Sunday, December 25, 2011

A Few Thoughts For Today

I know this is a big holiday for many people. For me, this is one holiday near the middle of the season with a concentration on holidays. Not that I celebrate them all - I don't. But I understand the importance of the time for reflection, for looking ahead, for setting aside time for family and friend, faith and community; for being present.

And so - wishing everyone the best of this season of noticing, no matter which flavor of holiday you celebrate.

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"A man's life is nothing but an extended trek through the detours of art to recapture those one or two moments when his heart first opened." by Albert Camus

~ not to be picky, but I was going to make it gender neutral, but that's not what he said .. but we know this applies to women, too ~

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In the Jan/Feb 2012 Poets & Writers, Arnie Cooper quotes from Milan Kundera' book, "Slowness" : "Speed is the form of ecstasy the technological revolution has bestowed on man.". ~ again, with the "man" thing ~

Cooper adds that "...our addiction to speed ... disconnects us from our true selves."

The title of his article is "In This Moment - Slowing Down to Open Up the Writer's Mind."

I like his analogy of calligraphy, by hand or by computer. Slowing down. Being present. Making time and space for creativity to happen.

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In P&W (same issue as above) there is an exercise in the bottom left corner on pg 58. This is from their online poetry and prose prompts, which can be found at www.pw.org/writing-prompts-exercises.

This one is ... The Time Is Now ... instructions for writing a collaborative poem with a friend. (I think this is similar to what a friend, Rooze, has done a couple of times on Facebook.)

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Take some time today to Be in your life. Let life in and experience creativity.

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