[This post is part of a series inspired by The Domino Project’s #Trust30 Writing Challenge. Each day, we receive a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, to use as a writing prompt. For more information about the #Trust30 Writing Challenge, see today’s prompt:]
Today's Prompt:
Ordinary Things by Ana Guardia
“Every artist was first an amateur.”
To be an artist one has to find beauty in ordinary things. Find 10 things of great beauty in the landscape that surrounds you. For example, crumple sheets on your bed in the morning, the smell of coffee making its way around a busy office.
My Response:
The smell of garlic, which always reminds me of The God Father trilogy. No, I did not have some underground aromatic version of the films, but my Irish-German husband watches it, every December, when he makes his famous “12 hour” Italian Gravy. I don’t like the violence in the movie, but tradition, this tradition...I love.
A "physical" rolodex next to my computer - which I suppose is now exhibited at the museum of address book history. But when I flip through it, a name always jumps out at me and prompts me to make a call, or send a note. It’s like a little voice on the edge of my desk, saying “remember me”.
My bound-paper friends patiently huddled like packs of wolves, on the desk, the floor, the chair. The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos; The Art of Non-Conformity; Little Princes; Spontaneous Healing of Belief; The Book of Awesome; Learning from The Heart, Breathing Life Into Your Characters..and the Joy of Not Working. That's what's in my view at the moment. I am guided and healed by each and every word and I never put them back on the bookshelf. It bugs the crap out of my husband, but he knows that touching my books – no matter where they are sitting- is like willingly running into a burning building. They are sacred to me and I love that he knows that.
Sunflowers. Like a garden of giant smiles. They are just starting to bloom.
A photo of me and my sister when she was seven (now 47) and I was 4 (now 26). Sometimes being bad at math can really work in your favor. It’s my favorite photograph in the world. She has her arm draped around my shoulders. Some things never change.
Two aspirin that I never took because my headache went away on its own. Beautiful.
I won a contest by commenting on a blog two weeks ago. The prize was a mouse pad with an inspirational photo on it, taken by the blogger. It is an old typewriter, sitting in the grass, with a note pinned to the front saying “let your story grow”. Like a wise old friend, it makes me feel more responsible to my craft every time it catches my eye. I’m so grateful.
The sound of my dogs paws as she flounces across the hard wood floor. It is the sound of home; the sound of comfort; the sound that reminds me of how blessed I am to have been loved by her. But it is also the sound that terrifies me most…one that I will not easily surrender.
Waking up and needing a sweatshirt in the middle of July.
I have a snow globe of NYC from the year 2000. It's been delegated to the cupboard above my desk.
It is a playful ceramic "city" vignette submerged in water. Taxi cabs, A Phantom of the Opera marquee, The Statue of Liberty, a bagel shop. And poking out from the middle of the scene...are the Twin Towers. It always reminds me that life is the kind of gift that doesn't wait to be opened. This is it. This moment is your life. How quickly it all can change.
[This post is part of a series inspired by The Domino Project’s #Trust30 Writing Challenge. Each day during the month of June 2011, we receive a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, to use as a writing prompt. For more information about the #Trust30 Writing Challenge, see today’s prompt:]
"Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mess up your hair. If you are wearing makeup – smudge it. If you have a pair of pants that don't really fit you – put them on. Put on a top that doesn’t go with those pants. Go to your sock drawer. Pull out two socks that don’t match. Different lengths, materials, colors, elasticity.
Now two shoes. You know the drill.
Need to add more? Ties? Hair clips? Stick your gut out? I trust you to go further.
Take a picture.
Get ready to post it online.
Are you feeling dread? Excitement? Is this not the image you have of yourself? Write about the fear or the thrill that this raises in you? Who do you need to look good for and what story does it tell about you? Or why don’t you care?
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My RESPONSE:
I don’t have a photo to share today so I will do my best to describe what it might look like. Truthfully, I don’t need to dress up or mess up. My reality, today…is hodgepodge enough.
It is noon. I have just had another water balloon toss with my twelve year old niece – hence the water blotched pajamas. There is an empty box of red wine on the table in the background and a packet of double stuffed Oreos in the foreground. It it near empty, so I am not smiling in the photo. My hair is tucked in a pink scrunchy and I am sitting on a giant exercise ball...at my computer... looking for the perfect sound track – one that will live up to the technical complexity of my “Dogs at the Beach,” production (courtesy of Windows Movie Maker.) Why do I do this? Um. Because ya’ can?!
Oh! I just sneezed because my keyboard is unspeakably dusty. Maybe we should take another shot.
I am not the train wreck I appear to be.
Don’t misunderstand. Don’t leave me. Please.
Telling you this, makes me uneasy.
But also, I am laughing.
And no I have not discovered an alternate galaxy, nor can I lay claim to a particular world-changing patent. I am not a spiritual leader that has rocked the world for hundreds of years.
I’m just doing my thing…sharing the world, from my viewpoint ...between the lines. I think that is the place where our spirits meet; the space, I believe, we really live. That’s my message to the world. Meet each other "between the lines" and you will find the answers.
I don’t know where it will lead me…but I have to think that I’m not the first person to wander in the dark with arms outstretched, hoping to find the light switch.
I have to think that “every wise spirit that ever took flesh”, as Emerson so eloquently speaks of, at one time or another, scratched his head and said, “ok, nobody gets me, and I have no idea where I am going.”
But somehow, they, blindly, faithfully, embraced the journey anyway. They accepted that there may be no end to their dark night; and that their individuality may be, in fact, their demise. They could not possibly have foreseen that their voice would infinitely resonate with the soul of the universe; that their bravery would evolve a species. They could not know that their self-reliance would become the canvas of their immortalization.
And yet, they continued their imperfect journeys along the edge of rejection…and as sad, lonely and misunderstood as they may have been….to our great benefit….
they pressed on.
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. If we follow the truth, it will bring us out safe at last. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
When did you feel most alive recently? Where were you? What did you smell? What sights and sounds did you experience? Capture that moment on paper and recall that feeling. Then, when it’s time to create something, read your own words to reclaim a sense of being to motivate you to complete a task at hand.
(Author: Sam Davidson)
RESPONSE:
Recently I faced an unpleasant conversation that was so baked in the truth, so bitter…and so rudely uncomfortable….it nearly catapulted us both into another dimension. And for a keep-the- peace-avoid-conflict-at-all-cost practitioner like myself - it was terrifying.
But mostly, it was necessary.
You see this person is that important to me. And our relationship has been one of the cornerstones of my confidence; someone who truly sees me; who inspires me. The issue we discussed was much less important, but I knew that if it wasn’t addressed it might become so. The frame of the wall had already been laid. And no matter how painful it would be to knock it down, I was prepared to run at it head first. I was determined to not let “avoiding the truth” rob me from a relationship that has nurtured my life for so many years.
A, thus far, honest one.
So I swallowed a frog and made the call.
Surprisingly when all was said and done, I felt closer to this person than ever before. I felt almost…rejuvenated. Like we had, together, taken a plunge of faith into the deep, dark cavern of raw honesty; to the place that scares us most; to our vulnerability. And we were both better for having done so.
I think, this tender place, is also the place where we heal. It is where we are transformed. And whether we like having the tough conversations or or not, facing them seems to be the only way that we can truly grow. Like a doorway to our wiser, braver selves. It is how we move forward in relationships in any meaningful and authentic way.
In fact, I think, it may just be where we feel most alive.
[This post is part of a series inspired by The Domino Project’s #Trust30 Writing Challenge. Each day during the month of June 2011, we receive a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, to use as a writing prompt. For more information about the #Trust30 Writing Challenge, see today’s prompt:]
Intuition by Susan Piver
"The secret of fortune is joy in our hands." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you could picture your intuition as a person, what would he or she look like? If you sat down together for dinner, what is the first thing he or she would tell you?
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RESPONSE:
I see intuition as the 85 year-old version of ourselves.
The one that has fallen, alongside us, to the depth of our darkest fears, and now laughs, because she knows it was a preposterous plunge.
She sees our great capacity to love, and counts the moments we did not give enough of it to ourselves.
She knows the colors of our dreams and the precise moment they turned to grey, and she wishes that we had kept them alive.
But she is not sad. And she is never sorry.
Because just as she sees, so clearly, the gaps in our story - she also sees the light shining through them.
And she knows before we do…that we are beautiful.
And if we sat down to dinner with her, this 85 year-old self, we would realize that we have had the answers inside, every step of the way.
Intuition by Susan Piver
"The secret of fortune is joy in our hands." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you could picture your intuition as a person, what would he or she look like? If you sat down together for dinner, what is the first thing he or she would tell you?
______________________________________________________
RESPONSE:
I see intuition as the 85 year-old version of ourselves.
The one that has fallen, alongside us, to the depth of our darkest fears, and now laughs at the thought of it, because she knows it was a proposterous plunge.
She sees our great capacity to love, and counts the moments we did not give enough of it to ourselves.
She knows the colors of our dreams and the precise moment they turned to grey, and she wishes that we had kept them alive...for just a day more. She knows they were on the edge of a full bloom.
But she is not sad. And she is never regretful.
Because just as she sees, so clearly, the gaps in our story - she also sees the light shining through them.
And she knows before we do…that we are beautiful.
And if we sat down to dinner with her, this 85 year-old self, we would realize that we have had the answers inside, every step of the way.
[This post is part of a series inspired by The Domino Project’s #Trust30 Writing Challenge. Each day during the month of June 2011, we receive a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, to use as a writing prompt. For more information about the #Trust30 Writing Challenge, see today’s prompt:]
I watched Secretariat this weekend, and yes, I replayed the final Triple Crown winning race, at least, three times. Although it is arguably the most famous horseracing story in history; to which we are all fully aware of the ending before we even hit play - to me, its profound message; its shooting star moment - the one that outshined every sinlge breathetaking turn, was the moment...
when he lost.
Penney Chenery guaranteed that Secretariat was unbeatable. And when she was wrong, that’s when the story...actually...came to life. Everyone scrambled to figure out what was happening to this prize-winning chestnut beast who had literally walked out of his mother’s womb ready to take on the world with his very first breath. Would he recover? Would they figure out what went wrong, and make it right? Would Penney Chenery follow her horse-whispering instinct to race him against the best judgment of both world-class jockey and trainer? Would she risk placing her beloved Secretariat in the time capsule of the worst disasters of all time?
What if she was wrong...again?
Think about it. If Secretariat won all of the races leading up to the Kentucky Derby; then he won the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont, obviously, it would still be an awe-inspiring, odds-defying feat. But would our hearts have swelled through our chests during those last 25 lengths? Would we think of Secretariat only when we win – and not in the moments that truly call for the spirit of a champion – the moments when we are wrong?
Let’s say you’re watching a romantic movie. The opening scene is a boy and a girl in a rose garden, nuzzling on the edge of a mammoth, water-spewing, mermaid fountain. Then let’s say the next scene is this very same couple getting engaged under a sun-setting coast with waves crashing at their feet. Then a quick cut to a beautiful wedding gazebo, surrounded by smiles, champagne and good wishes. The final scene is the lovely couple with their 2.5 children drinking homemade lemonade on the wraparound porch of their coastal mansion in Portland, Maine. Will you remember this movie?
I barely do, and I just wrote the synopsis for the screenplay.
How about this - let’s say that boy meets girl, and they are nuzzling under the same spewing fountain. But, suddenly boy thinks girl is too good for him and instead of going to Jared, he plots to sabotage the relationship before he gets hurt. Of course, he is wrong – and when boy tries to win girl back, she has already moved on to another fountain… and another lover. It is now a heart wrenching disaster unfolding. However, now, the boy must become a man. Now, we are all watching with wide-eyed anticipation. What might he learn from the catalytic mistake that led him to manhood? What might we learn from this boy... turning into a man?
The transitional, climactic stage of every great piece of literature - fiction or nonfiction- requires that something go wrong - a wrong decision, a bad idea – some catastrophic failure that makes everything a piping hot mess, forcing a confrontation between antagonist and protagonist. Like life imitating art, this is the very moment, when everything, actually, comes alive. This is when the invitation arrives, postmarked “discovery”, and you are drawn into an unfamiliar realm of the human condition; to new possibilities; a dark voyage to the rock bottom of humanity and a heart-thumping climb back up to undiscovered potential.
This is where we find that being wrong is what keeps the story of life… moving along.
[This post is part of a series inspired by The Domino Project’s #Trust30 Writing Challenge. Each day during the month of June 2011, we receive a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, to use as a writing prompt. For more information about the #Trust30 Writing Challenge, see today’s prompt:]
Wholly Strange and New by Bridget Pilloud
"When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any known or accustomed way; you shall not discern the foot-prints of any other; you shall not see the face of man; you shall not hear any name;—— the way, the thought, the good, shall be wholly strange and new." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Can you remember a moment in your life when you had life in yourself and it was wholly strange and new? Can you remember the moment when you stopped walking a path of someone else, and started cutting your own?
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My Response:
I have been working overtime to design a life that has been stuck in my imagination...for much too long. But there was one particular moment – the one when I finally tossed out the map and broke ground on the real me.
And...it was wholly strange indeed, as it arrived in the most unexpected package of all: temptation.
One weary day, when I decided to take a respite in the safety of the shade, I awoke to a low hanging fruit, bonking me right in the side of the head. It was a ripe piece of “financial security,” dripping with “stability and a 3 week vacation.“ So what did I do? I got up and ran like hell. And, without a single bat of the eye, I soared straight into the belly of the sun.
Saying “no thank you” was like sipping from the chalice of freedom for the very first time.
But, in truth, the next moment was jolting, frightening…like a stranger had just made her way under my skin.
Who is she…and what does she want?!
Since then, I continue to take one sip nearly every single day. I am slowly filling up on possibility and the stranger has become my internal guru. I am not feeling free; I am becoming freedom.
Most significantly, now, when I need a respite, I don’t look for shade. I just stand still in the sun.
[This post is part of a series inspired by The Domino Project’s #Trust30 Writing Challenge. Each day during the month of June 2011, we receive a thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance”, to use as a writing prompt. For more information about the #Trust30 Writing Challenge, see today’s prompt:
http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/lachlan-cotter]
