"Life runs by so that your spirit can stay calmly in one spot."
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
It has been way too long since I've been here, and done this. I have no excuses. I have many recipes and thoughts that I have wanted to share, but for some reason sitting down and writing hasn't been something I've been doing. I even considered not writing, but I have come to the realization that this site is more for me than for anyone else. And because of that, isn't it more important for me to do it?!
Which brings me to today's thoughts. I'm always trying to get back into writing Morning Pages from The Artists Way. I've written about Morning Pages and The Artist's Way before. As Julia Cameron writes on her website: Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages-- they are not high art. They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind-- and they are for your eyes only.
I'll be the first to say that I don't do my Morning Pages every day. Nor do I always do three pages. But I will say that I find the act of doing the work very therapeutic. It helps stretch my mind, my thoughts and gets me thinking outside of the box, as they say.
I find that two books help me open up my mind philosophically and give me ideas to meditate and write about. The first is "365 Tao, Daily Meditations" by Deng Ming-Dao. I was reminded about this book from an old elementary school friend that I've recently been in touch with on Facebook. Soon after we found each other, she wrote a quote from this book, and I remembered that I had the book as well, somewhere. After searching high and low, I found it along with a book that I bought close-out some years ago and promptly forgot about called "The Celestial Fortune Cookie" by Andrea Valeria, which is an Astrological Book of Days with Quotations for Every Sign.
One of the quotations for today from the Celestial Fortune Cookie was the quote at the top: "Life runs by so that your spirit can stay calmly in one spot." - Anonymous. This quotation really interested me this morning because I definitely need to learn to stay calmly in one spot! I sometime wonder if I have a borderline ADD personality because I find it hard to sit still and only do one thing. Lately I feel as though I am trying to chase after all of my dreams, all of the time. And the worst part is that unfortunately it seems as though I'm only chasing them in my head.
It's as though all I'm doing is treading water. I have all of these ideas, some good - some not. Ideas for my novel, ideas for this blog, crafts and art projects... but I can't seem to bring any of them to fruition.
Perhaps I need to concentrate on sitting still and letting life run by.
Happy New Year, welcome back, and whatever you write, whenever you write it, is right and good. We are surrounded by images and exhortations to multitask, but all that gets (most of) us is a bunch of things done half-heartedly...
ReplyDeleteSomeone once encouraged me to take a look at my list of "too many things" and to CHOOSE ONE THING and allow all the rest of the things on the list to wait a while.
Sometimes we just want permission from someone outside of our own head to allow ourselves to get off the treadmill of self-defeating thoughts and just calm down and Do One Thing... if you want it: I give you permission.
Thanks for the reminder that Morning Pages are good (I forgot!).
all the best from Trixie and her pal Dustin
Thank you so much Trixie. I feel as though I know you - or perhaps that I should know you! I hope that you are having some luck choosing that One Thing as well!
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