between two fires
Since we've just been talking about monkey minds and about attention span related to sentence length, it's only natural that the word of the week should be
attention
If we take a look at what we're saying when we use that word, it'll come clear that really there can be no such thing as attention deficit; it's all a matter of quality.
Written by Ela Harrison
on Friday, 16 January 2015.
Posted in Blogging, All About Words, Mindfulness
a tour of this blog (as opposed to a blog tour)
Happy New Year, one and all!
I'm always saying that January 1st is an arbitrary time for a new start (e.g. back in this very old post).
But it is a new calendar year (how long will it take you to remember to put "15" instead of "14" when writing the date?), and it's also a time when there's a lot of collective energy around renewal, resolution, review, referral.
Blogs are great representatives for this blend of review and resolution, looking backward and forward. Unlike a static website, a blog looks ahead and to the past, and it links and refers to and interacts with other spaces, online and elsewhere. Like the present moment, it's a portal to connection.
This particular blog is for me, of course--many things simply don't exist for me unless I write about them--but principally it is for you who are reading this. The more I follow my path and practices, the more I realize that everything I do is an offering and a gift. Here's some of what I'm offering--in 2015, today, here.
Written by Ela Harrison
on Thursday, 01 January 2015.
Posted in Blogging, Literary Citizenship, Mindfulness
process not product
In creating a blog, in performing a gong, in writing a book, in planting gardens, in the march of days, nights, seasons, there's repetition everywhere. What do you associate with repetition?
- "practice makes perfect"
- conscious replacement of memes
- focus, mindfulness, creation of second nature
- "fake it till you make it"
- tedium
- "why do I have to sweep the floor/eat/pull weeds when I'll have to do it all again later?"
- So many words I could pick for "word of the week" here ! To push against the negative aspects of repetition, I chose "rote."
Written by Ela Harrison
on Monday, 29 December 2014.
Posted in All About Words, Literary Citizenship, Mindfulness
creating a framework for spontaneity
It's the great paradox. "The harder I work, the luckier I seem to get." No one seems to know who was the first person to say that, but it rings true. Likewise: "The muse is more likely to show up if you sit at your desk ready for her."
Likewise, when you're not depleted and deprived, you're better able to respond to emergencies.
When in tune with the cycles going on around you, and when you create your own cycles, you're laying the groundwork for liftoff. If you know what your goals are, you'll see your way clearer toward achieving them. If you don't know what they are, you'll see clearer toward identifying them.
That's what the 100-day Gong is for. Here are some resources that will help. (Edited once, and likely to be edited more as people suggest to me resources that have worked for them.)
Written by Ela Harrison
on Wednesday, 17 December 2014.
Posted in Ela Recommends, Mindfulness
redefining "going by the book"
Back when, books were regarded as authoritative and unchangeable. Difference between one copy and another was "corruption," and scholars would quibble endlessly as to which was the true version.
Hence, "going by the book," "the rule book," "handbook" (which you keep close by so that you know exactly how to do something), "the Authorized version." "Bible" simply means "book," and there are still people who take every word of it literally, and who break out in hives at the idea that there are many more texts that could be legitimately included between its covers.
The static book infects all of our thinking.
What about bookmakers? Perhaps that's a Britishism. Digression:...
Written by Ela Harrison
on Saturday, 13 December 2014.
Posted in All About Words, Literary Citizenship
there's no such thing as "start at the beginning"
My beautiful new blog is still a new blog, and I'm still learning its outlines and characters. A couple days ago, I discovered, quite by accident, that there was a comment box--with comments in it awaiting my approval!
Comments are now live; please post comments!
And so, with humble apologies to those commenters, this post is all about comments, the word and the abstract object.
Written by Ela Harrison
on Friday, 12 December 2014.
Posted in All About Words, Literary Citizenship
how the modern-day book scene is more like Homer's
My eleven-year old self assumed as a matter of course that by the time I was a "grown-up" I'd have published several books. In dark times, I've summoned up her spirit to belabor me because that's not the case. Would she have been content with the mere handful of poems, essays, book reviews, one or two academic articles, and hundreds of blog posts published?
I appeal to her mercy: things are different now. She'd never heard of the Internet--makes me sound like a dinosaur, and I'm only in my thirties! Even aside from the book-like nature of a good blog, the world of books has changed.
Written by Ela Harrison
on Thursday, 11 December 2014.
Posted in All About Words, Literary Citizenship