Month: April 2015

The Impact of Place – Wellbeing, Inspiration and Creativity

/ Waves and Pebbles - random thoughts and writing on life, memories and creativity / 2 Comments

A short while back I talked about my creativity being blocked and trying to overcome this.  I’ve not yet overcome my inability to immerse myself in a creative zone but I will share my thoughts and progress.  Having spent two months in hospital, and a further month at home, mainly but not exclusively in one room, I have had little chance to get out and about and when I do most visits are for appointments at the hospital. In the past few days I have realised what is perhaps the obvious, the effect of place on my ability to relax, switch off and become entwined in my creative quest.  At a basic level, I have had to relocate my bedroom to a lower floor, losing the broad view of the sky and my cosy writing corner.  Then there is the effect of being restricted, not going out to walk and explore different places.  So I turn to my memories and love of water. Water in all it’s natural forms is inspiring, be it sea, river, waterfall, stream or lake.  In pondering this blog I recalled a holiday at Lake Bled, a most magical place in Slovenia.  When I visited many years ago I had not started writing but I recall how I felt when I surveyed the view from the hotel balcony on the night of arrival and the many hours enjoyed walking alongside the beautiful lake.  Perhaps if I can allow my mind to drift and recapture the essence of the special places I have visited – with a notebook to hand – I will be able to move forward with my creative pursuits. Even on a rainy day, Lake Bled is a magical place.

Copyright Maurice, Flickr, CC-BY, via Wylio

Copyright 2008 Maurice, Flickr, CC-BY, via Wylio

Memory triggers – Clouds (and Blogging)

/ Waves and Pebbles - random thoughts and writing on life, memories and creativity / 2 Comments
Copyright 2014 Patrick Emerson, CC-BY-ND, via Wylio

Copyright 2014 Patrick Emerson, CC-BY-ND, via Wylio

I am playing around with a blog I wrote a short while back.  No-one appears to have seen it so I am changing the title and photo and see if this makes a difference.  The text and poem remains unchanged.  It would be good to get some feedback and to hear from others their own experiences of what draws people to read their blog.

Prompted by a friend to write a poem on clouds, I reflected on what they mean to me. It’s fascinating how thinking about something like this can evoke memories from the past.

I recall when I was at school we had acres of lush green grass, tiered with slopes that we could roly poly down. The clouds made me think of when I would lay flat on my back on the grass gazing up at the blue sky and fluffy white clouds on a beautiful summer’s day.

I also remember how I enjoyed flying above the clouds for the first time when I was a teenager, looking down on them and seeing fairytale mountains.

The following are the words that have spontaneously come to me.

Clouds

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Stretched out on the emerald pillow

The light sapphire canvas blotched with stately mounds

Wishing I was up amongst the clouds

Gliding serenely o’er the world

.

Zooming beyond the realms of living land

The magical marshmallow mountains

Bestow a safe haven in my mind

.

Clouds are forever there, bumbling along

Swept by the whipping winds of fury

Today their blackened stains threaten

As the wands of wetness streak down

.

A passing theme in our lives

A cloudless sky perfection seems

Yet without clouds, life would pass us by

Thank you for reading.  I welcome any comments you may have.

Creativity takes us to a special place

/ Waves and Pebbles - random thoughts and writing on life, memories and creativity / 4 Comments
Copyright 2011 Chris Wells, Flickr, CC-BY-SA, via Wylio

Copyright 2011 Chris Wells, Flickr, CC-BY-SA, via Wylio

Creativity takes us to a special place – a place where we become lost, engrossed in our chosen path.  The stresses of life melt away, solutions surface to be put aside for later.  We are blessed with frozen time in which to savour the simple gifts life offers.

Kay, wavesandpebbles.wordpress.com

The Orange Globe – Poem

/ Waves and Pebbles - random thoughts and writing on life, memories and creativity / 4 Comments

I wrote the following poem when I was attending a creative writing course and tasked with eating an orange and then writing about it. I chose to approach the exercise mindfully, which meant that I fully focused on every move. I had ensured that I had peace and would not be disturbed. I feel that mindfulness resulted in far more descriptive vocabulary than I would otherwise have used.

I previously shared this poem on my poetry page unillustrated.  Following my post on the use of images in blogs, thanks to another blogger I have now been introduced to Wylio and found the chosen photo which I felt was perfect.

image

Copyright 2010 Aurimas, Flickr, CC-BY-ND, via Wylio

The Orange Globe

Round and dimpled with a fiery hue.

Balancing on the shiny plate, aware of the carefully-placed threatening steely blade.

Light glistening through the window enlarges the pores, breathing life once more.

Almost perfect, it’s marks prove individuality.

Rough, bitter sharp rind tingles.

Soft grating renders the globe slippery, with a creamy and oily texture.

Thumbs pummel, pressing determinedly to squish open, testing strength.

The pithy coat yields yet resists.

Stabbed through the heart, crackling fibres torn.

Rough saw sound dissects, two halves fall apart.

Juicy pearls cradled within are savoured, sucked and dripping.

Shreds of that which remain discarded.

Fleshy nodules erupt in the mouth, flooding with tantalising golden nectar and a bittersweet lick.

Sticky and blessed, all that remains is a sunny mess.

Blog Images – how much difference do they make?

/ Waves and Pebbles - random thoughts and writing on life, memories and creativity / 2 Comments

I am seriously lacking in images to go with my posts, whether it be photos or artwork.  I could hold back on sharing things that I come across but have decided to share them without images and come back later when I have discovered or created the right image.  I haven’t yet found my way around free online images and would prefer anyway to create my own when the opportunity arises.  So I am hoping people will still want to visit my blog and, when it is more colourful, will be interesting to see what difference this makes to my blog stats.  Would welcome comments on your own experience of this.

Random Ramblings: Vision and Happiness Quotes

/ Waves and Pebbles - random thoughts and writing on life, memories and creativity / Leave a comment

Going through some of my old notes, I came across a quote which resonated with me at the time, which I now discover is by American Joel A. Barker, Futurist, Author, Lecturer and Film Maker (www.joelbarker.com):

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Vision without action is merely a dream

Action without vision just passes the time

Vision with action can change the world

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This applies to our own personal worlds.  We can have dreams that lead to goals and by taking action we can change our own worlds.

Another quote I have stumbled upon in my files by John Butler Yeats written in a letter in 1909 (answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=89409)

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And happiness … What is it?  I say it is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing or that, but simply growth.  We are happy when we are growing.

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Growing involves learning, increasing our knowledge and having new experiences.  Does blogging make you happy?  We are developing our writing skills and learning new things from other bloggers, does this lead to personal growth and happiness?  Does it help us achieve our goals or does it distract us from them?

Clouds – poetic scribblings

/ Waves and Pebbles - random thoughts and writing on life, memories and creativity / Leave a comment

Prompted by a friend to write a poem on clouds, I reflected on what they mean to me.  It’s fascinating how thinking about something like this can evoke memories from the past.

I recall when I was at school we had acres of lush green grass, tiered with slopes that we could roly poly down.  The clouds made me think of when I would lay flat on my back on the grass gazing up at the blue sky and fluffy white clouds on a beautiful summer’s day.

I also remember how I enjoyed flying above the clouds for the first time when I was a teenager, looking down on them and seeing fairytale mountains.

The following are the words that have spontaneously come to me.

.

Copyright 2008 viZZZual.com, Flickr, CC-BY, via Wylio

Copyright 2008 viZZZual.com, Flickr, CC-BY, via Wylio

 

Clouds

.

Stretched out on the emerald pillow

The light sapphire canvas blotched with stately mounds

Wishing I was up amongst the clouds

Gliding serenely o’er the world

.

Zooming beyond the realms of living land

The magical marshmallow mountains

Bestow a safe haven in my mind

.

Clouds are forever there, bumbling along

Swept by the whipping winds of fury

Today their blackened stains threaten

As the wands of wetness streak down

.

A passing theme in our lives

A cloudless sky perfection seems

Yet without clouds, life would pass us by

My creativity is stuck!

/ Waves and Pebbles - random thoughts and writing on life, memories and creativity / 2 Comments

Since I have not been well my creativity seems to have become stuck – or at least is very sticky.  This is so frustrating as I now have the time to write my story and create more poems. But I seem to have some sort of block that prevents me.  Is it just my state of mind?  Can I just overcome it if I really try?

I was given a wonderful and treasured book on writing when I was first in hospital, and I had already been given a great novel planning book for my birthday.  I started to use these when I first went into hospital in January until I reacted badly to treatment and all activity became impossible, being confined to bed, all wired up and even texting was too much of an effort.  That seems hard to believe now and I’ve no excuse and if I could come up with an inspiring plan for a story that I could really start writing, this would help get me over the coming months of treatment, provide a distraction and enable me to move towards achieving one of my goals of writing a book.

The prompt for this post was a message from a supportive friend suggesting I write a poem about clouds.  My initial reaction was no, I haven’t written poems for ages.  Then I thought, why not?  I can just give it a go and see what happens.  Maybe this is what I need to do, just make a start and see where it leads.  So hopefully I will soon be posting my poem on Clouds.

I know from experience that the way in which we think affects how we are, what we are able to do and how we feel.  We do have control over our thoughts … We just have to remember this and choose positive thoughts.  So the challenge to myself is to stop procrastinating and just start writing.  It can be poems, journalling or snippets of a story that I can pull together later.  The aim is just to get started again … which was one of the reasons I started this blog.  I am open to any suggestions or hearing about your own experiences of what has worked for you.           Happy blogging!