The Ritual of Handwriting

Writing nailed to a tree, taken by me in northern Thailand, 2005

"It seems that handwriting is morphing into a source of leisure, reaffirming its magical, artistic and sacred origins."
    —Ecriture Infinie website

Ecriture Infinie is a world-wide project organized by Bili Bidjocka to celebrate the process of writing by hand. Large notebooks are filled with what contributors would write if it was their last opportunity to write something by hand. (Discovered via Black Eiffel.)

photo via cool hunting

What would you write as your last handwritten note? I think mine would have to be something personal and heartfelt. Perhaps a love letter, because I love getting hand-written notes from my husband. Sometimes I can't understand them, because his writing is a little scratchy, but I love that each letter uniquely reflects his hand.

Happy Funtimes with Animals

Have I been a little too introspective lately? In the past couple of days, I've noticed myself looking for things that will tickle my funny bone.

Just an Ordinary Fellow, by Marc Johns

Here are some little delights I've discovered, with some special animals thrown in:

• The lamb who thought he was a dog
• How to cook a non-tasty meal
• "Wait, What?" moments
• How to write a rom com
• The New Girl
• Useful dog tricks

Doorway Blessing

I've been thinking about posting a blessing near our front door, as a little reminder of how I'd like to live. Kind of like the mezzuzah of Jewish tradition, except completely different, because I wouldn't be playing by the rules.

Some contenders:

1. The closing prayer of the Navaho blessingway:

In beauty I walk 

With beauty before me I walk 

With beauty behind me I walk 

With beauty above me I walk 

With beauty around me I walk 

It has become beauty again 

It has become beauty again 

It has become beauty again 

It has become beauty again

It's hard to beat wisdom as beautiful as that. Whole books have been written about the Navaho concept of beauty, which can also be translated as harmony. More on that some other time. 

2. Some words a teacher used to say:

Now go out into the world, and expect the unexpected . . .

Simple words that I return to again and again.

Illustration by Carson Ellis for Wildwood
via Mrs Fancy Pants

3. Some words that I write myself that somehow capture the idea that the world is magical and I'm a part of it.  But if there are already such eloquent expressions out there, I'm not sure if I can say it any better.

Stay tuned! 

Song of the Day: "Keymaster"

"Keymaster," by Caleb Burhans and performed by Janus trio, is the perfect music to listen to while being creative. The gentle sounds of the flute and harp combined with the more rich tones of the viola make a gorgeous, magical combination.

Whenever I listen to Janus's CD, i am not, I always feel like I've been transported into a beautiful world, or rather, I see the world I'm living in as a little more wonder-ful.

What music do you listen to when you want to be inspired?

Stone vs. Tree

Yellow Birch, Adirondacks, by Michael Melford for National Geographic

The giant pine tree
grows from a tiny sprout.
The journey of a thousand miles
starts from beneath your feet.
    —Tao Te Ching, 64


On reading the passage above, this Westerner immediately thought "Oh, this means I should set a goal and work towards it little by little." But I don't think Taoists sages were very goal-oriented! (I think their disposition had something to do with desiring to have no desire . . . ) The goals of Taoism seems much less will-driven.

So what's the moral of the story? Patiently cultivate your life, appreciate the miracles that can come in the tiniest packages, and welcome the surprising twists that come along the journey.

Here's the full text:

What is rooted is easy to nourish.
What is recent is easy to correct.
What is brittle is easy to break.
What is small is easy to scatter.

Prevent trouble before it arises.
Put things in order before they exist.
The giant pine tree
grows from a tiny sprout.
The journey of a thousand miles
starts from beneath your feet.

Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what was almost ripe.

Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He remains as calm
at the end as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds people
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things.
    —Tao Te Ching, 64, translated by Stephen Mitchella

For more "tree takeovers" see this flickr gallery.

Cosmic Dancer

The Dance, by Esti of Pintameldia

There's a beautiful paper called "Dancing in God: The Relevance of Ritual for Conceiving the Divine Today," by Curtis Thompson on the University of Chicago's Religion and Web Culture Forum page.

The challenges, as Thompson sees them:

• to address daily practices often considered unreligious
• to confront dis-ease with being embodied, i.e., translate the divine back into nature

The modalities of dancing:

• pantheism's dancing heart: the dancer affirms God's presence in everything
• panentheism's dancing mind: the dancer affirms God's transcendental embodiment, interdependent from the world
• pantranentheism's dancing soul: the dancer affirms God's transformational presence and her partnership with God

The conclusion:

• "To allow the dancing heart and the dancing mind and the dancing soul to coalesce in a full-bodied dancing in God is to join in the sacred dance of the cosmos."

The Tree Inside Her, by Esti of Pintameldia

Read the article for all the juicy details. This summary is simply meant to inspire an attitude of frolicking, leaping, and generally joyful living!

Happy Autumn

Happy first day of autumn! It doesn't matter when the calendar year starts, autumn always feels like a time of new beginnings for me. 

via Lacrima di ghiaccio

Going on a walk with the doggie, we were both a little prancy from the cool air. Of course, I can't walk on my tiptoes with legs straight like she does, but we both walked with a bounce in our step. We could smell transformation afoot.

Fantastic Fall Fox Coat, made by Molly Goodall
photograph by bellinipics.com

That's all. A simple post. Sometimes you've got to just delight in being a part of the beautiful, ever-changing world.

via Harmonious Harlequin