The Awe-manac: A Daily Dose of Wonder

Inspiration from Unlikely Sources

Can police reports inspire poetry? When I lived in the country north of Kansas City, the police reports consisted of people's tools being stolen or their vegetable gardens being harvested. This was refreshing after growing up in Miami where I was desensitized to death and murder because it happened so often in my high school. 

Police Notes. An idea inspired by Alice N. Person.

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September 2011: Police Activity

Jed Thompson’s hammer was stolen on the evening of September 5th and returned the next night, placed under his workbench as if it had been dropped there.

Lucy Peterson’s tomato crop was harvested without her knowing it on September 6.

In a gesture of generosity, Kate Blarington delivered salsa to the homeless on September 7th.

Julie Farmingtune’s car keys were stolen at 8 am September 4th and placed in her refrigerator later that morning, same place her sunglasses and missing sock were found the week before.

Clarence Hoffmore stole a sideways glance at the short order waitress at Mac’s Bar and Grill on Center Road on Wednesday and his wife clobbered him on the head with her purse.

Gail Henderborrow was arrested for assault and battery on her own self-esteem on September 10th. She was sentenced to 20 hours of community service clearing clutter in her closet.

Kayley Smith was caught  allegedly breaking and entering into the heart of Brian Elliot and according to Elliot last Saturday. The damage is irreparable.

Marge O’Reilly lifted a spaghetti sauce stain from her sister, Glady’s white blouse and pawned it for a moment of clean thinking after the Baptist service on Sunday.

Perry Fontaine’s Weeping Willow is held for alleged treeson and may be in for some punishment if the judge is paying attention.

Jill Badonsky attempted to make sense on Monday and ended up in the middle of someone else’s month-long sentence. She is held without punctuation  

The Care and Feeding of Your Creativity

If I waited for big blocks of time in order to get to my creativity, my skills of spontaneous expression would be rather mushy. I keep my creativity fed by regularly ingesting small moments of practice. 

Often I warm up to writing my book with poetry or haiku. Just a short excursion into the world of poetry doesn't take long but it easily removes me from the ticker-tape of mental- chatter-reruns that is mundane, unimaginative, and not creative. The same thinking, worrying, judging that replays over and over, does NOT feed my creativity.  

A short departure into poetry or free writing is nutritious to creative thought. Haikus are especially good because they are meant to be short and compact and yet they can leave you with a powerful mood, a feeling, a completion of thought.  Good snacks for fortification. They leave me with the reward of having used my creative muscles to fit words and meaning into a small space. They light the fire of wanting more creativity and then I achieve a greater fluency of ideas for other areas of writing, painting and entertaining cats. Haikus are 5 syllables first line, 7 syllables second line, 5 syllable third line. Like this:

Impressionistic.
In landscapes of fleeting light
They paint me breathless

Right now I'm having fun writing captions for funny photos. Some may think FaceBook is a frivolous use of time but to me, if we are inventing phrases, captions, and titles, we really are practicing being creative. These small moments of waxing clever add up to more creative fluency in my other expressive and imaginative adventures. The fun of it just makes it easier to show up and hone our creative chops without even knowing it - minus the pressure and, for many, the fears.

Feel free to visit my FB page and scroll down to see how amazingly clever my friends are. Add some captions yourself. Don't judge whether they are "good enough"... it's all practice. 

Here's a recent example:

Captions:

Jeremiah Ion: And then, with a shutter of ignition, the world's first automated snail was unleashed.

Jill Badonsky: At some point, actually paying for cable TV makes more sense.

 Jeremiah Ion: Four hours later they realized that the wheels were useless because it has to remain plugged in.

Shannon Bates: Landshark.

Eber Lambert: The most significant delay in Time Travel is airport security

Jeremiah Ion: Maybe we should have included seats...

Jill Badonsky: Acme Roadrunner Catching Machine Model# 3333

Steve Fix: A real man's teather-ball.

Jennifer Farr-Jones: Not many remember how far Gottfried Schmidt in the shadows of Thomas Edison.

Jennifer Farr-Jones: EEEEEVA? WALL-E?

Tracie L. Bennitt Take me to your leader....

Jennifer Farr-Jones: Typical, when you're already late for Burning Man and the items they've asked you to take off carry on are still sitting on the tarmac.

Steve Fix: After hitting the big Four O, Arnie had no clue how far down his testicles would hang.

Steve Fix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzHYZcOaQ9Q&feature=related

Sherrie Phillips: This looks like something the Picker Sisters could turn into furniture! haha

Liz Fulcher: ‎"Your new hat is here Ms. Gaga."

Jackie Bouchard: Found at the Abu Ghraib yard sale

Michael Topic: This siege engine is hybrid powered and gets ninety miles to the gallon, with low carbon footprint. Perfect for those cathartic, prolonged wars against modern heretics.

Kristy Quinn: She did not make Joe Bob's final five e-dating list. Something about the eyes...

Kathleen Hueser: I told you not to make them mad...they are too creative!

Jennifer Farr-Jones :S & M stage 4

Jennifer Farr-Jones: We simply couldn't afford a DeLorean for the sequel, Mr. Llyod.(and then a slightly non pc joke about blowing the budget deblurring MJF ♥)

Ed Coonce: The time machine sits idle on the tarmac, waiting for parts that will never come/never came/will be ordered/won't be ordered/were never ordered/couldn't possibly be ordered.

Jennifer Farr-Jones: wonder if I can get this into the recyle bin

Jennifer Farr-Jones Elephant sale item....check

Ed Coonce: You puny earthlings dare to put yellow crime scene tape around me, the mighty Globutron?! I'll show you...yeah...gimme a few minutes while my battery recharges, ok? Cool.

Jennifer Farr-Jones: It practically parks itself!

Gary Johnston: A paperclip designed by a committee.

Jill Badonsky: You can tell who got help with their Science Project for the fair.

Jerri Pittluck: It`s finally here, the portable thether-ball! For just a nominal fee, the white cords from the ball are unplugged and, voila!

Jerri Pittluck: I put the ball on the back of my prius so i can find it in the parking lot.

Rick Christensen: From the video...Engineers gone wild

Lynda Treger: Take me to your leader.

Lynda Treger: cause I have no eyes. Can't see a f_____' thing.

Leslie Trippy: onto Burning Man!

Katherine Economou: Now where did I put the flex-capaciter? And what is it again..88mph???

Wickie Stamps: Steampunk rocks!

Denise Lumiere: boing

Alex Bosworth: Banned from supermarket entrances throughout North America, David Cronenberg’s Self-Cannibalizing Carousel finds new use as a luggage shuttle at Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Baggage Claim Airport in Figueras, Spain.

 Back to the September Muse Flash

The Salve of Poetry

I'm warming up to writing my book by writing poetry daily.
I love it when I feel like I'm not in charge, I'm just scribing. Ever have that feeling?

CANISTERS

My metaphors are confused.

One of them flies kites while laying concrete

and the other attends parties wearing hoodwinks and dangling participles.

I ask that they go to a conference on Consistency and instead they

crash a Three Ring Circus and set free the tigers,

and befriend the elephants,

and now it’s down to only one ring...

that no one answers because it’s a wedding ring

and everyone knows THAT’s the end of freedom and yet

they do,

they do “I do.” They answer anyway ... inconsistently.

Life rolls on canisters of flour and tea and coffee

each placed in descending order on kitchen counters.

Turned on our sides we spin along in canister compliance

with the expected until one day we encounter

the pothole and the tea spills and the flour wilts

and the coffee does nothing because no one actually

puts coffee in the canister marked Coffee.

But the pothole is a portal to freedom.

What you do with the porthole

defines you

because you must find your way back to yourself.

That’s where you decide who you are and build a life

based on the satisfaction of letting go of the kite string and trusting

that the breeze knows what it’s doing.

Your indelible expression matches the sky’s apparent magic

and wipes free all ambivalence, so simply believe

the breeze knows what it's doing.

 

Why Creativity?

Because in creative dreams, the circular thinking that has fallen to the ground like a tired hula-hoop is given mouth-to-muse resuscitation.

And when this happens the sky collects songs sung from the earth

and plays them into a soft thunder

that seems to be miles away

but is in your backyard.

Next to the Weber.

Inside the empty planter where the spider plant used to be.

Your name is called in thunder dialect,

deep and brave,

ominous.

Your name is called to fulfill a creative destiny, maybe two.

You begin to eavesdrop a little more on the voice calling to you

You begin to pay attention to resilience and splendor,

You let pass the negative jabber of stranded souls knocking against the walls of hard metal containers of the cynicism that they think is required or cool.  

You shift to the thunder

You let tone, tinge, touch trace the edge of possibility

 

Its horizon melts dark into light

Your alchemy changes pain to poetry, anger to art, melancholy to music
The toes of golden existence dip into a lake of miraculous light and the ripples

Send waves of connection to the world where you can taste prose,

wear thought,

feel belief fiddling it’s strings like there is no tomorrow… unlived.

Pain is no stranger

But awe is a constant companion.

 

(C) 2011 jill badonsky

Embracing the Absurd: July Muse Letter

Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching   The absurd is where I regularly dwell in search of amusement.  Amusement or  "A Muse Mint" is defined as  "A reservoir of refreshing and entertaining material that can be alchemized to brilliance if you don't take yourself too seriously and are situated where a Muse can find you." (I made that up).   The absurd gives us permission to venture beyond the limited, the logical, the known, the tired, and the too-serious. It guides us to a fertile ground where we get "hot" new ideas that explode like kernels of corn .   "Google?" What an absurd name for a search engine.   Talking instantly to people across oceans - absurd.  3-D talking pictures... yep, absurd.   Exercising the mind's ability to be absurd, exercises the imagination and as we all know... imagination is more important than knowledge. It transports us past the existing to the possible. It creates new worlds.   My introverted friend, Emily D. once said: I dwell in Possibility -- A fairer House than Prose -- More numerous of Windows -- Superior -- for Doors       Asking "what if" questions on a daily basis exercises our creative muscles. And although some of the answers may result in the absurd ... that's okay, the absurd is often a preamble to the ingenious.   Even nonsense questions can build thought-fluency which then can be applied to problem solving, resourcefulness, and of course ... the delicious, orbiting world of creativity.   What's the worst that can happen?  Laughing?    Click here for creative brilliance     The Muse IS in   What If Your Hair Could Talk?   For my amusement, I've been asking What if? questions on my Facebook page.  I get inspired by the amazing and/or warped minds of my friends.   One of the principles of Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching is to "expose" ourselves to the genius of others in order to awaken our own ingenuity. Idea-generation is contagious. One person's brilliance can dislodge us from the mental-passivity into creative motion. When you see people on a roll with their responses sometimes you automatically start to roll too. Roll call!   Another principle, called Kid Stuff encourages us always to maintain a perspective ofplay. Facebook can be a great place to play and get exposed (evidently Twitter is as well - different kind of exposure).   Today's question was:  What would your hair say if it could talk?    Hair are some of the answers: "Dear Stevie, Welcome to the top of your head. As you can see, we've moved. If you'd like to find us, we suggest you look on your back, and in your ears" (P.S. Chicks really dig this). ~ Steve Fix   "Remember the mayonnaise incident? And the Sun-In? NEVER do that again!" ~Jennifer Dempsey   "I like being on top." ~Saba Moor-Doucette   "Let's not split hairs." ~Liz Fulcher   “Who would have thought I’d turn out so straight? I used to be wild and kinky!” ~Alex Bosworth   "I love this part..." ~Jill Badonsky   The rest are here. (friend me if you dare, even if you have no hair- add your answer or just... be amused).         Events, Workshops, and Drive-by Kidnappings   TEST-DRIVE MAGIC!! with Jill Badonsky Friday Morning, July 8, 2011 8 am Pacific/ 11am Eastern Join me this coming Friday, July 8th for an adventure in Parallel Universe Time. See what it's like to have a little magical structure to move you ahead on one of your many unfinished projects, or start something new. Pick a project or start something new. I'll have an idea if you're stuck. Show up for a 5 minute phone call to get you started in your process with fuel and a Muse- ritual (which I made up) and then get back on the line after a half hour of focus on your project. You'll be surprised at what happens. And it's FREE, but there will be limited space.Sign-up here. 8 am pacific 9 mountain 10 central 11 eastern Time converter for other countries    Taos in July: FILLED!   Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Training August 24 - December 7, 2011 Take your creativity to unimagined depths and be a creative liberation fighters for others. Unprecedented tools capitalizing on intuition, imagination, compassion and play as conduits for breaking through blocks to any realm of creativity, including living a more joy-filled life. Enrollment is limited - just a few spaces left, save $100 by signing up before July 24, 2012 More information here    Run Modern Day Muse Groups Next Training on-line is in October Congregate with like-minded souls for the purpose of deepening creativity. Make creativity a priority. More information here.   Watch for New Retreats in 2012: Cowgirls and Crayons in Sedona in Februar y and Philly in September!! with Kat Kirby: A retreat to kick-butt and lasso wonder.    Creative Renewal in Taos July 2012 (start a small monthly payment plan now to make it affordable!) email info@themuseisin.com for more information.    What if You had a GPS for your Creativity? Click here.   A Quiz to Determine if You're Creative     Click on the image for more information   Featured KMCC Coach: Lisa Bolender.. beam yourself here and scroll down   Beginner's Heart   "As much as I love beginner's mind, though, I advocate an additional discipline: cultivatingbeginner's heart. That means approaching every encounter imbued with a freshly invoked wave of love that is as pure as if you're feeling it for the first time." ~Rob Breszny   Love to every paintbrush coloring your existence, Jill-o   flying icons

http://www.themuseisin.com

 

 

Anti-aging Steam of Consciousness Steepers

Find Your Way to Writing with a GPS

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

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Destination: Write a chapter in your book.

Calculating route.
Point yourself toward your desk.
Prepare to walk toward your desk - walk toward your desk.
Sit down in the chair at your desk.
Prepare to write. Prepare to write.
Recalculating route.
Prepare to play with wind-up duck you are staring at on your computer platform.
Wind-up the wind-up duck.
Watch wind-up duck wobble across desk and run into stack of papers with a 20% off coupon for Bed, Bath and Beyond on top.
Repeat.
Watch duck get stuck but still wobble until it stops wobbling
and just makes wind-down noises.
Touch duck to see if it makes one last wind-down noise.
Think about what you’d like to buy at Bed, Bath and Beyond.
Lose interest.
Prepare to make a list of possible topics to write about.
Make a list of possible topics.
Make a list of possible topics.
Recalculating Route.
Prepare to just start writing.
Just start writing.
Start writing.
Recalculating route.
Prepare to check your email.
Check your email.
Prepare to click  "ignore" on several requests on Facebook for Mafia something or other, gifts, games, quizzes, clues, donations, and invitations.
Click Ignore.
Check three " likes" on people's posts to feel you've made an  important contribution to Facebook.
Think up a really insignificant post to post and post.
Click Google.
Think of what to Google.
Google “What are the ingredients in chicken mole'?”
Check another chicken mole' recipe to compare ingredients.
Copy recipe to recipe file entitled "Fud to Make".
Visit IMDB to see how old Holly Hunter is.
See how much the latest movie has made at the box office.
WHY AM I HERE?
Recalculating route.
Recalculating existential angst.
Start writing.  Start writing. Start writing.
Recalculating route.
Strain to hear the neighbor next door talking on the phone
and then be annoyed by being able to hear the next door neighbor
talking on the phone because it's so distracting you can't write.
Recalculating route.
Check Microsoft word files for an old essay that can be resurrected, shortened, spiced up, rearranged, modified, folded, pressed and amused.
Play. Play without judging.
Play some more. Crack up.
Flow.Fly. Soar.
Lose track of time, gravity, your poor insurance coverage, your chipped fingernail.
Your destination is on the right.
Your destination is right.

You have reached your Right Brain.

 

 

copyright 2011 Jill Badonsky

Are You Creative? A Quiz

 

____________

You know how people say, "I am SO not creative," or "I don't have a creative bone in my body"? This is what is happening:

1. They are not aware of how to combine their ball bearings for creative ignition.
2. They have an unrealistic expectation of creativity. They compare themselves to others who have spent years on their craft and feel inferior because they cannot be immediately like them.
3. They are afraid someone will ask them to be creative and they will try to meet unrealistic expectations and feel foolish.
4. They are afraid they won't be perfect and they equate being perfect with being valued as a person.
5. They are afraid... period. It is normal for creativity to bring up a swarm of fears.
6. Someone once said something discouraging to them that felt really bad and they believed them.
7. They tried for five minutes to be creative and it didn’t take. (They are adverse or oblivious to the perseverance, practice it takes to be creative).
   
8. They have created a belief that works against the belief that they are creative.
9. They think either you’re born with creativity or you’re not.

The last one is especially popular.

Many people are indeed born with an innate talent. When they cultivate that talent through many, many hours of practice - amazing works of art, literature, music, what-have-you are brought into existence. But really, do you need to BE that person in order to discover the bliss, benefits, and rewards of creativity?

Nope.

Those people are not necessarily happy.
Those who know they can also create the feeling within themselves of joy ARE happy.
Thinking there's only one way to be creative, well, that's not a very creative way to think at all.

If we all were born with the same innate talents, the art would look the same, all the music would sound the same, all the words - same, same and same.

This would be an interesting plot for a science fiction film but it would be a society that didn't last very long because many needs would be unmet, plus people who didn't like what was created might become homicidal, suicidal, or bored to death. 

There would not be the other creative works that come from passion, interest, curiosity, healing, need, problem-solving, angst, joy, amusement, and divine mistakes. These are ALSO drives that result in creativity. Everyone has the ability to be creative in these ways. Creativity's definition includes the act of bringing something into the world of value.

• Close your eyes. See a cat. Now change the look of that cat in three ways, place the cat someplace unexpected. Add some kind of activity for the cat to do. Now have the cat do something a little less obvious than what you just chose. Now add a different scenic backdrop. Now add a disco ball. Now have the cat tell you something unexpected.  If you weren't able to do that little short exercise, you are simply resistant. Resistance is a creative block, it does not mean you are not creative. If you were able to do the cat exercise.. you are creative. The more you practice little exercises like this, the more creative you will become in the way that YOU can be creative, which is different from other people's ways.

• Take a breath in. As you breathe out relax your shoulders. You just created relaxation.

• Listen to all the voices that judge, worry, belittle, and protect you. Now imagine those voices are not you. You are the self inside of you that they are talking to. Imagine that self is a pure kid-like creative soul ready to combine, associate, invent, modify, shift, amuse, or stick pipe cleaners into Jello. You just created peace, amusement or maybe delight and eager anticipation.

This kind of creativity comes from the same mechanism that makes art, writing and music. It's just that those avenues may require some instruction, practice, self-esteem, focus, little dedicated five minute periods to begin, willingness to be a beginner over and over, and perseverance.

Those are the ball bearings of creativity.

If you don't have them, you can get them, a little at a time, imperfectly at the beginning but even in imperfection and sometimes because of it, creative discovery is possible.
Everybody gets to be creative.

 

(c) 2011 Jill Badonsky.  www.themuseisin.com

Rearranging Furniture in the Castle

  

"If there is one door in the castle you have been told not to go through, you must. Otherwise, you'll just be rearranging furniture in rooms you've already been in."   ~Anne Lamott

So I'm rearranging furniture in the castle room that I'm NOT supposed to be in: You know.. stacking the books so the cats can sit up high, putting the painting of the queen in the laundry room, and situating the loveseat in front of the window that looks out on the garden (and the gardener) while the servants bring me cupcakes and the cats POUNCE.

 

I'm feeling quite mischievous, rebellious, and somewhat ... guilty. GUILTY?  Really? Swat! (Trying to swat the guilt away... it remains floating in the air ready to attack again). What's THAT all about?

 

Then I remembered my impressively scientific study of the noises I make when I wake myself up with a snort in the middle of the night. In low guttural, terribly unlady-like execution, I seem to say the word "AAANGST."  Say it out loud now.  Go ahead. Deep down in your throat.  That's what we say when we snort. Right?  

 

If we all are saying "ANGSSSST" in the middle of the night, it must need to be assigned to SOMETHING. Free-floating angst. That's why there rarely is an angst-less moment for those of us who haven't been enlightened by deep meditation and witness consciousness.

 

Think about it. When's the last time you didn't have a worry, a fret, a psychic disturbance of some snort... I mean sort? Once one thing in our lives is resolved, we often assign worry to something else.  

 

In the creative process, worry flies all over the weaving pathway to our desired process and practice. Any of these questions sound familiar?

How will I begin? Where do I go next? What if it’s not good enough? Who’s going to want THIS?  Am I wasting my time and money? Why did this seem like a good idea in the shower and now that I’m writing about it, it sucks? How do I get this ink stain out of the couch?

 

ANNNNGST! Wake-up!

 

There's a practice we can begin in order to move from angst to airiness, from bothered to buoyancy. It's called free-floating creative freedom and often it needs unleashing before creative action is possible in unfettered fashion.

Here are some of the steps to this form of creative freedom:

1.      Know that our consciousness, left unattended, is programmed to focus on distress.

2.      Even after a triumph, an acquisition, a proposal of marriage, a promotion, a windfall, a compliment, a the house you’ve been waiting for for 10 years, a cruise to Grand Caymans, and any other grand event, the consciousness is used to going back to distress or discontent… so it will unless you do something different..

3.      Know that it will ply you with worries, judgments, fears, life’s-not-good-enoughs - the whole palette of angst, if you let it.

4.      Know you can step out of this consciousness and create a new one. Detach, just slightly, from this protective, automatic, fear-based way of being and toy with the idea that your focus could be on something more inspiring. Just consider it.

5.      Before thinking you’ve got it all figured out, know that the shift takes practice – but practice is process and you can immediately feel different… at least for a few seconds, or 5% more, or in your imagination.

6.      Regularly practice.

7.      And repeat the practice.

8.      The practice is simple, so simple that it doesn’t seem like it would be credible as a life shifter.

9.      Is it.

10.  It involves choosing the feeling you want to feel and then thinking the thoughts, or engaging in the actions that create those feelings. Over and over. This is called creating a new reality. It’s very creative and in it creative expression goes deeper because we have energy, we are expressing our angst not living it, and we are feeling joy so no matter what the outcome, we’re good.

11. How good will you allow your life get? How simple will you believe it can happen?

Statues of No Limitations

We all work differently, at our own pace and in our own time.
There's no need to compare ourselves with anyone else.
We may start out doing something someone inspired us to do,
but we cannot help but put our own unique stamp on it,
directed from the world inside us
-those associations born of our history,
experiences,
share of the collective unconscious,
personality tendencies,
preferences,
passions,
drives,
dreams,
magic
and ... moths.
Relax into your effortless brilliance.

Brought to you by Jill Badonsky. 

 
all rights reserved (c) 2011