Tag: Life

Some places and times when I’ve been the happiest

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Coming from a long line of worriers, I’ve had to learn to embrace moments of happiness. My, but they’ve been there, all along. For instance?

  1. Flying along on a bicycle as a kid or canoeing and kayaking later.
  2. In a good contradance swing or a hambo or waltz, with the right partner. Ditto in a lively Greek line.
  3. At the opera. Or a great concert, meaning for me classical or jazz. Add to that singing harmony with others.
  4. In a “covered” meeting for worship.
  5. Cruising under sail.
  6. Atop a mountain.
  7. Lost in a great book.
  8. With friends over a great dinner. Sitting in my “smoking garden” during the summer, surrounded by friends, family, and good food and wine.
  9. Becoming half-awake, after a remarkable dream.
  10. Abed or not, in the throes of sex.

 

If you enter the woods reverentially

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

 Even a small grove or a well-maintained city park can deliver, but the full experience occurs once you get far enough away from the road that you’re beyond the litter.

Here are ten voices that reflect the wonder.

  1. “And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul.” … “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” — John Muir
  2. “Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.” — Hal Borland
  3. “If you walk into a forest, you hear all kinds of subtle sounds, but underneath there is an all-pervasive silence.” — Eckhart Tolle
  4. “It is said that the forest has a certain limit if you look straight ahead, but the sides are boundless.” — Riccardo Bozzi
  5. “All forests have their own personality.” — Charles de Lint
  6. “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.” — Henry David Thoreau
  7. “Anywhere which is in a forest, that’s my Zen place.” — Raveena Tandon
  8. “For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
  9. “It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
  10. “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

In the end, it is a mysterious process

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

And you wonder what’s behind those stories?

  1. “Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.” — Neil Gaiman
  2. “Everything you could ever think of has been written. That’s worth saying three times. You’re not going to think of a new idea, per se, as far as plot or story. What you can infuse it with is your voice, because while every story has been written, there is only one you. We are unique snowflakes. Be yourself. Tell the story about the teddy bear who can talk, but give it your voice. Don’t try to make it Corduroy or Winnie-the-Pooh. Make it your teddy bear. That’s what you can give the world — give the world your voice.” — Drew Daywalt
  3. “I never tired of learning about the stories of strong women and finding a compelling way to tell those stories. I love to discuss the themes in the book — cultural standards, resilience, overcoming odds, equality, breaking barriers — so even when I’m tired, I’m always energized by the opportunity to have meaningful conversations around this work.” — Haley Shapley
  4. “An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.” — Mark Twain
  5. “Acutely aware of the poverty of my means, language became an obstacle. At every page, I thought, ‘That’s not it.’ So I began again with other verbs and other images. No, that wasn’t it either. But what exactly was that it I was searching for? It must have been all that eludes us, hidden behind a veil so as not to be stolen, usurped and trivialized. Words seemed weak and pale.” — Elie Wiesel
  6. “The writing life is essentially one of solitary confinement — if you can’t deal with this you needn’t apply.” — Will Self
  7. “Dull, awful jobs like laundry, ironing and weeding suddenly feel like an urgent priority when you’re looking at a blank page that needs to be filled with a couple of thousand words before you can sit back and breathe deeply. … Writing is my joy, but not always; much of the time it is my job, and I have to write whether I feel like it or not, whether inspiration strikes or not. Th at is how you make a story unfold.” — Jane Green
  8. “Work on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet.” — Zadie Smith [Oh, but it makes quick research so much easier. I’ve definitely been relying on online dictionaries, for one.]
  9. “Sometimes the ideas just come to me. Other times I have to sweat and almost bleed to make ideas come. It’s a mysterious process, but I hope I never find out exactly how it works. I like a mystery, as you may have noticed.” — J.K. Rowling
  10. “But ‘constructive’ criticism irritates me. I do not object to being denounced, but I can’t abide being schoolmastered, especially by men I regard as imbeciles.” or “Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.” — H.L. Mencken

 

Among my personal fears

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

 Don’t we all have demons?

  1. My fear of jumping in — of doing it wrong, an unfamiliar act
  2. or of falling, physically
  3. or in debt
  4. or on my proverbial face
  5. fear of being subsumed or losing freedom, especially in relation to others
  6. or feeling shamed when I make a mistake
  7. being left holding the bag or unable to get to a plane or train in time
  8. of things breaking down or not doing what they should
  9. unable to find the right word, as in trying to describe a high-tech snafu or somebody’s name
  10. Though not so much now that I’m retired on a marginal income.

Being unlovable has somehow fallen away.

 

Reach for the heights

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

There were no mountains where I grew up, but even then, they rose in my imagination.

Here are ten related perspectives.

  1. “The summit is what drives us, but the climb itself is what matters.” — Conrad Anker
  2. “There’s no glory in climbing a mountain if all you want to do is to get to the top. It’s experiencing the climb itself — in all its moments of revelation, heartbreak, and fatigue — that has to be the goal.” — Karyn Kusama
  3. “I learn something every time I go into the mountains.” — Michael Kennedy
  4. “Going to the mountains is like going home.” — John Muir
  5. “Fresh air is as good for the mind as for the body. Nature always seems to be trying to talk to us as if she had some great secret to tell. And so she has.” — John Lubbock
  6. “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” — Henry David Thoreau
  7. “It is in the wild places, where the edge of the earth meets the corners of the sky, the human spirit is fed.” — Art Wolfe
  8. “Birds have always had the ability to bring me out of a dark space and provide relief in bad times.” — Jason Ward
  9. “Not just beautiful, though — the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me.” — Haruki Murakami
  10. “Embrace your local nature — it’s not necessarily going to look like these mountain-top moments. There’s so much more than just the baseline of what you think exists. You probably know the biggest park in your city, but you probably don’t know a park that’s within a mile of your house that would blow your mind.” — Pattie Gonia

 

Apart from fame or fortune

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Found myself thinking about pastors laboring much of Saturday to craft a sermon heard by a congregation and then likely forgotten, something that was a more common occurrence when I was growing up and everybody went to church on Sundays, back when Blue Laws were in effect. It was “important” and discussed over the dinner table.

It also had me also thinking about long letters, back in the day, the kind that are more likely to get published as a book today.

So here we are in an era when going viral or having blockbuster sales or ratings is the goal of so many. What a contrast to work that’s done in loving detail for a limited audience. Not just that Sunday sermon. A passionate teacher within a classroom. A doctor, just one patient at a time. A concert performed for a few hundred people. (Perhaps after months of rehearsals.) A single piece of art, to be prized by a single collector.

It sets a different measure of success, along with self-worth.

Now add to that jobs done one-to-one, say caretaker in a seniors residential facility. Or even gardening, with only the universe as a witness.

These don’t reflect in economics reports or, when they do, they’re discounted as marginal. Not so, I’ll argue. Besides, how much does joy weigh?

Performers at an open mic

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment
  1. J tasted colors, like a connoisseur of drama.
  2. S sharpened stones.
  3. R, who likes to listen, was fondest of springtime.
  4. H came after everyone had settled, hustled her book of bleeding tomatoes, and left early.
  5. E and T had a thing about penises.
  6. X told us he was trying some technical shit he didn’t think worked or was presenting an old or new piece or would like to score later that night.
  7. B marshaled his troops in a half-hour late, like a conquering army.
  8. P bolted, apparently peeved.
  9. W used a tambourine, needed a gimmick.
  10. Z, totally disorganized, spent more time flipping through books or journals trying to find pieces than he did actually reading.

And that’s before getting to musicians who spend the allotted time fussing with their gear and then expect to run longer.

Noah only had to take them two-by-two via an ark  

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

One of the struggles I had as a writer was in trying to keep abreast of the riches presented me in my wider world despite the upheavals of my professional life. Just as I would be getting centered into one landscape, I was yanked into another, as if being dropped into yet one more planet. The sources of inspiration kept changing faster than I could record them in any depth. It’s a wonder I didn’t drown.

Among the drafts I’ve uncovered in my journals review, the ones now available as free PDF downloads at my Thistle Finch digital bookstore, please consider these Chronicles: Buddha Notes, Endless Prairie, and Thunder Cloud.

Welcome to another Rabbit Hole on the Internet.

 

Don’t call them ‘starfish,’ OK?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Although they live underwater and are commonly called “starfish,” they are not true fish. Unlike fish, they do not have gills, scales, or fins.

Also, they move quite differently from fish, which have tails to propel themselves. Instead, sea stars use tiny tube feet for moving along.

Thus, since they are not classified as fish, scientists prefer to call them “sea stars.”

Now, for ten more points.

  1. They belong to the phylum Echinodermata, relating them to sand dollars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and sea lilies – about 7,000 species in all.
  2. Like many echinoderms, they have radial symmetry – their body parts are arranged around a central axis. Since many sea stars have five-point radial symmetry, ruling out an obvious left and right half, only a top side and a bottom side.
  3. Sea stars come in roughly 2,000 species ranging from tropical waters to the polar regions. Some dwell in the intertidal zone, while others live in the ocean depths.
  4. Not all sea stars have just five arms. Some species have many more, such as the sun star, which can have up to 40 arms.
  5. Most of their vital organs are housed in their arms. Some species can regenerate an entirely new sea star from just one arm and a portion of the star’s central disc, which is useful if a sea star is injured by a predator. It does, though, take about a year for an arm to grow back.
  6. Instead of blood, sea stars have a circulatory system made up primarily of seawater.
  7. Their appetite is bigger than their mouth, but no problem. A sea star’s mouth is on its underside, so when it catches food, the sea star will wrap its arms around the animal’s shell and pull it open just slightly. Then the sea star pushes its stomach through its mouth and into the bivalve’s shell, digests the animal, and slides its stomach back into its own body. This allows the sea star to eat larger prey than it would otherwise be able to fit into its tiny mouth.
  8. Sea stars do have eyes as a spot at the end of each arm. While a five-armed sea star has five eyes, the 40-armed sun star has 40. A sea star eye looks like a red spot. It doesn’t see much detail but it can sense light and dark.
  9. Rather than a brain, a sea star has a decentralized nervous system, with nerves extending into each arm, something that allows each arm to operate independently while coordinating with the others.
  10. Predators include birds, fish, and sea otters.

 

It has to be the story you’re drawn to

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

If you’re dreaming of writing a book, here’s some perspective.

  1. “Write what should not be forgotten.” — Isabel Allende
  2. “The story must strike a nerve in me. My heart should start pounding when I hear the first line in my head. I start trembling at the risk.” — Susan Sontag
  3. “Run your own race. Don’t worry about how fast someone else writes, how much another author makes, how many followers another author has. Write what makes you excited, and the enthusiasm will come through on the page.” — Christina Lauren
  4. “Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.” — Stephen King
  5. “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” — Toni Morrison
  6. “You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” — Madeleine L’Engle
  7. “I always write in the morning. I was pleased to hear lately that Rousseau, too, after he got up in the morning, went for a short walk and sat down to work. In the morning one’s head is particularly fresh. The best thoughts most often come in the morning after waking while still in bed or during the walk.” — Leo Tolstoy
  8. “The author, in his work, must be like God in the Universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.” — Gustave Flaubert
  9. “You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.” — William S. Burroughs
  10. “I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English — it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep.” — Mark Twain

Some of them seem to think it has to be book-length. Short and sweet can be compelling, too.