As a writer and aesthete, I’m always on the lookout for special nuggets of beauty, humor, inspiration. Based on this blog, you know much of this comes from my family, but I also seek it out in a multidisciplinary fashion. For instance, I read one of Brian’s graphic design magazines a couple weeks ago and was impressed by Jane Fulton Suri’s ideas on how to be a better observer.
Document behavior and focus on action. Use a camera and notebook to observe a variety of related situations in natural settings.
Seek out extreme situations. Pursue experiences beyond what you know or live in every day in order to see anew.
Invite curiosity. Ask “naive” questions that reach beyond automatic assumptions.
Reveal what is intuitive. Be conscious of subconscious, spontaneous reactions.
Uncover the emotional experience.
Tune into cultural patterns. Find meaning and themes in various situations.
Tap resources. Inform the experience with input from clients, experts and the experienced.
Seek flexible and enduring solutions. Not everything requires a makeover. Sometimes simple is best.
Why observe? There are many benefits, including:
the ability to journal
memories
enhancing life
awareness of others
empathy
feeding creativity
slowing down (you know, take time to smell the roses?)
seeing things in new ways
more vibrancy
tasting flavors
shared interpersonal experiences
knowledge
inspiration
wisdom
living poetry
And, really, this list can go on for a long time. Feel free to add to it. I know that, when I live in this manner, observing small and subtle things around me, ways people phrase their thoughts, my life is more vibrant. Truly. Colors and flavors are enhanced, and poetry flows from me. But, when I sink under the weight of pressures and urgent priorities, not making time for my senses, I am blocked.
You might be sitting at a stoplight, waiting to take tired kids home from a long day, and see a funny sign on the street corner. Snap it. Remember the humor of that moment. Be an observer.
*aesthete (great word for today): a person who has or professes to have refined sensitivity toward the beauties of art or nature.
1. Help your child craft their letter to Santa. Fill it with more than wants… have them give thanks, explain how they’ve been good… something that you can cherish and keep as a memory for them.
2. In secret, write a reply to their letter—obviously from “Santa,” which means you’ll either need to disguise your lettering, use a computer, or have a friend script it for you.
3. Place Santa’s response letter into an envelope with your child’s name and address clearly marked on it.
4. Place this envelope into a larger, properly stamped, First-Class mail or Priority Mail envelope and sent to the address above.Christmas Elves at the North Pole will remove the Santa response letter and hand stamp it from “North Pole,” sending it back immediately to make it to your home.
Letters must arrive at the North Pole station by December 15, so make this activity a priority if you want to take part. I am definitely doing this. How fun!
Julianne has loved Moses since The Prince of Egypt. Actually, both of our kids have been caught reading stories in their Bibles about Moses—on their own and in the corners of their beds. Julianne, as I’ve said before, is an avid reader in disguise. So when we bought her a Bible last week that has real chapters and verses in it, she didn’t hesitate to search out her favorite character: Moses.
After I came home from work the next day, Julianne had drawn—in her harried and passionate hand—”Moeses in the bulrushes” on her magnetic white board.
The November edition of Every Day with Rachael Ray contains a funny article—not quite the extent of a practical joke, but close. Feast of burden involves consumer help lines from these companies: Crisco, Reynolds, Turning Leaf Vineyard, and Ocean Spray.
Instead of calling in for help on traditional stumpers such as “How much water should I add to my piecrust dough?” they found a brave soul who didn’t mind sounding, well, dumb.
I won’t type out the whole article since it doesn’t belong to me, but here are two of my favorites:
Ocean Spray Cranberry Consumer Hotline 800-662-3262
EDWRR: “Can I make cranberry sauce out of cranberry Jell-O and Craisins?
Operator: “Um, bear with me. [Long hold] Unfortunately, there’s no substitute for cranberries in cranberry sauce. You’re going to need fresh.”
Crisco Pie Hotline 877-367-7438
EDWRR: “My piecrust recipe says to work the Crisco in until the bits of crust are the size of peas. What kind of peas does that mean exactly—sugar snap, snow?”
Operator: “[Five second silence] You want them to look like little balls—like M&Ms.”
EDWRR: “Peanut M&Ms or regular M&Ms?”
Operator: “Uh, the regular ones. Any size in between is OK, actually.”
I know it’s not Thanksgiving yet, but this is hilarious, and you might want to make one of your own. It only takes a few minutes and guarantees laughter.
If you’d like to join the fun, click HERE to see this branch of the Dreilings dance as elves. Then, it offers you the chance to create elves from your own photos.
After you make your own elves, please come back here and comment, sharing your link in the text. We could always use a little extra laughter.
I took this picture with my camera phone because Brian has the digital with him in Wyoming. Bear in mind that I was perusing an antique mall when I spotted this photo op. Good thing they labeled the box…
This holiday season marks a departure for DiCamillo—she’s written her first picture book: Great Joy. The basic plot involves a young girl named Frances who is struck with compassion when she spots the organ grinder and his monkey sleeping on the street on a cold night just before Christmas. It is richly illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, who illustrated The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by DiCamillo.
Even if you aren’t “into” children’s literature, this is an engaging video. Writers will especially appreciate another chance to get into the head of someone who actually gets paid to write. Enjoy.
Meredith Matthews, great blogger alá My Lemonade Stand, posted a quickie about this Microsoft iPod video. Her post exposes that it was created internally at Microsoft to recognize frustrations with package design and marketing. Whatever its purpose, it resonates with all the Apple fans out there, who tend to gravitate toward simplicity and creativity. (Ok, that last comment is my own bias. No offense allowed!)
If you say no,
It will be ok.
There’s no one to please,
No hoop to jump,
But your answer need not
Set in concrete now.
‘Tis early, yet, to decide your will.
A wind may warm your
Heart toward children,
Rather,
Warm you to being imperfect
Messing up those you
Love for love’s sake
Without a net
For such times.
It’s ok. None of us
Remembers perfection
When all we wanted was mud
For pies or marshmallows on
Sticky forks.
Look at that mirror—
The youth in creases not
Yet deep
Hollowly lulls a fear
To your face and says
You will break One.
But it cannot break
Where love is, it wants only
The pat on a back
When cursive is learned,
Or the story ‘fore bed
Just because it’s that time.
The Apple earbuds I’ve been using are too large—they hurt me and keep falling out, especially as I exercise. I liked the fact that they wrapped into a lanyard for easy use around my neck, but now that we have a treadmill which has an mp3 player feature built in, I don’t need to use the lanyard. Good thing, because the rubber around the earbuds has broken off, and may be lodged somewhere in my right ear.
I browsed the aisle at Target last night and found some interesting earbuds by Skullcandy. They’re the exact pink of my iPod, and they’re a totally different design. The bud is composed of a soft, flexible rubber that takes the form of your inside ear. Of course, there are three sizes of inserts that come with the buds, so that makes it a practical buy for anyone. I use medium. They are very comfortable and create a deliciously crisp sound seal. If the volume is up, I can’t hear any outside noise. I love them already!
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children... to leave the world a better place... to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Your whole duty as a writer is to please and satisfy yourself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one.
—W. Strunk & E.B. White
Writers live twice. They go along with their regular life, are as fast as anyone in the grocery store, crossing the street, getting dressed for work in the morning. But there's another part of them that they have been training. The one that lives everything a second time. That sits down and sees their life again and goes over it. Looks at the texture and details.
—Natalie Goldberg
