Bold Contrast

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Hydrangea with Pumpkin Leaves

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Point of View

As any writer of fiction knows, a moment can look radically different from each different point of view.

Here's my little-rubber-kayak level point of view of a "flat" lake.

Big paddle.

Tiny sailboat.

Significant-sized waves.

I like this particular viewpoint very much. But any time the view's not good, we likely have some option to stand at a slightly different place.

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Boldness Is Also in the Details

A great deal of what we do every day can have more meaning and pleasure if we do it in an imaginative, thoughtful, bold way.

Even, for example, a catalog of the most ordinary categories of products can be a delight. Check out the site for the Dutch company Hema. Chill out, breathe, and relax for the few seconds it takes to get rolling.

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Bold One-Woman Business Idea

A photographer I know, Artie Dixon, is offering her beautiful second home in the North Carolina mountains for week-long vacations for girlfriends--with tour guide to the sites of the area. So no maps, planning, or GPS is required.

The art-filled 1939 house in Little Switzerland is called Sky Blue, and its stone patio opens onto wide mountain vistas.

Three upcoming weeks have themes: Mountain Crafts, Greek Cooking (Artie's maiden name was Markatos), and Learning Photography. The area also has much to see and do: Penland School of Crafts, riding, hiking, waterfalls, the very groovy town of Asheville, Blue Ridge Parkway, the nearby mountain village.

The house is available for conventional rentals. But planned themed weeks with guide is a new twist. I like the idea and the enterprise involved.

It reminds me of my businessman father who turned his own outgrown tuxedos into a formal wear rental business that eventually wholesaled throughout the Southeast.

The questions to ask oneself in order to do something similar are:

*what do I have?
*what do I know?
*what can I offer?
*what do I have to offer that others need?

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Thanks!

My first-ever Big Bold Sale on my critiquing services, announced here three days ago, is getting a terrific and very gratifying response: lots of writers I haven't worked with before, some interesting and talented and quick-to-take-action folks from all over the country, have been touch.

Not every bold experiment works out well, as we all know. If they all did, there wouldn't be any risk or boldness involved.

So it's very gratifying when it goes well. And it encourages the next venture. Makes me want to try something truly daring, riding the momentum.

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Feel Fantastic

The new July issue of Success Magazine (the one with "GO FOR BOLD" in orange type on the cover) has a simple, effective idea in its list of action items on the last page.

Essentially it's this: in planning your day, identify the action that would make you feel fantastic to get done today. Do that first.

If you give it a shot, or already have experience with this, please let us know how it works for you.

I've sometimes done first "the thing I feel most nervous about." But that's such a negative way to code it. Even so, doing it makes me feel fantastic. I'm going to hang onto the "fantastic" label for this strategy.

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Red Chair, Blue Language

My office partner Carrie who owns the building is having the place spiffed up and repainted. In this process several issues of boldness have arisen.

Most noticeably, the front porch chair has gone from pale yellow to poppy red.

And then yesterday, a wee incident raised for me some thoughts about differences in style. Carrie and I both tend to overworry about whether we've stepped on someone's toes. I also see myself as a fairly mild-mannered sort.

I had gradually glazed out on the fact that there had been workmen all over the building for days. And then my copier/printer got snarled-up and refused to proceed. I went over to the rebellious thing, which sits just below a window, and tried to fix it, all the while unleashing a staccato of the harsh and obscene language I reserve for malfunctioning machines. Didn't realize that I was speaking within inches of the nose of the man working on the windowsill on the other side of the glass. After all, we'd been professionally ignoring each other quite successfully for days.

My response to this realization, not so bold: I turned around and walked out of the room. A little embarrassing, a lot funny: that was my reaction.

I told Carrie the amusing news. She thought it was funny too. Then she went out and assured the largely Spanish-speaking crew that all was well and they hadn't done anything wrong and that it was just me having an outburst over mechanical difficulties. She explained to me privately that they're a particularly sweet and sensitive bunch of guys.

I'm not accustomed to being on the raunchy side of such moments, especially with construction workers. Not used to being apologized for, or to finding such a small awkward moment increasingly hilarious. I'm not sure where the path of proper boldness lay here, but find it refreshing to be, for a change, the mouthy brash explosive one.

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My Big Bold Sale

In honor of our recession, I'm having my first-ever sale. Here's the deal:


I’m offering a June-only reduced fee for all my manuscript and consulting services for writers.

I've cut my rates by 40% for the next four weeks.

For critiques on manuscripts, fiction and nonfiction, and for consultations on the writing business, I’m charging 40% off the rates listed on my website. Minimums are also lowered 40%.

Writers I've worked with as clients have published with major book houses including Simon & Schuster, Wiley, Workman, and St. Martin's, as well as smaller presses, literary journals, magazines (Gourmet, Newsweek) and newspapers. (Results not typical)

Feel free to tell your students, colleagues, and writer friends about this one-time opportunity for ridiculously low-cost, high-quality literary criticism. A recession is no time to hold back on creativity.

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Getting Up Off the Sofa

Went out kayaking today before hitting the computer, and now I feel wonderful. Those disciplined souls who get themselves to run in the mornings are on to something; they do get their reward for popping/dragging out of bed early.

This was my first "serious" paddle of the season. I did go out once in boots and raingear before it was warm enough to plant, but then when gardening weather started, I decided to specialize and have spent my spare time in the dirt. But as of June 1, tomorrow, there's no point in planting anything in North Carolina; too hot.

Perfect time to break out my little inflatable Bold Boat and hit bright, sunny Jordan Lake under a gorgeous sky. A lot of sailboats were out. The whole scene looked happy. And now I have the triple endorphin rush of having exercised, been outdoors, and been on the water.

I need to remember such moments in a visceral way in order to get myself into motion again next weekend. Because even fun things can take some effort, some wrestling with equipment, etc.

Lake/boat pictures to come, BTW

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Get a View from the Trees

Bold idea: Live up in the trees. Perhaps because it's the leafy season, this idea is very appealing to me...and to others, because I keep seeing it show up on-line and off. I live in the woods (in a house) surrounded by trees. And we have a tree platform, which can help to give a person perspective. I still like the idea of Swiss Family Robinson, remember the movie images of the house as well. I climbed trees occasionally as late as my undergraduate years. Maybe it's not too late.

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"Like Streams in the Desert"

Here's a boldness break of a rather different sort than the laughing Buddha on the train earlier this week. (A boldness break is a brief time-out that re-juices imagination and creative courage.)

"Like Streams in the Desert" is an orchestral piece composed in honor of the 50th anniversary of Israel by my friend-from-first-grade Meira Warshauer. She and I got to be buddies out at the swings at recess. In second grade when she won the drawing to take home the room-size Santa Claus mural the class had pasted together, she gave it to me; her family did Hannukah and not Christmas.

When I saw in my email the note about her work on video on Youtube, it was holidays all over again, 9:54 seconds worth of her music while the camera soars over water-in-the-desert images from artist Shoshanna Brombacher, who in this work reminds me simultaneously of Chagall, Van Gogh, and Georgia O'Keefe. (Wow, that sentence covers a lot of territory. Oh, the pleasures of editorless blogging!)

Meira's music is performed here by Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra on a video developed by Michael Bregman. The CD of her Torah-inspired music is available from Albany Records, this piece commissioned and premiered by Neal Gittleman and the Dayton Philharmonic.

For the musically literate, here's a review: "spiritually ecstatic, beautifully felt... representation of [the] mystical creative process." If you're in the mood for a stream in a desert, go listen and watch for a few minutes. It's profoundly refreshing.

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The Masks Fear Wears

In answer to: "how do we hide our fears?" a question posed in the comments by Debbie, I did a bit of research. I suspect there are many more items that could be added.

*Misplaced anger is a method that gives the illusion of control and safety. More on this from psychology professor Jennifer Freyd of the University of Oregon

*Pretense or pretentiousness. See Sarah Stewart comment on Intuitive Roots.

*Addictions and reflexive habits.

*Emotional numbness.

*"One of the worst ways we hide fear is by hiding behind our Bibles and theology. This happens when knowing all the right answers and being able to correct others becomes more important then knowing and loving God and knowing and loving people." From The Firehouse Church in Bremerton, Washington.

*Tension, muscular hyperreadiness.

*Stereotyping, rigid thinking about "the enemy" From The Center for Media Literacy

*General controlling behavior

*Phobias, replacing one fear with another. The Acadia Hospital

*Compulsive behaviors that give the illusion of order

*Anonymity

*"Going along"



"The best way to deal with fear is to stop pretending to be fearless. Paradoxically, the more you deny fear, the more likely it is to dominate you. Tune into your fear, give it a voice, enter into a dialogue with it, do what you can to reduce the risk, and you will find yourself more able to take risks....Behind fear lies excitement." From David Cornfield atThe Creative Edge

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Boddhisatva in Metro

Watch how this guy transforms the dour crowd in a subway car. You'd think, at the start of the film, that these people were on their way to their execution. Not so. The film is 6 minutes and 47 seconds that will embolden your day.

Made by Belgian director Christine Rabette in 2003. The actual title is Merci! The Boddhisatva title was added (in Russian) by whoever put it on Youtube.

Note: a boddhisatva is someone who has attained release from the cycle of rebirths but chooses to live human lives in order to help others.





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Post-Memorial Day Post

I'm not good military material: don't care for violence, hierarchies, dressing alike, guns, or having a boss.

But hearing the stories of war yesterday on NPR stirred me, as it was supposed to. I thought about soldiers much of the day.

One of the things that struck me is how many of them think back to their wartimes as both the best and worst parts of their lives. The good part, it seems, was the intensity--the life-or-death seriousness--and the bonds with comrades, the willingness to risk literally taking a bullet for another.

Being whole-heartedly a part of something huge feels good to people. Acting with courage feels good, even on the home front, when it may seem that the stakes are smaller.






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Having To Wait

The dreadful condition of waiting, not-acting, and not-being-able-to-find-out is a hard one for me and for a lot of folks. I just ran across a list of stupid, energy-wasting things we tend to do to cope with this situation on "Tolerating Uncertainty."

1 Seeking excessive reassurance from others
2 List-making
3 Double checking
4 Refusing to delegate
5 Procrastination/avoidance
6 Distraction

These certainly are familiar to me. I saw this list and thought: Busted! I'm particularly fond of numbers 2 through 5. I think there's some value for me in seeing this list. It identifies a pattern I can be more careful to avoid.





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Getting Rid of the Fear of Success

"It is often when our futures look brightest that our resolve crumbles and we veer off course." From the Daily Om, "Boldly Growing Into Your Own Fear of the Future"

So what do we do about this? The Daily Om advises: Replaces negative thoughts with encouraging facts. "Tell yourself that the inevitability of your success is based not on luck or a universal mistake but on your already established talents, drive, imagination, and inner strength. Each time you overcome your fear of the future, you chip away at its very foundations. Eventually, you will clear a gap through which you can gaze upon the future with unhindered optimism."

I've never felt I had any fear of success. But I know that I can get agitated when more than one suitor, personal or professional, is competing for my attention. I also think that this kind of fear hides in the basement and sends obstacles up to the first floor. So I do think it's important to pay attention to whether such a fear might be getting in the way.




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Gutsy Honeysuckle

Yes, I know that honeysuckle is considered an environmental threat because it overwhelms native plants and a lot of gardeners rip it out.

However, I love it. It's beautiful and it smells good and it brings back lovely memories from my childhood.

I'm blogging about it because, though I see the problems, I admire its tenacity and ability to gracefully flourish.







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Elizabeth Edwards Sets a Good Example

Here's to Elizabeth Edwards for speaking up and writing her book!

Her whole life has been made public and has been discussed all over the country by others, including John Edwards. I'm astonished at the critics who think that she should not weigh in on the subject herself.

She has done so in a manner that seems to me honest and dignified. I think it sets a better example for her kids than would hiding out from the whole world.







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Cayce on Intuition

From Edgar Cayce, "the 'sleeping prophet,' the 'father of holistic medicine,' and the most documented psychic of the 20th century":

"The more and more each is impelled by that which is intuitive, or the relying upon the soul force within, the greater, the farther, the deeper, the broader, the more constructive may be the result."
Edgar Cayce Reading 792-2 (This quote from the site of Melissa Alvarez, metaphysical writer.)

Cayce left not only thousands of readings and the health advice therein, but a center for continuing study at Virginia Beach (good choice of locations): Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.)

I've been to A.R.E. a couple of times, which has a spa run on Caycean teaching, with excellent massages, and a terrific metaphysical library, speakers and classes, etc.




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