Sometimes I like to use acrostics to help the creative process.
When I sit down to write, I
Reflect on my past and
Imagine that I might have been a different person,
That things might have gone differently
If only I had been less
Naive and
Gullible
And yet as soon as I write those words, I
See that I am being too hard on myself and am not…
Doing follows Being.
What does this mean? How do we learn how to be, when we are so programmed to do, do, do?
One of the most effective practices I have been taught is called creative non-doing. Essentially, taking a few moments each day to just be. To be still, silent. Nowhere to go, nothing to do. A pause. A space. An allowance….
I am a writer….
Well, not professionally.
I am a writer….
Not really, I’m a former banker writing a memoir.
I am a writer…
It’s true, I love to write and always have. I’ve written poetry, essays, papers all my life, and now scenes, dialogue and characters.
I am a writer…
A million stars live beneath my eyelids
Dancing in microscopic colors
Joyously erratic
Oblivious to being seen or unseen
Simply alive and
Intent on moving
Your heart knows how to swim:
How to take deep breaths and hold it while you are submerged,
How to flow with the wild, tumultuous surf and not to fight it,
To stay calm and let it carry you to safety….
Imagine having such confidence that we could listen to an alternative point of view without having to interrupt or correct
Imagine having such confidence that we could trust our own assessment of a situation and not wait for someone else’s validation
Imagine having such confidence that we could share our difficult feelings without harming the one causing those feelings
Working with our Ideals to approach our day to day activities is an ongoing practice. One way to apply our Ideals to our questions, opportunities and challenges is to use this three question model, first proposed by Hugh Lynn Cayce.
What have we here?
What does my Ideal have to say about it?
What is one thing I can do?
From isolation to celebration:
Postponed weddings joyfully
Wedged between Delta and Omicron.
Fortunate to have
Family and friends—
Love begets love.
This way forward, say the Wise Ones, beckoning. Love that wounded child and embrace her with compassion, non judgment and forgiveness... that is how you will find your own wisdom and learn to care for the world….
If only I had had an instruction manual,
I might not have tobogganed into that split rail fence on a cold snowy day,
Forgetting to duck and hurting my eyes
If only I had had an instruction manual,
I might not have jumped that fence at dusk on a warm summer evening,
Scaring the dogs and getting bitten…
Sometimes in the night
I am frightened
My old friend
The Monitor
Returns…
