Ten Ordinary Things of Great Beauty
Q: To be an artist one has to find beauty in ordinary things. Find 10 things of great beauty in the landscape that surrounds you.
A:
1. A room outlined with bookcases stacked, overflowing.
2. Dust motes orbiting in a ray of sunshine
3. the lingering fragrance of a sandlewood shower
4. the family framed, clustered on a table
5. his shoes in a
line by the bed
6. a milky kaleidoscope in green jasmine tea
7. a sump pump digesting rain
8. the slow pulse of an antique clock
9. sun baked skin, toasted brown
10. Summer's back-door creak and double-bounce slam
11. shadows touching a floral tablecloth
A:
1. A room outlined with bookcases stacked, overflowing.
2. Dust motes orbiting in a ray of sunshine
3. the lingering fragrance of a sandlewood shower
4. the family framed, clustered on a table
5. his shoes in a
line by the bed
6. a milky kaleidoscope in green jasmine tea
7. a sump pump digesting rain
8. the slow pulse of an antique clock
9. sun baked skin, toasted brown
10. Summer's back-door creak and double-bounce slam
11. shadows touching a floral tablecloth
Deep In Your Soul
Deep in Your Soul by Michael McFadden
“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Q: What message is yearning inside you? What is something you know deep in your soul? Don’t look for someone else to describe it. You do it. Write it down. Write it as a poem, a sentence or even just a string of words. Just make sure you get it to paper.
A: All I know is since I was a child I have felt there is something very specific I am supposed to accomplish, something noteworthy, of importance. It drives a compulsion to read, to buy books on specific topics, to take college courses, not for the degree, but for the knowledge. I keep turning rocks over and digging in the dirt thinking any moment the epiphany will happen. But maybe that's the problem, maybe it's not an exuberant, spotlight bright AHA, maybe it will only be a quiet, self satisfied whisper, a star lit glow. Maybe it grows the way nature does, slow and almost imperceptible.
I just want to hear it, recognize it for its importance and focus on it with intense clarity of purpose. I want to know what exactly IT is or is IT a multitude of things, half filled wishes? I believed, for the last few years, it was writing about place, about native plants, protecting the Niagara River Gorge Rim and Gorge. Maybe it still is and I'm just weary of the political haranguing.
The constants or assets in my life are: creativity, (I overflow with with productive, implementable ideas and I can make great connective leaps); intelligence (I learn with ease in an academic setting but am a preferred autodidact); books I own thousands - nonfiction mostly, literary fiction for pleasure--I am immersed when reading; gardening; love of nature, wildlife and family.
Creative pursuits: writing, knowledge and research, cooking, gardening with natives for wildlife, bird watching and feeding, creating a home-based, place of refuge inside and out, creating art - not fine art, but artful, decorative things.
What I want: clarity of purpose so precise it can never be questioned, deep intuitive knowledge, and eloquence. Most of all I want eloquence.
“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Q: What message is yearning inside you? What is something you know deep in your soul? Don’t look for someone else to describe it. You do it. Write it down. Write it as a poem, a sentence or even just a string of words. Just make sure you get it to paper.
A: All I know is since I was a child I have felt there is something very specific I am supposed to accomplish, something noteworthy, of importance. It drives a compulsion to read, to buy books on specific topics, to take college courses, not for the degree, but for the knowledge. I keep turning rocks over and digging in the dirt thinking any moment the epiphany will happen. But maybe that's the problem, maybe it's not an exuberant, spotlight bright AHA, maybe it will only be a quiet, self satisfied whisper, a star lit glow. Maybe it grows the way nature does, slow and almost imperceptible.
I just want to hear it, recognize it for its importance and focus on it with intense clarity of purpose. I want to know what exactly IT is or is IT a multitude of things, half filled wishes? I believed, for the last few years, it was writing about place, about native plants, protecting the Niagara River Gorge Rim and Gorge. Maybe it still is and I'm just weary of the political haranguing.
The constants or assets in my life are: creativity, (I overflow with with productive, implementable ideas and I can make great connective leaps); intelligence (I learn with ease in an academic setting but am a preferred autodidact); books I own thousands - nonfiction mostly, literary fiction for pleasure--I am immersed when reading; gardening; love of nature, wildlife and family.
Creative pursuits: writing, knowledge and research, cooking, gardening with natives for wildlife, bird watching and feeding, creating a home-based, place of refuge inside and out, creating art - not fine art, but artful, decorative things.
What I want: clarity of purpose so precise it can never be questioned, deep intuitive knowledge, and eloquence. Most of all I want eloquence.
The Empress' New Clothes
Be You by Elizabeth Presson
Q: In one sentence, who are you?
I am an emerging, evolving soul dressed as a small human--a sense-of-place prose poet/lyric essayist/garden blogger, a native plant/wildlife advocate,a certified naturalist--framed glass clear with purpose: provide awareness of and be a persuasive, knowledgeable, bright voice for lifeforms unable to speak.
def Empress, a woman who rules in her own right. Wikipedia
I am an emerging, evolving soul dressed as a small human--a sense-of-place prose poet/lyric essayist/garden blogger, a native plant/wildlife advocate,a certified naturalist--framed glass clear with purpose: provide awareness of and be a persuasive, knowledgeable, bright voice for lifeforms unable to speak.
def Empress, a woman who rules in her own right. Wikipedia
What's Burning Deep Inside
Your Personal Message by Eric Handler
Q: To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, that is genius. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is burning deep inside of you? If you could spread your personal message RIGHT NOW to 1 million people, what would you say?
A: If I could spread my message right now to 1 million people I would tell them about the vision to remove the Robert Moses Gorge Parkway from the Niagara Gorge Rim and restore ecologically the unique botanical landscape of Niagara Falls, NY and the Niagara River Gorge. I would direct them to www.niagaraheritage.org to sign the on line petition and then I would ask them to write and mail a letter by July 1, 2011 to New York State's Governor Cuomo and NYS Parks' Commissioner Rose Harvey, and to NYS Senators George Maizarz and Kirsten Gillibrand, to Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, to Assemblyman John Ceretto, and state they want to see the vision for NYS Parks and the Niagara Gorge Rim as put forth and advocated for these last 15 years by The Niagara Heritage Partnership and Wild Ones Niagara Falls and River Region chapter embraced, funded, and implemented within the next three years.
I would ask each to say he or she believe this vision will economically benefit not only the residents of a challenged city, but will benefit the tourists who come to see Frederick Law Olmsted's unparalleled 1880 vision for NY's first and oldest State Park.
Finally, I would ask them to state unequivocally that anything less than a full restoration does a global, state, and local disservice to the multitudes that travel to this world destination and to those who live in the western New York region.
Q: To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, that is genius. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is burning deep inside of you? If you could spread your personal message RIGHT NOW to 1 million people, what would you say?
A: If I could spread my message right now to 1 million people I would tell them about the vision to remove the Robert Moses Gorge Parkway from the Niagara Gorge Rim and restore ecologically the unique botanical landscape of Niagara Falls, NY and the Niagara River Gorge. I would direct them to www.niagaraheritage.org to sign the on line petition and then I would ask them to write and mail a letter by July 1, 2011 to New York State's Governor Cuomo and NYS Parks' Commissioner Rose Harvey, and to NYS Senators George Maizarz and Kirsten Gillibrand, to Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, to Assemblyman John Ceretto, and state they want to see the vision for NYS Parks and the Niagara Gorge Rim as put forth and advocated for these last 15 years by The Niagara Heritage Partnership and Wild Ones Niagara Falls and River Region chapter embraced, funded, and implemented within the next three years.
I would ask each to say he or she believe this vision will economically benefit not only the residents of a challenged city, but will benefit the tourists who come to see Frederick Law Olmsted's unparalleled 1880 vision for NY's first and oldest State Park.
Finally, I would ask them to state unequivocally that anything less than a full restoration does a global, state, and local disservice to the multitudes that travel to this world destination and to those who live in the western New York region.
Fear
Fear by Lachlan Cotter
Q: These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Is fear holding you back from living your fullest life and being truly self expressed? Put yourself in the shoes of the you who’s already lived your dream and write out the answers to the following:
Is the insecurity you’re defending worth the dream you’ll never realize? or the love you’ll never venture? or the joy you’ll never feel?
Will the blunder matter in 10 years? Or 10 weeks? Or 10 days? Or 10 minutes?
Can you be happy being anything less than who you really are?
Now Do. The Thing. You Fear.
A: If the topic is removing the Robert Moses Parkway, then the answer is yes, the blunder will matter in all of the times listed and the decades beyond. If the fear is being ridiculed, then the answer is no, it won't matter past the 10 minutes that smart the most. My fear is I won't be persuasive enough. My fear is the voice I promised to give to the flora and fauna that can't speak won't be clear enough or loud enough to matter to those indifferent to protecting them. My fear is I won't find the support I need from the people required. My fear is short-sighted vision will eclipse the wonder of Niagara's beautiful, unique botanical landscape. My fear is the inner knowledge I need isn't surfacing when I think it would benefit most. My fear is letting go and trusting the outcome. My fear is the outcome will be someone's destruction of something that matters deeply to me. My fear is that splitting crack a tree makes when it falls is really the sound of my soul echoing in the universe.
Q: These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Is fear holding you back from living your fullest life and being truly self expressed? Put yourself in the shoes of the you who’s already lived your dream and write out the answers to the following:
Is the insecurity you’re defending worth the dream you’ll never realize? or the love you’ll never venture? or the joy you’ll never feel?
Will the blunder matter in 10 years? Or 10 weeks? Or 10 days? Or 10 minutes?
Can you be happy being anything less than who you really are?
Now Do. The Thing. You Fear.
A: If the topic is removing the Robert Moses Parkway, then the answer is yes, the blunder will matter in all of the times listed and the decades beyond. If the fear is being ridiculed, then the answer is no, it won't matter past the 10 minutes that smart the most. My fear is I won't be persuasive enough. My fear is the voice I promised to give to the flora and fauna that can't speak won't be clear enough or loud enough to matter to those indifferent to protecting them. My fear is I won't find the support I need from the people required. My fear is short-sighted vision will eclipse the wonder of Niagara's beautiful, unique botanical landscape. My fear is the inner knowledge I need isn't surfacing when I think it would benefit most. My fear is letting go and trusting the outcome. My fear is the outcome will be someone's destruction of something that matters deeply to me. My fear is that splitting crack a tree makes when it falls is really the sound of my soul echoing in the universe.
One Strong Belief
The world is powered by passionate people, powerful ideas, and fearless action. What's one strong belief you possess that isn't shared by your closest friends or family? What inspires this belief, and what have you done to actively live it?
I have always just known things, information, ways of doing things, that the answers I would come if I asked. I believe old soul wisdom as an innate part of me, it communicates, thoughts arrive unexpectedly and with surety I just accept and know. What I do to actively live it is trust it, trust what it says, trust it's always there. I accept it as natural as living, coexisting inside, mentally. I look for other ways to tap into it, note printed words of significance are another way of recognition.
I have always just known things, information, ways of doing things, that the answers I would come if I asked. I believe old soul wisdom as an innate part of me, it communicates, thoughts arrive unexpectedly and with surety I just accept and know. What I do to actively live it is trust it, trust what it says, trust it's always there. I accept it as natural as living, coexisting inside, mentally. I look for other ways to tap into it, note printed words of significance are another way of recognition.
Tying Shoes
Day 2: Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. The force of character is cumulative. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
If ‘the voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tracks,’ then it is more genuine to be present today than to recount yesterdays. How would you describe today using only one sentence? Tell today’s sentence to one other person. Repeat each day.
Response: Today was an untied shoe, a journey starting point for either staying still with the two halves undone or tying the laces, double knotting inner knowledge with the external person I've yet to become.
If ‘the voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tracks,’ then it is more genuine to be present today than to recount yesterdays. How would you describe today using only one sentence? Tell today’s sentence to one other person. Repeat each day.
Response: Today was an untied shoe, a journey starting point for either staying still with the two halves undone or tying the laces, double knotting inner knowledge with the external person I've yet to become.
Day 1 Trust30
From Illuminated Mind:
Q: What’s one thing you’ll do today that you’ve been wanting to do and have put off? Leave a comment down below and share with us.
A: Finish and mail the required certified Master Naturalist documentation paperwork.
Q: What’s one thing you’ll do today that you’ve been wanting to do and have put off? Leave a comment down below and share with us.
A: Finish and mail the required certified Master Naturalist documentation paperwork.
The Pledge
Commit to the Pledge
I, Michelle Vanstrom, accept this personal challenge to create something on my blog or journal following the weekly Trust Yourself prompts beginning May 31st.
My email address is and my blog's URL is http://michellestest-justwords.blogspot.com/ .
I commit to reflecting on each daily prompt, crafting a response, and tweeting it out with the #trust30 hash tag when it feels right.
Signed,
Me
I, Michelle Vanstrom, accept this personal challenge to create something on my blog or journal following the weekly Trust Yourself prompts beginning May 31st.
My email address is and my blog's URL is http://michellestest-justwords.blogspot.com/ .
I commit to reflecting on each daily prompt, crafting a response, and tweeting it out with the #trust30 hash tag when it feels right.
Signed,
Me
Trust30 Online Initiative
A 30 day writing challenge to look within and trust myself. Thirty prompts in thirty days based on the words of an original thinker. Let the thinking and reflection begin. Here's to open doors and courage.
