Today’s Quote of the Day is from one of my favorite memoir and nature writers, Terry Tempest Williams:
“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.” ― Terry Tempest Williams: When The Women Were Birds
Nature is the most primal escape from technology that we can seek out to realign ourselves with our very humanity. While nature has long been considered the great escape, the need to escape into nature is more pressing than ever as we are literally consumed by technology itself.
There are devices all around us. Those devices suck us in. They trap us, spellbound. Waiting. Patiently. For the Text, the PM, the Tweet, the News Feed update.
Those devices alert us to pay attention to them, now, not later; not unlike the Myna birds in Aldous Huxley’s Island, parroting “Here and Now Boys, Here and Now,” reminding every one to be in the moment. Being in the moment is a wonderful thing.
However, if being in the moment means we are constantly connected to digital communication via IPhones, Droids, Tablets, Laptops, Desktops, and every other Smart technology device that invades our lives unless we turn them on “mute,” then we have a problem. We are swiftly becoming a Universe of Devices. We’ve forgotten how to disconnect. (more…)
I’ve been busy clearing my head for the past couple of months. Every now and then we all need to do that. In the interim I’ve been taking a lot of photos and making some changes to my website. I’ve launched the first of the changes and I expect there will be more to come. Stay tuned as I start up regular posting again…
“I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.” – Terry Tempest Williams
Reading Jane Bernstein’s essay “How and Why” brought to mind my own very speculative mind and spirit that is in constant query as to the how and why’s of things. As a writer, my speculative mind and spirit causes me to look deeper into my own heart and mind, and I feel that it also grants me a strong intuitive mind that understands what is deep within other minds, connecting me to depths of humanity and life itself. Reading “How and Why,” I could identify with Bernstein’s running, in that I walk, to clear my mind and “mull” things over. (Griffin p. 11)
When I am walking outside in nature, I lose myself into the landscape that envelops me as though I am one with it. When I am walking outside in nature, I tune out any extraneous real world soundtrack and tune into the concerto of bird song or the rustle of the leaves or marsh grasses whispering in the soft breeze or perchance keening in the wicked wind. My mind becomes clear, empty in that process of immersing myself in nature and it is then that I mull, as Bernstein does when she is running. There is a space in a clear mind that creates from a point deeper, more connected to the soul, which is a vital point of connection needed to write in the first person about one’s self and life.
Jane Bernstein’s essay “How and Why” is available in Connie Griffin’s book “To Tell the Truth: Practice and Craft in Narrative Nonfiction.” This book has been my go to book throughout the past two years studying Creative Writing at UMass Amherst University Without Walls. It has also served as textbook and reference book for four classes I have taken with Connie Griffin, including two core classes, Frameworks of Understanding and Writing for Experience, as well as Magazine Writing and Creative Non-fiction.
The practice of reading other writers on their struggles with their craft is so helpful. All writers struggle with finding their voice, creating the right space to work in, shutting out their inner critic and getting past self-doubt. Those are just a few of the issues that writers face. As I continue to work through my own issues with writing and work to shape my first memoir, look for more posts here on Writers on Writing.
I recently had my trust and warm-heartedness taken advantage of by an old friend who did not understand these concepts… This speaks to me. Despite what I went through my warm-heartedness has not faltered…
We live in a materialistic world that pays insufficient attention to human values. We seek satisfaction in material things instead of warm-heartedness. But human beings are social animals. We need friendship and that depends on trust. Building trust requires concern for others and defending their rights, not doing them harm. Friendship is directly linked to warm-heartedness, which is also good for our physical health. ~ His Holiness The Dalai Lama
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Musing and Rambling
Sometimes I muse and I ramble because I can... I muse about life and things that matter to me...
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