Halloween Fun

 

Halloween has taken over to decorate neighborhoods and malls. Everywhere ghosts, witches and goblins abound. Skeletons shake in the wind. Pumpkins growl.

Move away from the frightening designs and become creative with positive  approaches.

Choose a fun costume to describe yourself.

Imagine a cat in a artichoke costume.

Transform a carved pumpkin into a story of a flight into fun

Go for FUN rather than fear this Halloween.

Autumn Questions

 

I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
                      - Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903 in Letters to a Young Poet


Autumn brings a time of vibrance and change. Glimmers of orange, crimson, magenta, and flashes of gold permeate the days. As shades of blue search for a turn, gray flannel consumes the clouds. Landscapes arouse with lightning, thunder and showers. Scents of cinnamon and cider fill the air along with aromas of wood smoke from chimneys. The breeze tastes of woodsmoke and promise.

Nature’s multiple personality during the fall season reminds us to consider possible changes and pursue, rather than judge, our writing.

It becomes a time to explore and pile questions upon questions instead of a search for answers. A pondering of  “…and then what” provides possibilities. We mine for more understanding if we permit the questions to climb upon one another. They will wrestle for opportunities we have not considered.

Consider these ten questions. They will spark others as you write to them. Respond only with more questions. See what happens.

l.  How would you answer Rilke’s question:

"...ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write?" 

2.  How are you with your writing?

3.  What biases affect your writing? The best way to combat biases involves recognizing their existence. 
     Will you list and write to them?

4.  What amuses you about your writing?

5.  How do you write about what feels wrong?

6.  Do you celebrate your strengths in writing?  In what ways?

7.  How do you provide constructive feedback for your writing? If not, who does?

8.  If you considered your heart’s desire about your writing, what would it involve?

9.  What do you write away from? How can you bring it closer to you?

10. What’s the greatest question your writing nudges in you?

Take time to involve yourself with the questioning process. 

Life Enrichment

"By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it.  The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired." - Nikos Kazantzakis.

What does not yet exist that you could bring into life today?  

Do you need to stimulate a friendship?  

Would refreshing lines in a poem or story add to its possibility?  

What if you left an encouraging note for the mailman, an office worker, or someone who provides a service you take for granted? 

Think of just one area of life that needs enriching for someone else.  Then add one for yourself.

Make your day one of believing and doing.  Become a magician of what could add energy to our weary world.  

Write the nonexistent for life enrichment.

Creativity's Contagion

 

 

I believe that creativity is contagious and when we share our ideas and dreams we awaken our muses. When I share my paintings my hope is to ignite the imagination of the viewer and inspire daydreams.-  Shanna Trumbly

Oregon artist, Shanna Trumbly, explores the playfulness of wakeful dreaming and honors the creative.

What will you create from daydreams? 

Use these images and discover ways to play.

Ignite your imagination with wonder and words. 

Share creativity's contagion with others.

The Bird Way

 

". . . my other brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird."  - Anne Lamott

Moments in movement get results. Take a breath and launch into the flow. When the momentum takes over, revel in one word at a time, then the next one, one sentence, one paragraph, one page.

Suddenly the message writes itself. Birds fly from the fingertips.

Become a bird and fly from branch to branch. Capture notions from the sky, clouds, and leaves. Smell geraniums and roses. Hear the breeze and send a song to the atmosphere. 

Release from expectations of  "what should happen."

Let go on wings of discovery.

Mind the Moments

"Mindfulness practice is non-sectarian. There's no belief system attached to it, there are no articles of faith. You're just learning to pay attention. I didn't learn that in school, did you? Think of it as a kind of gym class for the mind, developing basic strength, focus, and stability."  - David Nichtern

Take time each day to learn from nature.

           Breathe in the fragrances that linger on the breeze.

Watch movement. 

      
Pay attention to bird chatter and song, flying clouds, and waves that shuffle to shore. 

                     

Appreciate the moments that surround and amaze you.

Observe nature's creativity to help you build bridges instead of barriers.

Moods of the Sea

". . . every day on the balcony of the sea, wings open, fire is born,
and everything is blue again like morning."              
". . .and the water is so busy
with all its blue business
that arrivals go unrealized.
The waves keep up their song."
- Pablo Neruda


Pablo Neruda held a fascination for the sea. It became a metaphor for his emotions and travels.  In his Isla Negra, he meditated on the nearness of blue.

During my morning runs, the sea behaves in a stroll of moods. Its animation stretches my senses.  Some days the wave action reflects a satin stillness. In a moment,  mounds appear as if a cat has arched its back, pushed forward and then returned to horizontal. Other days the spindrift curls off  a wave's crest like cat claws extended and hidden during movement toward the shore.  


Water moves in a celadon glaze of Chinese porcelain. It reveals a transparency where orange fish swim.  A change in season promotes rupture and urgency.  Angry in sapphire, wave action polishes the sandstone.  Slush and slap push water in cacophony or symphony. Carried on a mist of salt, scents of cinnamon rolls and coffee mingle on sun-enchanted breezes.

The sea might match my mood or cause me to question my morning's emotions. Imagination tickles each breath until I notice an elegance of seahorses driven in harness. In an instant they turn into scrambled egg whites. Breakfast calls. 

Meeting the Shadow Dragon

Deep in flow during my morning run, I noticed shimmers from what seemed like a tree and leaves. They spangled the sidewalk as I rounded a corner. The crackles in pavement darkened and wind aroused a scent of pikaki, cedar and rose. I stopped, my shoes tantalized by a creature moving ahead on the pavement.

The fellow's eyes sparkled like peridots. His snout opened into a smile that breathed honeysuckle and pine.

"Where did you come from?" my New Balance pair asked.

The dragon stretched his neck and sang, "I wander beneath these streets and wonder what goes on when I hear the pounding of sound."

"Isn't it dreary and dark down there?" one shoe said.

"Beneath the roots you discover new realms. I dive beyond the dark into tangerine and magenta swirls. Sparks of silver dissolve into the next layer. Ah, that's where the land of curiosities exists."

The second sole brightened all its eyelets, "May we visit with you?"

"Hmmm," the Shadow Dragon wriggled its mane, "I've never invited an abovegrounder. Meet me at the corner of Marine Street on Monday."

Leaf Peeping

 

I try to run faster than the squirrels. How do they stay ahead of my strides?  

They cheat, of course, and race up a tree when I begin to overtake them. I doubt they could outlast me on today’s run.They don’t even follow me over the bridge to the duck and heron ponds.

Autumn has taken over. Leaves on the Honey Locust trees have turned golden by my window. They fall into the spiders’ vertical lines and twirl in front of my door. They sneak inside and hide in the living room. I wish they could serve as skateboards to take away the debris in the room's corners. I bring them back outside knowing they laugh because they fly back in with the next breeze.

Sugar Maples have started to shoot their magenta, orange and lemon hues to scare the green away. A crisp in the breeze invites the clusters of leaves to bounce and play tag along the sidewalks. Apples, pears and huckleberries have ripened and look ready to eat.

For me, autumn represents change, abundance, and a time to express gratitude. With nature exploding its wonder all around, I appreciate the subtle aspects of life that stimulate my creativity and enthusiasm for every moment in movement. 

   

What entertains you during fall season? 

 

Moods of the Day

 

Writing the story of your own life is a bit like drilling your own teeth.~ Gloria Swanson

Life story writing challenges the writer. How does one recall the details of experiences, fill in the memory gaps and create a flow?

Our recollections do not detail the facts as they occurred. We alter memories with emotion and color to help us make sense of them. Did that really happen to me? Did my frustration result because of someone or something else or did I have to learn something?

Return to a life event that continues to mystify. Write about it in detail with sound, sense, taste and touch. Bring it in to a filmic view.

Take three days. Write each day. Notice how your perception varies with the moods of the day.

The Effects of Attitude

As you think, you travel, and as you love, you attract. You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.  - James Lane Allen
                                                                                                   

A traveler walked along a road from one village to another. He noticed a man tending to a garden by the sea. 

The man smiled and waved, "Good day" to the traveler. The traveler turned  and said, "Excuse me, I am travelling from a village in the mountains to this village by the sea. What is it like here?


"What was your experience of the village in the mountains?"
 the man asked the traveler.

"Dreadful," replied the traveler, "I am glad to be away from there. I found the people most unwelcoming. When I first arrived I was greeted coldly. I was never made to feel a part of the village no matter how hard I tried. The villagers don't like strangers. What can I expect in the village by the sea?"


"I am sorry to tell you but I think your experience will be much the same here," replied the man.

The traveler hung his head and walked on.


Later another visitor journeyed down the same road and came upon the man gardening.


"I'm going to the village by the sea," said the second visitor, "Do you know what it is like?"


"I do," replied the man "Tell me - from where have you come?"


"I've come from the village in the mountains."


"And how was that?"
 the man asked 

"It was wonderful. I would have stayed but I am committed to travelling on. I felt like a member of the family in the village. The elders gave me much advice, the children laughed and joked with me.  People were generally kind and generous. It will always hold special memories for me. What is the village by the sea like?" he asked again.


"I think you will find it much the same" replied the man, "Good day to you."

"Good day and thank you," the visitor replied, smiled, and journeyed on.
 

Consider how attitude affects your daily journey. Shake out feelings and thoughts to focus on what works in the environment of people and places.  

Avoid providing room for negativity to flow into the mix. Believe goodness will prevail in all your travels.

Birds Never Worry

It’s part of our human psyche to worry. Maybe it worked at one time to enhance our survival skills. Most often it provokes mind chatter that goes nowhere. 


I’ve noticed that birds never worry. They just fly and feast and fertilize to create more birds. Worms don't worry, they just need to sleep later, Sol Silverstein advises. Why don't we try to do the same: act or sleep? Why do we worry about the upcoming stop light and if it will turn red before we reach it? If it turns green, we’re relieved. If it stays red we have time to write. No worries.

How do we get beyond the worrisome condition? The tendency to spend time worrying could transfer into writing. What’s in a day’s worries? Don’t think the worries, write about them. Begin upon awakening. Go to your notepad and write down the first worry that flits into your mind. Keep going throughout the day. At a designated time, write down the list of worries. See if you can get to 20.

Then try these creative writes:

l. Write the first worry across the top of the page. Write to the end of the page as much as you can think of about this worry. Then take the next worry and do the same. See how many worries you can write about. 
2. Give names to each worry. Create a dialogue for a page questioning and responding to these characters. Respond as a friend or foe.

Save your list of worries for a month. Revisit them. Have any of these worries come true? What a creative thinker you’ve become. Now write these worries into a story or poem. Worries keep our mind moving in aimless directions. If we can harness them and make them workhorses for our writing, consider the ideas they will generate.

Go worry and write about it. 

Mind Flights

 

The Power of Optimism

"Language is crucial to how we perceive the natural world. Help me to find better ways of describing nature and our relationships with it so we can better defend it." - George Monbiot 

George Monbiot feels ecologists should recruit poets, nature lovers, and cognitive linguists to find words for what they cherish.

He says, "If we called protected areas “places of natural wonder,” we would not only speak to people’s love of nature, but also establish an aspiration that conveys what they ought to be."

Monbiot wants to stop using the word environment, and use terms such as “living planet” and “natural world." He promotes word pictures of concepts and descriptions so we pay more attention to what we admire. He says, "We are blessed with a wealth of nature and a wealth of language. Let us bring them together and use one to defend the other." 

Robert Macfarlane's Landmarks, described as, "a celebration and defense of the language of landscape," enriches our ways of seeing. To know the words 'currel' (an East Anglian term for a small stream), or 'drindle' (a diminutive run of water, smaller than a currel), Macfarlane moves us into a new relationship with the natural world.

He explains that using descriptive words makes us more perceptive, more attentive. Then we develop the vision to care for rivers, bison, and the windy uplands where our rare birds shelter.  Macfarlane points out, "'Smeuse' is a dialect noun for "Gap in the base of a hedge made by the regular passage of a small animal." He says, "Now I know the word I will notice these signs of creaturely movement more often."

A combination of optimism and realistic thinking helps us navigate through life.

Realistic thinking reveals a way of supporting optimism with the action needed to create a positive future.




When you happen upon words that send negative images. Start thinking of a positive idea and find another word to replace the negative.

The next time you hear the word 'climate change,' discover a metaphor to describe it. Rather than considering it as a break down find ways to see it as a evolution. In what ways will human creativity assist the earth to a new level of development? 

When you approach negative words, turn them around. Use sounds and keep going.

Push hate into interrogate and stipulate, then funambulate.

Never flows into whenever and forever to fine.

War shoots into stars and wonder.

View a mess as a melody and sing.

When a word that causes anger or frustration appears, search for the first positive word that you can think of and continue.

Chuckle and push your imagination to its limitless possibilities.

Live with Ferocity

"Don't shoot the messenger. Edit the message."  
- written on a wall.

Approach your day to notice where words and actions affect others in a positive way. Share a smile, a few sentences of gratitude and a compliment.  Those expressions become your high art.

Live with ferocity today.

       Applaud everything around you.

                Make peace with irritation.

Use possibilities to burrow into frustration

Irrigate the should with positivity.

Alter an attitude notice its effect. 

Count how many judgments you can avoid. What would their opposites sound like?

Advise someone to discover an amazement in an hour.


When a negative rattles toward you, twirl its pace and add a laugh.


Win the world's attention word by word.

Laughter's Remedy

 

Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously.” Og Mandino


Use writing about laughter to conquer life situations. Maintain a list of all possibilities for humor.  


How could you turn a mistake into a first scene in a sit com?  

    Prepare a dialogue between two people where both laugh every three lines. 

        Write about a humorous connection between a duck and a ladybug.

Cure all frustrations with laughter's remedy.

Laugh your fingers across the keyboard and don't take life seriously today.