REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

So the Gods Shake Us From Our Sleep -- Mary Oliver

Gratitude comes in many forms, but almost always it is about the little things we simply take for granted.

For instance, who would think that watching an 85-year-old woman playing a slot machine in a casino would seem so sacred? But, it did to me yesterday. I know there are cultural stereotypes about elderly people frequenting the casinos, but when it is my sister doing it, it tickles me to the tips of my toes. Her late husband loved Vegas and Reno and she was a good egg and went right along with him all those years. Not a gambler by nature, she limits herself to $20 a visit about four times a year--on a penny machine at a local Indian casino. She drove us there, we had a humongous buffet, and then spent a lot of time together at home chatting--and watching yet another movie. Gran Torino. 

My mind immediately turned to Mary Oliver this morning. Being on vacation and undistracted by "have tos" at home and work, make me appreciate everything so acutely. Here's Mary Oliver telling it like it is. 

Gratitude

What did you notice?

 The dew snail;

the low-flying sparrow;

the bat, on the wind, in the dark;

big-chested geese, in the V of sleekest performance;

the soft toad, patient in the hot sand;

the sweet-hungry ants;

the uproar of mice in the empty house;

the tin music of the cricket’s body;

the blouse of the goldenrod.

 What did you hear?

 The thrush greeting the morning;

the little bluebirds in their hot box;

the salty talk of the wren,

then the deep cup of the hour of silence.

What did you admire?

The oaks, letting down their dark and hairy fruit;

the carrot, rising in its elongated waist;

the onion, sheet after sheet, curved inward to the

    pale green wand;

at the end of summer the brassy dust, the almost liquid

    beauty of the flowers;

then the ferns, scrawned black by the frost.

 What astonished you?

 The swallows making their dip and turn over the water.

 What would you like to see again?

 My dog: her energy and exuberance, her willingness,

    her language beyond all nimbleness of tongue, her

    recklessness, her loyalty, her sweetness, her

    sturdy legs, her curled black lip, her snap.

 What was most tender?

 Queen Anne’s lace, with its parsnip root;

the everlasting in its bonnets of wool;

the kinks and turns of the tupelo’s body;

the tall, blank banks of sand;

the clam, clamped down.

 What was most wonderful?

 The sea, and its wide shoulders;

the sea and its triangles;

the sea lying back on its long athlete’s spine.

 What did you think was happening?

The green breast of the hummingbird;

the eye of the pond;

the wet face of the lily;

the bright, puckered knee of the broken oak;

the red tulip of the fox’s mouth;

the up-swing, the down-pour, the frayed sleeve

  of the first snow—

--so the gods shake us from our sleep.

Writing Block? Create Your Own ABC Poem

I've got writer's block and wouldn't you know, I pulled up a several-years-old file and found the following:

Create a Poem Using the 26 letters of the alphabet and give up your need to understand. After you have created the poem, picture yourself dressed in a certain kind of costume, in a setting of your choice, speaking your poem.

 Here’s mine. I wear an Elizabethan gown, empire-waisted, with decolletage, and a crown of jasmine and heather woven in my long, black, frizzed hair. I stand in the Paris Opera House, backed up by a 100 piece orchestra and chorus. I sing in Italian:

 Affectation behind closed doors,

Every faithful gentleman

huddling inside jaded knowledge.

 Leave me nothing

Obligatory, purposeful, quintessential.

Romance seized thirsting,

Under valued, wasting.

Yoked xanthene zealots

--------------------

Want to play? 

Returning to the National Intensive Journal to Get My Life Back on Track

Journal keeping is now very mainstream, but when I began keeping my "Dear Diary" at age six, it wasn't as common as it is today. Over the decades, I have expanded on the ways I write and keep track of my life. I have always written my life and will do so until the end. Blogging has actually become one of my tools and so has art journaling, but I am very eclectic in my journal keeping and teaching techniques using the methods of several of well-known teachers. However, it's Ira Progoff's National Intensive Journal method I return to again and again when I want to do depth work. I was certified to teach this method in 1983 and offered several workshops in the 1980s and 1990s. I went to workshop retreats myself in 2003 and 2004 and always tell everyone who wants to journal to take at least the first level workshop, Life Context, if they want to enrich whatever methods they use. I haven't taught the method for several years predominately because it takes so much psychic energy, but I'm even longing to teach again.

I have taken the time the past few months to review some of my old Progoff-style journals and actually was a guest on Exceptional Wisdom Radio talking about the Progoff method with Kay Adams, the Director of the Center for Journal Therapy in Denver, Colorado. (If you want to hear this interview, go to Kay Adams Archives. I was taped on Nov. 13, 2008.) Kay has taken several National Intensive Journal workshops herself over the years, and though she oversees the Journal to the Self training, she agrees with me that the Progoff method is a great foundation for any serious journal keeper. It was a casual one-hour interview and I haven't shared the link before because I've been a little embarrassed about my hemming and hawing when she asked questions. I was very nervous. In re-listening and reviewing my guidelines to teach the method, I discovered I had a few inaccuracies as well. But, because both of us urged people to explore taking a workshop or two of the National Intensive Journal, it served its purpose.

Frankly, I'm at a crossroads in my life. I've been partially retired now for 3 1/2 years and I love my part-time archiving job and I love the freedom I have to do "what I want" the other four days of the week. But--frankly--I've been procrastinating about what I really want to be and what I want to do with the time left to me. I've become a human doing once again and I swore I would try to live my life as the Buddhist Evening Gatha instructs us:

"Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! This night your life is diminished by one day. Take heed. Do not squander your life.”

I've been preoccupied with the aging process and why bad stuff is happening to so many good people. I'm at that age where I visit a lot of sick folks and attend a lot of funerals. I feel like I've lost my spiritual core.

Voila! The National Intensive Journal has gotten me back to some depth, structured journal work a little bit at a time. Most of my recent writing had been brain dumping or something akin to Julia Cameron's Morning Pages. Art journaling is fun, but I need to sort some stuff out. I'm at an intersection in my life.

The National Intensive Journal is a highly structured method, but there is no method like it to explore one's life in depth.

It is an integrated system using writing exercises in a setting of privacy and quiet to help you:

    * Gain awareness about diverse areas of your life.

    * Connect with your real self.

    * Develop a more meaningful life. 

More than "journal writing", the National Intensive Journal method is based upon principles of psychology, providing you with unique approaches to develop your life. At the company's website which is linked in my first paragraph, you'll find lots of information and a schedule of workshops and retreats through the summer. If you are serious about exploring your life, check this out. I have now set up my own National Intensive Journal as I was taught in the late 1970s and I feel like I've started to till some very hard soil I had seriously neglected.

Don't hesitate to e-mail me privately if you want further information I can help with, or call Jon Progoff, Ira Progoff's son, who directs the program at 800-221-5844. It's rare I give a pitch so directly, but I feel very passionate about sharing this information with you. You can also get the information you need from Dr. Progoff's book At a Journal Workshop, but a group workshop is the best way to learn it. He always referred to the work as "the solitary work we cannot do alone."

I hope I am not preaching to the choir. I usually write about whatever it is that I need to learn.

Every Photo Tells a Story

I'm a photo nut; I admit it. Macs have an application called iPhoto and I'm forever downloading photos I take, often in my daily life, doing the stuff I do. The photos then rotate as a screen saver and I am flooded with memories as they magically appear on the screen. I manipulate my photos in PhotoShop and keep planning to practice more of the artistic techniques I've learned, but I never quite dedicate the time to practice. One of these days-----Educated as a journalist, most of my photos are of people and they are designed to tell a story. I'm not a particularly good photographer, but I absolutely love taking photos and often use them on the blog or in my handwritten journal.  

Leah, who moderates Creative Every Day, recently linked to Nancy at Every Photo Tells a Story. The purpose of Nancy's blog is to provide photography or artwork as a prompt for writing or other creative explorations. Check it out. 

And here's a photo among hundreds I took in Portland last summer that is enigmatic for me. It was taken in the back yard of a garage sale that we went to. 

Just click to enlarge it. For several months I have been personally writing about the meaning of home and the home I live in specifically. It is the main focus of the vision board I am continuing to create. 

This is actually a playhouse and how I longed for a playhouse when I was a kid. Instead, my dad took the frame he built for the back of his truck and put it under a tree for me one summer. We put tarps over it--and voila. I had a play house. 

But, my favorite "house" was actually in an adjoining field that had lots of old trees that went all the way down to the ground--and lots of bearing orange trees. My friend Dannie reads here and I wonder if you remember how you and Claudia and I would tuck away under a tree and pretend we were cow girls? And we built a fort up on a hillside off the fire trail, again with wood my dad gave us. The Polly Pigtail Club met there and one time a bunch of boys pretended they were coyotes and scared us half to death. 

Anyhow, there's something about this photo that brings the child out in me. 

Does it evoke anything in you?

 

 

The SoulCollage Photo Album

For some time I have mentioned that I will begin to post my SoulCollage cards in a photo album on Sacred Ordinary--and tonight I started. If you go to the right side bar and scroll down to Photo Albums, it is called SoulCollage. 

I have about 140 cards now, but all of them aren't scanned. This will be an ongoing project, to say the least. 

I'll write from time to time that I have posted more. I am declaring this as part of my Creative Every Day project. 

Our 1939 Trip to South America: Charles and Sonia Hammer-Housestead

As many of you know, I work part-time as an archivist at a private school. One of the really interesting “mysteries” is when you first open a box in deep storage and see its content for the first time. Last year I found a box with three photo albums and two scrapbooks, two of them from Ft. Reilly, Kansas. The few names that were written in white pencil on the black pages had no correlation to the school as far as I could discern. The date ranges were from the late 1920s through the 1950s. 

As it turned out, our photography teacher was given these albums by a former employee thinking he might be able to use the photos for teaching purposes. Instead, he stored them in the archives where they have sat for many years. There is no connection to my school as far as I can tell, which means I can decide their fate. Archivists share their materials so ultimately I'll find the proper home for them. But for now, I've gone into my story telling mode because as I was told from early childhood, "She has an imagination that won't quit."

Above you see a photo of a woman on deck of a ship and I was instantly taken deep into who she is and what she was doing. A chinchilla lap robe, a wicker chair, a cloche, furs about her neck. My only clues of this series are The SS Florencia, 300 tons; Chalet Suisse Iguigue, and the Antofagasta Part Works. With the exception of the latter link, I can’t find anything so far when I’ve searched. The albums date from the late 1920s through the 1950s. This series of photos seems to be in 1939 and are largely in South America. Many of them are of engineering projects underway and a series of men hiking, and these of a ship.

So, out of my imagination comes Mrs. Charles (Sonia) Hammer-Housestead whose husband is a civil engineer in the United States.  He and his colleagues are on a business/pleasure trip to South America and Charles brings along his wife and their shepherd King.

In this photo, King looks out to sea while Sonia holds up a treat.

This is King and Sonia posing for Charles on the deck.
 

 

And here a very proud Charles takes a classic profile of Sonia next to the Imperial.

This is a photo Sonia snapped of hubby Charles aboard ship with his suit, vest and fedora. 

If these were your characters you just acquired through photos, what would their names and their stories be? 

 

 

The Year of the New Five Year Diary

What better way to start the New Year than sleeping in because I read “Sing Them Home” by Stephanie Kallos until the wee hours of the morning? I was reading when midnight struck and I could hear the nearby beach cities fireworks display.

Tonight I also start a new five year diary I write in at bedtime. I just finished 2004-2008 last night. If you've never seen what one looks like, here is the Dec. 31 page for the last five years. I don't write religiously in my regular journal but this starts my eleventh year of keeping a five-year-diary, which I do write in every single night. 

I was awoken this morning by a phone call from my son Tony inviting me over for lunch and time with the Playmobil boys, Henry and Fritz after they came home from watching the big ships in the San Pedro Harbor. I can never get enough of them. But, before I left, I managed to do a journal entry for the first day of 2009. 

I watched about four Rose Bowl floats on TV and later I watched USC trounce Penn State—all the while scanning and ripping up old magazines for future collages. The weather looked beautiful in Pasadena, but the marine layer never lifted at the ocean today. I went on ripping up magazines while watching one of the dumbest movies I’ve seen, “My Boss’s Daughter,” a 2003 film starring Ashton Kutcher, on Comedy Central. I’ll admit I did laugh a few times in between flipping magazine pages. And I read some more and plan to begin reading again in a few minutes.  I’ve laid out about four SoulCollage cards, first ones in a long time, again in keeping my commitment to Creative Every Day. 

 

 

 

To the right is the new diary, which I finally broke down and bought at Amazon -- and for gifts for friends. They are not easy to find inexpensively and most come from Canada or the U.K. 

A very happy new year to you all. 

Adell Shay's Plan B Helps Me Usher in 2009

As I've grown older, I live life with Plans--not just A, but deep into the alphabet these days. The South Bay Daily Breeze is the hometown newspaper for the South Bay area of Los Angeles. I have read it faithfully since I was a young wife and mother. Like all newspapers in this day and age, it is suffering downsizing and layoffs; they are actually moving this week to more compact quarters. Sigh. 

This newspaper, and particularly its columnists, are part of my daily routine. On Saturdays, however, a columnist who always touches my heart, posts as a free-lancer.  

Her name is Adell Shay and this column appeared in the Daily Breeze on Dec. 26, 2008 . I cut and pasted it into my journal as inner wisdom guidance for 2009.

Don't panic - just choose Plan B for a change

by Adell Shay

There is much talk of the world's problems these days, though there always seems to be. If the ceaseless wail is not about financial disaster, it is about suffering from some other lack, or about the ever-looming threat of terror.

What were once sound bytes now endlessly scroll at the bottom of every television screen. The adjectives seldom change; the message never does: Be afraid and remain afraid. Prepare yourself for imminent disaster.

I am not suggesting that people do not suffer - I know they do. I know I have and that others have done so more intensely. I'm simply offering this suggestion:

Suffering, as opposed to pain, is an activity of the mind, and therefore is composed of what it consumes. The mind, like everything else, follows a rule of nature: What you feed grows.

To prove that principle, I devised an experiment.

That's a lie. I didn't devise anything. I was bound and thrashed by the Plan A of the experiment. Plan B became possible by a glimpse of Grace, but required years of practice to become habit.

Plan A:

1. Awaken startled by talk radio and become so seized by terror, you are unable to move.

2. Hit the snooze.

3. Wake up late and run screaming into the day.

4. Turn on CNN or Fox News and drink a double espresso while thinking about your investments and every financial mistake you've ever made, your mortgage or rent, and/or your job.

5. Get dressed. Pause frequently to catch an urgent news update. Make sure you compare your body to that of the surgically disfigured news anchor.

6. Skip breakfast and hit Starbucks for coffee and sugar.

7. Turn the news on in the car. If you feel spiritually superior, turn on NPR.

8. Fill your head with fear-inducing ideas about things that are not happening to you at that moment.

9. Throughout the day, seek out people who will talk to you about what makes them afraid. Repeat a disastrous event you overheard at Starbucks. Wonder why your stomach hurts. Eat a roll of Tums.

10. Go to sleep with the television on.

Plan B:

1. Wake up gently and turn on uplifting music or a spiritual teacher while getting ready for the day. A spiritual teacher tends to remind you that everything is perfect in this moment and that only this moment exists.

2. Sit down with your coffee or tea in a place you have designated for meditation and read a short piece of spiritual literature.

3. Write a gratitude list. Make sure there are at least 10 things on it. Breathing and animals count. Then write a list of what you are afraid of.

4. Get quiet. Ask for awareness of gratitude throughout the day. Ask for awareness that all your needs have already been met. Ask the Power that created everything to reveal itself and remove your fears.

5. Notice your mind chatter as if it were a popular high school clique to which you once pined to belong. Notice how silly it looks now. Do not engage. Wait for a moment when you are aware that everything is absolutely OK. Practice pausing throughout the day to do the same.

6. Eat a good breakfast.

7. Listen to a spiritual teacher on the way to work.

8. During the day, gently remove yourself from negative conversations.

9. Call someone who needs to hear from a friend.

10. Go to sleep after reading something that induces peaceful awareness and a thankful heart.

I like the effects of Plan B, but it is amazing how long and rigorously I clung to Plan A.

I got a statement recently of my teachers 403(b) investment balance. It indicated that I lost $40,000 in two months, which represented four years of $1,000 per paycheck withdrawals. I gasped and shot an e-mail to my financial adviser. I don't know about you, but that's a lot of money to me.

Then, suddenly, as I looked at the statement, I realized that what appeared before me was merely tree bark with spots of dye on it and that my life was no different at that moment than it was the moment before I read it.

I had a choice of how I would respond. I had a choice to remain at peace or be afraid. I threw the paper away. My life has never been so good.

I can't be certain, but I suspect it has something to do with Plan B.

Adell Shay's can be reached by e-mail at gorilladance@roadrunner.com or by mail at the Daily Breeze, 5215 Torrance Blvd., Torrance, CA 90503-4077.

Vision Board 2009 Creation Continues

Are you game to make a 2009 Vision Board? On September 25, I wrote a post called Vision Board Bloggers Project suggested by my friend Roz at Autumn Cottage Diary. Although I’ve done a variation of these boards many times, usually toward the end of one year in preparation for the incoming year, I decided I would do it again to usher in 2009. I used Elmers Display Board, 48” x 36”, and hung it vertically on my bedroom wall where I would see it each day. This time I started months early.

I went like gang busters the first few weeks but until the last few days, I haven’t added much. What I found out very quickly, unlike some years when I envisioned a new camera or computer as well as abstract concepts to enhance creativity, body, mind and spirit, I have no desire for any tangible goods this time. (Well, maybe art supplies.) I do want to take some specific art, computer and photography classes and I hope to do some travel in the summer but I don’t know where.

 

You can click to make the photo larger. The major themes this time are: home, creative projects, spirituality, dreams and plans, body and mind, and a list of potential people, places—and yes, things. But so far there are no things I’ve written down. I put up 8 1/2 x 11” paper to jot things down on as I think of them.

Instead of trying to create this year’s vision board by Jan. 1, I’ve decided it will be an ongoing project. Just thought I’d share this in case anyone else wants to make a vision board for the new year. Most people, by the way, use poster board not the display board like I have.

I do know this: I’m cherishing these last few days of 2008 with extreme gratefulness and want to add a specific sheet to this board for gratitude. Cookie has had a few very good days so I know we will be ushering in the new years together. 

 

 

 

 

Creative Every Day Creative Challenge for 2009

First of all, remember, everyone is an artist, even someone like me who has had to be convinced that I am. It’s that time of year when I begin to wrap up the current year and get organized for the next. One thing I want to be is more consistently creative in 2009 without making a big deal about it or spending tons of time on projects. When I read about Leah Piken Kolidis’s Every Day Challenge for 2009 on Kathryn Petro Harper’s blog A Mindful Life, I checked it out and decided to participate. Leah started this challenge (and others) in 2008. Here are the basics, but if you click on the link, she gives you lots of information about the challenge in 2008. Leah’s Creative Every Day blog has so much information and wonderful graphics. You’re going to love it.

Here are Leah's basics, but read in depth at her blog. She says:

     . I started Creative Every Day Challenge in 2008 to help infuse my life and lives of others with daily creativity.

     . Creativity is meant in the broadest sense, so it doesn't have to be something art related. Your creative acts could be in cooking, taking pictures, knitting, doodling, writing, dancing, decorating, singing, playing with your kids, brainstorming ideas, gardening, or making art in the form of collage, paint, or clay...or whatever!

     . You do not have to post every day! I know for myself that having to post every day for a year would be too much. You can post about your creativity in whatever form you like, whether that be once a day, a few times a week, once a week, or once a month. Do what works for you!

     . This is a low pressure challenge, with the idea of bringing more creativity into our lives. I will not be the creativity police. I hope that we can all find ways simple and grand to express our creative selves. Have fun with it!

     . If you'd like to join in, leave a comment on this blog post or email me (email link is in the top left sidebar) and I'll add your name to the list of participants which will reside in the sidebar of my blog.

     . If you find this challenge after the 1st of January, you can still join in!

     . There's info below on how to post the CED button to your blog.

What's new in 2009:

     . In 2009, I'm going to try out a couple new things. For one, I will be doing a monthly theme. The themes will be purely for inspirational purposes and to give some focus to anyone who needs it. You can use the monthly theme to help spur you on or ignore it. It's entirely up to you!

     . I'm also going to be posting interviews with people about their creative habits, so if you have any suggestions of people you'd like to hear from, let me know!

How to Participate:

     . There are a variety of ways to participate. These ways are here for you to enjoy, not to pressure you, so use any or all of them as you see fit. You can post on your blog about your creative activities, you can post images on flickr, you can comment on my weekly CED blog posts with what you're up to, or use the Mr. Linky widget to share a link to a specific blog post or image.

     . Participate in any way that makes sense for you. I think it's helpful to share with the community what you're up to as it can be incredibly fun and inspirational. But don't let it stress you out. Make it doable for you. 

     . There's a flickr group for this project where you can share images of your creativity (it's not required, just another way to share and see what others are doing.) You can sign up for the flickr group for free here.

     . You can post about your creativity in whatever form feels best for you. You can post about it on your blog daily, weekly, monthly or however feels best. A blog isn't even required to participate! If you don't have a blog, you can share what you're up to in the comments on my blog or on the flickr group.

I will also be posting a weekly Creative Every Day Challenge post where you can use the Mr. Linky widget to post the url of your blog posts or links to images for the week. I post this every Monday.

So, are any of you up to the challenge? Check Leah's blog and thanks, Kathryn, for the heads-up.