New Year's Eve 2021

Tonight, many will sing a Scottish folk song written by Robert Burns, They'll sing, “we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne" at Hogmanay, the Scottish New Year’s Eve. Hogmanay derives from a French word for a gift given at the New Year.

Just after midnight, someone scrambles into the house of a neighbor or friend with gifts. This is called "first footing" or becoming the first person to bring good fortune for the new year. The first-footer is a tall dark-haired male. Anything else could mean bad luck.

Customs vary by region within Scotland and include, decorated herrings, fireballs, pipe bands, fruit cakes, song and whiskey. Scottish-American humorist Craig Ferguson described Scotland’s Hogmanay celebrations: “It is a time when people who can inspire awe in the Irish for the amount of alcohol that they drink decide to ramp it up a notch."

Have a safe New Year's Eve. Get to sleep early. Then you will have a clear head to find your way into the New Year on January 1, 2022 

Exist Loudly

 

Camille Dungy, writer and professor at Colorado State University writes, "I find it necessary practice to look for hope, joy and possibility in most of the situations I encounter. I spend a lot of my life as an environmental writer and thinker, and another portion of my life as a Black activist and student of American history."

Dungy continues, "I must, as a necessity of my survival, find ways to sustain my own sense of hope, of beauty, of purpose and light. That's why I want to start with joy. that's why I am always looking for possibilities, for sources of nourishment and abundance."

Former Wellesley College President, Diana Chapman Walsh, described what "thrillionaires" do when she handed out the UN Declaration of Human Rights to each graduating senior from the class of 2000 - 20 years ago: 

 

“With rights come responsibilities to preserve the institutions of freedom; with privileges come duties to others less fortunate than you; with wisdom comes an obligation to use your knowledge in the cause of justice; with power comes the opportunity to remove that which subverts love.”

 

You become a thrillionaire if you can recall a time when you experienced a real thrill when you gave something away: money, time, kind words, or ideas. You create feelings of a thrillionaire if you light up when you think about giving.

Start your day with Joy. Find possibility and purpose. Fill your world with nature's attractions.

 Discover the joy and thrillionaire in YOU. 

Play Like a Synesthete

Some people can smell sounds, see smells or hear colors. Synesthesia - from the Greek "syn" (with) and "aisthesis" (sensation) - consists of two bodily senses that pair. The perception of a determined stimulus activates a different perception with no external stimulus. 

In the Department of Experimental Psychology and Physiology at the University of Granada, Spain, a research group works on the systematic study of synesthesia and its relation to perception and emotions. Professor Juan Lupiáñez Castillo and Alicia Callejas Sevilla have devoted many years to the study of this phenomenon which affects approximately one person out of every thousand. Some claim it occurs in newborns.

Arthur Rimbaud, in one of his most famous poems, assigns colors to each vowel: 

A black, E white, I red, U green, O blue: vowels,

I shall tell, one day, of your mysterious origins:

A, black velvety jacket of brilliant flies

which buzz around cruel smells

Search like a synesthete and play with the smell of sounds, see smells or hear colors.    

Floral Delight

Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts. - Sigmund Freud

Flowers are known to trigger an involuntary smile, known as a Duchene smile which like a polite smile. aughts up the whole face, indicating genuine pleasure.  

                                  - Sue Stuart Smith

A garden means effort for result you cannot control. It creates community,

Ancient Egyptians regarded flowers as divine messengers. They filled temples with bouquets and garlands. The lotus held the secret of re-birth. 

Fragrance transports the mind from sensual to spiritual growth.

 Find floral delight.

Musings

 

If rain falls in mist when your eyes open, encourage a rainbow waterfall.

     

If your mind wanders dash into a dance.

Write worries in the sand. Let waves delete them.

Follow a bee's attention span.

Feel the sky as it sports a silky blue for flying clouds.

Watch the waves jounce with white fingers.

Celebrate the marvel of sunset.

Gift of Self-Knowledge

"People come into our lives without our bidding, and stay without our invitation. They give us knowledge we do not seek; gifts we do not want. But we need them all the same." 

- said by Mrs. Sparrow in The Stockholm Octavo
by Karen Engelman

With a holiday completed, unwanted gifts create the possibility for story. Did you receive packages, relatives, acquaintances or friends that fit that category?  Are these gifts of self-knowledge?

Examine gifts brought to you in a variety of ways. Include negative influences that caused positive results. Gifts can include knowledge gained of yourself through the tribulations of a relationship's needs.

People change and needs change. How have you met changes and needs?

Detail the gains from unwanted gifts. Discover a treasure or two and the gift of self-knowledge.

Christmas Memories

 

‎"One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six." 

              ~ A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas*

The season stimulates memories in the form of anecdotes, conversations, and relationships.  

Events turn over and over in the heart and mind. 

Will the memory fulfill itself in the events of the moment? Will those who have left return home to celebrate?

Will you enjoy the return of a deceased relative for the day?  Will you return to a childlike self for the festivities?  Do you require a day of youthful pleasures?  Do you recall when someone told you about Santa Claus? 

How might you transport yourself in words over the miles and years?  

Bring memories to the fireside and remember moments.

"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!" ~ Charles Dickens.

*Full Dylan Thomas text:  http://www.bfsmedia.com/MAS/Dylan/Christmas.html

Christmas Eve Book Flood

 

Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country in the world. The Nordic island with a population of 329,000, loves to read and write. They publish five titles for every 1,000 Icelanders. That means one in 10 Icelanders will publish. The majority of books are sold from late September to early December. 

On Christmas Eve, Icelanders exchange books during, jólabókaflóð, the "Christmas Book Flood."

Iceland's literary history dates to medieval times. Landmarks of world literature, including the Sagas of the Icelanders and the Poetic Edda, are still read and translated.

Designated a UNESCO City of Literature, Reykjavík has a population of 200,000 people. Within that small group, the city's library's book loans total 1.2 million in a year. A popular TV show in Iceland, Kiljan, is devoted entirely to books.

According to Baldur Bjarnason, a researcher who has written on the Icelandic book industry, "If you look at book sales distribution in the U.K. and the States, most book sales actually come from a minority of people. Very few people buy lots of books. Everybody else buys one book a year if you're lucky. It's much more widespread in Iceland. Most people buy several books a year.

"

Bjarnason continues, "The book in Iceland is such an enormous gift, you give a physical book. You don't give e-books here."

On Christmas Eve enjoy the power of the book flood. 

Take time to cuddle with chocolate and a fun book.

 

Pause and Rest

When rushing to develop a product, creators often power from idea to solution and avoid the percolation process. Although they accomplish a result, they may have missed insights gained from the incubation period so vital to the creative process. An interval of rest and diversion from thoughts and brain noise helps everyone reach the "Aha" moment with more possibilities.

During a period of not doing, notions and ideas flicker the synapses in kaleidoscopic fashion. With deadlines approaching, it becomes difficult to let that "nothing" happen. Even a short break will prove valuable. After a respite, a feeling of freshness and invigoration pushes one into the final stages of creation.

The ancient Greeks and Romans believed the magic of brain swirl depended on channeling from the Muses. Unknowingly, while leaving it to the Gods, they permitted time for rest to take over. They also enjoyed bacchanalia for diversion. 

Elias Howe, an adapter of the sewing machine, became frustrated with the notion of the sewing needle because he could not determine how to thread and mechanize it. One day he stopped and stared out the window. His mind spun in reverie. 

Later he and told his wife he had a daydream of standing inside a black pot of boiling water in the jungle. A native came to him ready to thrust a spear. He looked up and noticed the spear had a hole in its tip. When he returned to his work, he decided to try a hole in the tip of the needle in his machine. Aha!

It takes courage and resolve to rest. 

Each person has a different way of accessing this place of rest as a springboard to illumination.Take time from a project to investigate your place of silent awareness. 

Does this work during the moments of tranquility before sleep or in moments upon awakening? Do you make discoveries in the flow during a run or walk? Will breathing exercises push you into a calm and tranquil state. Will meditation provide the rest needed?

Define what a place of rest means to you. During a time of frustration, give yourself the permission to rest.  

Why Worry?

 

Why Worry? 

Tibetans have a saying,  "If there's something you can do about it, why worry?  And, if there's nothing you can do about it , why worry?"

Birds Never Worry! They just do what needs doing!  If you're a habitual worrier, put those worries to work.

Find a shoebox or a container you can close with a lid.  For a week, keep a notepad with you. Write down each worry that trespasses or rages through your mind.  Put each in the container, close it and then let the worry go.

In a week, before looking into the container,  write about the worries you have placed inside. Can you even remember all of them?   Then, open the container and read the notes. How many of your worries happened?  How did you deal with the worries that did occur?

Revisit the worries to discover the creativity they will generate for you.  Write these worries into a story or poem. Worries keep our minds moving in aimless directions.  We need to harness them as workhorses for our writing.  Consider the writing possibilities they will generate.

Take charge of your worries in this way and you'll always have writing material.

Chase Wonder

 

I search daily for "finds" that stir my curiosity and an opportunity for connections.

Who enchants behind the blue door?

The pavement reveals patterns and shades of design. Two faces of elephants nudge each other into balance.

Kid art appears on a bench.



The frog demands that the pen is mightier.

Invite change. Notice details.

Once you have gathered your "finds" - invite them into a writing adventure.

Notions to ponder:

What if . . .

How will I . . .

In what ways  does this . . .


Alter a perception of the "find."

Play and go wilding. 

Chase wonder.

Celebrate Winter Solstice

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." - Berthold Auerbach

December solstice occurs on December 21st. The Romans celebrated Brumalia as a winter festival. It also became known as Saturnalia (the “waxing of the light") to honor Roman Gods, Saturn, Demeter and Bacchus.

The festival included feasting and merriment to celebrate the victory of the sun over the cold and darkness of winter. 

Everyone celebrated with dancing and carousing.

Enjoy the season's rhythm. Create a winter festival of fun. 

Choose a theme and decide on guests to invite from other times in history. Mix and match your delights and let the story evolve.

Becoming a Writer

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "I name you three metamorphoses of the spirit: how the spirit shall become a camel, and the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child."

These metaphors describe various stages in the transformation of human consciousness. For Nietzsche, nothing is static; all is in flux and becoming.

A camel is a beast of burden. It accepts a load and goes days through the desert without water. The camel-image seems to refer to the human tendency to confront the difficult out of a sense of duty.

We constantly become writers.

Writers learn grammar and technique from others. We gain the tradition and culture of literature. At this stage we might not feel the freedom to make our own decisions because we give our will over to what we believe, "we ought to do." By following the rules we move on a path for further refinement.

Then the lion-like spirit takes over. Creative freedom arises as a writer discovers confidence and rebels.

The lion becomes a child. A return to innocence energizes. Now the writer can engage in original ideas without restraint. 

We may need to shuttle back and forth in the progression to gain the most in our writing.

Have you gone through this process as a writer from obedience through reaction to a child's wonder?  Where are you in the process? Do you risk and struggle with uncertainty?  

Develop a metaphor to describe your trip through camel and lion to child.

An Ordinary Day

"Writers live twice. They go along with their regular life, are as fast as anyone in the grocery store, crossing the street, getting dressed for work in the morning. But there's another part of them that lives everything a second time. That sits down and sees their life again and goes over it. Looks at the texture and details." 

~ Natalie Goldberg

Take notes during the day. Detail the mundane. Elevate the simple in sounds, scents, colors, and textures.  

Collate your collection and then . . . 

For each line in your list, add mystery, intrigue, conflict and twist the day into a story or poem.  

What did not happen that could have?  How might turning the corner cause you to trip into an amusing situation?  

If you met someone at the car wash who seemed shady where could you follow him or her in words?  

Maybe you found a lost dog and received more than a reward?   What are they burying beneath the cliff?

Fly into a playful write. 

    Come on, have fun and live the day twice.

         Discover imaginary friends.

             Make up details, add emotions and fascinations to just an ordinary day.    

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Imagine Beyond the Ordinary

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. 

- George Bernard Shaw

See the world in a variety of angles, colors, shapes, and sounds.

" I like nonsense. It wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables me to laugh at life's realities." - Dr. Seuss

Imagine their frowns upside down.

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. Without it we go nowhere." - Carl Sagan

Observe birds and other animals in different poses. Imagine a story unfolding.

Set yourself free to imaginate beyond the ordinary

Into Stillness

Imagine a hummingbird as a statue on a branch, its flurry of activity at rest. Identify each color and feather in detail.

Tis the season to feel the rush of chaos everywhere. The frenzy for many appears endless. How would it feel to quiet your day?  

Take time to sit and breathe in six breaths, then breathe out six. Continue until you can extend your exhalation to ten.

Consider this time of silence when you slow the breath, feel stillness and relax. 

Sounds may arise around you but they represent energy when you put yourself into a focused state.  
  

Notice that the space around you opens. Nothing will overwhelm you when you pay attention to the rhythm of your breath. Give this feeling of rest a name as you search for balance. Use the name and revisit its calming effect from time to time each day.

Choose a name for your tranquility and sense of peacefulness. Dialogue with this new friend.