Journaling gives everyday things new life

 "The journals are a way of finding out where I really am…They are not dependant on the muse…They sort of make me feel that the fabric of my life has a meaning. What often seems fairly meaningless, like weeding a patch in the garden, when I write it into the journal, it sort of becomes something else."  –  May Sarton

One of many of May Sarton's quotes about keeping journals. She's so right.

Some of my old journals

This has also been my experience.  Insignificant, mundane things take on a new life as something significant when I write about it in my journal.

How does journaling affect your everyday life?

Lukewarm is not good enough

Lukewarm about life? If that's how you like it. Fine, live that way. BUT if not, you can't be lukewarm. Hell, that's not good enough. Lukewarm just doesn't cut it. You can't get very far on it. It makes the ride boring, almost sickening and definitely dispassionate in every sense.

What do you want? Where are you headed? If you don't light a fire beneath your lukewarm desire and mediocre attempts at action, you're destined for a ho-hum trip at best.

Strike a match.




Fan those flames.




Give a thumbs up to life and the adventure it lays out before you.

Fire up your engine.





Take off running, jumping, hollering at every hindrance, screaming, "Bring it on!" to every new twist and turn.

Lukewarm is not good enough. Lukewarm doesn't cut it. You've got to be steaming hot over your life, your loves, your dreams, in order to pursue, hold, live and enjoy them with the passion they deserve.

No. Lukewarm is not good enough. You got to have a raging fire in your heart. Your passion must seep through and burn everything you do, every day.

Joanne DeMaio asks: "What pulls you out of a creative slumber?"

As always, Joanne DeMaio has a delightful and inspiring post on her blog, Whole Latte Life. 
My favorite part?

"We all need a little hibernation from time to time.  A quiet comfortable space to withdraw to, a place to rest and recharge.  But not for too long!  Little catnaps from creativity are fine, helpful even.  But too much snoozing and our muse we risk losing."

And her question?

"When you've been hibernating from creating, what energizes you so that you hop back to it, putting yourself out on a limb and exploring your craft once again ...  A change of scenery?  Reading others' books?  Viewing artwork?  A brisk outdoor walk?  Music?
What pulls you out of a creative slumber?"

Some of the books I bought last year

Hands down - reading.  A book about writing or a writer's biography never fails to spark words of my own for the book I've been working on, for far too long to mention, current assignments in progress or something new. 


I'd love to read your answers.

Fight off your fears - Wright Words of Wisdom in Womanwise Magazine

Today's Wright Words of Wisdom, published in the Trinidad Guardian's Womanwise Magazine.

Fight off your Fears

Regardless how deep-seated and paralysing fear is, we don’t have to fraternise with it. Have you ever allowed the fear of something happening, rob you of your enthusiasm, and sap your energy, only to see a positive outcome? You would have spent time in anguish all for naught. Many of our present fears and worries will never materialise. If they do, they may be far less significant than we now imagine.   

We should fight off our fears because: 

Fear is a bad habit. Much like anxiety, worry and self-pity, we cultivate the habit of fear. If we can imagine that terrible things will befall us, we can also imagine overcoming every difficulty we could encounter. Why not change the negative habit of fear into the positive habit of hope. Besides, the more we fear a particular task or situation, the greater the triumph in overcoming it. We can turn it into the possibility and promise of great personal achievement. 

Fear leaves us vulnerable. We may feel threatened by real or perceived enemies and obstacles. We live with the discomfort that painful past events might recur. Consequently, we are vulnerable to the deepening of existing fears and the rise of new ones that may or may not be related. In our vulnerable state, we become obsessed with despairing thoughts, which prompt troubling emotions. Additionally, we make bad decisions and take ill-advised and hasty actions. 

Fear provides a false sense of security. We believe that if we do not think, feel, say or do something, we are safe. The risk, the consequences may always remain possible, but so will our current state - afraid, paralysed and without the realisation of our dreams. That is not security. 

That is psychological lockdown. 

To fight off your fears: 

Pray. The simple act of going to God in prayer with fears in hand will fill your heart with the settling confidence that He will calm and comfort you. He will give you courage to venture on the path you fear. 

Analyse. When you begin to analyse your fear, you weaken its hold on you. Where did it originate? Take yourself through whatever reconciliatory and corrective processes are necessary. Fear increasingly diminishes as you explore your options. Deal with it bravely, honestly, forthrightly. 

Make plans. The longer you linger with your fears, the longer you remain where you are. Is there something you long to do? Something you dream of doing, somewhere you dream of going, some opportunity hovering before you? Make plans for your life. Formulate them in your mind and write them down. It is a crucial step in moving forward. 

Take action. The plans you draw up will profit you little unless you get up off that chair, put on your work clothes, arm yourself with the appropriate tools and begin taking action. 

Are you ready to fight off your fears? Then it is time to say,  

“I’m not going to give in to fear anymore! Despite the lump in my throat, the tremor in my voice, the palpitations of my heart and the churning in my stomach, I am going to do what I believe is right, what I should do, what I have to do and what I want to do. With God’s help, I am going to move forward with my life. I am going to seize the opportunity, accept the challenge and step off the edge. Whatever obstacles may come, I am going to navigate my way through them to find and live my life purpose and achieve my dreams." 

Thinking Time

I've always said that I am a morning person. That's when I am most creative and productive. Words flow easily and faster during the pre-dawn hours and midday. But that's not when I do my best thinking. That happens at night, after my pre-bedtime ritual (dinner, shower, whatever beauty regimen I feel like following...).

Most times, I read a few chapters from one of the books on my bedside table. Then I reach for my journal to corral and decipher the elements of my day. That's when my best, most reflective thinking begins. Sometimes the thoughts are inspired by the day's events, the book I'm reading or something that's been simmering in my subconscious all day, after reading something on the Internet. Other times, they come, or seem to come from out of the blue. Often, if I think hard enough, I can trace them to their origin. However, I don't always do that - it takes time, the origin may not be so sweet and the emotions attached to the origin may be too upsetting to revisit.

In any case, once the thoughts begin, I can't stop them. I can barely harness them. They run on, full speed ahead, delving into dark corners, snatching at the light of revelation, picking up relevant and disparaging other thoughts along the way. What do I do with these thoughts? After wallowing in them for a while, I may write a long catch-up letter to a friend, a blog post (which I schedule to be posted a few days later, in case I change my mind or want to alter it), an email laced with questions to someone who can provide the answers, I may deposit them in my journal to be analyzed at a another time or in my notebook to inspire an article.

After reading an emotional/passionate, heart-baring email from me one night, a friend asked, "You could have just told me all that; you didn't have to write it. But you're a writer."

You see, in a particular moment when things are happening, I am too involved/active - mentally, physically and/or emotionally. The full impact and significance of things implied, said and done, don't quite hit me in the right place. Often I don't even respond because I am trying to catch everything that's coming at me.

But in bed at night - my thinking time - odd bits and pieces, realities, meanings, implications, deep heart issues, probing questions surface, swirl and take me on a meandering path to understanding and a response.

There was a time when I found this nighttime thinking session disconcerting - keeping sleep at bay. No longer though. I've accepted that this is my time to mull over the stuff of my life. I cherish it as part of my nighttime ritual and look forward to it. Not in an obsessive way because every now and then, it doesn't happen. Not that there is nothing to think about, but because I can't legislate thinking time. For me, it seems, it must come on it's own terms, when the issues are significant and/or urgent.

Do you have a special time of day when thoughts bubble to the surface and take you on a ride to understanding, discovery and response?

Quote on Reading

I'm an avid collector of quotes. Wise words about life, love, reading/books, living with passion and writing are my favorites. Below, is one I came across while browsing through my collection:

"Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul."  

~ Joyce Carol Oates

Dogs Saying Grace Before Meals

So cute. So funny.

Dogs Saying Grace Before Meals:

'via Blog this'

How to be a writer

New Year resolutions don't just happen. You have to take action. So you want to be a writer? This is how you do it. This is how it gets done -

Butt in chair

Fingers to the keyboard

Pen to paper

Got it? Now, go write.

Feed and fuel your passion for writing

Journaling, freewriting, morning pages, stream of consciousness, whatever you call it, writing every day, or at least on a regular basis is essential for an aspiring writer, an enthusiastic beginner, a writer on your way to building a writing career or already settled into a writing life.




Wherever you are on the writer/writing/writing life spectrum, the following two websites provides you with online space to write. Both will help you to develop, maintain, enjoy and love a personal writing habit to feed and fuel your passion.  

www.penzu.com
www.750words.com

 Use one or use both. Just write. Please write. Feed and fuel your passion.

Inspiration from Writers' Spaces

I don't get to my New Year goals until anywhere between the middle to the end of January. I need time to feel my way around and settle into the New Year. But I use the first few weeks to pump myself full of inspiration for my writing.

The normal twists and turns, distractions, interruptions and the unexpected occurrences in my life, often force me to change how much, where and when I write.  With three computer, mounds of notebooks and a lovely collection of pens, it is easy to deposit words anywhere:

In bed on my Netbook

On my desktop in the alcove in my bedroom

On my Laptop at the kitchen table 

In a notebook at the kitchen table 

On the porch 

To prepare myself for what 2012 will undoubtedly bring, I am reading about other writers' writing spaces.  Plus, to feed my obsession with personal/writing/working/creative spaces, I am either salivating over or redesigning the spaces shown in the photos.

If you'd like to catch some inspiration for your writing and even your life, follow this link http://www.fuelyourwriting.com/category/non-fiction/the-writing-spaces/  and feast on the stories and photos.

Tell me about your writing/creative space.

What is 2012 whispering to you?

Even if we decide to forego making New Year resolutions, we can't escape the fact that a brand new year comes with a underlying whisper for change of one sort or another.





Regardless how you respond to that whisper, whatever change you eventually decide to pursue, I wish you joy, peace, love, success and fulfillment.  So,


Listen.


                                         



                                             

 Listen.








Listen.










What is 2012 whispering to you?

Last day before a brand new tomorrow

This is the last day to complain about and cradle regret over 2011. In fact, we should try to extricate and be grateful for the positive aspects of all that occurred.

If we live to see tomorrow, we'll have another chance to live our lives differently, better, richer, fuller, more passionately, more compassionately and with truck-loads of love.

Are you living a creative life?

"A lifestyle is something you build for yourself from all the elements that make up your daily life: your thoughts, dreams, actions, routine, work, family, friends, food, hobbies, habits, and interests. ~ Melissa Donovan


Melissa has much more to say in he blog post about "Living the Creative Life". Read it  here.

I wish you my creative friends, a vibrant and fulfilling creative life in 2012.

Darn English! You think English is easy...?

I think a retired English teacher was bored.

THIS IS GREAT!

Read all the way to the end. This took a lot of work to put together!


1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He was reading as the train sped through Reading

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

21) If the lead weight was removed the lead would be lighter


Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig..

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?


You lovers of the English language might enjoy this ...

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends.
And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for a while, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP,
for now my time is UP,
so........it is time to shut UP!
Now it's UP to you what you do with this email.

You still think English is easy...?

Ah, The Good Life

Carl Rogers said, "The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination."

Are you living yours?

Be true to the purpose of your writing

Tayari Jones

In a blog post on 18th March, 2005, Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow, said,

"I write to make a record of all that I know and all that I have seen. A mentor of mine said to me: 'The world is going crazy. Write all you can, so when someone comes to survey the wreckage of our society, they can look at our books and see what the hell happened.'
And that’s all I am trying to do."

Writers must be true to what they believe to be the purpose of their writing - whatever that purpose may be. That's what I am trying to do - be true to the purpose of my writing. Are you?

After while, you learn to decorate your own soul

What a delight to find the following poem at the end of Jan Lundy's blog post, entitled "Decorate your soul"

After a while 

After a while you learn

the subtle difference between

holding a hand and chaining a soul

and you learn

that love doesn't mean leaning

and company doesn't always mean security.

And you begin to learn

that kisses aren't contracts

and presents aren't promises

and you begin to accept your defeats

with your head up and your eyes ahead

with the grace of woman,

not the grief of a child

and you learn

to build all your roads on today

because tomorrow's ground is

too uncertain for plans

and futures have a way of falling down

in mid-flight.

After a while you learn

that even sunshine burns

if you get too much

so you plant your own garden

and decorate your own soul

instead of waiting for someone

to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure

you really are strong

you really do have worth

and you learn

and you learn

with every goodbye, you learn.

©1971 Veronica A. Shoffstall

An Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be ever at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rain fall softly on your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand

~Traditional Irish Blessing

I'm an avid journaler

A small selection of my old journals

Keeping a journal can be a precursor to or a natural consequence of being a writer. Both apply to my life.

Always happy to share my love of the practice and my experience through the years, I agreed to an online interview with Yvonne Root from Journal in a Box.

You may read the interview here.





If you are an avid journal keeper, contact Yvonne for an interview. I'd love to read your journaling story.

For the aspiring or struggling writer

On page 36 of Jessica Page Morrell's Writing Out the Storm -

Try this

Write the words, "Nulla dies sine linea," near your work writing space. It means (in Latin) "never a day without a line." Next, block out your writing schedule in our daily planner or calendar. Be realistic and set small, doable goals. How about thirty minutes or one page a day for starters? Tell your family about your goals and post your writing schedule for everyone to see. Try to write at the same time every day because your unconscious mind will respond to your new routine and assist your creativity.

Go ahead, write it in Latin or write it in English if you prefer.  

Nulla dies sine linea

Never a day without a line

And write a line every day.

Swimming in books

Although I have a hundred-plus e-books on my Sony E-Reader, I can't help buying the traditional paper and ink type. Earlier this year, I said that I would scale down the number of books I buy on Amazon. Didn't happen. To add to the dozen or so books I have already bought this year, I ordered 10 more about two weeks ago and they have begun to arrive.

Received this week:

Writing Out the Storm by Jessica Page Morrell

From May Sarton's Well: Writings by May Sarton

Writing Down the Bones - Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg

A glimpse at some of the books purchased this year

I can manage reading 3 books at a time, as each feeds and soothes and inspires me, my life and my writing on different levels. I always seems to be swimming in books. But I enjoy swimming; it relaxes me. Swimming in books is exhilarating. Words washing over me, seeping into my heart, stirring all manner of emotions, opening my eyes, expanding my mind and setting my fingers on fire to write.

Are you an voracious reader (print or digital), a passionate writer? What's your story about your relationship with books?

Wise words from Mr. Colin Powell

My friend Carla shared the following with me. Mr. Powell's words resonate with me because they encourage an attitude and a practice I have tried to adopt and inculcate in my own life. 
I share this with you, hoping you will be inspired to live a rich life, free of toxic people and guard your dreams from those who would try to stall or destroy them. 

The Power of Association 

by Colin Powell
 

 
 
The Power of Association is too real: "The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that don't help you climb will want you to crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that don't increase you will eventually decrease you. 
 
Consider this: Never receive counsel from unproductive people. Never discuss your problems with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who never succeed themselves are always first to tell you how. Not everyone has a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person. Don't follow anyone who is not going anywhere. With some people you spend an evening: with others you invest it. Be careful where you stop to inquire for directions along the road of life. Wise is the person who fortifies his life with the right friendships. If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl, but if you associate with eagles, you will learn how to soar to great heights.
 
"A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses." The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate - for the good and the bad. Note: Be not mistaken. This is applicable to family as well as friends".  
 
My favorite: "Not everyone has the right to speak into your life."

 "