Self Care and Daily Habits

Writer on a roll...That's what it feels like when I get going on a writing spree. There are those days when I don't seem to get much accomplished. There are other days where I am focused on business, personal or professional, and then there are days when I get caught up in outside activities or I'm on a trip and my 'daily routine' falls apart for the sake of being present where I am.  Since becoming a full time writer and photographer, based primarily in my home office and studio, I have found it challenging to separate the different parts of my life.  Something always seems to suffer at the expense of the other. 

Today is a good example.  The reason poet Robert Burns' quotation "the best laid schemes of mice and men/often go awry" is still quoted today is because it is still true. Universal in the sense that we humans seem to think that simply by making plans, those plans will turn out. And, more often than not, they don't. Or at least they don't turn out the way we imagine they will. Nevertheless, we strive, we bear on, relentlessly trying to make things work. And then we get engaged in something that really speaks to our heart, and the plan disappears, time slows down, and we go deep into the well of imagination, inspiration, and ideas where we let ourselves go. We drift, saunter, float, and ride the rapids of our dreamworld and intellectual cornucopia pulling ideas together into sentences, seeking meaning and connections between our disparate thoughts, and sitting dazed and stunned, our hands riding across keyboards or following the path of the pen across a page, sending thought into ideas formed in paragraphs and stanzas, to be read, recited, sung, or acted somewhere beyond this moment. 

Yes, getting up with a plan of action for the day, THE LIST, my day goes something like this:

Wake at 7:00
Do my Morning Pages (journal where I record dreams, ideas, and make lists)
List for the Day:  
Make a cup of tea.
Write
Go to yoga at 10:15
Return from yoga by 12:30
Have lunch
Do the laundry
Work on framing of photographs
Housework. 
ETC.

That's the schedule for the daylight hours.

It's now 1:20 and I have just completed the first big article of the day, and as you can see, am inspired to write this blog post. Nothing that was on my schedule has been done, except the writing. For today was one of those days when sitting down to write, I just wrote, and wrote, and wrote. I was writing on self care, and coincidently, not taking any of my own advice.  My appetite has disappeared, though I did have breakfast about 9:00 (yogurt, fruit, and cinnamon).  I took care of a couple of pieces of business, but other than that, I missed the bus to go to yoga, and it was too late by then to walk or call a friend for a ride. I kept writing, and forgot to heed the call of my own body...hunger. Of course you're not supposed to let yourself go into the hunger mode...it's not a good thing. And stretching and taking breaks (the main reason I have a daily yoga practice); hasn't happened yet.  My hand and wrist are beginning to scream. Doing some wrist and hand stretches and releases helps, but stopping and limiting the amount of time spent at the computer is necessary. I know all this! I've suffered the consequences of not taking care of my hands and arms, but when writing, it's just so hard to stop myself.

So that said, I will now take the much-needed break, eat something nutricious, take a shower, and then a long walk (or the other way around) and read, garden, and take a nap later. That THE LIST for the afternoon that's left. Will I follow the list? Who knows?  I may let you know, but those of you who write, sculpt, paint, carve, shoot, or design know what I mean. In theology this is called chiros time...the time where we get lost and disappear into the moment, the time that stands still, the time that holds us captive. Chronos time, the lateral time that we mark with clocks, watches, sundials, digital announcements, and calendars...that is the time that holds us captive, that orders our lives, that allows us to make plans, create schemes, and set off at the proper time to catch our train, plane, ship, or the perfect opportuntiy...perchance to slip again into Chiros time to create and get lost in space. 

For today, there is a Grand Trine in Water Signs, and the muses are about, waiting to jump into our energy fields to nudge us to another journey, to another survey of the imagination. Calling us to answer the call of Intuition, Imagination, and Insight. Calling us to create, to make life more beautiful, and to share something lovely with those who seldom slip out of Chronos into the Serendipity Pool of Life. Let yourself slip away.

Restless Sea                                                                                                              Catherine Al-Meten

I probably should post a photo of the pile of laundry that has stacked up, but even now in my photographs, I remain, in Chiros Time, lost is space.

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: End of the Line

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: End of the Line: Deconstruction                                                                                                                            ...

Ode to July, Past, Present, Future

Afterglow                                                                          Catherine Al-Meten

Ode to July, Past, Present, Future

July 1, 2013

Iced tea, lemon ade

Vichyssoise, Gazpacho

Lazy summer days.

Bonfires, barbecues

picnics, softball games

Lazy summer evenings.

Barefoot walks in the sand,

rafting streams and wild rapids

Quiet talks on the veranda.

Sleep outs in the backyard,

Swimming beneath the stars,

Time stops in memories.

Long walks to cool libraries

Chores at home, trips afar

Changing pace of life.

Swimming beyond the breakers,

Riding a wave to shore

Feeling the warm sun on my body.

Scent of suntan lotion, seaweed

Chocolate malts, bean bandits from Don Juan’s

Friends at ease on beach towels beside me in the sand.

Sparklers, lighting the patio and our spirits

Indoor picnics to escape the heat

Twilight Zone marathons.

Picking strawberries, making ice cream

Fishing in the bay or from a pier

Enjoying crab louis, a game of hearts, and simply being near.

Reunions, reveries, long talks and sleepless nights.

Falling asleep in sleeping bags by fires

Waking to tree tops edging the morning sky.

Long drives up the interstate

Vapor lock, iced cold cola in tiny bottles

Hours of counting box cars go by.

Washing windows, cleaning out rooms

Painting and finding long hours to read

Baking cakes, listening to Mother’s stories.

Sleeping round a pool, 

watching for Ufos in the night sky

Wondering about the future.

Reading Dostoevsky, Uris, and Du Maurier

Watching The Blob from behind my fingers

Escaping into fantasy, history, the past.

The Source, Forever Amber, Crime and Punishment

War and Peace, Gifts from the Sea, Mr. Wicker’s Window

Treasure Island, and biographies of all the lost queens.

Summer camps and campers

Foray into self discovery, apart from known to unknown

Gazing across vistas of endless mountain ranges.

Riding along steep mountain trails on a painted pony

Sleeping beneath the stars

Casting my lot to the life of a gypsy. 

Lazy mornings waking to white sheets and sunlight

Swimming, and paddling ‘round Avalon harbor

Watching the ship leave harbor, hearing the bells of

St. Catherine’s.

Ship rides between the Island and mainland

Rocking decks, sea spray by the lifeboats

Flying fish and dolphins in the moonlight.

Steaming up car windows

Driving all night for adventure

Sailing at midnight back to land.

Peaceful haven in Father’s garden

Safe and comfort in Mother’s kitchen

Seeking sanctity in a room of my own.

Velvet days, nights along the river

Fluid, constant flow of life

Quiet, peaceful sacred life.

Surrounded by tall stands of pines, yew, and alder

Summer painting evening sky’s glory

Salmon, birds, people flowing back and forth on the tide.

Fewer clothes, more skin

Everything a’flowering

Breath of life alive, warm, immediate.

July--the middle of everything

raw and sacred 

naked in the wind, 

alive in the moment

taste life’s pleasures

feel the richness, freedom,

of being wholly real.

July promises hope

less of everything

greater joy in the essence

of simple, basic, pleasures.

Casting light on each

task as if it were a 

miracle.

And of course, it is.

Catherine Al-Meten

Copyright@2013

Writers inspiring writers

Evening on the Rise                                                                                                                                           Catherine Al-Meten

How writers open doors to other writers.

Writers write, and they also read. Through our reading we are influenced by other writers, and Madeleine L’Engle, the author of The Swiftly Tilting Planet, A Wrinkle in Time, and other works written for young people, inspired me and a whole class of 13-year olds over 25 years ago. L’Engle referred to some of the poems of Henry Vaughan in her books, and that let me to discover who Vaughan was. Because his poetry spoke to me so directly, I had to know more about him. He has remained one of my favorite sources of inspiration both as a reader and a writer. 

Henry Vaughan lived from 1621-1695. He was born in Wales and had a twin brother, Thomas who was a philosopher and alchemist.  Henry and his brother both attended Oxford University, and Henry left Oxford after two years to study law in London. By the time he was in his early 20s, Henry had married Catherine Wise, and they had three daughters. In 1655, after Catherine died, Henry married her younger sister, Elizabeth with whom he had four more children.

Henry Vaughan wrote poetry, essays, and literary criticism over the course of his life. He is considered a metaphysical poet, and much of his poetry focused on the relationship between humanity and God. Vaughan viewed this relationship as a restless and constant  search to find harmony through the connection with the Divine. He is viewed as a visionary rather than a realist, and was greatly influenced by George Herbert, another metaphysical, visionary poet of the 16th Century.  He says of Herbert’s influence, “a blessed man whose holy life and verse made many pious converts of whom I am the least.”

When we read and when we share a poem, a book, or an essay with someone else, we never know how we might pass along some kernel of hope, some beam of light, or some comfort to someone who will use that gift to create something even more beautiful. As we continue our journey through poetry this month, dig deep, search high and low, and discover something special to enjoy and pass along to others.  Here is a a piece by Henry Vaughan that I believe encapsulates the metaphysical poets at their best.

MAN.
by Henry Vaughan

        WEIGHING the stedfastness and state 
Of some mean things which here below reside, 
Where birds, like watchful clocks, the noiseless date 
        And intercourse of times divide, 
Where bees at night get home and hive, and flow'rs 
              Early, as well as late, 
Rise with the sun and set in the same bow'rs ; 

2.

        I would—said I—my God would give 
The staidness of these things to man ! for these 
To His divine appointments ever cleave, 
        And no new business breaks their peace ; 
The birds nor sow nor reap, yet sup and dine ; 
              The flow'rs without clothes live, 
Yet Solomon was never dress'd so fine. 

3.

        Man hath still either toys, or care ; 
He hath no root, nor to one place is tied, 
But ever restless and irregular 
        About this Earth doth run and ride. 
He knows he hath a home, but scarce knows where ; 
              He says it is so far, 
That he hath quite forgot how to go there. 

4.

        He knocks at all doors, strays and roams, 
Nay, hath not so much wit as some stones have, 
Which in the darkest nights point to their homes, 
        By some hid sense their Maker gave ; 
Man is the shuttle, to whose winding quest 
              And passage through these looms 
God order'd motion, but ordain'd no rest. 

Kristen Lamb's Blog: How Being Tired Can Make You a Better Writer

A great article for writers who are having trouble getting started, getting back to, or getting onto the next stage of  their Work in Progress.  When we have a large project, fiction or non-fiction, we need reminders like this to help put things in perspective. I highly recommend reading her article, and subscribing to her blog if you are a writer who wants to get down to business.

 Visit Kristen Lamb's Blog to read her article, How Being Tired Can Make You a Better Writer.

Being a author is more than writing

Recently, I was in a local bookstore chatting with the bookstore owner. She was complaining about a man who had come into the store announcing that he was the author of a book,  and he wanted her to promote and sell his books.  The bookstore owner was flabberghasted by the nerve of the writer who seemed to have no idea what his responsibilities were as an author. 

This morning while reading one of the writer's blogs I subscribe to, I read a thread labeled, "Do I need to write a press release?"  Made me wonder if any of the writers who regularly post on some of the blogs for writers, ever do their homework?  There's more to being a writer or an author than writing. 

Writing is a passion, a craft, an art, and an accomplished skill.  While we may seem to be 'born to write', all truly accomplished writers have learned the skills and rules of their craft. Excellent writers hone their skills, edit, write and rewrite, and really good writers learn to select good editors. 

Good writers read. Reading good literature helps a writer understand how to use language. Reading allows us to expand our knowledge, awareness, and reading exposes us to a wide range of good and bad writing, if we allow it to. At the end of the day, reading is my companion, and I am inspired by those who delve deeply into other writers for inspiration, understanding, or the sheer joy of immersing themselves in that writer's body of work. One good friend of mine is reading the complete works of Marcel Proust. Another reads and rereads the works of Jane Austen on a regular basis.  I reread Man's Search for Meaning and Gifts from the Sea regularly, but Shakespeare and  poets including Henry Vaughn, W.B.Yeats, William Blake, and contemporary women poets including Mary Oliver, Alice Walker, Wislawa Szymborska , Louise Erdrich, and Annie Dillard call me. 

Poetry, mystery, history, psychology, spirituality and religion, even politics and geography call me to dig deep and read. Learning, ongoing learning is another aspect of becoming a good writer. We begin writing from that which we know, but our writing is enriched by what we add to the basic outline or inspiration of our work. As Louise Erdrich said flippantly or not in an interview when asked by the New York Times reporter, "What advice would you give to other writers", she responded, "Take notes."  I carry small notebooks, large notebooks, spiral notebooks and bound notebooks, with me wherever I go.  A small spiral tablet in the pocket of my jeans or a stack of index cards in my jacket pocket, provide me with the necessary paper to take notes, jot down an idea, record a thought or experience, or remember the name and author of a good book. Paper napkins, the back of a book jacket, or any other scrap of paper can hold a treasure of ideas and recorded messages from walks, talks, or musings over cups of coffee and bagels. 

Copious notetaking and research is a major part of my writing experience. Whether I learned this from my long academic career, or whether this is analagous to bringing in the sheaves, harvesting the crops, and storing up for winter, for a writer, gathering ideas, thoughts, information about our subjects, descriptions for our settings, or photographs, sketches, and trips to refresh our memories are part of our writing process. 

Writers each have a style that suits the purpose of doing the background and research to gird and enhance the quality of our work. Also true is that each writer has a way they work best. For some like writer, Anne Dillard, the process is disciplined and scheduled, 

"A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections at a time."

Writing is a practice, and by that I mean if writing is to result in a finished product, it is more than the whimsical delight of putting pen to paper or tapping our ideas across a digital screen.  Writing can indeed be a whimsical delight, however, it must go beyond and around that if we are to arrive at a destination. To get a book written and completed, then published and marketed, it first has to be done as well as it possibly can be.  The practice of writing is written about endlessly. Everyone has an idea about how to develop as a writer. We are fortunate to live in a time when at least some want to support other writers develop, grow, and succeed in their goal to write and publish. One of the things we now need to do, is to unplug ourselves from the screen filled with blog after blog of advice, the writing group that endlessly critiques and challenges our writing spirit, and the endless number of distractions that may enhance your writing practice when done in small doses, but tend to become obssessions that take our attention, time, and body away from the task of writing.  Writers write, and a writing practice is in large part about dedicating time, space, large parts of our life and commitment of body, mind, and spirit to the task and art of writing.

What does a writing practice look like? Mine consists of establishing a routine and a set of priorities for what I intend to work on. I make a list of priorities, and then build my day's and week's work around that. When I have a large project, for example a book, I set tasks and priorities for the long haul of the project. 

While working on a big project, I always have a number of other projects going on. I learned a process many years ago about first making a list of those task, goals, and projects I want to work on. Next, I sort those projects according to the level of urgency or need. For example, if I want to enter an essay in a writing contest, I have an imposed deadline, and I work around that. In my writing practice, there has to be room for spontaneity.  I might be more productive with larger projects if I weren't so enthralled by some of the more fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants projects that I tackle. 

Writers differ in style. Some writers work on one project at a time to the exclusion of all other writing projects.  Others, work on a variety of projects at a time.  In both cases, writers still have to deal with distractions and demands on their time, energy, health, and mental energy.  Those of us who teach understand that the energy required of teachers draws from  the same well that writers need to be able to write.  Sabbaticals are good for giving writers time, energy, and focus to write. For others of us, we use our academic discpline and practice to devote ourselves to treating our writing as if it were a course we were teaching or a major project we were trying to complete.  As I would lay out a dissertation, thesis term paper, or class syllabus/outline, so too I lay out my major writing projects.  In addition, I have developed routines to take care of my health when I am working on a book. I plan my exercise, my meals, even times for having fun, and then I stick to routine. 

Writers set priorities that take into account the other interestes and demands on their time.  Each person has to determine what matters most to them. Family is important to me, and whatever I do revolves around the time I spend with my family and close circle of friends. Since I live far from people I am closest to, I travel a lot and I use technology to keep me connected when we cannot be together.  Because I can write on the go (thanks to laptops and digital tablets), the writing life is easier than it use to be for travelers.    

Other than family, since I have been a full-time writer, the priorities I set have to do with what to write. I have to determine what writing is worth my time and energy.  Writers have to determine what matters most, and what is best for them at any given time in their career. Just because you are good at something and could do it, doesn't necessarily mean that project, job, or work is good for you.  When I let go of doing things that are not supporting me, as a writer or as a person, I make room for doing what enhances and enriches me.  For three years I published an online journal. I began doing it because I enjoyed it and wanted to encourage other women to write.  When I stopped doing it, I still enjoyed it but decided it was not paying for itself, and I had reached the finish line for that particular project.  Taking a freelance job that does not pay what your time and energy is worth, is not often a good idea. There are times when we take jobs for other than financial reward; we take a job because it is interesting or may open us to a new area.  We use a job to help us hone our craft. There are many reasons to take jobs that do not pay well, but there will come a time when letting go of 'working for peanuts' will be the right choice. 

Writers have to raise their expectations.  Writers are not automatically entitled to success or to their books making it to the top of the bestseller's list.  We writers however, have to raise our expectations in proportion to the level and quality of work we want to write.  When our writing results in a book or piece of writing that we are proud of , when we have honed our writing skills and have dedicated ourselves to making our living as a writer, we then have to do what it takes to be successful. For newly-published authors (with either the mainstream publishers or as a self-published author), the work begins to distribute and market the book.  Even best-selling authors like Anne Lamont and Louise Erdrich, have to go out on the road to meet the public and talk about their books in an effort to get people to buy their work.  If you have published a book, that is your job as a writer. If you have an agent, publicist, or assistant, you will get some encouragement and help, but you still have to do the work. Walking into a bookstore and asking a bookstore owner to take a chance on stocking your books or promoting you, is not the way to go. Writers need to educate themselves on how the publishing business works, and how it is changing.  Companies like Lulu and CreateSpace provide all kinds of support, information, and good ideas for helping writers promote their work.  Before you complete your book, find out what you should be doing to help promote your book before and after it is published. Writer, Linda Formicelli and literary agent, Rachelle Gardner both have websites and blogs which provide helpful advice to writers. Writer, C.Hope Clarke, publishes a weekly newsletter with writing advice and encouragement, contests, and jobs. If you really want to become a successful author and if you want to sell your books, learn the ropes from those out there who know how to do it. 

Back to the Land                                                                         Catherine Al-Meten

As award-winning writer Louise Erdrich noted, "Writers make few choices, really, about their material. We have to write about what comes naturally and what interests us."  Writers write because they want to communicate about those interests and observations of life. I write because I hope something I have learned will help someone else. I write because I want to share the beauty of life, the hope that we can survive and accomplish a greater purpose, and because I just love the feel of words coming out of my fingers. If you are going to write and publish what you write, take on the responsibility of learning what you can about how to do it right. Writing is one thing I think we need to avoid the "learning the hard way" path. Learn from those who already traveled the path, and use your powers of discernment to discover what kernels of gold are to be found in their advice. Take responsibility for your own development and success as a writer, and keep on putting your work out to be read by others.  

Frilly Silly Filly, a poem

Frilly

Silly

Filly

Where it is you’ve been?

Prancing

Dancing

Trancing

‘Cross fields

into the Wind.

Frilly

Silly

filly

What it is, you do

all day

among the clover

the bees

the birds,

and you?

Frilly

Silly

Filly

So beautiful and new

to life in fields

and pastures

to streams

and hills

 and you. 

Frilly

Silly

Filly

How find you, life so far?

Running 

Prancing

Dancing

through

 life upon a farm?

Frilly 

Silly 

Filly

What wish you, on a star?

A friendly hand,

An apple sweet,

a friendly dapple mare

to roll a bucket 

for you to chase,

to nestle beside you

near a pile of hay

when comes the end of day.

2/19/2013

Thinking of a Frilly Sill Filly and My Darling Lola

copyright@Catherine Al-Meten, 2013

Mother and Child                                                                                                                        Catherine Al-Meten
Oregon City                                                                                                                                            March 2005