I am trying something new. And no, my computer was not hijacked. I really am going to try something new. Well, newish. Ok, something old, but that I haven't done in a while so that kinda makes it kinda new. Sort of. Ok, you were right.
I like to write. When I was in the 7th grade I started a journal. Her name was Jenny and we talked every day. Sometimes 2 or 3 times a day until I got married. I guess after Hunky Hubby moved in, I had a somewhat captive audience and no longer felt the need to write so often. I think I missed it. I know I did. I kept a journal still, but it was consigned to the unimaginative function of "keeping records." You know, marriages, births, deaths and the milestones of life that, while we want to remember them and pass the information on to posterity, is at best a dry catalog of cold hard facts. I gave up the imaginative part.
This blog has been an experiment in getting back to that part that I let slip away. A way of reclaiming that creative power that came so easily as a young, spirited girl with things to say and ideas to express...even if only to herself and her notebook named Jenny. Wondering where the "try something new" part is? Well, I find that while the blog has restored some of that creative space, it does not go far enough. I try too hard. Try to hard to find the right word. I often rearrange a sentence two or three times before I am satisfied with it. This is due to the ease of use of computer technology. There is no delete key with a pen and notepad. So back then, I just wrote. Freely. Uninhibited by the fact that someone might read it or that the grammar may not be "just so." Or spelling. Or punctuation. You get the idea.
I have been reading Brenda Ueland's
If You Want To Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit and becoming inspired again to write just for the sake of writing. Without spell check, without reservation and almost without purpose, except to write. Allowing imagination and inspiration to reign. It will never be read or published or remembered. But it will be created. Each of us is meant to be amazing in our own special way. To create, to wonder, to dream and to do. We all have creative power. It comes in so many forms that I could not begin to list them here. We have more talents than we probably even know. But it takes quiet and solitude and daydreaming to unleash them. We get so hurried and busy that we do not take time to just
be.
There you have it. My something new is to just Let. It. Be. (Thank you Mr. McCartney). I will write or paint or draw. I will cook, walk, listen, read, sit, dream, create or just be, everyday without inhibition. Giving that most intimate part of ourselves over to the world to perhaps be criticized or ridiculed is scary beyond all scary. I know. That is why I spell check and rearrange sentences. But there comes a point when we must let go and just put ourselves out there. To say to the world and ourselves, "I created this. I made something out of nothing but imagination and the Spirit that is in me. And it is therefore real and true and beautiful."
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| My little man, Ethan. He is a pro at being. |
Quote of the Day: "
I learned... that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.”--Brenda Ueland
So, Friday, I am making dinner, and I go out to the garden to dig up some potatoes, and voila! I had a little 'lightbulb moment' of gratitude. I was amazed at the beauty and miracle 
