REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Reviewing Your Life With Rear View Mirror Meditation

One of my plans beginning now and into the new year, is to actively stay in the moment and regain spiritual practices that I seemed to have let fall by the wayside. Because I'm so darned curious about everything, I get easily side tracked. 

I belong to Spiritual Directors International and when the monthly newsletter "Listen" recently came, I was excited for a variety of reasons. One is the annual conference which will be held in Louisville, KY in the spring with a focus on Thomas Merton. I have long been a Merton lover and actually did my M.A. thesis on Merton. The second reason was on their Field Guide page and a "Rear View Mirror Meditation." 

It reminds me of some of the exercises in the National Intensive Journal that I taught for many years, but it also seems like a perfect option for my monthly journal group that meets on Dec. 29. 

Because I have been posting at Sacred Ordinary blog more frequently lately, I'm going to try to get back to that at least once a week. 

Here is the meditation: 

Rear View Mirror Meditation (from Spiritual Direction International “Listen” newsletter, Dec. 2014 –www.sdiworld.org)

Set aside a half an hour or more, have paper and pen, or a writing device nearby.

Breathe deeply for five or more minutes. Feel into your physical self. In your body, where are you tense? Spacious? Flexible? Are there spots of bliss or resistance? Simply notice any sensations without judgment or analysis.

SHIFT

Allow your attention to travel your life timeline. Recall age five, or the youngest age you remember. What energies, sensations, or memories surface? For what are you thankful, grateful, and least grateful? Acknoweldge without judgment, and move on…

CRUISE

Recall age ten…

Recall age fifteen…

Recall age twenty…

Pause for a minute, and fast track into present time. On this present date. Acknowledge the road you’ve traveled, together with any consistencies and incongruities.

Now recall age twenty-five…

Recall age thirty…

Recall age forty…

Continue to your present age (or stop if you’ve already reached it.)

TUNE INTO YOUR BIRTHDAY AGE, THIS YEAR

Pause to idle in the present time: what reveals itself to you about here and now, the life you live, the silence you do—or don’t—cultivate, the kindness you embrace and share, and life blessings for which you give thanks.

REFLECT ON THE YEAR AHEAD

Choose one aspect of your life to tend to with care and compassion. Be willing to give permission to fine tune the necwssary actions and changes to involve all the best parts of yourself to engage and shift into gear.Who and which activities fuel your creativity, compassion, kindness? Can you create a roadmap?

STOP

In your own words, on paper or in the silence of your mind and heart, give thanks for life in all of its beauty, complexity, and simplicity. Then, park all your thoughts, and simply attend to the present moment.

KEY

The next time you meet with your spiritual guide or companion, give permission for this reflection to become part of your exploration and inquiry together. (If you don't see a spiritual director, share this with a close, trusted friend.) 

 

New Journal Collaged Covers

You can click to enlarge. A little story about this journal. I volunteer at the Palos Verdes Library book sales and the chairs of the Malaga Cove branch give me used journals from time to time as they don't really sell. This was an old journal with a damaged cover printed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and featured Monet's Path in the Ile Sain-Martin. Inside were 3 pages dated 1995 where the former journal keeper had hand drawn some garden plans and made a collage. I decided I would keep those pages and wrote in front and behind them.

Then I decided to collage layer the covers over a few weeks span. I finished yesterday and to my great surprise, I had made the covers backwards and upside down. Don't sweat the small stuff. I'm now working from back to front. This journal is not only recycled, it is symbolic of my life. My daddy always told me, "Frances, you do everything bass ackwards--" and that's the truth. 
 

Safe and Sound in Laughlin, Nevada

For those of you unfamiliar with the three big gambling cities of Nevada, they are Las Vegas, Reno and Laughlin.

This is the hotel I am staying in, Don Laughlin's Riverside. Laughlin is a port located on the Colorado River 94 miles south of Las Vegas. Directly across the river from Laughlin is Bullhead City. Laughlin's name comes from Don Laughlin who bought the southern tip of Nevada in 1964 (informally called South Pointe). Laughlin operated the 101 Club in Las Vegas. He opened what would become the Riverside Resort which offered all-you-can-eat chicken dinners for 98 cents, 12 slot machines and two live gaming tables, and 8 motel rooms—4 of which were occupied by Don Laughlin's family. Laughlin wanted to call the community "Riverside" or "Casino" but the Post Office opted for Laughlin instead. I got these facts from Wikipedia. This is what the complex looks like from the Bullhead City side. 

I drove from Las Vegas this morning and checked into the hotel about 12:45 p.m. The roads were wide open with the barren desert, mountains, Joshua trees, and a good rock golden oldies station as companions. I unpacked and did the most important thing first: set up my wifi connection with a little phone help from a nice IT guy. Yeah, I could do without it but I'd rather not.

Then I went to our hospitality room which is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and chatted up those classmates and spouses who I know, reminisced, heard about people's kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. This reunion includes the classes of 1952 through 1957. 

Later I took a nap and went back to the hospitality room for a while but had missed hooking up for dinner. Later I took a hot dog and a drink back to the room, watched the Emmys for a while and then took a night time walk on what is called the Riverwalk that runs next to the Colorado. What did I see? A whole family of skunks walking down by the river. Cruised the casino for a while with my camera. Though I rarely gamble anymore, I love to make up head stories about the people who do. 

I've been working hard on affirmations about Laughlin as it is one of my least favorite places on earth, but damn, if you are a gambler it is a cheap place to stay! It was 106 degrees today and was 98 when I took my night time walk.

Now, some art journaling. My room is large, all amenities, $32 a night plus Internet. And it has been a hoot to see people I grew up with! Tomorrow is our big day. I'm glad I'm not one of my classmates, all too many, are featured on the deceased tribute boards in the hospitality room.

Indulging Myself With Two New Art Journaling Books

I have had two Barnes and Noble gift cards burning a hole in my wallet for months, but I didn’t have a yearning for any particular book, so kept them tucked safe. Last night I realized that I had missed ordering the premiere copy of Somerset’s Art Journaling  and now it’s only available in digital format.I was so looking forward to having that magazine. 

Because I want to broaden my art journal horizons, I visited good old B&N in search of a book I didn't have.  

I bought two absolutely incredible books on art journaling and got my 20% educators discount as well. 

Journal Bliss by Violette

1000 Artist Journal Pages by Dawn DeVries Sokol

I’m particularly excited to try a lot of the techniques that Violette demonstrates. I love her work and she makes me feel like I can do this, too.

Do you have favorite art journaling books with good examples of the range of possibilities? I’m not very original, but I’m great at getting ideas from other people’s creations. 

The 1000 Journals Project Morphed Into the 1001 Journals Project

I have heard about the 1000 Journals Project from a few different friends, but I never explored what it really was. A friend on Netflix recommended a documentary that is available on DVD called 1000 Journals: A Film, and I was enchanted. 

The trailer says, "1000 Journals are traveling from hand to hand throughout the world. One came back. Where are the other 999?

1000 Journals is a film about people whose lives are touched by 1000 traveling journals. These blank journals were released into the world in the summer of 2000, by Someguy, a San Francisco based artist. Some people found a journal, or got it from a friend or stranger. Some signed up on the web and received it in the mail. Some wrote in them, others doodled, pasted in photographs, or added artworks. Some kept them. Some passed them on. There are no rules, and no one really monitors these journals and their movements. And yet, they are connecting tens of thousands of people worldwide, provoking and inspiring them.

In September 2003, one of the 1000, number 526, returned to Someguy, filled. What happened to the other 999? This film tells their stories. 1000 Journals shares the experience of their worldwide journeys, and chronicles the self-governed collaboration of thousands of random people who have added to this global "message in a bottle."

After I saw the film, which I gave 5 stars to at Netflix, I went to Someguy's original website for 1000 Journals  and found out more about what has been going on. There was a link to another site called 1001 Journals and was delighted to find that there are thousands more kicking around. I signed up for one and I'll see what happens. Or, you can start your own traveling journal.

Have any of you participated in this project, or are you interested? I was delighted to see Tracy Moore at Zettiology in the film. He and wife Teesha were the hosts for my recent art journal workshop in Port Townsend. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dirty Hands Signs of a Great Art Workshop

If dirty hands are a sign of a good art workshop, then my table mate, Kat, from Victoria,B.C., is having an incredibly creative time. I can't begin to recommend Teesha and Tracy Moore's Summer Play Art Journaling Workshop, with lots more workshops and artfests scheduled at Port Townsend, WA's Ft. Worden. 

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.

Progoff's Intersections: Roads Taken and Not Taken in a Nutshell

A friend of mine recently asked me to describe an exercise in The National Intensive Journal, Dr. Ira Progoff's method of journal keeping in the section called "Intersections: Roads Taken and Not Taken." It follows in a nutshell. 

From Ira Progoff, Ph.D., “At A Journal Workshop” (pages 102-122)

When writing in a journal, Frances Heussenstamm  taught me long ago to, “No judgments, no comparisons, and give up your need to understand.” This is the key to depth journal work.

For those of you who may not know, Ira Progoff’s National Intensive Journal is an integrated system of writing exercises broken into more than 20 sections in a notebook journal. He developed the method in the late 1960s and it continues to be used and taught to this day. It's much more than a diary. Most serious journal keepers take at least one Progoff workshop in their lifetimes because it lays the groundwork for most other journal and diary methods that have followed it. Though I am certified to teach the Progoff method, periodically I will take a workshop because his carefully thought out method helps me to refocus my life.  In the journal I keep daily and the journal workshops I currently offer, I incorporate many of Dr. Progoff's techniques, and those of other journal teachers. But, I always "think" Progoff when I'm writing. 

Intersections is a section in the journal that Dr. Progoff called time stretching. The Life History Log is also part of this section. It is part of a series of exercises designed to help us reconstruct our autobiography over time.

It helps us to place ourselves back in those experiences that brought us to a point of transition, to an intersection in our lives, where a change of some kind became inevitable.

Basic to the exercises of this section is the image of the road. Our life is like a road that passes through many environments. As conditions change, it varies its style of movement. But it remains the one road of our life. It takes detours.

Three kinds of life situations lend themselves to writing in Intersections.

1.     Roads or paths that were intersections in our lives that we did follow, either by personal choice or because of life situations.

2.     Roads we could have taken but for some reason did not. Dr. Progoff called these unlived possibilities, but are often important to explore.

3.     Roads we are considering taking at this very point in our lives.

Progoff uses a term called Steppingstones and in the book he recommends that we make lists of major turning points in our lives to date. It’s a form of list. These usually do not exceed 12 and would comprise the choices that were actually made on the road of our life.

Another list of choices that we could have made but didn’t is compiled. Each item can comprise a few sentences to jog your memory.

The third set of steppingstones are those of some choices or possibilities we are currently exploring and will want to either let go or make a choice to follow.

Creating the steppingstones lays the groundwork for Intersections, but there is no reason you can’t move back and forth in your life without the requisite lists. Dr. Progoff recommended that we always begin these kinds of writing exercises with what he called twilight imagery. Personally, I take quiet time and ask Spirit to give me the right intention for the work ahead.

The exercises are always written in the first person. You are actually placing yourself back at the time when the choice was made by you or for you and living it. “I am now---.” I usually set a timer for approximately 15 minutes and just let my life unfold because of that choice--or explore choices not made, or yet to be made.

An Example: A Road Taken

Say I choose an intersection from my life (or steppingstones) I did take. My wedding day and subsequent 27-year marriage for example. “I was married to Ray P. on Sept. 6, 1958—and then—and then—and then.” No rights, no wrongs. Just write.

An Example: A Road Not Taken

“I stayed in my journalism program at San Jose State University and graduated with a B.A. in 1959. And then—and then—and then.”

 An Example: A Road I’m Exporing Taking

Here I am, 71-years-old and still the same old human doing, still working, still volunteering, still trying to keep the pace of a 50 year old. I think I might want to stop all my activity and move nearer my son and his family in Port Angeles, WA. "I sold Villa Redondo, packed my earthly belongings and Cookie and I are renting a room in a house near Lake Dawn while I decide what to do next. And then--and then." 

In my teaching over the years, I have seen remarkable breakthroughs for some people, particularly in the Road Not Taken option. Many people continue to carry regret about people, situations and circumstances they chose not to follow. Just writing about it, reading it aloud to yourself, tape recording it, or reading it to another person can make all the difference in the richness of life.

If you have questions, e-mail me and I'll try to explain things more clearly. 

 

 

When a Crocheted Bedspread Has a Story to Tell

As most of you know who read here regularly, I am a garage sale/estate sale/thrift shop aficionado. On most weekends I spend a few hours going to the sales—predominately looking for ephemera for my art projects these days. That wasn’t the case in earlier years. I did not go to these places during my 25 years of marriage and child rearing, or at least rarely. After my divorce, however, my lifestyle changed greatly; I was moving into my new digs and couldn’t afford new stuff. Finding used stuff became both a necessity if I wanted to change my living environment and something I found that helped me get my post-divorce sanity back. All of us are consumers on some level; it’s just that I get my jollies from used stuff versus Nordstroms, Macys, Pottery Barn et al. I am also fortunate to have a few antique furniture pieces and accessories passed down in the family. I do have my original Danish modern bedroom dressers and they are very dated. For some reason, I have never been able to replace them, however.

One of the games I play with pieces that have real significance to me is that I make up stories about who owned them before. New stuff has stories, too, but old stuff has many layers of the previous owners. Sometimes the seller will tell me a story about the piece but most often they don’t.

This is my bedroom. The cedar chest at the end of the bed was my maternal grandmothers and it is very precious to me. It is filled with family treasures. On top of it are two versions of the Christian bible and A Course in Miracles. Two sachets my daughter-in-law Gretchen are on top of a very old, and truly exquisite wooden box given to me by a friend when her own grandmother died. The small box on the cedar chest is a gift from a friend who brought it back to me from the Holy Land.

The two bedside tables have “found” treasures, too, including a replica of the Kewpie doll I had as a child, and one has a homemade lace cover made by an aunt. My five-year diary (I’m just entering the 11^th year of keeping one) sits on my bedside table with the pens I use for my written journal. The book I am currently reading is at my left and the books coming up are on the right. When married, I would never have had a lace and netting canopy; it wasn’t appropriate. As a woman alone who revels in frou-frou feminine in the bedroom (not in the rest of the house or in my clothing), I love my canopy. Tucked inside the flowers over my head is a dream catcher given to me by my late friend Donna many years ago. The angel vase is a garage sale find. Cookie sleeps on the carpet between the wall and the bed. 

Now, the bed. The bed itself came from an ad in the Penny Saver a few years back and that my former son-in-law Lorenzo and grandson Anthony hauled home for me. The down comforter you can’t see as well as the navy blue down bedspread are from estate sales. The maroon velvet angel pillow was purchased from a local antique mall. A new addition is the crocheted bedspread on the top I bought at a moving sale this past weekend and whose story I am about to write for another post. The seller and his wife are moving into assisted living in Seattle to be near their daughter and they bought two of these bedspreads at a garage sale themselves many years ago. Gregarious by nature, I always enjoy talking to the sellers if they are so inclined because most of them love to tell their stories about the stuff they are usually reluctantly getting rid of. 

For some reason I cannot explain, this crocheted piece has mystical energy in it for me. I would like to think it is hand-made, but perhaps it's machine-made. It doesn't matter to me. I haven't even removed a few spots it bears so far; they will be in my story. My spiritual director Betsy Caprio is a quilt maker and collector who has used her own collection of quilts she used for quilt retreats. There is one point in a retreat where we choose a quilt and take it to a quiet corner to “experience.” I like to wrap myself in the quilt. What enevitably happens is that the quilt’s maker and owners reveal themselves and then Betsy suggests the quilt’s story from our point of view be written in a journal.I will wrap myself in this crocheted coverlet one day soon and let it speak. One of the owners will be Grace; I do know that already. 

Have you ever tried an exercise like this? What possessions do you have that are story-laden? Tell me about one item you own that calls to you personally. 

Portrait of a Girl in Blue

When I was visiting in Portland, Vicki shared several photos of her art work and photos she has taken when she was out and about. This is actually a real girl, the daughter of someone she knows.

I find her stunningly beautiful in a Goth way and I definitely want to work her image into a collage. But more than that, I want to do a freewrite in my journal about this image. She seems Goddess-like to me. 

In those eyes are the wisdom of the world; she seems the epitomy of an exotic maiden. There is also a lost part. 

Ah, it's amazing to me how some photos make me want to write, write, and write some more.

What does she evoke in you?