Nourish

How's That Passion Thing Workin' Out For Ya?

May 25, 2012


You might recall how back in January I chose “passion” as my word of the year, and “nourish” as a secondary word/focus. Since then, I haven’t said one word about the word of the year on this blog…not one. (I did mention “nourish” in Beyond the Junk Food of Life.) So, you might be thinking, when you’re not busy pondering much more important matters, I wonder how Kathy is doing with her quest for passion in 2012? (Of course you’re not—you have your own life to live and possibly even your own word of the year to ponder—but humor me, people.)

I’ll tell you how I’m doing…what was my word of the year again?

Yup. Haven’t paid one bit of attention to the concept after the initial excitement of choosing the word. Am I afraid of it? Unsure where to start? Too busy with daily life to ponder what passion means to me and how to get more of it in my life? Probably a little of all those things. I’ve done a few things that I feel passionate about—rode and played with Tank, traveled, took an art class—but I haven’t connected passion with any of those things.  I haven’t let it motivate me or keep me going when I wanted to quit. I haven’t allowed it to flow through me the way I wanted to.

So. What now? Well, I have half a year left—I mean to make the most of it. I’ll start asking myself what I feel passion for, or even how I can ignite passion about some of my less-exciting everyday activities. With a little more thoughtfulness and imagination, the second half of 2012 may turn out to be more exciting (in a good way) than the first half. That’s one of the beauties of life: every day you can start over, take one more baby step towards the life you want to lead.

If you chose a word of the year, how has it influenced you so far? And if you didn't, has your year seemed to have any kind of theme?

Chocolate

Seize the Pleasure

May 23, 2012


Seize the flowers and chocolate...

“Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!”
— Jane Austen, Emma

Armchair travel

Armchair Travel: Take Off Without Taking Off

May 21, 2012


Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco

I don’t know how many of you like to travel, but I love it. (You may have guessed that from some of my posts.) I don’t do as much of it as I’d like to, and until the day comes when I can take off on a whim for parts unknown, I’ll make do with armchair travel—which, come to think of it, would be good for those who do not want to travel, but would like to broaden their knowledge of the world in general.

Of course, reading books and watching movies set in different cities and countries is one of the best ways to get a taste of a location. My favorite getaway movies include Shirley Valentine, My Life in Ruins and Under the Tuscan Sun.  For books, I often return to old favorites The Enchanted April (also an excellent movie) or one of Mary Stewart’s older novels, set in Greece: This Rough Magic, The Moon-Spinners or My Brother Michael, for example.

Now, however, there are even more ways to get your travel fix without leaving your comfortable home. The internet has brought us closer together in a number of ways—there are websites devoted to cities, counties and nations with photos that can transport you there with the click of a mouse.

If you’re feeling really ambitious, you could learn a language. Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur and Tell Me More are three well-respected, fee-based options. You could also check out free podcasts on iTunes and elsewhere, or check out websites such as learnalanguage.com.

My current method of enjoying armchair travel is Laure Ferlita’s Imaginary Trip to Greece (see Imaginarytrips.com for a list of all Laure’s terrific classes). Not only am I improving my sketching skills, I’m also learning more about Greece with every lesson.

Erechtheion Porch of the Maidens
Whether I’m looking at someone else’s pictures or creating my own, armchair travel keeps me (somewhat) satisfied in between actual trips. How do you satisfy your yen for travel?

Happiness

Happy Little Things: Notebooks

May 18, 2012


I confess. In addition to being addicted to books, I also have a small notebook fetish. From the purse-sized notebook I carry for jotting things down on the run, to the multiple spiral or bound journals that congregate on my shelves, I own a number of notebooks that I’m actively using as well as ones that I haven’t yet cracked open. And even though I have plenty already, I cannot help but be drawn to displays of notebooks and journals wherever I am. I always have to pick them up to see how they feel and what kind of paper is inside. I try not to overbuy, but really, is it so bad to have separate notebooks for morning pages, a personal journal, books read, writing ideas and all things wordy? And maybe one or two ready and waiting for when I fill up one of the ones in use? (And then there are the sketchbooks. I have at least five of those with varying types of paper: sketch, watercolor, multi-media. But that's another story.) 

I guess it’s a fairly harmless and mostly inexpensive obsession—and it makes me happy. I’m all for noticing, savoring and encouraging the happy little things in life, and my notebook mania does makes me happy. I love every stage: browsing notebook choices, gloating over a shelf of blank notebooks, starting a new notebook and putting a period at the end of the last sentence of one I've filled up.  Then I can start the whole process over again!

What little thing has made you happy this week?

“Notebooks are like attics, a place for treasures which sometimes turn out to be junk, but take you anyway to another time and place.” —Cynthia MacDonald

Birds

Baby Wrens

May 16, 2012

Photo courtesy lovetheson 

I’ve built many wren houses since my wife and I moved to the country 25 years ago.  It’s a good thing to do in the winter.  At one point I had so many extra that in the spring I set up at a local farmers’ market and sold them for five dollars apiece.  I say all this to assert that I am an authority at listening to the so small voices that Thomas R. Smith captures in this poem. Smith lives in Wisconsin. [Introduction by Ted Kooser.]

Baby Wrens’ Voices

I am a student of wrens.
When the mother bird returns
to her brood, beak squirming
with winged breakfast, a shrill
clamor rises like jingling
from tiny, high-pitched bells.
Who’d have guessed such a small
house contained so many voices?
The sound they make is the pure sound
of life’s hunger. Who hangs our house
in the world’s branches, and listens
when we sing from our hunger?
Because I love best those songs
that shake the house of the singer,
I am a student of wrens.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine.  It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.  Poem copyright ©2005 by Thomas R. Smith, whose most recent book of poetry is “Waking Before Dawn,” Red Dragonfly Press, 2007.  Poem reprinted from the chapbook “Kinnickinnic,” Parallel Press, 2008, by permission of Thomas R. Smith and the publisher.  The poem first appeared in “There is No Other Way to Speak,” the 2005 “winter book” of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, ed., Bill Holm.  Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation.  The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.