Just Thinking

From "Good Letters": Commonplacing

Ann Conway writes this morning in Image Journal's "Good Letters" blog, on the practice of noticing and collecting the wealth of images around us and making something whole in the process. There's much wisdom here, not just about writing, but also about life.

Here in central Maine, the world has come down to bone. The songbirds are gone and crows, which poet Mary Oliver terms “the deep muscle of the world,” have taken over my street. The landscape seems empty; the ground, a carpet of desiccated leaves.

One longs for the blanketing stillness of snow. The world, dark at four, appears grim.

I’ve started keeping a commonplace book in the hope of seeing better.

Keep reading "Commonplacing."

Reflecting with gratitude

Follow this link to a question worth thinking about: "Friday, July 15"

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This period of my life began...

Nearly two months ago I read a post on the blog Sacred Ordinary that caught my attention. The title of the post was "This Period of My Life Began on May 6." The author of this post wrote about an exercise recommended by Ira Progoff in his Intensive Journaling workshop in which you write an entry that says, "This period of my life began..." and you continue on. Dr. Progoff asserts that indeed we do know when a new period begins.

The beginning sentence or two of the post took me about a second to read. At the beginning of that second I was quite sure it was not always obvious when one's current period of life began or even that we had definable periods of life. By the end of that second, however, I was no longer a skeptic because I knew exactly, to the day, when my current period of life began. And I also suspected that I knew how this period was going to play out. After reading that post and having this realization, I was going to put a post on my blog, linking to the post on Sacred Ordinary and write with some degree of confidence that, yes, I knew the day life changed and hint ever so carefully that I could probably predict what would be the story of that period.

Well, I'm glad that post never got written because, as you can guess, the story could not be predicted. It has not played out as I had envisioned. That's not to say it's playing out in a bad way, just in a different way.

The point here isn't to be cryptic about what is or isn't the story of this period. Rather, the point–or at least the first point–is that I'm intrigued that the onset of the new period of life could be so quickly identified, despite my skepticism. I suppose it makes sense, however. A single moment of decision or a single decisive act changes everything just as a sudden gut feeling can change everything. The second point is that I should know better by now that the twists and turns of life aren't exactly predictable. It's a lesson I've learned and relearned a number of times now.

So how about you, dear readers? Can you identify when this period in your life began?

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Writing to become

"Perhaps we write toward what we will become from where we are,” wrote May Sarton in Journal of a Solitude

I’d say it a bit differently—that writing helps us become what we will become. By writing from where we are we are strengthening the ground underneath our feet, stabilizing the shifting sand, so that when we take the next step forward and then the next, our steps will be firm and the ground will not give way as we push against it in raising our foot to proceed. Also the words we write give us little clues to what is coming next, as if our hidden inside knows before we do and will offer only the slightest hint before we discover it in full for ourselves.

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Dear Diary: Today I... (Part 2)

Another application of the quick daily list (see yesterday's post) is as a repository of observations. Making the list everyday is a reminder to watch for things that may otherwise go unnoticed. Anne Lamott says, “There is ecstasy in paying attention.” Evelyn Underhill said something similar, "For lack of attention a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day." The poet and doctor William Carlos Williams used to carry a notepad around with him in which he listed, "Things I noticed today that I've missed until today." I've been trying to pay better attention to the details of life around me and the daily list is helping.

Dear Diary: Today I... (Part 1)

From Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos: “I hoped that this diary might help me to concentrate my thoughts, which will go wandering on the few occasions when I have some chance to think a little. I had thought it might become a kind of communion between God and myself, an extension of prayer, a way of easing the difficulties of verbal expression which always seem insurmountable to me, due no doubt to the twinges of pain in my inside. Instead I have been made to realize what a huge inordinate part of my life is taken up with the hundred and one little daily worries which at times I used to think I had shaken off for good. Of course Our Lord takes His share of all our troubles, even the paltriest, and scorns nothing. But why record in black and white matters which should be dismissed as fast as they happen? The worst of it is I find in these outpourings such solace that this alone should suffice to put me on my guard."

One of the challenges in keeping a journal is to preserve the details of life, without spending all one's time recording what you did and who you saw and how you felt, and therefore, never getting to the point of going deeper and processing it all. It's particularly easy to get stalled out in the "how I felt" type of entry. Lately, I've tried a strategy that seems to be working fairly well. I bought a date book that has a page for each day. There is where I make a quick list of the details of the day, not in full-sentence format, but just bulleted phrases. For example, "birds singing, snow melting, sunny." That provides mental images of the day, which I may want to remember, without taking 15 minutes to write about. Another example, a bullet of "headache" lets me record that I may not have felt my best that day, and in so doing, I feel less compelled to write a full "poor me" paragraph. Or, "checking account low again" without proceeding in angst for five minutes on the matter of personal budget shortfalls. This bulleted list takes a couple minutes and lets me record the daily details that give life texture, without exhausting my mental and writing energy before I get to the matters I really want to think and write about. This other thinking and writing is done in another paper or electronic journal, so as to keep the daily list separate from the reflections. Since it's all dated, however, it's easy to go back and piece the two together.

Mind, notebook, arts and crafts

Earlier today I added a post that ended with a question: "What places set your mind clicking?" I wanted to add something more. An encouragement to be prepared to think, wherever you go. You never really know when something great is going to pop into your mind.

Put a notebook in your purse or pocket–if it’s a nice-looking notebook, you’ll almost be looking for excuses to take it out and write something down that comes to you as significant. I've found some great little notebooks at museum shops and stationery stores, as well as at drugstores.

I've also "made" notebooks by replacing the cover of an inexpensive pocket notebook with a postcard that I like. Just pull the wire spiral binding out of the notebook. Using the old cover as a template, punch holes in the postcard with a small hole punch. Then, line up the punched postcard with the rest of the notebook and restring the wire spiral binding. Bend the ends of the wire in just a bit to hold it in place.

Alternatively, take a 3 x 5 card and a small pen in your pocket.

When you intentionally set about to pay attention to your thoughts, you will invariably receive something in your brain to think about. It is amazing how such an intention is paid back with insights and observations. If you don't have something with you on which to write a thought when it comes to you, you will certainly lose it. And it will certainly have been something valuable.

Hidden in the stacks

A few too many stacks of papers have been piling up in my office. My filing is way behind. To the rescue has come my niece, who has put in some hours over the last couple weeks making folder labels, alphabetizing, and filing. The stacks are going down and I can practically feel a fresh breeze coming through my office door. One of the benefits of getting caught up on filing is the discovery of interesting items that have been lurking, forgotten, in the stacks.

Consider this sampling of what I found:

–A print-out of a "Key Lime Pie" recipe from Brad Boydston's blog. I've not tried this recipe yet, but good key lime pie is perhaps my favorite dessert.

–A list of cold and cough  remedies. Here's one: 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/4 tsp powdered ginger, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp honey (or to taste), 2 tbsp water. I've not tried this and offer a disclaimer to try at your own risk.

–A quote from Thomas Merton (from, Seeds of Contemplation): "The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attractions of an interior voice but will not listen to other men. He identifies the will of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet, interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling is, the more he is convinced of his own infallibility."

–A couple pages of ideas for journaling that I downloaded some time ago from Catherine deCuir's website. One of the ideas is to think back to times in your life that you wish you had written about at the time, but never did. It's not too late, encourages deCuir. Write about them now in your journal. She calls this a "Retroactive Journal". Another idea is what she refers to as a "Word Snapshot," for which she provides a printable form. "Print the form, seize the day," she writes. On the form is a list of prompts to write down what you are listening to, watching, wearing, learning, working on, etc, on any given day.

–A nutritional study conducted at Cornell University and published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry about the benefits of hot cocoa–which I think I'll get up and make right now. The study found that the antioxidants in hot cocoa are almost two times stronger than red wine, two to three times stronger than green tea, and four to five times stronger than black tea. Apparently, the key is in the heat. More antioxidants are released when the cocoa is hot than when it is cold.

–And finally–and I saved the best for last–an article entitled, "The Importance of a Well-Groomed Child" by Robert M. Sapolsky. The article begins, "It is a rare parent of a newborn who does not feel a panic built around the consequences that her or his actions now have. Developmental studies have indicated that the quality, quantity, and timing of infant stimulation can have long-lasting effects–and soon the anxious parent is convinced that one lullaby song off-key ensures that a child will not only one day be a sociopath, but will also never use dental floss." Every parent reading this can relate to the anxiety. This article confirms that such anxiety is well founded. In Science, Sapolsky writes about a study conducted by Liu and colleagues in which baby rats who were well licked and groomed by their mommy rats had life-long positive effect in their brain and nervous systems compared to the baby rats who were not well licked and groomed. In his concluding paragraph, Sapolsky writes, "Although the specifics of licking and grooming do not extend to humans, the broader point emphasizing the importance of early experience certainly does."

Here is my suggestion: If you have a child at home, run your fingers through his or her hair (ie, grooming), put your arm around him or her (a hug will be an adequate replacement for a lick), and then make some hot cocoa and sit down and drink it together. When your well-groomed and antioxidized child is tucked in bed, get out some paper and write about how pleasurable it was to boost the trajectory of your child's (and your) life.

Journal as springboard for living

Earlier this week, the Journalisimo | Back to Analog blog carried this quote on journaling by Janet Ruth Falon from Body and Soul magazine:

"Keep a vital journal. Therapy isn’t for everyone, certainly, but most people can benefit from at least a little introspection. The more solid your sense of self, the more you can use it as a springboard to being big in the world. Ways of going inward that can pull you outward might include everyday activities like reading, enjoying stimulating conversation, even watching Dr. Phil. Spiritual practices serve for others. But one of the most reliable methods I know, one that seems to work for almost everyone, is keeping what I call a vital journal, which energizes you as you delve into new mindfulness about the stuff of substance you’re dealing with right now. There’s something about committing thoughts to paper (or computer screen) that makes them more real, something tangible to tangle with. A vital journal is, above all, organic and not forced. It’s a tool that tunes you in without burdening you with common journaling “shoulds” like writing a certain number of times per week or writing “well.” It is your safe place, where you can bare your imperfect soul, speak your truth, and grapple with those feisty little bits of awareness as they surface."

The habit of thinking and writing

For those of us who need a gentle nudge of encouragement towards spending some time writing down our thoughts on even the most ordinary of days:

“Associate reverently and as much as you can with your loftiest thoughts. Each thought that is welcome and recorded is a nest egg, by the side of which more will be laid. Thoughts accidentally thrown together become a frame in which more may be developed and exhibited. Perhaps this is the main value of a habit of writing, of keeping a journal—that so we remember our best hours and stimulate ourselves. My thoughts are my company. They have a certain individuality and separate existence, aye, personality. Having by chance recorded a few disconnected thoughts and then brought them into juxtaposition they suggest a while new field in which it was possible to labor and to think. Thought begat thought.” Henry David Thoreau, The Heart of Thoreau’s Journal

On another note--but also about writing our thoughts--I recently revisited a handout of quotes on journaling that I received in a class on the topic of journaling given by Elizabeth J. Andrew (author of newly released, Writing the Sacred Journey: Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir. On the handout is this advice from Patricia Hampl:

"I believe there has to be a place where you can talk to yourself and know you are alone. It's beautiful...the start of the journey itself, each person's journey, each person's journal. I love that Russian custom in the old novels, where, before setting out on a long journey, the travelers sit down for few minutes to 'collect themselves.' During each day there should be this 'sitting,' our coats buttoned against the cold we must face, the journal open on the table before us." Patricia Hampl