" It is a silver morning like any other. I am at my desk. Then the phone rings or someone raps at the door. I am deep in the machinery of my wits. Reluctantly I rise, I answer the phone or I open the door. And the thought which I had in hand, or almost in hand, is gone.
Creative work needs solitude. It needs concentration, without interruptions. It needs the whole sky to fly in, and no eye watching until it comes to that certainty which it aspires to, but does not necessarily have at once.
Privacy, then. A place apart — to pace, to chew pencils, to scribble and erase and scribble again.
Creative work needs solitude. It needs concentration, without interruptions. It needs the whole sky to fly in, and no eye watching until it comes to that certainty which it aspires to, but does not necessarily have at once.
Privacy, then. A place apart — to pace, to chew pencils, to scribble and erase and scribble again.
But just as often, if not more often, the interruption comes not from another but from the self itself, or some other self within the self, that whistles and pounds upon the door panels and tosses itself, splashing, into the pond of meditation.
And what does it have to say?
That you must phone the dentist, that you are out of mustard, that your uncle Stanley’s birthday is two weeks hence. You react, of course. Then you return to your work, only to find that the imps of an idea have fled back into the mist." Mary Oliver
Why do I come to Thailand - I come here to try to get control of my time only to find that it is I that is the waster of my precious seconds. I think as you get closer to the end of your clock (continued aging which appears to go on with or without you), you come to be more aware of the limits of your energy and linear time.
At home, I can just not answer email or the door or a letter or the crowded calendar that has a mind of its own and keeps pushing things into the already overcrowded little box call "today".
It is 12:45 on a Wednesday midday and I have had coffee and have looked at the screen for hours. Ok, I did some reading about foods and research and a lesson in my sketching school and set my most important tasks for the day. Who says I had to be up and showered first.
I don't do well with meditating first thing. My little evil twin that lives in my thinking thinking thinking keeps telling me what I should be doing. So if I get most of the stuff done - including taking my vitamins - the imp takes a break. (I am working on a little cartoon of the individuals that live in my thinking home - annoying, calendar, should do demon will be first.)
I am a "start and don't finish" reader... I look at the 40 books on the kindle... very few get farther than 40-60% and most more 25%. The diet stuff I skim to the what I can eat and say... interesting... I can give up bread, peanuts, and soy and slow down on beer and wine, but tomatoes, eggplant not so sure. So I read another book and have found a few that come close to what I like to eat.
I just started "Becoming"... her two girls will be married before I get to 100%. And that ok. Who says we have to do something this way or that way. In most cases, if I look at the to-do list of a year ago, I only did a few things, and everyone and everything went on.
No to go back to why I come here... it is to regroup, set priorities and parameters and who knows maybe year 12 will be the charm and I will truly do only those things that are required to keep me alive and bring me joy.
And what does it have to say?
That you must phone the dentist, that you are out of mustard, that your uncle Stanley’s birthday is two weeks hence. You react, of course. Then you return to your work, only to find that the imps of an idea have fled back into the mist." Mary Oliver
Why do I come to Thailand - I come here to try to get control of my time only to find that it is I that is the waster of my precious seconds. I think as you get closer to the end of your clock (continued aging which appears to go on with or without you), you come to be more aware of the limits of your energy and linear time.
At home, I can just not answer email or the door or a letter or the crowded calendar that has a mind of its own and keeps pushing things into the already overcrowded little box call "today".
It is 12:45 on a Wednesday midday and I have had coffee and have looked at the screen for hours. Ok, I did some reading about foods and research and a lesson in my sketching school and set my most important tasks for the day. Who says I had to be up and showered first.
I don't do well with meditating first thing. My little evil twin that lives in my thinking thinking thinking keeps telling me what I should be doing. So if I get most of the stuff done - including taking my vitamins - the imp takes a break. (I am working on a little cartoon of the individuals that live in my thinking home - annoying, calendar, should do demon will be first.)
I am a "start and don't finish" reader... I look at the 40 books on the kindle... very few get farther than 40-60% and most more 25%. The diet stuff I skim to the what I can eat and say... interesting... I can give up bread, peanuts, and soy and slow down on beer and wine, but tomatoes, eggplant not so sure. So I read another book and have found a few that come close to what I like to eat.
I just started "Becoming"... her two girls will be married before I get to 100%. And that ok. Who says we have to do something this way or that way. In most cases, if I look at the to-do list of a year ago, I only did a few things, and everyone and everything went on.
No to go back to why I come here... it is to regroup, set priorities and parameters and who knows maybe year 12 will be the charm and I will truly do only those things that are required to keep me alive and bring me joy.
