Hummingbird Moments

Legends say hummingbirds float free of time. They carry our hopes for love, joy, and celebration.

Our eyes open. the wonders of. the world as we watch their displays of whir in wings.

Choose hummingbird moments for your day. Aspire to hover and savor each moment as it arrives.

Celebrate moments in movement,.

Into Immediacy

"When I write, I author the present, and in authoring the present, I create myself.  I disappear when I write"  - Bob Hicok

Author, Bob Hicok feels, "A poem is that focusing activity, an opportunity to give flesh to my mind, to make it actual, to give the internal a physical, external existence."

Hicok promotes writing as performative. Writers need to move. He advises students to, "Step into the moment that's coming into existence, rather than insist the moment take on a predetermined shape."

"There's a delay between you doing a thing or thinking a thing and your awareness of said doing or thinking but I still have the desire to live and write without hesitation, and from that immediacy, surprise myself away from the known patterns of my mind," Hicok says.

The creative stage of the writing process provides the opportunity to energize and disappear in each moment. Move into the mind's flow. Without judgment, let the words flicker and fly. Surprises arise with each bounce of words.

Disappear into the immediacy of the moment. Amaze and amuse yourself. Let the words spread, splay, and sprout from your fingers.

Take Time Off From the Ordinary

"I gladly abandon dreary tasks, rational scruples, reactive undertakings 

imposed by the world." 

  - Roland Barthes

Barthes said he would do the above, "for the sake of love." Even though he knew it might cause him to act like a lunatic sit freed up tremendous energy."

What if you take time off from the ordinary? 

Launch from daily tasks. Search for an amusement, an adventure, or creative idea that might stimulate your imagination.  

Use boundless vigor and act like a lunatic to accomplish the goal.

Abandon the dreary
    Alter your rhythm
         Free up energy
                  
Take a chance

      Make a change. 

Dream Tending

"When we interact with these imaginal presentations of the night/day, we hear the myth, the dream that is moving through our life. Implicating us in all aspects of our engagements with family, friends, and our work, dreams bring inspiration, as well as insight. Dream Tending teaches ways of evolving a sustained relationship with imagination and the figures/landscapes of psyche. Cultivating these engagements and learning to interact with regard creates an on-going living relationship with the figures of soul."                                                                         - Dr. Stephen Aizenstat

Investigate the dream's details. 

In the evening before bed:

Say, "Tonight I'm going to remember my dreams." 

Morning:  Keep a Dream journal bedside. Write details as soon as you awaken. Get a sense of the dream.

Bring the dream into awareness. Dreams are like friends. Get involved.

Notice what dream has to offer.
What is the most peculiar fragment?

Acknowledge the dream. What's the context? Place it in circumstances of life.

Find a pun or metaphor.

Tend dreams from the inside out. Go beyond and explore. Find the myth.

Dr. Seuss claimed, "My alphabet began where yours ended. Most people stop with the Z . . . not me."

Learn more about Dream Tending by Dr. Aizenstat.

Write a Who Dun It

 

By the sea on a blustery spring day, someone is missing.

Dctective H. E Ron called to the scene

A message on the water

Unreliable witnesses

Tackle the above photos or take your own four without planning ahead. Notice what's going on around you. Snap them. 

Include a crime scene to set a mood. Show a situation from a character's point of view. Add a twist to the action.

Resolve it or let the reader decide.

Wild Places

“If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who you are.”  

- Wallace Stegner

People need wild places. Whether or not we think we do, we do. Nature teaches us respect and pushes us out of a concentration on our egos.

Barbara Kingsolver reminds us, "To be surrounded by a singing, mating, howling commotion of other species, all of which love their lives as much as we do ours, and none of which could possibly care less about our economic status or our running day calendar. Wildness puts us in our place. It reminds us that our plans are small and somewhat absurd.”

Take a walk and observe nature as it swirls around you. Can you name the trees and flowers you pass? Listen for birdsong and count the varieties of birds in flight. Smell the aromas that mingle on the breeze. Crush a leaf and breathe its fragrance. Dip your nose into a rose.

Where do you fit?  

Consider your own sense of place from different perspectives.

Thoughtfulness

If one word could act as a standard of conduct for one's entire life, perhaps it would be thoughtfulness. - Confucius

Questions for thoughtfulness.

Where do we find thoughtfulness?

Does it arrive as our minds surge and focus?  



Will it help to stop and look and listen?



What if we act without expectation?

How does thoughtfulness reciprocate?






Where does marvel fit?

Elizabeth Gilbert references the poet, Jack Gilbert and writes, "He seemed to live in a state of uninterrupted marvel. He didn't teach how to write poetry but why: because of delight. Because of stubborn gladness. He told them they must live their most creative lives as means of fighting back against the ruthless furnace of this world."

Stay thoughtful, ask questions, and marvel at nature's reminders.

Spring into Words

Spring activities whirl on wings and feet.

Sprouting magenta, gold and crimson, flowers arouse bees.

While birds float notes on the breeze, lizards scoot and shimmy into cracks.

Opportunities arise around each sycamore. and tendril if all senses remain poised.

Take a notepad on a hike around the block.

Look up for leaves  and cloud arrangements. Take in scents and listen.

Capture activity and spring into words

Where's the lizard?

Discover a New Path

 

Too many times I have chased a Black Phoebe or Pelican for a photo or pursued a line for a poem. 

If I continue along the path, follow the stairs, the poem will show itself, or the bird will lead me to another discovery.  

Waiting while indulging in other observations often assists.

Today the sea reveals ennui.  Yet, it continues, wave after wave, until the energy returns to build it to new heights.

Wild parrots fly over daily. They perch in palm trees. Petulant for photographs, they relented for my capture, even in a blur.














Joseph Campbell said, "If you follow someone else's way,  you're not going to realize your potential."

How will you break from. the path you usually take to discover. other routes?

Look up and not out. Discover a mystery.

What eludes you today?

Awaken in Spring

Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature—if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you— Thus may you feel your pulse. - Henry David Thoreau, from Journal entry, 1850

Dip into gratitude for awakening. Delve into ways to enliven your day. 

Use all the senses to write about a morning's examination of nature's delights.

Let nature's way enrich your ability to shake off despair and frustration.

Develop balance word-by-word.

Discover ways to choose different approaches to life's challenges.

Notice what internal change reveals.

Write into awakening.

Fling into Spring

 

Take time to respond for a Spring Fling.


1. Write about what you've learned at this stage of your life. Move words 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. Believe in living in the moment. Don't dwell on negativity. Write beyond it.

4. Write about what you truly need feel content. 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 misdirections. 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.  

Fling into spring.

Spring Simple

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,

a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. 

If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,

this is the best season of your life. - Wu Wen

Spring encourages thoughts about renewal in life as well as writing. Writers need an opportunity to consider how to prepare for writing rejuvenation.

Keep it SIMPLE:

S:   Savor the growth around you in daisies, daffodils, crocuses, and tulips. Take time to watch nature’s daily progress. See the birds and insects prepare for spring.

I:    Invest in your imagination. Forget the world’s concerns. Imaginate each moment. Make discoveries, connections. 

M:   Meditate in your own way. Observing your breath creates awareness and relaxation. Focus on it for one or two intervals during the day. 

Sit comfortably, breathe in six times and out six times. Gradually extend your exhalations. 

Try for a fifteen minute period where you erase the jumble from your mind. 

Let thoughts flow by like clouds.

P:    PLAY. Distract yourself with fun and frolic. 

L:    Let go. Capture humor and spread it around.

E:    Eat nourishing foods and exercise.


Celebrate YOU!   Believe in yourself. Add your own spring fervor.

Find a word (sycamore, pelican, dandelion, salmon) and create your spring renewal with suggestions for each letter. Have FUN!

Laughter Conquers All

"Seven days without laughter make one weak."   
-  Joel Goodman

The use of humor daily helps redeem moments lost to pain, fear, despair and loneliness. Scientific studies have determined that humor makes an impact on degenerative changes associated with neurocognitive decline as we age. 

Random acts of comedy activate the brain. The neural stimulation changes brain function to improve memory and promote neural plasticity.

Each individual has a unique funny bone. What appeals to one person may not cause a giggle in another. Regardless of your tickle sensation for laughter, develop what feels humorous to you. Adding comic relief to stressful situations will add to your talent for observing silliness in all situations. It helps you avoid frustrating thoughts and emotions.

Begin with a series of mishaps. Target negative situations. Give them a twist and add a spark of hope with humor.

Here's a start:   What if you awaken ten minutes later than planned?  Then toothpaste lands on your shirt. You trip on a rug, landing on your funny bone on your way to the car. There's a maintenance vehicle in the middle of the street with someone pushing wires into the sewer. What is going on down there? The technician looks suspicious with his frog hat tipped to the left.

By now you're not going to make it to work or an appointment on time. Then what? Keep progressing through the chaos and add lines of humor. What if you decide to alter your day and skip work or the appointment? What funnyness for an excuse will you devise? 

Create random acts of comedy as you alter the details. Brake for humor and laugh out loud at a stop light with your window down. Daily practice enriches your brain power. 

Take a day to rejuvenate with laughter and play. Let laughter conquer all.

Constraints and Creativity

"It is better to have some problems to work on," said Frank Gehry, architect of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. 

Gehry continued, "I think we turn those constrains into action." 

This concern with constraints assisted Gehry's design of the award-winning Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. He had to design with strict stands necessary for acoustics. Gehry developed a functional interior with a free-flowing steel exterior.

When you consider your writing creativity, invite challenges and constraints. 

Change the environment and move into nature's wonders. Bring a notebook and write scents, sights, sounds, and textures. 

To avoid Procrastination set a deadline. Try setting time limits for work involved. Then free flow.

Move between writing with a flowing pen and typing on a keyboard.  

Doodle for thirty seconds with your pen without expectations. Let your imagination race.

Choose six words and use them in a paragraph without a direction. Invite humor and playfulness.

Discover the constraints that assist creativity. Flow beyond a comfort zone.