The environment for creativity

"In the end, there is no one ideal condition for creativity.  What works for one person is useless for another.  The only criterion is this:  Make it easy on yourself.  Find a working environment where the prospect of wrestling with your muse doesn't scare you, doesn't shut you down.  It should make you want to be there, and once you find it, stick with it.  To get the creative habit, you need a working environment that's habit forming."

                             Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

Guilt vs. Shame

" A clear way to see the difference is to think about this question: If you made a mistake that really hurt someone's feelings, would you be willing to say, 'I'm sorry. I made a mistake'? If you're experiencing guilt, the answer is yes: 'I made a mistake.' Shame, on the other hand, is 'I'm sorry. I am a mistake.'"

              Brene Brown, "Life Lessons We All Need to Learn," Oprah Magazine, Feb. 2013

I (Heart) Mondays because ...

I have something to think about:

"Say what you think you think, and worry later about all of its accommodations because what you think you think is often truer than what comes from the composition..."

                                                                Diane Sawyer in a Vanity Fair interview, March 2013

Trust your uncertainty.  I like that thought.

I (heart) Mondays because...

some Mondays I find a quote that gives me just what I need to begin the week:

"I have learned, as a rule of thumb, never to ask whether you can do something.  Say, instead that you are doing it...The most remarkable things follow."

                  Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way

For people who are stuck in the past...

"I use memories, but I will not allow memories to use me."

            Deepak Chopra

A Poem for Mondays

 Memento Mori in Five Syllables

Something awful may

happen tomorrow.

Some terrible thing

may be waiting for

mourning.  Think on this.

The car you leave in

never arrives.  The

voices you hear are

whispering lies.  The

hankie you touch to

your lips fills with blood.

Think of the skull on

the mantle.  Ponder

Boethius, et al.

Turn Terror away.

Make today quiet,

humorous, and good.

I (Heart) Mondays

...because I began the day with Vivaldi's Concerto in C Major for Violin, a bubble bath, loving thoughts of friends and family, none of whom I have to cook for or to clean up after.

The Writing Life

I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live.


 Francoise Sagan, playwright and novelist (1935-2004)

A life well spent...

"How we spend our days is how we spend our lives."

             Annie Dillard

I (Heart) Mondays...

because I started my day reading a seed catalog.

I (Heart) this Monday

...because it's Christmas Eve, because I am in snow country, because those dearest to me will be sleeping under one roof and beneath a Nevada sky.

I (Heart) Mondays because...

sometimes I stumble upon a brilliant quote and it's like finding an arrowhead in the dirt or a sand dollar at the beach.  That happened today:


"If it is really true... that what makes us human is above all our capacity to make history, and if history consists of actions that could not have been predicted be­forehand, then that would mean that the fundamental measure of our human­ity lies in what we cannot know about each other. To recognize another person as human would then be to recognize the limits of one's possible knowledge of them. Their humanity is inseparable from their capacity to surprise us."

                                                                David Graeber, Lost People

I (Heart) Fernet

 My husband and I  walked  past the Pikes Street Market, along the Seattle harbor, enjoying the summer evening after a pleasant but early dinner.  When my husband   suggested a nightcap, I said, “Sure.”

I asked the bartender, “What’s the name of that aperitif made from artichokes?”

The bartender must have sensed that I really didn’t want anything to drink. He was busy, in no mood to play guessing games, and clearly pleased with my husband, who knew what he wanted.    When he came back with my husband’s draft beer in one hand and a liquor bottle in the other, he said,  “Is this what you’re talking about?”

 I liked the looks of the label, cream-colored and dense with black print.  I studied the bottle.  “Fernet… I think that’s it.”  I wasn’t at all sure, but the bartender was giving me a “drink it or wear it look,” so I quickly said,  “Yes.  That’s the one.”

 “Ugh!” he said.  “You want that on the rocks?”

Of course,” I replied, as if everyone knows that’s how one drinks Fernet.

 My drink, dark as molasses, tasted the way horse liniment smells and a little minty.  Someone on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernet describes the taste of Fernet as,   “black licorice and Listerine.”

When my husband signaled to the bartender that he was ready to pay the tab, the guy said, “I’m not charging her for that,” glancing at my empty glass.  He didn’t say  “…that vile concoction,” but I could read his look.

 I laughed, leaned toward him, looked him in the eye and said, “I’m going to tell you a secret.  I really liked it.”

I did. I like Fernet.  Of course, I had confused Fernet with Cynar, made of artichokes and with a picture of an artichoke on the label.  Both are referred to as a“digestif” not an “apartif.”  Fernet is made with everything but artichokes and the kitchen sink.

 Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:
Fernet is made from a number of herbs and spices which vary according to the brand, but usually include myrrh, rhubarb, chamomile, cardamom, aloe, and especially saffron,[1] with a base of grape distilled spirits, and coloured with caramel colouring. Ingredients rumored to be in fernet include codeine, mushrooms, fermented beets, coca leaf, gentian, rhubarb, wormwood, zedoary, cinchona, bay leaves, absinthe, orange peel, calumba, echinacea, quinine, ginseng, St. John's wort, sage, and peppermint oil.[1]

Who likes Fernet, besides me? Well, pretty much everyone in Argentina, where they mix it with Coca Cola.  It’s popular in San Francisco  and is considered to have  medicinal value, “treating menstrual and gastrointestinal discomfort, hangovers, baby colic, and (formerly) cholera.”
   
 Who do I hope likes Fernet?  I would be pleased if Sting, Helen Mirren, and Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth shared my newly-discovered taste, but I’m skeptical.  I brought up the subject last night at a dinner party and one of the guests said, “Oh, _____________ loves Fernet.  Or used to love Fernet.”  
 
I won’t name names, but the person mentioned is a recovering alcoholic and, I have to say, a  disagreeable person.

Do you like Fernet?

I (heart) Mondays because it is washday

I will hang freshly-washed flowered sheets on the clothesline and my back yard will be a fiesta as the wind dances them dry

I (Heart) Mondays--entertaining the uncomfortable

Just re-discovered this gem of a quote:

"The better you know yourself, the more you will know when you are playing to your strengths and when you are sticking your neck out.  Venturing out of your comfort zone may be dangerous, yet you do it anyway because our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable."

     Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

I (heart) Mondays: double entendre du jour

To have a sense of direction means

• You know where you are going
• You know how to get there

Rat's Country: Forgive yourself

Why does this take so long?

The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise. -Alden Nowlan, poet, novelist, and playwright (1933-1983)

I (Heart) Blue Mondays

just discovered this lovely French phrase:

 l'heure bleue is the period of twilight each morning and evening when there is neither full daylight or complete darkness.

"for soon it is gone and we fly away."

“Moses said, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labour and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away” (Ps. 90: 10).”

I (Heart) Mondays

Every morning in Tuscarora I walk down the gentle grade to the crossroads, stop, stretch, and vow to run up the hill.  I never do.  This morning as I trudged the uphill mile I asked myself why I have never considered running down the hill.  Tomorrow I will see what happens when I go with gravity instead of against it.