Dewdrop World

This dewdrop world
Is but a dewdrop world
. . . and yet?

                        - Isso

A delve into roses inside out.

                                                  The petals fan and flair with the nurture of dew.               

                
Shadows pose behind and beyond; shapes and curtains flow. 

Harmony of upside down and turn around in traces and hearts unfurl

What self-conversation stumbles among the shapes that reveal a secret core?

To peer, without haste and permit the eyes and nose to investigate. The hands and body bend to each shrine of nature.  

What musicality trails the leaves.  A taste of tart and surprise entreats.

. . . and yet?

Awake in the wild of impermanence, the temple

draws an adventurer.

What do I know of secrets I don't understand?

Like dew, a phantom or the flare of sunset gone.  With hope revisited.

and  yet . . . to awaken and arrive again at dawn.

Feel Your Intuition

Mind control means anything that happens can be a source of joy.

When your mind tries to dwell on unfortunate situations, sit in a place of peace. Settle the mind's pace. If it continues to ramble, breathe in five breathes and out six for a few minutes.

Consider your favorite natural location. Try a mountain stream with fresh water that cleanses and refreshes. Find yourself watching breaking waves at the sea. Take in the scenery around you. Smell the offerings of flowers from the breeze. Listen for birdsong.

Now wait and pay attention to thoughts that take over. What are the main themes that arrive?

Do you feel an emotional tone? Notice impulses that flare up.  Ignore them.

Try now to imagine your mind as a tree. Healthy branches shine green. Brown ones need your attention by cutting. Those represent your distracting thoughts, emotions, and feelings. 

Name them as you cut. Make a pact with yourself that you will use this imagery in the future to prune distracting emotions.

Take a breath and feel a spontaneous rush of a positive emotions.

Feel your intuition.

Go for Joy in the Day.

Tiptoe into Silence

 

Unmoored
in midnight water
no waves, no wind
the empty boat
is flooded with moonlight
               -  Eihei Dogen

Basho and Dogen wrote with the idea, "Learn about the pine from the pine, learn about the bamboo from the bamboo."

Poetry begins with the outside world that teases the poet. Leaves, light, and longing connect.

Notice the nature of a blossom.

Bring attention to details and search for an original view that reveals playfulness, rebellion or courage.

Widen the possibilities with each line. 

Discover surprise and unpredictability to add to nature's simplicity.

Observe. Reflect. Question.

Tiptoe into silence with open eyes, ears, and heart.
                                  Let the words mist with secrets.

Welcome Visitors

Life is way too short not to laugh and love your way through it. 
- Rock Christopher

During the day many visitors pass into thoughts. Feelings rattle and rouse the toys in our brain. 

Some wear colors of reactions to what is going on around us. Others scream at the times that frustrate or cause anger. Joyful visitors acknowledge actions that please. 

Situations do not invite the visitors who travel through our minds to dictate how we feel. We have choices on our guest list.

The next time an uninvited guest arrives to put you in an uneasy state, explore what is going on to cause the reaction. 

Use laughter to get beyond the distress.

Spring into the curiosity of the moment. 

Invite all visitors to share their gifts. Choose wisely for the possibilities they offer as teaching moments.  

Use creativity to respond in a productive way instead of creating more conflict in life.

If you write LOVE backwards and add ve at the end it becomes evolve.

Choice is an empowering action. Welcome all visitors.

Those who overcome others have strength. Those who overcome themselves are powerful. ~Lao Tzu

Rediscover

Have you set aside or forgotten parts of your life?  Did you used to play an instrument, dance for joy, write or paint with ease?  

The greatest treasures in your life may be things you set aside long ago. Often it pays to go back and take a look. Replay aspects of youth in a different way.

Discover something new by retrieving an idea from the past.  Or rediscover a lost art.  

Beyond the Ordinary

Use of photography inspires a feeling of the rustle of moments. Shutter speed has a creativity all its own.

What else enlivens from the bubbles and papyrus? The reflection from a dew globe searches the rose next door. Or, notice a butterfly primping

Like photography, writing does not require a definite subject or something to say. Rambling attracts words through imagery.  

The process brings a novelty to light or permits a perception into existenc

In the ordinary, discovery slants, catapults or somersaults perspective.

The tease of unknown intrigues. Test it with a spark of a word or two on the page. During the fingering of keys or flow of a pen, delve into a photograph. Let a collage of ideas percolate and permeate across the screen or page.

  

Clouds in a puddle form and circulate wonder. 

Fish for moments beyond the ordinary.

State of Creativity

 

"Human beings are in a state of creativity 24 hours a day."  -  Raoul Vanergem

Many consider creativity only in its relationship to an art form. They forget that everyone displays a creative sensitivity a thousand times per day. These appear in connections, distinctive thoughts and novel ideas. Unexpected perceptions arise around every corner. 

Observing forms and structures in nature provide Aha! understandings.

Restless originality and intentions abound in problem solving during daily activities. Paper clips and rubber bands often serve beyond the obvious. If we remain open to different uses for common objects, we will benefit from the creative process.  

Track creative notions, problems solved in unique ways, fleeting impressions and thoughts for a day.  

Keep a list and write about the connections and possibilities. 

Reveal ways you move beyond bewilderment with ideas and results.

Activate your state of creativity.

A Day of Play

 

Observing the sign against climbing,

she ascends in her mind and grips

the 176 year old cherry tree.

Hugs the limbs and feels its senses.

Sky azure with clouds at play

a wish for others to delve into nature.

Breeze sends tickles and roses wriggle.

A park abounds in greens, lavender and yellows

Shows her the ways to play all day.

Songbirds soar as sun decorates

with the evening clouds and sets.

Moon soon reflects honey light.

How Wisdom Arrives

"Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion 

that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, 

enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are. " - Anne Lamott

Take an opportunity to consider five topics during your life's decades. Recall memories  to fit into these categories for you.

l. An Amazement  

      2. An Achievement 

           3. An Amusement 

                 4. An Absurdity 

                       5. An Amiable Friend

Begin with a child's eyes and respond from a nine year old heart.

Move into adolescence.

Which memories come to mind from years 20-30?

Delve into the 30-40 era.

From 40-50,  provide additional insights

If you respond from 50 and above, notice how your wisdom reigns.

Write one or two line responses.

Then return and detail the decades of life and illusion.

How does your wisdom arrive?

Awareness

White bits,
broken cellophane
turned
by breezes.
Beer bottles
stand
near waste cans.
Inch by inch of cigarette butts
line the trail that overlooks 

blue of sea and sky . . .
Waves laze and layer to shore.
Will sandstone absolve
the waste thrown
it cannot absorb?
Eyes of nestlings
struggle to catch the light
as visitors pass on the trail.
Whose awareness opens first?

The F Word Fabulated

 

We utter the four letter F word in times of frustration, fear or failure. What if the next time that sound arises in the throat, we turn the negative connotations into words with more energy?

Get ferocious instead of fearful. Frame failure and turn ferocity into fortunate.

Frustration will become a funstration with fame and fortune ahead.

Take a frenzy for a funambulation. Notice how it frees the mind.

Fabricate frantic into frenetic energy.

Start formulating F words: Fresticate. Fididle. Free the Funderful.

Flow for it. Fabulate into a laughter-noon of fun.

Close to the Edge

 

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you can see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."  - Kurt Vonnegut

What does it mean to move to the edge? Does it feel frightening?  How does it inspire?

Go beyond a physical edge in your thinking. Consider times you have pushed to the edge of ideas and thought patterns, the meaning of a friendship, a creative project. 

Where did you feel a glow, progress, and possibility?  How did conquering an unnerving situation result in personal growth?

"The mind I love must have wild places, a tangled orchard where the dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little woods, the change of a snake or two, a pool that nobody's fathomed the depth of - and paths threaded with those little flowers planted by the mind." - Katherine Mansfield

Find the fun and fascination by thinking on movements close to the edge.

In the Moment

 

A Zen story from Paul Reps’ Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, illustrates the idea of mindfulness in the moment. After studying to be a Zen teacher, Teno went to visit Nan-in, an old Zen master. Teno left his shoes and umbrella in the entrance before entering Nan-in’s house. After greetings, Nan-in asked Teno, "Did you leave your umbrella to the left or right to your shoes?" Unable to answer,  Teno realized he still had a way to go and went away for six more years to study.

Present moment awareness boosts stress resilience and well-being. Researchers find it lowers levels of anxiety and depression.

Leah Weiss, a teacher at Stanford University’s Compassion Cultivation Program, advocates mindfulness in action. She suggests practicing throughout the day, rather than just for a 10 minute meditation. Weiss suggests, “becoming mindfully aware of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings even while you’re engaged in some other activity.”

Japanese railway employees have used a technique for error-prevention. The technique is called shisa kanko, variants include shisa kakunin kanko and yubisashi kosho. The term means, “pointing and calling.” 

In the early 1900s a steam-train engineer Yasoichi Hori, started to lose his sight. Worried that he’d go through a signal by mistake, Hori began to call out the signal status to the fireman riding with him. The fireman confirmed it by calling back.  An observer decided this was an excellent way of reducing error, and by 1913 it was encoded in a railway manual as kanko oto (“call and response”).  The pointing came later, after 1925.

The theory indicates that hearing your own voice, and engaging the muscles of the mouth and arm, stimulates your brain to become more alert. 

Research conducted in 1994 by the Railway Technical Research Institute noted that workers asked to complete a simple task made 2.38 errors per 100 actions when no special steps were taken to prevent errors. When told to add just calling or just pointing, their error rate dropped significantly. If workers used both steps together, they received the greatest reduction in error.  The combination of pointing and calling reduced mistakes by almost 85 percent.  

A wide range of Japanese industries and businesses now uses the technique, since the 1980s as part of a comprehensive program to reduce on-the-job accidents. 

Put more mindfulness into your life. Start with something simple, like pointing and calling before you leave home in the morning. 

Lights off? Check. Windows closed? Check. Money? Check. Phone? Check. 

With this technique, you’ll never forget your keys or valuables again.

Play with Synesthesia

Surprising as it may seem, some people can smell sounds, see smells or hear colors. Synesthesia - from the Greek "syn" (with) and "aisthesis" (sensation) - consists of the pairing of two bodily senses. 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

Play with the notion of synesthesia. Add three senses.

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Give each a sound, a scent and a taste.  Notice where the writing leads.

Engage in Smiles

We have opportunities throughout the day to engage and share smiles

At the grocery store's checkout line, at stores around town, or in line at the bank, strike up positive conversations with strangers.

On the street, thank someone for sharing a smile. Even if that person has a straight line mouth or a frown, they will break into an upturned curve with your comment.

Invite individuals to engage in conversation that will make them think about what made them feel joyful that day.

Both of you will enjoy the uplift received from focusing on the positive aspects of life.

Use your imagination. Make happiness a part of your daily conversations to turn it into a habit. Let a bit of humor and silliness circle around your day.

Remind others of the best time of day - Laughter noon.

The Seven Whispers

 

Most of us live in this paradox: we are trailing glimpses of insight, knowing why we are here, and not knowing. We both remember and forget. We are imbued with wonder, and sometimes consumed with loss, from childhood on; we pursue our purpose in a thousand ways.

        - Christina Baldwin, The Seven Whispers: A Spiritual Practice for Times Like These

The Seven Whispers

  Maintain peace of mind

  Move at the pace of guidance

  Practice certainty of purpose

  Surrender to surprise

  Ask for what you need and offer what you can

  Love the folks in front of you

  Return to the world
                 - Christina Baldwin

        

Opening into imagination enables a suspension of judgment. A move into a state of the true self occurs where reverie takes over. 

Fantasies fling us along paths to observe obstacles. We marvel at aspects of self forgotten or not considered.  

The journey enlightens and enriches. 

If lost, we acquire new ways of trail-finding while listening to our inner voice of dreams and passions. 

A step off the path merges into possibilities without fears.

Smell the colors, taste the breeze.

Attitude and Awareness provide the guidance.

Rocks along the road lead to wonder and design.