Art, Creating and Writing Practice

WARNING: this is a boring writing practice

We all do art.  Words are art, spoken or written no matter.   If you bring sound from silence, you are creating and you are an artist.  If you coax something out of what is in your mind into art and put it outside of yourself where it is visible, you are an artist!

We are creating all of the time.  I suppose you could say we are creating all kinds of causes and conditions that if they do not manifest today or tomorrow, their seeds are there waiting for that stimulus to awaken whatever those may be.

Now its time for a confession.  This is a writing practice. You see, there’s this thing in me.  Let’s say it’s like in the paragraph above.  There’s something in my mind, heart, spirit that is really seeks written expression.  How, after all, can any of us write unless we write?  We practice all kinds of things in life to get better.  We workout at the gym in order to get stronger.  We walk to stay healthy and such things as this.  Writing is no different.

There are these ideas and thoughts about stories to create — for fun, for maybe inspiration or some kind of education but I’ve got to use this form.  Fingers on the keyboard.  Using a pen and paper makes my hand numb.  Go figure. I’ve tried it but typing; yes, it’s a ‘can-do’!

Many times, nonsense is written and let me apologize if I’m already boring any readers.  There are only a few minutes left to this practice but before I go, let me describe a thing or two.  The overhead daylight bulb in the desk lamp just to my left creates flashes of sparkle from my silver rings as they move on the keys.  One is heart-shaped.   That was my mother’s.  Another ring is a feather-shaped which reminds me to lighten up.  Actually, it reminds me of finding a white feather just at the door threshold of the hospital when I was admitted for gallbladder surgery.  A sign that the angels were watching over me?  I’d like to think so.  And then there’s the bulky butterfly which is my favorite.  Looking beyond the lamp, its dark outside and the day went well. There was no drama trauma and that always rings the gratitude bells of the heart.

It’s snowed today and while nothing stuck (*or laid as they say in the high country), the cold rushed in like an unkind guest when the door was opened.  I had to do this to feed the stray cats just before nightfall.  Such boring stuff, I know.  That’s why I get discouraged by this writing business but all the books about writing say, just do it.  Its a really great slogan Nike! Really is.  Well, there’s the timer.

I came onto this blog to add something and to tidy up a few things so while here, this post happened.  You see, in a moment of weakness, I paid the ransom to get rid of the advertising at the end of the posts and then had got myself in big trouble doing a name change server redirect thing with my hosting service.  A tangled web it was!

Well, beeper just went off; writing practice is over.    Sorry about the big bore.   If only I could be more clever.

I sit and stare up at the light to see what the mind wants to type next to end this, but the only thing that comes to mind is dinner.  It’s getting near 8 PM and my stomach feels betrayed.

I apologize for any run-on sentences or typos or any other writing errors; this was dashed off in a flash.  I usually do my writing practices in a Penzu Journal.

All’s Well That Ends Well

Warning: mostly boring stuff.  This is a journal entry that I started on Facebook and it started to get too long so I finished it here.  I picked up a few documentaries at the video store the other day–one was on hiking Kilimanjaro.  And the other entitled “When we left the earth” about the space program, NASA and the astronauts.  Found both very enjoyable and no problem to ease into watching after leaving the gym today.  The last 10 minutes on the treadmill required mental discipline to get through but even though it’s Friday, I didn’t accept any excuse from the weak mind that kept offering excuses to quit prematurely.

They were giving away free T-shirts so picked up a few for myself, daughter and granddaughter; so soft and a nice little treat.

The last of the pottery Xmas gifts are being fired and tomorrow I will finish one of the last ones.  Hope to go the movies later to see Hunger Games with some of the family and aside from that, just waiting for news about an upcoming move to my own apartment.

This little place which is like a little house of it’s own has a front and back porch for my plants and steps up with a railing–not many; maybe 6 or 7.  The whole apartment area which is more like small little houses is really surrounded by woods and a creek is nearby or so I’m told—its a gem to find a place surrounded by woods here in the city.  Another bonus is that it’s not far from family and even closer to the gym than where I reside now.

Yeah, so I’ve been renting a few movies which help to keep my mind away from wanting to attach … well, you know this saying, right?  My Dad used it all the time, “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched”, he’d say to me.  Evidently, Dad (rest is soul) noticed the tendency toward disappointment in me at an early age.  It’s taken all these many years to finally integrate that message of non-attachment.

The other day I was listening to a Buddhist teacher who said when you begin the path of awareness and mindfulness that you sometimes do a lot of karmic clearing all at once.  This brought a moment of consolation for the difficulties that I’ve experienced integrating here from my hermit lifestyle in the woods.  The Winter Solstice before even considering a move (or having the foggiest hint that I’d be doing so) I remember standing up on the mountain ridge behind my house hanging i-Ching and Buddha coins on a sweet little naturally growing live white pine tree which I assigned as my personal yule tree.  I clearly recall that I asked for more knowledge about Buddhism and “to become more Buddha-like”.  Yep, that could have done it!  LOL  I’m not kidding –really, I’m not.  I was quiet serious about expanding knowledge about Buddhism at the time.  And actually, not long after that (there being no sanghas in those old mountains, I learned about Vajra TV which I considered to be a miracle!)

And now that I’ve left the mountains, I will be happy to be once again in my own little nest.  (I’m sharing an apartment with my sister and niece–add that one to the challenges faced since moving here.)  Anyway, when the move happens (and it will eventually!),  I plan to eat better, cook healthier food.

Mentors Channel posted this on Facebook today; I relate

You know… I look back over my life for the past… well,  since the summer of 2012 (and we’re soon to be in 2015 in a few weeks) and realize even more so now how this “heap-load of intense karmic clearing” could really be a viable or possible truth.

I hope not to have incurred further or additional karma these past few years, but if intention is part of the cause/effect karmic equation for the future, this may ease any future karmic consequence.

One can only hope for the best on a karmic level and to offset that to perform good deeds, so tonglen meditations, and  as they say accrue merit to create good karma to balance.

Anyway, I can correlate so many Buddhist teachings with my experiences over the past 2+ years and while I may have struggled a good deal with reality/life, many realizations have occurred.  And this is one more thing to be grateful for.

My daughters have their apartments all decorated for the holidays now.  I hope for them that they experience that time goes slowly so that they can enjoy their Christmas trees and bright things each day.

In contrast, and as for me as I’ve grow older, it seems that holidays come and go so fast that it’s hardly worth the effort to drag the decorating stuff out before you have to put it back again.  I gave my holiday decorations to my girls for that and various reasons.

I know that I will be releasing even more items/things/stuff, giving more away since the new apartment will be even smaller than the old one that I had here.

Anyway, speaking of releasing, somehow I lost a few pounds recently and this time I hope to keep that going! I think I owe a thank you to the treadmill. 🙂 I am so grateful to be able to go to the gym.  I want to get back into swimming soon too–all these big plans.  LOL

Letting things go…  materially, emotionally and mentally!  And as Shakespeare wrote, “All’s well that ends well” and yet it is still debated if that play was a comedy or tragedy.  Perhaps, like all of our lives, both.

PS– oh, and that apartment house I mentioned… it’s an 11 (numerology).  But then there I go again; you’re right about those chickens Dad.  Yeah, I’m psychic and my intuition tells me things but it’s still better to take Dad’s advice.

Better put in another video.  🙂

What ‘is’: Hold it, Dispel it or Accept It?

Neither hold onto ‘what is’ nor try to get rid of ‘what is’ — Nature, Life, The Cosmos or whatever name you give the divine process will move it, change it, or dissolve it for you.

Yes, alright.  You read about The Secret and The Law of Attraction.  Fine.  Apply the techniques but in the meanwhile…. while you wait for the desired result, then what’s the approach?  That’s what I’m writing about here.

The snow photo above reminds me of states in life that we simply cannot do anything about.  That’s the first snow of the season that came last week in the mountains… which by now (a week later) is melted by a warming trend.   Trend is a good word I think.  Stock markets are associated with this word and so is the weather and in our own life there are energy trends as well which may (or may not) be personal karma or group karma or simply life itself.  Things come and go like thoughts during meditation and like snow that comes and then melts away.

It’s tough not to hold on to thoughts and not to dispel them which is what we are told to do in meditation and thus in life.  Thoughts are trendy–they come and go like the fashion trends do, and like stock market trends and like trends in the weather.

I’m thinking a lot about how when it would snow in the mountains and me living all alone up there and in the midst of a large snow that was coming down fast.  I’d start to feel that bit of panic– What if this keeps up?  Will I be snowed in?  When will it stop? If it keeps snowing at this rate….

I can get caught in that kind of thinking when I’m on the treadmill at the gym.  My goal is to hold a particular pace without stopping for a total of 30 minutes.  If I have one nano-second wherein a thought comes wherein I hold one like, What if I can’t hold this pace for 7 more minutes? This is getting tough!  Inevitably,  I cave-in and have to slow down to recover my breath.

If we could do more of just neither holding onto what arises nor trying to dispel it…. right?  I mean this is our whole practice in life, isn’t it?  We hear it called  ‘accepting what-is’.

It isn’t easy.  But like the snow melting, everything is impermanent and eventually dissolves, goes away, or changes form.  The nature of life itself is that nothing last forever–not the good, the bad or the ugly.

It isn’t easy in the meanwhile to meet whatever arises in our self and in our life spectrum and simply be open to it.  To have the courage and detachment to be open to it to discover what is beyond it or behind it without manipulation or opinion or any thought of anything whatsoever.

And then what happens?  We do it again in the next moment and the one right after that one.  We can have faith that the snow will stop and eventually melt, the 7 minutes will pass on the treadmill without heart failure and whatever trend, whatever contemptuous situation of disdain you are facing right now will eventually change and so will the bubbly blissful business as well.  One thing we can know is that everything changes and nothing stays the same for very long.

And that’s why we should neither try to hold or try to dispel anything that arises.  Just observe and be and above all else, maintain the sense of humor!