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Keep following your bliss

11/29/2021

If you follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say follow your bliss and don’t be afraid and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Joseph Campbell’s follow your bliss comes up every year in one of my daily readings. Without question it is my most favorite non-religions quote. There is something extremely positive about it. Bliss is good that happens!!
As you read what Campbell offers, expand upon the details. What bliss have you followed? Who did you meet in that field of bliss? What doors did they open to you? And, keep in mind that you also open doors to others. You don’t know who they are, and very likely you will never know. It doesn’t matter. When we follow our bliss, we open bliss up to others!

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Thoughts and prayers again

11/27/2021

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I’m considering keeping the ‘thoughts and prayers’ theme in the title of my writing project, but with a subtle shift to the first person: I’ll Keep You in My Thoughts and Prayers. I don’t want to give in to the political considerations of the phrase because for many they speak it from the heart and from their deep desire to show compassion. Caring people want to discern what it might mean when they think or pray about another. They know they are onto something meaningful and powerful. For sure I do. If hearing what others believe helps me, I figure it probably helps others.
In that light, I plan to gather together what what men and women through the ages have written on the subject.

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Writing project title

11/20/2021

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Well, so much for Keep Me in Your Thoughts and Prayers as the working title for my writing project. The phrase seemed inclusive to me until I googled it . Not inclusive! Completely political! I’m sure some people use it seriously, taking it at face value, thinking and praying for others. But in the political arena it can be code for avoiding action. For example someone says they care about people effected by gun shootings, but then does nothing to mitigate the situation. For my purposes it is a throw away comment in the same category as ‘have a nice day.’
My writing project is still a go, but discerning the title is a work in progress. Each book I have written began with an idea, and then I started writing. The title came forth early in the writing from a variety of sources: Joyful Learning was the phrase of my mentor, Don Holdaway; my editor started referring to The Teacher Book and For Reading Out Loud; Thinking and Learning Together was from the mouths of my first grade students; Shared Reading was never in question; and Very Grateful, from my mom, who used that phrase often, and led her life with gratitude.

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New writing project

11/17/2021

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I’m about to start my newest writing project. Don’t know how it will evolve, what format it might take, who might read it… Maybe it will go no further than a blog post. If it takes a publishable form, most likely I’ll do it myself, using the features of Microsoft Word or Pages (which comes with this computer). I’m thinking, pamphlet form because publishing a book is a huge undertaking. I know that. I’m into easy and speed. So my goal is to create some kind of finished product by the end of 2021.
Working title: Keep Me in Your Thoughts and Prayers. Stay tuned. Hmm, I hope I can carry out my part of the bargain and give you something to stay tuned to! Hmm, that promise may help me get going and keep going.

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I'm a project person. Are you?

11/15/2021

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Florence, Autumn 2019

I’m a project person. We all have projects going, but as a project person I view everything I do as a project, My life is a project! When events and situations arise, they become projects. As a kid I was always creating projects. My bedroom (and closet) was full of them. Projects became the invisible framework for the way I led my life.
   I’ve never discussed the term project person with anyone, much less read about the every day mental process that a project person personally goes through. I might see a final project or read about some of the process that went into it, but that’s not what I’m considering as I write this. I’m trying to unravel how process people craft and live their lives. All I have is myself as a model. In fact, I’m making this all up as I write. Ah, a writing project. Thought and language.
As a project person I notice that I don’t lead a haphazard, random, unthought out, or disconnected life. My project start with my morning routine, and continues as I visit church people, send emails, write this blog, read, do a jigsaw puzzle, and prepare dinner—all under the rubric of daily routine. These daily routine projects, however, aren’t enough to keep me from feeling in disarray, purposeless, or bored. I need to produce a tangible project that others can benefit from, that can make a positive difference to people beyond my circle of friends and acquaintance.
   Which lead me to a current project idea that is moving around in my mind, body, spirit. A writing project, which doesn’t surprise me, for writing is often what I turn toward. I’m going to post this and get writing.
   P.S. My best writing place, need I remind you, is in Florence.

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Journey not a battle

11/8/2021

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I just came home from getting my booster. Notice that I did not use the word ‘shot’. I wasn’t shot, nor was that the intention of the kind woman who administered the life-giving injection.
How easy it is for war metaphors to slip into our speech without notice. Recently, a friend who is going through cancer treatments wrote that she was not in a battle with cancer!
Rather she was on a journey and treating cancer was part of the current path she was on.
Life is a journey, not a battle. Think about that! On a journey we experience ups and downs, but we have choices and our goal is always positive. A battle implies war, the goal negative. My friends comment encourages me to renew my commitment to avoid those war metaphors.

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Remembering the saints in our lives

11/6/2021

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You may have noticed a larger than usual time gap between my last post and this one. I haven’t taken a hiatus from writing. In fact I’ve been busy writing vignettes of the seven church members who died since the beginning of the pandemic when we stopped having in-person memorials services. Tomorrow I will share these at our All Saints Sunday Service.
    I’ve loved putting together recollections from family members and friends, snippets from published obituaries, and memories of my own (for I was privileged to know each person). Each died during covid, but not from covid. Six were in their nineties, the oldest being 99, the youngest, 79; four were men, three women.
   One challenge was to keep each vignette to between 350 and 400 words. The other challenge was to select three words that succinctly described each of these saints.
Here is the array of words that came forth: dependable, organized, ‘a good man’, kind, gentle, full of integrity, optimistic, determined, grateful, unfazed, forward-thinking, positive, loyal, honest, a gentleman, sense of humor, optimistic, fun-loving, 100% dedicated, reliable, loyal.
   I trust some of these apply to people you know, and yes, even to you.

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Keep following your bliss

Thoughts and prayers again

Writing project title

New writing project

I'm a project person. Are you?

Journey not a battle

Remembering the saints in our lives

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