideas to jump start your will to renew:

1. Write about what you've learned at this stage of your life. See how far you can go with this for fifteen minutes.

2.  When you catch yourself thinking about what's broken, consider what you want to happen and how you can make it happen on your scale. Keep writing.

3. Live in the moment. Don't dwell on negativity. Write beyond it.

4. Write about what you truly need for contentment. Delve into why you think,“I'll be happy when I have this or that,” or “when I live over there,” or “when this happens.” 

5. Write your successes. Examine mistakes and if you have failed to meet objectives. You have choices. Examine your priorities. 

Additional Points to Ponder:

6.  Choose wisely what you read, listen to, and the people with whom you associate. Avoid letting negative individuals populate your world.  You cannot change them.  Move on.

7.  Learn to listen with both ears. Evaluate before disrespecting another's opinion.

8.  Examine how you take responsibility for yourself with healthy choices of diet, exercise and mind push ups. Nurture a spiritual force that supports your efforts.

9.  Take pride in the natural world and explore it daily with all your senses. 

10. Work on the power of You.

Live from the Inside Out

How do you live from the inside out?  

Here's a place to start:

Grow yourself each day. 

Exercise the mind and body.

Add healthy food for fuel.

Spend time alone and with others.

Keep a Positive attitude regardless of the situation.

Promote Optimism. 

Permit your emotions to cycle. 

Give. Give. Give.

Express gratitude.

Learn from making mistakes. 

Explore nature's wonders each day. 

LOVE

Help others help themselves.

Discover a spiritual practice. 

Make sleep count. Take naps. 

Let laughter conquer fear and frustration. 

Make FUN the most important discipline of all.

Write rather than worry. Live from the inside out!

Capnip or Kryptonite

Elizabeth Gilbert once described a relationship with someone as both "catnip and kryptonite." 

If you have owned a cat, you know catnip's lure. Superman had to avoid his proximity to kryptonite or suffer weakened power.

Do you have a place, situation, activity or person like that? How do you neutralize the obsessive effects on you? How could it empower you to make a good decision about the relationship you will have in the future?

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

Write about an obsession with something amazing or amusing. What about it confuses or confounds?

Make a list of catnip adventures you'd like to pursue you haven't considered.

Delve into the aspects of Kryptonite that excite. Develop a character who might like to fly into the flame.

Writers need the challenges of approach and avoidance to create works of wonder.

Always add a spark of humor.

Portals of Potential

"There are things known and things unknown and between them, the doors." 

- Jim Morrison

Portals invite. Often they distract the visitor. 

Is it a question of protection or seclusion?

Curiosity scents the difference in lilac.

What lurks or sulks in the silence behind the wood and brass?

House finches with a forest of roses rise.

A calling for clouds.

Nurtured by freedom.

Stars sparkle in shadows.
They reveal the hieroglyphs of spring.
Green arouses a desire to venture beyond.

Imagine the door open to dreams.

Choose and inside discoveries await.

Taffeta gleams and seams
of organdy diffuse the light.
Dancers twirl and offer goblets.

Will you take a sip?

Seahorses shine in curves of silver.

Where will writing
lead into portals of potential?



How will codes 
of memory open?

Get Bird Wise

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. - Lao Tzu

Birds supply a wisdom all their own. They express this through the signals of comfort and discomfort.  

Emulate birds.

  Live your moments.
        Put your attention on what is.
                Accept the present moment as it unfolds.

Don't struggle.  Avoid living in the rear view mirror.

Take time for silence.  Quiet your internal chatter.  

Enlarge your ears to really listen to others. 

You will respond with insight as a result.

Use your ability to say NO.  Mean it. 

You're going to have "dip" days.  

Look up at the clouds. Notice movement in tree tops.

Relinquish the need for approval. Don't rely on the audience. Believe in

yourself.

You will feel freedom in that choice. Build your self-acceptance through positive actions and choices.

Watch your anger reactions. When you react with rage to any person, situation or circumstance, recognize you struggle only against yourself.

Lighten up. Control your Power.

Remember how birds do it. They fly with the flow.

Power Pounce

All power is from within and therefore under our control." - Robert Collier

Why is it so difficult to grasp that we own our Power?  When we live from the inside out, we can conquer the most important challenge of the day - ourselves.




Someone will say something that just irritates and makes sparks fly. When we let their notions linger, roll and rattle around in our skulls, our power fades. 




First . . . Get over it. Observe their opinion and let it fly away.  Hold onto your POWer.




Then. Catch negative thinkers off guard with your own POWer plays. This will assist you to excel past your power outages.

A way to avoid power stealing involves coming up with at least three to five responses that toss creative curves. When someone taunts, respond with words that will cause them to rethink and set them off balance to a new perspective. Keep it Positive and useful.  

Diversion always works. So does humor. Point to the sky and reveal a cloud at play. Or, "Did you see what type of bird just flew by?"

When a frown greets you with unkind words, respond, "Love that smile." Not many can avoid smiling in response.  

You can comment, "Have a great day if you want to."

POWer past the frustrations of others' responses and increase your power plays.

Discoveries

"The beginner sees many possibilities, the expert few. Be a beginner every day." 

~ Zen Proverb 

Discover a miracle each day that inspires you to view the ordinary with a new perspective.

Strip objects and experiences of their habitual expectations. Allow them to attract the enchantment you felt before familiarity set in. Observe the way a raven stands on its claws and how rainbows sparkle in its feathers.

Stay ready and eager for an outbreak of curiosity with a burst of surprises and fun.

Tune your eyes and ears to a different frequency.
Explore with fingers and toes.


Around every corner, adventures will enliven the day.

Be aware. Care and share.

Simple Pleasures

There was a child went forth every day,

And the first object he'd look'd  upon,

that object he became,

And that object became part of him

for the day or a certain part of the day,

or for many years or stretching cycles of years.

                                  - Walt Whitman

Tree Swallows have a game of their own. During migration to their winter habitat, they entertain themselves by feather tosses. One will drop a feather while flying and the others compete to see who can snatch it. The winner climbs higher and drops it again.

Growing up minus iPod, computer or cell phone, I had playmates that wriggled from under rocks and crawled on sycamore branches. I named the bluejays, sparrows and mourning doves that visited the back porch. My curiosity investigated the tastes of sweet clover and crab apples.

Running to feel the breeze like birds, I tried to catch squirrels who disappeared in oak trees. The fragrance of  roses, daisies and geraniums pressed into my palms and translated their colors. Thankfully, I did not suffer from what Richard Louv has named Nature Deficit Disorder.

Dr. Claude Arnett, a psychiatrist in Sacramento works with nature to cure children with mental health issues. Their nervous system and ability to handle stress require natural experiences in order to develop. He explains how at first children must learn to scan the landscape, then target something specific such as a moving beetle or butterfly. In this way children learn to move fluidly between the two skills of field and target focus.Television and video games only teach target-oriented attention and ignore the process. 

When troubled children spend time in natural environments, their mental world brightens and they develop a greater elasticity and come to him more flexible and adaptive.

If children watch animals at play, they also learn ways to enjoy simple toys. Feathers provide a variety of ways to play and write.

Write about discovering a simple pleasure in nature. Did you collect rocks for a particular shape or color?  How many ways could you use a feather?