January Joy & Jest!

 

Oh January is such a maligned month isn't it? Well, I've got a few things  to share with you that may persuade you otherwise, on this 'Blue Monday' too, apparently the most depressing day of the year. 

First of all, there's the January Mindful Writing Challenge (Mindful Writing) I've been taking part in. The concept is simple: notice one thing every day and write it down. ~Notice one thing every day and write it down.~ As Mary Oliver urges: 'Instructions for living a life: Pay Attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.'   From sunsets to skies to food to clothes to coloured paraphernalia, I've been going around this month with my eyes wide open. The exercise encourages awareness, and with awareness comes gratefulness and a willingness to find significance everywhere.

Here are some of my observations, or small stones as they're called on the website. They're neither poetry or prose, just a small written note of significance:

Silver streamers 
flung on the clock 
from last night's celebrations 
make time sparkle 
today  
                                     -(New Year's Day)

A constellation of pink stars 
sparkle around me - 
a sequined cardigan 
hanging in wait 
                                       -(5 January)

The new moon 
always a surprise
a wink of silver
from a sympathethic eye
                                                 -(6 January)


Tangerine sunset 
like a shot of Vitamin C
for the soul
(zing!) 
                                                 -(8 January)

Shining in the window
the wolf moon
bright as a floodlight
white as a tooth
howls for attention
                                        -(13 January) 

Seagulls stretch their wings
delighting in the blue,
while we warm our winter faces
in surprise sun, subtext singing
of Spring
                                             - (today)  

I plan to finish out the month with these, and hopefully continue on throughout the upcoming months. It's such a great idea. Days you feel pass you by with nothing seemingly happening, you sit down to write your small stone and realise that something did happen, no matter how small, it had significance for the fact that you noticed it, and partook in the act of writing it down.  

You can read a kaleidoscope more here: www.writingourwayhome.com or try searching on Facebook or Twitter for the hashtag #smallstones.  You don't have to write them to enjoy reading them. But reading them will only inspire you to write them!

Another great tool to banish the January blues is this book: The Awe-manac by Jill Badonsky. Yes that's not a dud spelling on my part, it does say 'awemanac' rather than almanac - promising as it does a daily dose of wonder. Every day is noted with a special array of inspiring content such as:

- the Daily Soul Vitamin (inspiring quotes, which I heartily enjoy) 

- Toast of the Day (appreciations of ordinary things, for example: 'here's to pens that make your handwriting look better than it actually is')

-Aha-phrodisiacs (writing prompts - my favourite from this month - 'write what accordion music would look like')

-Dose of Mirth (funny witty offerings of advice)

It's quirky, fun, surprising and as it says on the tin, inspiring. I highly recommend it! Today's 'soul vitamin' is: "In order to achieve the impossible, you have to attempt the absurd" - Miguel de Cervantes Savedra.  It's also National Hat Day. (The book follows the American calendar, so lots of interesting national days...) Like did you know that January is national gourmet coffee month? And it encompasses lots of cool interesting days like National Cat Day, National Make Your Dreams Come True Day, Festival of Sleep Day, National Bath Day and National Nothing Day! Did you ever consider January to be a bastion of such fun days??! I can't wait to see what trivia and whimsy the upcoming months will bring!

Another January joy I've stumbled upon is Vintage's decision to start a year long #shelfhelp book endeavor. Their idea being that 'shelf help' - reading good books - is better for you than reading (sometimes drippy) self-help books. It's book therapy at its general best! They have chosen a feelgood book for each month and an online bookclub space in which to share and discuss views.  First up for January is 'The Examined Life' by Stephen Grosz. You can see the rest of the book selection here: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/shelfhelp/

And if you don't agree with their chosen books, why not choose your own? For there is nothing better than a good book to make you feel better, pick up your mood, and put a swing in your step! 

So there. I hope I've added a little joy and jest to your January!

~ Siobhán

Useful Links:

Mindful Writing ~ www.writingourwayhome.com

                               ~ www.facebook.com/pages/Mindful-Writing-small-stones

The Awemanac ~ www.themuseisin.com 

                                 www.facebook.com/pages/The-Awe-Manac-page

Shelf Help ~ www.vintage-books.co.uk

It's Spring!

 

It's (kiss me now) Spring! ~ ee cummings

Oh how I love Spring! I love it, I love it, I love it! Even the word itself is so zingy and trampoline-like and green and full of energy and verve!

I could rhapsodize in oohs and ahhs for ages of how much I love the season. Maybe it's because I'm a Spring baby and love to see everything bloom and grown again after the winter, the 'greening of the earth', the yellow sunshine of daffodils, when 'faces called flowers floating out of the ground' and big blue skies beckon, or maybe it's more because of its heady symbolism: renewal, remaking, transformation, the light coming back - in a word - Hope.

There's an energy and zest to Spring that none of the other seasons have, not even summer. It's alive. It's about new beginnings more than anything, as today the Equinox, 21 March also marks the beginning of the astrological new year with the sun in Aries, the symbolic newborn of the starsigns. Maybe that's what puts the pep into our step at this time of year when everyone feels reborn.

I am not the only one in love with Spring it seems, from famous writers to artists to all kinds of commentators. So I will let their words enthrall you to the season's intoxicating meanings. Feel them ping and zing in your soul!

Happy Spring!

~Siobhán 

Spring has returned. The earth is like a child who knows poems. ~ Rilke

Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment.  ~Ellis Peters

April prepares her green light and the word thinks Go. ~ Christopher Morley

April has put a spirit of youth in everything. ~ William Shakespeare

The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring ~ Ben Williams 

It's Spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~ Mark Twain

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.  ~Hal Borland 
 

 








Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.  ~Virgil A. Kraft


Springtime is the land awakening, the March winds are the morning yawn ~ Lewis Carroll

Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.   ~ Rilke

Spring is when life comes alive in everything ~ Christina Rosetti

'in spring... the earth laughs in flowers' ~ ee cummings

Now every field is clothes with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire ~ Virgil

In spring time, love is carried on the breeze. Watch out for flying passion or kisses whizzing by your head.~ Emma Racine deFleu

Out with the cold, in with the woo.  ~E. Marshall

 

An optimist is the human personification of Spring ~ Susan J. Bissonette

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.~Doug Larson

'because it's Spring, things dare to do people' ~ ee cummings

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Yes, and the last word goes to ee cummings, as no one can articulate the zeal of Spring like him! (*You can read more of his Spring sentiments and poems here: O Sweet Spontaneous Earth)  

 

now winging selves sing sweetly 

now winging selves sing sweetly,while ghosts(there
and here)of snow cringe;dazed an earth shakes sleep
out of her brightening mind:now everywhere
space tastes of the amazement which is hope

gone are those hugest hours of dark and cold
when blood and flesh to inexistence bow
(all that was doubtful's certain,timid's bold;
old's youthful and reluctant's eager now)

anywhere upward somethings yearn and stir
piercing a tangled wrack of wishless known;
nothing is like this keen(who breathes us)air
immortal with the fragrance of begin

winter is over - now(for me and you,
darling!)life's star prances the blinding blue