I  am snowed in here in the quiet north. I love this! I love how I am finding downtime on this final day of the year. I am reading a great book on creativity, one of the Artist Way books, this one called The Sound of Paper: Starting from Scratch. It encourages in your creative process when your inspiration has dried up. I will share a few quotes ( Read more... )

 In this post in the travel_writing community, we are told what moofing is and how to do it.
MOOF means Mobile Out Of Office-work abroad or anywhere from your laptop and enjoy traveling and working.
It is a cool story and neat advice.
http://community.livejournal.com/travel_writing/143420.html?mode=reply

I haven't read the book. Isn't it so cool that many kids books are being made into films? Inkspell and Prince Caspian come to mind. The Golden Compass is supposed to be a children's book but it really is more for adults meaning there is too much gratuitous violence; it is dark. Some of the story was reminiscent of Nazi Germany and also the movie ( Read more... )

Something else new this year:. What I learned had to do with emotions,  and this below is the Emotional Guidance Scale. I use this as something to guide me. I pick a thought I am having and see where it lands on this scale. The scale helps me to move up to a slightly better thought and I feel better. It works. Notice Anger down there near the ( Read more... )

 Seek joy first and foremost

Seek reasons to laugh

Seek reasons to offer words of praise to self and others

Seek beauty in nature beasts and other humans.

Seek reasons to love in every segment of every day

Look for something that brings forth within you a feeling of love

Seek that which uplifts you
Seek opportunity to offer that which uplifts another

Seek ( Read more... )

 No matter how crappy a day I am having, like crisis after crisis with a worse crisis on top of that, I get reminders how it could be much worse. I am thinking of the gas station attendant Mike from Lebanon, now in a coma for 7 days from a heart attack. Makes me count my blessings and hold those I love close.

 Did you hear about the programmer they found passed out
in his shower? He was holding a shampoo bottle with the instructions
"Lather. Rinse. Repeat."

Between your experience of Existence

And that of a saint?

The saint knows

That the spiritual path

Is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved

Has just made such a Fantastic Move

That the saint is now continually

Tripping over Joy

And bursting out in Laughter

And saying, "I surrender!"

Whereas, my dear,

I am afraid you still think

You have a thousand ( Read more... )

 
Dear Lovers of Rumi: We are very happy to share this news with you.
Please click on the link below to listen to a lovely 26-minute program
on BBC World Service called "Heart and Soul," hosted by Shusha Guppy
and produced by Anne Khazam. This episode is on Rumi's 800th birth
anniversary and it includes interviews with Shahram Shiva, Andrew
Harvey and ( Read more... )

I treated myself to seeing the film Into the Wild, and am so glad that I did. A young man goes through a personal journey in seeking happiness. He sees his parent's way and rejects it. He graduates from college, donates his $24K college fund to Oxfam. He then travels, has adventures and changes his name to Alexander Supertramp. He cuts of ties with ( Read more... )