IN A CREATIVE WAY

Each year I do a collage journal.  I've read, "Do more of what you liked as a child."  Well, I liked cutting and pasting.  And glitter and warm words and inspirational quotes and writing and coloring and lace and creating.  It all comes together in my collage journal.  So easy.  So calming.  Definitely a flow-state.  We all have these, flow states, where we are satisfyingly present and engaged.  Here are some of the special words I've included in the past months, from all kinds of sources including my own heart.  I hope they resonate.  

Learning to do and think less is an important skill.

What dark did you conquer in your story?

"I had the sense that the deeper meaning of the story was in the gaps." Edith Wharton

Enjoy being alone.

Getting lost in a good book is one of life's great pleasures. 

Love stretches your heart and makes you big inside. 

"It's no use going back to yesterday because I was a different person then."  Alice, Lewis Carroll 

Go outside.  It always helps.

The sun and moon rise and set every day.  Don't miss so many of them.

When nobody's home but you, that's your time. 

"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." Vincent Van Gogh

You'll find many beautiful wintry sights at dawn, dusk and dark.

Always protect yourself from despair or indifference.  Help others do the same. 

"Hope is a thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."   Emily Dickinson

A wounded heart can still sing.  Mine does.

Spend time close to home with the simple pleasures that make up your life.

One thing we can hope for is that the Lord will enter our minds and hearts and help us bear the sinful world in which we live. 

"Do anything but let it produce joy." Walt Whitman

Just keep on going; look ahead to see the blessing around the bend. 

"No need to hurry.  No need to sparkle.  No need to be anybody but oneself."   Virginia Woolf

There are decisions I may not have made if I hadn't taken sadness as a warning.  

The act of documenting my life in a creative way has improved my life. 

DO LESS, THINK BETTER

A Coming Storm, North Carolina Coast 

There's a lot going on in the world that isn't good.  I don't need to name it.  Follow the news, open your inbox, talk to your children, read your own heart.  

So, we look for ways to foster our wellbeing.  I used to think that sounded too new age, or impractical.  With kids and parents and work, who has the time?  And many don't. 

But remember as a child lying on the floor looking at the ceiling?  Or on the ground looking at the clouds?  When my schoolwork was done, I used to put on a record, stretch out and daydream until I was called for the next chore (lay the table, sweep up the dog hair, feed the bird).  In those days busy held no status; we didn't feel guilty for--if we could--letting our minds wander.  That's when we got our ideas.  

Many experts say that's still true:  do less and think better (note:  better not more).  They make pausing and contemplation a path to wellbeing.  There seem to be lots of ways to turn down the noise and give our minds a chance to wander.  We know that moving our bodies helps to clear our minds, especially activities we do outside in nature. I gather brush.  That's about as nothing as you can get.  My dad asked me, "What do you think about when you're clearing brush?"  "I think about clearing brush," I answered.   

Noticing ordinary things, rather than those that arouse strong emotions, helps to focus an overthinking mind.  Noticing little things can deepen our perception and clear our head.  So can enjoying pockets of silence. Our minds respond to stimuli, and while we might be uncomfortable in silent spaces, think about how hard it is to have a fruitful conversation with a friend in a noisy place.  We must find silent places to hear our friends' serious news or share our own. We cannot thrive without silence.  

Finally, apparently, everyone has intrusive thoughts (not just me).  A way to calm these is to notice and label them:  "this is my thought about when I felt alone and not valued. That time is over.  I survived it."  I can vouch for this:  after they are labelled, intrusive thoughts start to disappear.  Isn't that nice? 

Calm Waters, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

IT'S ALL GOOD

There's nothing to eat.  But wait.  I'm good at creating meals from tidbits.  I have a potato and some left-over chicken.  With a spoonful of raisins and nuts and a bit of veg, I can make a curry sauce.  Or eggs.  There's always eggs.  Or pancakes, even better.  

The whole house is dirty.  But I love this house.  It's bright and open.  A swiffer, Endust, Windex, a mop and vacuum won't take long at all.  The clean floors will feel smooth under my bare feet.  The glass will shine.  Everything will smell lemony.  I'll get some bending in, and it won't cost me a dime.  I'll put on music--good idea. 

My dog needs a bath.  Mr. Wiggles can't help being stinky sometimes.  And he's such a sweet boy.  A bath only takes 10 minutes, and he knows I do it with love. Then he'll be soft and fragrant and nicer to pet. 

What happened to the laughter that filled the house?  It's true, most days are the two of us.  Well, three if you count you-know-who.  But calm has replaced hectic.  Low stress has replaced rushed.  And let's tell the truth:  freedom has replaced responsibility.  All stages of life are precious, this one no less than the parenting stage.  Two can also fill a home with love, quite nicely.  It's not routine, it's practiced.  And honestly, there's still a lot of laughter. 

I'm growing old.  Yet my days are longer not shorter.  With less to do, they lengthen; more time to savor.  I must remember that.  The years might fly, but not the days.  Plus, I am so lucky to have earned and saved enough to retire.  My losses have not overwhelmed me.  God is with me every day; when I sit still and write this, I can feel God's presence.  As we grow older other things diminish, but not our faith.  Prayers are more intentional.  No more "Now I lay me . . . " * without a thought that in fact I might die before I wake.  There's no greater gift than long life. 

 Nina Naomi

*"Now I lay me down to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." 

KNOW THE EARTH AS POETRY

Reflections, Bok Tower, Florida

The other day my granddaughter said, "I think being a follower is underrated."  "So is being an introvert," I replied.  So, two generations apart, something we could agree on.  Although we agree on many things, actually.  If you have a granddaughter you know, treasures beyond compare.  

Some of us don't want to be tough alpha leaders.  I read this somewhere:  "Some of us just want to write and wander the garden and breathe in the sky and nourish and nurture and quietly create new pathways and live our lives as our art.  To know the earth as poetry."  I know women like this, a few; well, more women than men.  

This would have been a pipedream for me when I was practicing law.  You don't win a case for someone wandering the garden.  (Although quietly creating new pathways is a fearsome legal strategy.)  But now, now it suits me.  Maybe you too.  Maybe on your free days you write or wander your garden and live a creative life.  Maybe you even make a living that way. 

Paulo Coehlo (b. 1947, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), author of The Alchemist, wrote, "Don't allow your mind to tell your heart what to do."  I would add as well, listen to your body over your mind.  So many times, our bodies know what is best.  When to forgive, when to move on, when to accept, how to love. . . these are all body-driven, aren't they?   

"So, what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, you just think about adding additional good things.  One at a time.  Just let your pile of good things grow."  Again, I don't know who said this.  But we were traveling recently, and I felt like my pile of good things was growing.  We were in Florida.  One day we saw a lighthouse.  

Fernandina Beach, Florida

Do you also feel like a lighthouse is something special?  There are so few remaining.  The job of a lighthouse was to warn and protect.  They were sentinels.  Doers of good.  Seafarers trusted them.  Now they are symbols. 

Another day, breathing in the sky, we saw hundreds of manatees sheltering in the 72° central Florida springs from the colder Gulf and ocean waters.   

Blue Spring State Park, Florida

Yet another day, we saw the sun set over the lake at Mount Dora.  A quotation from Paulo Coehlo came to me again:  "the secret to immortality is this:  let yourself be reborn every day, every moment, even." 

Sunset at Mt. Dora, Florida

So, yes, let's "wander the garden and breathe in the sky and nourish and nurture and quietly create new pathways and live our lives as our art."  Let's "know the earth as poetry."  Let's be introverts if we want, or followers and creators, travelers and seekers, reborning each day to each day's beauty.  Alive to sunsets and sunrises, manatees and moons, stars and snowflakes . . . .

Adding additional good things one at a time.  

                                                                    

THE DAY SUPRISING MILD

Hellebores, the Lenten Rose

Window cracked, sky a shadow, 

Moon just out not dark enough to glow.

I'll shut the window soon,

The day surprising mild.

I see jonquils, pushing through and crocus, a few, confused in purple bloom. 

My heavy Lenten roses bending pink, pale green and white, 

More clustered this year than last, next year than this. 

Their fingers spread beneath the soil.

"We know it isn't Spring," they say, 

"But hope is ours to share like broadcast news.  

Come, forsythia.  Let's fling our spectrum wide." 

The leaves are legion, ground still covered, deepening mid-winter damp.

The sky grows darker as I write.

That's always true at 79, which gratefully I am.

The sky grows darker as I write.