Focused on the Small Sounds

Hermann Hesse observed that “whoever has learned how to listen to trees…wants to be nothing except what he is.”

Changed by Their Sounds

Aspens, The Small Sounds of Whispering Trees

My childhood was punctuated with careful, attentive listening. No, not every day, but when I turned off my attention to common, familiar sounds around me and focused on the small, seemingly insignificant notes, different kinds of music were heard. One day walking thistles in our cornfield with my grandfather Nanny he told me to stop and listen. Nothing was heard at first but soon a soft clapping crescendo like raccoons playing tiny cymbals enveloped me. In a hushed voice, Nanny said it was the sound of corn growing–growing fast.

At first I didn’t believe it. But standing amidst rows of six foot green giants the rhythm of tiny twigs being snapped was undeniable and inviting. My face tightened and then opened like I was possessed for a while. Heat radiating from the lofty stalks drew me closer into their circle brushing against me. It made me want to climb hills and shout like when a new friend touches your hands.

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The Muscles of the Imagination

Imagination will carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.”  -Carl Sagan

The Imagination
In the worlds of our imagination, anything is possible. Maybe that is why in January, when the days are cloudy and cold, and the spirit begins to droop a bit, gardening catalogs are so popular. We flip through the pages and dream crocuses bursting through the snow. We imagine ourselves raking away the dead of winter, planting banks of petunias, chrysanthemums. And as we do this, something in us lifts and makes the day a brighter one.  Perhaps we go on to order seeds and bedding plants, so that when warm weather comes, what we envisioned in January comes into fruition.

Artist’s Dates
“Your imagination is a preview of life’s coming attractions,” Einstein said. Pascal goes on to say that “imagination decides everything.” So it’s important, that we do what we can to take time to dream, flex the muscles of the imagination. Children are masters of this—playing games of “pretend,” imagining all sorts of wonders. But as adults, we often get out of the habit. We are intent on getting through the problems and challenges of the day. We are focused on our goals. And if this goes on too long without allowing in new dreams, we begin to go a bit stale

Julia Cameron proposes we take “Artist’s Dates”—trips to movies, museums, Asian food markets—anything out of the ordinary that will trigger that exceptional something we all have in our minds. We see a movie and while we are taken in by the primary plotline, something strikes us. Let’s say it’s about a minor character, a character who is in a scene for only a moment—but someone who intrigues us. We start dreaming a backstory for them, maybe developing a new story idea that we can’t wait to begin writing. We visit a fabric store and take in the wonderful hues of purple—and imagine a painting we could paint featuring that array of colors.

Time for Dreaming
Another thing Julia Cameron proposes is that we schedule time for dreaming. “It takes practice to expand our imagination and inhabit a larger life,” she says. And she believes in sitting down with paper and pen to do so. One of the exercises she proposes is to complete the phrase “In the best of all possible worlds, I would__________.” or “If I didn’t have to do it perfectly, I’d __________.

In all of us, there are seeds of ideas that we are not even aware of. That we haven’t allowed to come out into the open. Maybe we have the idea of a beautiful garden,  a dream to run a 5K, or to write a series of short stories. Napoleon Hill said that “what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” So let’s conceive some wonderful things.—Lucy Adkins

Writing Exercise:
Let’s try a Julia Cameron exercise to expand our imaginations.

Get a cup of your beverage of choice, put on some soothing music, and number a page in your notebook from 1 to 10.

After each number, write the phrase “In the best of all possible worlds, I would___________” and complete it with what you would love to do or bring into being. Have a little fun with this, allow yourself to dream whatever crazy thing comes to mind. Enjoy.

For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.

Or follow this link to purchase Writing in Community or our latest book, The Fire Inside.

 

 

Extraordinary! Creative Peak Experience

Peak experience in nature

The morning poet William Stafford died, he drafted a poem containing these lines: You can’t tell when strange things with meaning will happen.  I’m (still) here writing it down just the way it was .“You don’t have to prove anything,” my mother said. “Just be ready for what God sends.” I listened and put my hand into the sun again. It was all easy.”

Watching the horizon
Out of the far sky, sounds like frogs’ croaking and braying from donkeys pervade the air, dark spots flying a moving amoeba. The black birds, I learned later anhingas, circle the Shumard oak trees floating a while on tropical air currents before coasting to nearby branches.

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Wild Passions

Always I have loved gardens and gardening, but about 15 years ago after moving into a new house (new to me, anyway) and acquiring a yardful of plants and flowers, I suddenly became obsessed with all things relating to flowers–perennials, in particular. It became for me my wild passion. I checked out books from the library—Perennial All Stars and Perennial Combinations (two I remember), and pored through the pages. I loved everything about those books. I liked the pictures, of course, the descriptions of the various plants, and I especially liked their names.

There was the elegant Lady’s Mantle, the exotic Siberian Iris and Golden Hakone Grass. There was Purple Toadflax—what was that?  Silver Wormwood and Bear’s Breech? It was almost as if there were years and years of ancient lore underlying each plant, and I wanted to learn about them all. I indulged myself in those books, and then in as many plants as would thrive in the twenty by forty patch of soil under my care.

It’s wonderful when these “wild passions” make their appearances, making each day a little more exciting, each new encounter adding wonder and meaning and fulfillment to our lives. Of course there are romantic passions. And relationships with family and friends.  But if we are lucky, we will experience all sorts of grand passions. Like a passion for learning, for music, perhaps, or for gardening. The more we have, the better. I think that’s how we were meant to live: like children finding delight in each new thing, like lovers wild for what we love.

From time to time, I’ve had flings with crewel embroidery, ceramics, and macramé—remember macramé? Those passions came and went.  Others have been more enduring. I love the work of poet, Mary Oliver, and have bought every book of hers I could lay my hands on. The same with Linda Pastan, Kim Addonizio, and Dorrianne Laux. Also Joyce Sutphen. A new discovery for me is poet George Bilgere, and I highly recommend his book, The Good Kiss. And I greatly admire the novelists Alice Hoffman and Chris Bohjalian. There are many more, of course, and  more out there I haven’t discovered yet. The thought of that send chills down my spine!

And now we come to that other great love affair you might be experiencing—that with creativity, in whatever form it takes. “Passion is energy,” Oprah Winfrey said. “Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” Let that passion burn. Embrace it, take that passion to a beautiful place, and make it yours forever. It’s a wonderful way to be alive.

What about you? What are some of your great passions?
–Lucy Adkins (Note: This appeared in a slightly different version in The Fire Inside by Lucy Adkins and Becky Breed)

 

Writing Exercise:

  1. Read the Poem “Night Fishing” by Peter Sears.
  2. Make a list of some of the human emotions/conditions…like loneliness, happiness, a feeling of self-satisfaction. You can think of more.
  3. Make a list of some of the activities you do…like fishing, mowing the lawn, making a pie, and so on.
  4. Choose one of the human emotions/conditions, and pair it with an activity.
  5. Write, beginning with a first line that makes a comparison between the human emotion or condition and the activity.

You might be surprised at what happens!

For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.

Or follow this link to purchase Writing in Community or our latest book, The Fire Inside.

 

 

 

Living Among the Glories

We are what we eat, the old saying goes, and this is true, in that what we feed our bodies affects who we become as physical beings. Similarly, who we become spiritually and emotionally is influenced by what we feed our souls. As does nature.

As a people, we evolved living in nature. We wandered the plains, tended plants and animals that shared the world with us, woke to majestic sunrises and watched in awe as the heavenly bodies crossed the skies. How did this all come to pass, we wondered. We flourished, breathing deep of the rhythms of the earth.

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Want to Consider Collaboration?

Ever think about collaborating with another writer or artist on a creative project? Wonder how it works? Bryan Collins, host of the “Become a Writer Today” Podcast recently interviewed Becky and me about our collaboration on our two books, Writing in Community and The Fire Inside. We had an intriguing conversation which provided an opportunity for us to think more about collaboration, how it worked successfully for us, and how a collaborative partner can help you to accomplish more–and better!

You may want to know:
How does the collaborative process work?
What are the advantages?
How do you find a collaborative partner?

You can listen to the interview (or view the transcript of it) here.

For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.

Or follow this link to purchase our latest book, The Fire Inside.

Grace Falls Upon Us

“The joy…comes, rather, from the unexpected grace of allowing such an unremarkable event to fill the soul with such remarkable delight.”—Maria Popova

Grace Falls Upon Us

Reaching into me, grace finds a smallness, grows with water and sun, kindness and attention. Sometimes found in the unlikeliest places, grace nurtures the seed of possibility bestowing hope, rekindling energy. The world tilts a bit when it’s extended—as if a surprise of flowers arrived at your front door. You breathe in, and the air around smells pure and fresh. When grace falls upon us, we feel we have lifts in our shoes.

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Listen to a Sample of our Audiobook!

The Fire Inside

The Fire Inside is now available as an audiobook, and you can listen to a sample by clicking on the arrow below. (We think our reader/narrator, Melissa Melottey, is great!) You may purchase through Apple itunes https://apple.co/3BprtCe or Audible https://adbl.co/3iDEPCq. Note that if you are new to Audible, there’s an option to listen free. Take a listen!

The World of the Imagination and “Making it So”

Making it So!

Make It So

Remember Jean Luc Picard, Starfleet Captain in Star Trek? When he and his officers hit upon a solution to get themselves out of a sticky situation—by going to warp speed, say, or activating the deflector shield to evade a hostile force—he instructed his crew to “make it so.” And it would be done. I love that. Determining a course of action and following through. Making it so.

Much of what we do in this life is based upon the decisions we make. Generally speaking, if we decide to pursue a particular dream, if we believe in it strongly enough and dedicate ourselves to shepherding it to fruition, that dream will come into being. Perhaps you want desperately to achieve a college education. What do you do? Study hard in high school, complete college applications and line up loans and scholarships. Or perhaps you want to write a novel. You go to work—preparing an outline, blocking out periods of time to write, and paragraph by paragraph, you write the book. You “make it so.”

Decision by decision, we create our lives—committing to relationships, buying condominiums, going on vacations to Hawaii or the mountains. We learn to play the guitar or the piano, create Japanese gardens or meditation gardens, convert basement rooms into art studios. Roadblocks appear, circumstances may necessitate we alter out plans somewhat, but when we act on our passions, we can create lives which are rich and full, lives full of meaning.

From time to time, however, we may find ourselves feeling a bit stale. Still, as Rousseau said, “The world of reality has its limits; the world of the imagination is boundless.” Maybe it’s time to stretch the imagination, look for ways to further complete our lives. One way we can do this is to set aside time to dream. Get your notebook, number from one to ten, and complete the following phrase: “If all the forces of the universe were with me and the odds were good that I would be successful, I would…”  How would you complete the phrase? Maybe you would:

  • complete a number of paintings and display them in a local art gallery
  • start a series of poems about your garden and the natural world
  • add a new sitting area to the first floor of the house.

Let your imagination go and jot down as many dreams as you can. Gloria Steinem said that “Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” So let’s dream, and allow more possibility into our lives. And then, let’s make it so.

For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.

Or follow this link to purchase our latest book, The Fire Inside.

A Cat Looks at Inspiration

“It you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh

Have you ever felt like a cat who looks like she’s sleeping on the sunny windowsill, but she’s really listening to every sound, every movement? Well, that’s been me for the past six weeks. I feel a need to hang out a bit, store up energy, sleep, and maybe hibernate a little. Some days I can’t get enough of it, sleep that is. Seeing the sun first thing in the morning—who needs it, except to curl up in?  And some nights I am ready to go to bed at 9:00, but push myself to stay awake until 10:00. Maybe these urges are less about hibernation and more about self-preservation. The state of somnolence can teach us a lot: we learn from our dreams, especially the recurring ones. I’m paying close attention to what my dreams are telling me—because I need some inspiration.

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