Hurry and scurry!

"The ability to appreciate beauty is a gift from God."

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I like the quote above, because it so perfectly balances another quote, from the Quaker author, Richard Foster: "Noise, hurry, and crowds are of the devil."

What do you find most helps you to slow down and appreciate beauty and peace?

Sitting quietly outside and just gazing at my yard, then the trees in the near distance, and finally the mtns and the sky in the far distance--that helps me to slow down and to think, to think slowly, widely, and deeply. I sit, quietly, enjoying the chirping and twittering of the various birds. When a huge, black raven swoops low with a surprisingly loud "whooosshh" and its guttural croak...I laugh at my startle-reflex! When I think of the breadth of all creation, it takes me far from me, my stuff, my concerns, and lifts up my heart/mind/spirit.

Do you have trouble slowing down? Trouble sitting quietly, without earbuds, without smartphone at hand? Without TV blathering in the background? What'll it take for you to make some moments for calmness, for quietness, for simply sitting still? Eh? No ideas come to mind? Well, have a little chat about this with someone...or just with yourself. Seriously, if you don't make/take/borrow/schedule or steal time for you--well, just who are you expecting to step in and do that for you?

"But, that's selfish!"
"No, that's taking care of yourself, so you've got some resources to draw on. Then and only then will you have something to give back to others."

It is often said that a good writer is a good reader, studying both the craftsmanship (or lack thereof) and creativity of other authors. But, I would add that the good writer also takes time for quietness, time for the spirit and the imagination to pal around and see what they may turn up!

Interesting, that hurry and scurry not only rhyme with, but add to, worry. Wondering what to do with your worries, as well as your hurries and scurries? For me, being involved in something bigger than me, outside of me...such as writing, such as faith...something that I need to invest creativity and heart and mind in...that helps a lot!

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PPS: old blog posts can be accessed via the monthly archives listed in the column on right, scrolling down a tad.

 

PPPS: Peace!

Sin, Society, Writing, and Worship.

     Some days, you start something and end up with something entirely different; you've tugged on a thread and it led to all manner of discoveries, both good and bad! Thus with today's posting: I started out to write about the meditation I just did on temptation, but that instantly brought to mind a book I just read.
     Stuart Woods has a series of books about Stone Barrington: lawyer and Lothario. I am just amazed at the number of women bedded by this urbane character with nary a hint that multiple liaisons take something precious, high and holy, and turn it into a shallow toy (...to say nothing of being medically risky, says the doctor in me!)
     Gack! How politically incorrect of me! How old-fashioned! How judgmental! How now, brown cow?
     Interesting that our culture now defends behaviors that have always been wrong in the all-seeing eyes of the timeless LORD. Standing up for "traditional morality," that is, for God's teachings, is now at best fuddy-duddy folly, and usually "hating."
     Our culture, as reflected in popular literature (and music), has turned its back on a moral code and on the Author thereof. Granted, we need literature that is deeper than Pollyanna, more intriguing that the heavy-handed allegory that is PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, and more readable than Charles Dickens. But, most pop literature, as with pop cinema and TV and music and art, panders to the baser desires of humankind. In short--we read and watch rather trashy entertainment that would likely have been deplored, scorned, and banned by our grandparents. Think about it--how many things a week do we do that we'd be ashamed if observed by our mother/grandmother/great-aunt? Hmmm?
      Okay, enough sermonizing. I pledge to be uplifting, to leave off whining/moaning about pop culture, and to feast on the riches of truly great books and art and cinema--it's out there, and if we all stop buying/watching/listening to the trashy stuff...perhaps not only will we change ourselves but our culture as well. Whattaya think?

PS: don't care for my beliefs or value system? I'm receptive to friendly discussion. But if all you want to do is rant, write your own blog, pls.

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If it's good enuff for Peppermint Patty...

In "Peanuts," Peppermint Patty struggled greatly at school. In one cartoon, she cries, "I know the answer! The answer lies within the heart of all mankind!"

(Next frame)

"The answer is 12? I think I'm in the wrong building!"

......

The successful writer often is found in the wrong building, due to thinking just like Peppy Patty's.

Really.

Perhaps there is not only more than one building--there's more than one right answer, perhaps there's a whole parallel universe where there are different questions...and it's my job as a writer to make this alternate universe pop off the page and swell up to life-sized video/audio/feel-a-vision and smell-a-vision...oh, heck, tasty-vision, too! YUM!

Remember the last book you just lost yourself to? For me, re-reading the HOBBIT was just that--3-D touchy-feely-dreamy-ahhhhhness! Or, the novel so full of suspense or action that you just couldn't set it aside? I just read a coupla James Patterson's where it was hard to put the book down in order to get to bed by midnight. Successful author, he creates an answer that may not be in the heart of all mankind, but it resonates for plenty of us!

Let's think outside the box, outside the building, outside of ourselves...I wonder what it may lead us to?


PS: other blog posts are archived...scroll down and click on one of the months to see my older posts.

Dreaming.

"Life is the soil
   our choice and actions the sun and rain
but our dreams are the seeds."
   --[Uttered by someone more dreamy than moi!]

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   Dream-seeds. I thought those were what I remember to scrape out of the corners of my eyes right after lunch!
   Dream seeds. Actually, arising from several inches behind the eyes, in that wonderfully creative cerebrum! Some dreams arise from sleep, some from "daydreams," and some from consciously picking a goal that may feel dreamy in its lack of clarity or its unattainability--then choosing to make it clear and defining the steps that'll make the dream attainable.
   Dream seeds. Too often, they remain unplanted, or unwatered/cultivated/weeded...pick your point along the continuum of

1            2            3            4            5            6            7            8            9            10

too-comfy   unfocused  willing-to-plan   getting-started  blood-sweat-tears
       no-energy                              this-is-hard      moments-of-satisfaction  job-well-done!           

As the motivational speaker, Napoleon Hill said, "Patience, Persistence, and Perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success."

Writing, based on dreams...that's been cutesy/trendy in the past...but it only works if you take your idea and WORK it. I was just reading another blog about writing--the author claimed to rework, revise, and re-edit not many times, not multiple times, not scores of times, but hunnerds! Call me a skeptic--did he really count? That said, most good stuff is good because it wasn't easy, and the hard work will shine through.

Dream-seeds. Sure, a dream, a conversation, a picture, a vista may be the inspiration that gets any author started. After that, it's called--sitting down to the task and doin' it, kid! Let's go!

Reading, writing, and "The Dark Side."

I'm reading a book I truly dislike. Better yet, I just stopped reading it. I usually can plow through most everything I commence reading--only 2 or 3 books per year achieve this level of demerit...out of 125-135 books read per year!

When an author is so taken by their cunning turn of phrase, by the inclusion of "telling details" that put you right into the "dusty street with only the sound of the dry tumbleweed clunking off the abandoned storefronts," when they fail to develop plot or character--sorry, when I gave you forty pages worth of attention and my only feeling was of the need to recruit all my speed-reading tools...we're done. Really, have you ever met a knight who was never angry but always in "high dudgeon"? Makes one to wonder, what's low dudgeon? And, of course, the knight's armor is always "glinting with brilliance under the low wintry sun just rising over the gloomy ramparts of the evil duke's turreted castle." Pah!

Now, lest you think that this is merely a rant, my intent was to explore the world of writing from the dark side. Or, as I often told my kids, "They are setting you a horrible example--just do exactly the opposite and you'll be in good shape!" I truly learn a lot about writing from works that I consider sub-par. Okay, deplorable! (And, I wonder, WHERE was their editor, and how did such a poorly-written, flowery and vague, typo-ridden book ever meet up with a printing press?)

Characters that you hate, you cannot wait for them to get their just reward--that's a well-limned character. Characters who charm you, whom you hope won't step over that creaking threshold and into the cobwebbed darkness--again, you've bought into the author's world; success! When you get sweaty pits and you cannot put the book down--YES! THAT is the response to good writing, whether it's Dean Koontz, Shakespeare, or whomever. Characters who bore you, playing against other characters who have nothing to love or hate or laugh at, characters who trundle on through a story line that doesn't make you marvel at that last strange twist or wonder what's next...bah!

As Truman Capote is alleged to say of Jack Kerouac, "That's not writing, that's typing."

May our life's work be "writing" rather than "typing"!