“I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.” ~ Vincent van Gogh
Please note: I've been forced to moderate comments to discourage spam. As I live Down Under in the Southern Hemisphere, those of you Up Top might have to wait a while to see your comments appear. I may well be asleep when you read and post. Don't panic, nothing's gone wrong and you don't need to do anything – just hang on a little while.

Friday, November 18, 2011

7 Days Challenge, Day 7: Fall in love with the world

Rewards

Reading people’s minds in their poetry, 
seeing what they pay attention to,
I make new friends.

Writing with my attention on the world,
I return and read, and from outside
discover myself.


Actually the heading for Day 7 is, 'Join us and keep writing', along with an invitation to take a course called 'Fall in love with the world in 30 days', and to join the 'Writing Our Way Home' community — neither of which I am going to do. Not that I don't think they would be good things to do, but I have enough to keep up with already, both online and off. And I am already in love with the world; always have been.


Apart from that, the instruction for today is: Make sure you notice one thing today, too, and write it down. So this, above, is what I noticed at the end of this 7 days.


I will be engaging in the next 'River of stones' in January, with daily posts here ... and probably a few in the interim. :)

Thursday, November 17, 2011

7 Days Challenge, Day 6: Peace through writing

Invasion

How ungainly it looks
the young monitor lizard
scrambling up our driveway
running away from my car
jointed legs akimbo.

But it’s fast. And I’m glad
it lives on this land, 
hiding most of the time —
its species has tenure
more ancient than mine.

I want to call it ‘he’
but I resist. The truth is
I don’t know. The truth
is that respect for life
refuses idle assumptions.

I do know it’s young
from the size. They can grow
three times as big. I hope
that this one will, continuing
to avoid cars and people.

(Hope I don’t need to spell out which is the invader here. May there be peace between us!)

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

7 Days Challenge, Day 5: Keep going

Warming Up

I’m in town in my sarong.
I see another too-old woman
in a floral sun dress,
short skirt and skinny straps.

As I stop to buy diet Coke,
a bike roars away from the shop.
Thin rider in black leans forward
low over the handle bars.

There’s that hint in the air
of anticipation.Thoughts
of beaches, parties ... 
my steps quicken.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

7 Days Challenge, Day 4: Notice a person

Home Help

So straight-backed, hard-voiced.
It takes me weeks to hear
the kindness of her words,
to see the smile in her eyes.

Monday, November 14, 2011

7 Days Challenge, Day 3: Use all your senses

(or at least more of them than sight alone)


November in the Northern Rivers

The heat coats my skin like a very fine layer of oil. My cheeks and temples tingle. My hair thickens on my head, in a close cap. I like the feeling of warmth on my naked back, and the light in the long evenings lingering late. 

Sunday, November 13, 2011

7 Days Challenge, Day 2: Look, write and look again

Cold chicken stir fry (supper)

The rice dry and crunchy
the vegetables moist, crisp.
A peanut taste ... inexplicable.
The spiciness it had at dinner, gone.


(Well, I didn't look, I tasted and felt.)

Saturday, November 12, 2011

7 Days Challenge, Day 1: Go to the World

Observation


The thick stems of the jade bush are dark, banded and mottled, like reptile skin.

A Birthday Present to Myself

(editorial aside)

I have accepted the invitation to do Kaspalita's free 'Experience the world more deeply in 7 days' challenge. Yes, I write small stones anyway, from time to time, but I thought it would be a nice present to myself to take the opportunity to slow down for a week.

My stars for today say, 'Use this time to reconnect with your spiritual centre.' This is my way.