Mindful Photography

The mind is the most capricious of insects — flitting, fluttering. 

Virginia Woolf

The next couple months are going to be most interesting around here. We have a wedding in June and a baby coming in July. The baby part is easy. I'm not the one going through labor.  We readied the old cradle and stroller for baby visits and we wait for that child to appear. Already this grandparent gig is much easier than parenting.

But the wedding comes first. The wedding festivities six years ago for the baby-to-be kids was an incredible high and the one coming up holds all that promise as well. But, those who say the groom's mother has nothing to do? Phooey to you. Along side our wedding responsibilities like the rehearsal dinner and figuring out how to dress myself, we have family and friends coming from all over the country. Lots of work going on to get the homestead ready and plan for good times and good food while we gather.

For years you sit around scratching your belly saying, "Ya know, Pa. Someday we should fix that."

That someday has arrived. With all the details.  If I get everything on these lists done before everyone arrives, I can have great fun when they do. And I do like to have fun.

For sanity purposes, I decided to take a Mindful Photography class this past month. I completed the course last Friday and I have to say that along with my daily poetry/essay reading and journal writing, I have retained some sense of stability. My husband might argue with that long statement, but what does he know.

Mindful Photography.  Contemplative and Miksang Photography. Miksang is a Tibetan word that translates to "Good Eye." That means we declutter our brains and just shoot away -- or something like that. Pure perception and straight shooting. Not worrying about the light and the perfect setting and all that jazz. Instead focusing on what we are seeing when we open our minds and see.

Sounds like how I, not being a photographer and barely knowing how to use my camera, normally take my photos. One moment, one shot. Similar to writing a shitty first draft. (God bless you Anne Lamott for that most appropriate term.)

But this mindfulness also involved the contemplative part. As said by Christine Vatters Paintner in her book Eyes of the Heart, this is a receptive practice, where we allow grace to enter and open ourselves to hear and ponder.

Perfect escape for me.  The photography practice has offered a chance to breathe. I'm grateful.

Led by a very accomplished and organized teacher who assured me I wasn't the first intimidated by this venture, this Put It On Auto and Shoot person experienced great joy in the process. Here are a few things I found on my outings.

Just What Is

Color and Shapes

Miksang Pattern

The Ordinary

Love's Equivalent

Openness

Fullness

From a Child's Point of View

I'm a rookie, but now I'm a more mindful rookie. Calmed. In the moment.

Back to my lists. Mindfully. And if anybody wants to clean toilets...

Signed, Sealed, Delivered - I'm Going Swimming

Eighty percent of success is showing up.

Woody Allen

Friday - 1:39pm

In reference to my last post, so eloquently entitled Butt in Chair, please note that the photo presented here shows that particular chair pushed into its resting nook at the table. For you see, dear E.S. Carlson, I took on your challenge. I've written a new chapter in my novel in progress. (Six years in the making?) Look in your email inbox for you will find not only the next chapter, but an additional reworked 30 some previous pages leading up to it.

Alas, my heroine, dear Lily, is out of the wheat field in South Dakota and long past her panic attack. Still in South Dakota, but, oh, in such a different place.

This week I took a huge mess and pieced it back together. I spent Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday reacquainting myself with what I'd written over the past few years. Then I read all the journals of notes I'd taken, my character sketches and their long lists of conflicts. I reviewed some of my research and resource books.

I spent Wednesday reorganizing what I wanted to keep of the writing, throwing out some 20,000 words which held scenes that no longer will occur in my story, along with what I first thought would be the ending.

In the words of the most talented Anne Lamott in her book Bird by Bird - I'm 36,000 words into a very "shitty first draft." (If you haven't read Bird by Bird, I highly recommend it - even if you are not a writer.)

Even though I'm no longer certain where my protagonist Lily will end up, I do know it will be a most interesting ride. And I'm so glad to be back with her on that horse, er, Airstream trailer.

Even better, I know what I will write tomorrow. And the next day. My goal for the remainder of the summer, except for a couple of side trips, is to plow through all the way to the end so that I can spend next school year rewriting and rewriting and...

Thank you, ES, for the ultimatum and thank you to my blogging friends, new and old, for your support. Happy am I. I put much more pressure on myself when I'm alone, focused, challenged. Of course, things have certainly calmed down in my summer, which helps.

Cheers to my family who has left me to myself at the lake this week. (Hope you guys got the laundry done, watered my plants, went to the grocery store, fed the cat... yes, we have a cat.)

Dear Family,
Looking forward to seeing you this weekend.
Bring food and toilet paper.
Love, Mom and wife

Up to me to keep it going, but right now, I'm off to float for the rest of the day.

P.S. Can you believe it? I just sent ES that email and before I've finished this post she has already sent me her next set of pages. That woman is a slave driver. Chop, chop.

Somewhere Out There Nanowrimo Calls

In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tis the time of year once again for Nanowrimo. What could this be? Some weird holiday? A wrestling match.

Wrestling match indeed. A match of mind over matter. A commitment to the writing you often say you want to accomplish. That book you are going to write - some day.

Nanowrimo is the yearly Write a 50,000-Word Novel in a Month project. Sort of like driving cross country without stopping to pee. Excellent way to begin a new novel or further one you've already begun. Or use it to write that non-fiction book proposal floating in your head. Modify as needed.

Anyone out there care to join me?

If this is your first time at this venture, I suggest a little reading material. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. From her book you can learn about the "shitty first draft" and not get stuck on revisions while you're pounding out your story. Your book will need tremendous work when you're done because it will be complete shit. And that's okay. Maniac writing sometimes get us where we need to go, just like timed writings do on a much smaller scale.

I also recommend practicing with Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Natalie teaches us to park our butts and write, write, write. Go find a coffee house with a table in a dark corner. Write with your back to the crowd.

In my unfinished novel, my character has been stuck in the middle of a prairie in South Dakota since last Nanowrimo. I think she has suffered enough. So have I with the guilt of stranding her. Lily, come November 1, you shall be set free. (Or at least hitch a ride on an Airstream that will take you in even thicker.)

Please check out the website Nanowrimo Often local groups will gather in cities throughout the US to write/discuss progress together. Great opportunity.

A note of encouragement - some days it flows and some days it plugs up, a lot. But there are always plungers to clear the muck.

Take a step. And another. Don't be scared. Good luck.

P.S. Really good things happening over at my friend's site No One's the Bitch.
Something to do with Dr. Phil ...