Category: Uncategorized

  • Writer Wednesday – Our Artistic Inner Child


    In her multiple books and workshops, Julia Cameron repeatedly affirms that artists must let themselves play.  Her logic?  Our creative selves are much like children.  Her various interpretations make a great deal of sense to me, especially considering how modern Western civilization discourages both artistic endeavor and play in its adults.
    Grown-ups are dissuaded from doing things considered silly or worthless, which is how many people would define play.  The message is that we shouldn’t be goofing off, or doing much of anything society doesn’t find redeeming.  This usually equals monetary gain, though I think anything dubbed as social networking has become acceptable, however mind numbing are some of those Facebook games.
    Personally, I think doodling in a notebook is redeeming.  So is writing a poem or reimagining characters from a book.  Quite literally, play is a form of redemption, its many glorious forms saving sanity and giving this short existence value.  Whether making something with my own two hands or enjoying what others have created, these things improve my perception and very quality of life.
    I’m not saying anything new or profound here.  But today I perused “The Artist’s Way” to read quotes set in the page margins and one in particular stood out.  None other than Pablo Picasso supports these views.
    In his words:
    Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
    I couldn’t agree more.  Will you join me in some creative fun?  How might you let yourself play this week?

    –

  • Herding Turtles

    An Australian Turtle Dog?
    The other day I snapped this photo of Zipp, the Australian Shepherd at my local arboretum.  He’s there to keep Canada geese from overwhelming the area but, having done his job too well, resorted to this showdown with a local red-eared slider.  While perhaps he was simply bored without his fowl nemesis, the analogy of his predicament struck me nonetheless.
     
    Forgive my whinging, but annoying mishaps and stressful trials have plagued my year so far.  It’s like trouble just keeps creeping in, piling up, and boldly staring me down.  Attempts to overcome issues seem fruitless as poor Zipp’s efforts with this stubborn amphibian.
     
    I mean, honestly, while I’m facing one persistent frustration…
     
     … more stack up, quite amiably awaiting my notice.
     
    And of course you just can’t flip a switch and make life perfect any more than you can herd turtles.  Somehow, goose poop seems almost preferable.  But it’s not all bad, and I am having fun with my camera.  ~grin~  Perhaps I’ll stop by the arboretum later this week and check on Zipp.
    After all, the dog mutely suffers while I can put the drama on the page.  So that’s enough griping.  Maybe I’ll crank out a few paragraphs of angst-ridden fiction before bedtime.

  • Special Guest, Jay Hopkins: “Always Always”

    Always Always
    A Poem by Jay Hopkins

    You should have the man in your life who is your Light and Love and Life. Who is always-always there when when you need a pick-me-up, a warm smile or just a hug. Yes, sometimes he will slip as he still has a little boy inside and won’t be the always-always guy. That little boy inside, always always, even still, needs your hugs and love!

    The man who holds your heart, who values it more than his own. Who understands what drives you, what fuels your passions and feeds your soul. That holds each tear you shed as if he himself, lost. He encourages you, uplifts your soul, replenishes your joy and fills your spirit with joyous noise and laughter.

    That man who inspires you to catch your dreams. To be the best that you can be, who is inspired just by knowing you, to then endeavor to be his very best.

    Who, you can’t wait to fall asleep in his arms, knowing he can’t wait to fall asleep in yours. That you can’t wait to wake up, in each others arms!

    In your minds hearts you are both 8 year olds, in constant wonder at each others loves and lives, laughing at and appreciating everything about each other. Constant amazement. Rapturous wonder, the depth of even the mundane never ceases to hold you both rapt and wrapped in each others arms, even if you are thousands of miles apart. Your hearts are always, always just a whisper, apart.

    And in that quiet, those peaceful moments where silence and the souls rest, resides; love holds both hearts. Calm resides within, amidst the busy noise of life, tranquil in the holding of each loves love. Always. Always.

  • Writer Wednesday: Blogging Madness with the A-Z Challenge!

    It’s April.  Do you know where your blog is?

    So, I decided, being the sane, plodding person that I am, to challenge myself for April.  Self, sez I, I need a challenge.  The internetz sez do the A-Z in April.

    Okay.  I’ll do it TWICE!

    Yup.

    Totally sane.

    Come egg me on:

    So, a question for you:
    If you blog, what are your favorite topics?

    If you don’t yet blog, what might you write?

  • A Haiku for the Day

    Verdant Dreams
    Lenten rose blooming
    Crocus – yellow, violet
    Summer percolates
    –

  • Special Guest, Jay Hopkins

    Today we have a special guest to the Writer’s Retreat, poet Jay Hopkins.

    Untitled

    There was season where I thought I knew my friends.
    Then spring arrived all fresh and new.
    And feeling woke, exploding across the sky.
    A million starbursts of color did paint the tears
    falling from my eyes. Vibrant and vibration were shaking
    crost my mind. Friends had been but shadows in the bye.
    Now strong and solid, deep and true my friends
    were joy, peace, tranquility and truth.

  • A Poem for the Day

    Water
    Not air, liquid oxygen
    A reflection of sunlight’s sparkling joy
    Lifter of souls, this swimmer’s buoyant delight
    Not sky, sometimes as if inverted they merge
    Life itself, both giver and sustainer
    Infinity and mystery, it’s nearly 75% of me
    –

  • Writer Wednesday – Why We Write


    These days I’m enjoying a friend’s gift, a creative writing book called “Rip the Page”.  Geared for the young and young-at-heart, exercises range from the lighthearted (zany word associations) to those darker (like writing about a huge hurt in our lives – powerful mojo there, let me tell you).  Doing them helped me get through Julia Cameron’s prescribed reading deprivation during “The Artist’s Way” workshop.
    Published authors provided encouraging notes, as well.  Young-adult historical writer Karen Cushman inspired this post.  Her final line superbly sums up why we write.
    “The best reason to write is just to find out what happens.”
    That simple truth staggered me.  I think I’ll go write now (right now, in fact), though I don’t see using so much alliteration as in my title.  ~grin~  Happy Wednesday!
    –

  • Reading Deprivation – An Artist’s Way Dilemma


    Entering week four of the Julia Cameron “Artist’s Way” workshop, my friends and I face a difficult challenge.  For this seven day period we are not supposed to read – at all.  Already I have fallen back into my word addiction, haunting the aforementioned forum this fine Tuesday afternoon despite best intentions.

    I succeeded better yesterday, putting back the magazine in my dentist’s waiting room unread.  The periodical leaped into my hands, I swear.  Seriously, without a novel in hand, my brain automatically sought another distraction.

    And mental distraction is exactly the thing Ms. Cameron wishes we would avoid.  Without constant informational inflow, our thoughts might turn inward.  Scary notion, huh?  Less frightening, we might find ourselves doing something constructive.  She hopes a new outflow will nudge aside artistic blockage.
    Admittedly, I still spent some time watching television last night but I’m keeping such mind numbing activity to a minimum.  As a result I found some positive and even playful substitutions.  In one day I enacted several reading alternatives that would not have occurred to me most other weeks.
    Waiting while a loved one received a physician’s care, I called my parents.  Later I flipped through a photo album before recreating a favorite image on manila drawing paper.  The resulting art is amateurish, certainly, yet the process was fun and rewarding.
    A friendly, self-proclaimed comedian friend of mine pointed out that I’m actually reading as I prepare this post.  I had to laugh.  Even Julia Cameron’s writings offer some contradiction.
    For example, in one paragraph she warns against filling our inner silence with things like television (as I mentioned above), gossipy conversations, or constant radio chatter.  On the following page she lists some other things people can do besides read and tops the list with listen to music.  Perhaps her mention of the radio refers to talk shows, for that matter.
    At any rate, I intend to do my best at promoting inner quiet.  Who knows what new activities my brain might cook up next?  On that note, it’s time to check the mailbox and maintain the silly hope my postman didn’t delivery a tempting new comic book.

    –

  • My Quote of the Day, by Darla M Sands


    A lucky accident today led me to a documentary about English writer Alan Moore.  I’d been trying to find an airing of a movie called “Mindscape” when “The Mindscape of Alan Moore” popped up in my search.  Intrigued, I began to watch.  His 1980’s contributions to the British comic “2000 AD” amazed me well before Hollywood got its claws into his art.
    As much as his story drew me in I suddenly stopped, compelled to share a quote.  I love this:
    “Quitting my day job and starting my life as a writer was a tremendous risk.  It was a fool’s leap; a shot in the dark.  But anything of any value in our lives – whether that be a career, a work of art, a relationship – will always start with such a leap.  And in order to be able to make it you have to put aside the fear of failing and the desire of succeeding.”
    This reiterates my personal beliefs and aligns well with Julia Cameron’s teachings.  Of course we can’t all achieve world renown, but I would choose a modest existence and creative contentment over Wall Street riches any day.
    Alan Moore goes on to say, “You have to do these things completely purely – without fear, without desire – because things that we do without lust of result are the purest actions that we shall ever take.”
    I shall take these words to heart.  I hope you will, as well.