An Awakening

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 wonder 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 an awakening.

Writing Weather

Reciprocity rules in relationships that endure.

We also thrive in a reciprocity with writing. For writing to nurture us, we desire the thrills and rhythm to sustain our sense of direction. Writing must provide support as we struggle through the fog. Often this relationship feels unrequited. We push and push clutching for words that drown beyond our reach.

Similar to our relationships with others, we must figure out for ourselves what Aristotle meant by, “Know thyself.”  What do we know about our individual strengths and challenges when churning in a wordless maelstrom ? We have to re-create our self-assurance and find a Positive to remind us what works . A "learn thyself" process keeps us going.

Nine Preparations for inclement writing weather:

1. Stock your own life raft while the sun shines. What are your best resources? During the times of flow, write down what works for you. What have you done "this time" to push beyond?

2. Challenge yourself to discover ways to return to the page or screen. Turn up the music. Sit there and let fingers fly without worry about the result. Don’t become anxious to create a finished piece.

3. Learn your rhythm. Chart your mind's peaks and valleys by week.  Give yourself a day of rest and read a variety of words. Choose words that amuse or amaze. Write one word or one sentence on colored cards.

4. As you begin to learn about yourself, consider: Does creativity increase the closer you get to the deadline? Can you count on this? What other ways could you manage your creativity? Consider setting an earlier deadline to trick the "procrastinating creative."

5. When frustration floods, return to research and information gathering. Write a letter to your writing as a friend. Ask this pal for help.

6. Most breakthroughs occur when you move away from the project. Take a walk. Write about forces of nature deal with weather.

7. Consider improbable connections. Let your ideas rearrange in kaleidoscopic fashion

8. Write your process for all writing projects. Notice it does not progress in a linear fashion. This will become your Best Friend.

9. Create your own metaphor for struggle. Consider your greatest accomplishment and how you achieved it. Use all your senses to recall it in detail.

In a write relationship, no one can supply what we have the ability to discover for ourselves. Learning our rhythms and styles will support us through any weather and become habit. With habit and resilience, we will always have two Best Friends and will benefit from the reciprocity.

Write about how you deal with all types of weather in your writing.

Pursue Experiences

Are you able to leave the comfort of understanding to delve into ways to discover a wisdom of well-being?

This happens by thrashing about in the wilderness, forests and seas of the unknown.

Which vehicle will you take today?  If you go on foot, by car, boat, plane or fantasy, amusements spring on every sensory level.

Each time you decide on the destination, you will become surprised and distracted by attractions along the way.

Should you stop for a carnival? Sticky your face with cotton candy and a candy apple?

Where will the merry-go-round take your mind if you change to a different lion, tiger or horse to ride? 

Taste a notion like a lozenge. It dissolves and words arise. They flutter and flicker at the lips and beg for release. Taste the flavor of their feathers and sigh.They baffle, energize, and frighten. Some hide as ink soaks into a finger.

Ride the train with your face pressed against the window ready to hop off at the first astonishment.

Probe the mysteries of travel in myriad ways.

Pursue experiences.

Explore an odyssey into words.