This too shall pass.

Dear readers and writers,

I have been feeling a bit panicked about taking up teaching writing at SDSU along with my three MFA courses there and the first year seminar I'm teaching at my home institution.  So, after working on some of my course materials,  I opened a pdf of Writing Your Way Home by Fiona Robyn, hoping to find a little peace and happiness.  Here's the first thing that struck my eye: "Writing is an immediate mirror: it reports back to you. You can't fool anyone, especially yourself. Here you are the doer and the done, the worldly person and the monk. It's an opportunity to unite the inner and the outer, both being the same anyway, only in illusion two. A great challenge, a great practice.” ~Natalie Goldberg"

I took a workshop with Natalie Goldberg in Sedona, AZ two years ago, and it slowed down my "monkey mind" so I could connect with important deeper ideas.  So, as I read on, I looked for more ways Fiona might use Goldberg's ideas.  And, soon enough, I found this: "Acknowledging that we don't always know who we are (or what we're capable of) reminds us of our ultimate transience. Everything is impermanent, including our own selves. The writer and Zen practitioner Natalie Goldberg says this 

very well: “To have an intimate connection with the world …[is]… to know about its passing.” 

Ah, yes.  At times of great joy, accept and soak it in because it won't stay with you forever.  At times of great stress, know too that it's not going to stay.  Someday, you may wish you had so much to think about.  But whatever you have, the moment is precious.  This too shall pass.

That's another memory.  My daughter has that phrase tattooed on her foot where she can look down and see it, but it isn't all that obvious to people she passes each day. When I heard from her why she had it, it made me want to cry, but it's a very Zen idea, I think.  Give up the bad, give up the good, but don't give up the moment without seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling, hearing its essence.  If you pass this way again, it will not be the same.  The molecules won't be the same, the people won't be the same, the animals won't be the same, you won't be the same. This "now" is all we have.

cheers,

Laura

Photo credit: Monarch butterfly in May, Wikipedia Commons with thanks.

The Most Beautiful Thing...What's Yours?

If someone asked you to describe your "most beautiful thing" what would you choose?  A thing? Say a fire opal or a brilliant sapphire?  A length of sari silk?

Or maybe an experience like a sunset?  My sister and father collected sunsets while I was growing up.  They sat on the front porch steps rapt to see each one, every night.  I enjoy them too, and often my husband and I will drive  to the West to savor a particularly spectacular sunset.

Or, would you choose something more ephemeral, an emotion, an interpersonal interaction, the way your child looks at ice cream?  The puppy's adoring look?  The way your lover looks into your eyes?

I have to choose for April 24, since Fiona Robyn is having a Blogspash to celebrate her new book, The Most Beautiful Thing, and this blog will be one of many connected in that flow of ideas.  I have a choice in mind...come back on April 24 and check it out!  Meanwhile, go to Writing Our Way Home (click here) to learn more.  And consider buying Fiona's ebook.  It's a lovely exploration of the mind of a young man who has a lot to learn about relationships but is learning how to let that happen.

best,
Laura
Photo credit: Creative Commons, with thanks.