Haiku Project

Campside dark circles,
Half moon shines, frogs and crickets,
Shooting stars collide.

I'm undertaking a writing project. For the month of October, I am going to write one haiku a day. If it goes well, I may choose a different form for November. I haven't always liked form, but I know it stretches me and makes me write things I probably wouldn't otherwise. I wrote this one on our camping trip this weekend, and was pretty pleased with the way it came out.

Good Intentions

The plan this week was to get up early and do some writing. It started out well, but as the week has gone on I'm back to hitting the snooze button until the last possible minute. I've been out of the house every night this week, though, and have ended up staying up later than I think is healthy if I'm going to be getting up an hour earlier. I need at least six hours of sleep! So, for next week I think my goal will be not to allow myself to sleep past 6:20. I'll shoot for earlier, but if I can push my latest possible sleep-in time back ten minutes I think I'll be one step closer.

Since I slept in til 6:30, I don't have much time to write. I'm thrilled, though, because I managed to recover the earlier posts I made to this blog that I deleted in July. You can view them here.

Mornings

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately, and have been getting so inspired. Not to go out and do something huge, but to keep making small change in the way I live on a day to day basis. I've been trying to live simply and conscientiously since high school, and more recent years I've decided that I want to live deliberately and joyfully. I want to make conscientious choices that leave me in control of my own life, and contribute to my overall sense of well-being and joy. Yoga and meditation, of course, fit in here because they demand that you live in the moment, mindfully and deliberately.

Last week I started reading Zen Habits and mnmlst. Leo's ideas match up so well with the mindset I've been (slowly) developing for the last fifteen years or so. I read his blog about waking up early, and I've decided to give it a try. I've been doing it for nearly a week now, with the intention of using my extra time to get some reading and writing done. I'm really liking it! I think now that I've carved out a time of day specifically for writing, I might be ready to take on my great aunt's story. I'll probably write more about this here in the future, but Aunt Belle was an incredible woman whom I've longed to write about for several years. I never met her, though, so most of what I know about her has been transmitted through story. I have her journals and letters, though, so maybe if I just start writing and start digging, something will come to light.

A benefit that I hadn't really anticipated was the shift in mood and mindset that rising early can bring about. Leo definitely talked about this, but I've been struck by how easy it is to wake up early when you're waking up early for yourself, not because you have to go to work or be somewhere. It has reduced work from a dominating force in my life to a simple (albeit time consuming) commitment. Fantastic!

If you've never read it, you should check out Mary Oliver's poem "Why I Wake Early". It was my aunt's favorite poem.

I started meditating and making an effort to incorporate yoga into my life a few months ago. It's led me to realize how much time I spend plotting out future paths, many of which I either have little control over at this moment, or I have no idea if I will actually want to pursue them when the time comes. I'm trying to shift my focus to the present moment. This means when I start thinking about the future I first try to refocus myself on the present. If that doesn't quite work, I try to shift my focus from what I am going to do in the future to what I can do in the present to ensure that I have options for the future. I believe that the biggest thing I can do right now is to begin to simplify my life on all levels. I am working to reduce the clutter in my life (physical and mental), and to simplify my finances. I'm focusing on paying off my debt. Focusing on breathing and yoga and meditation. It's a process, of course, but I am beginning to see progress.

My inspiration to write this evening actually came from this blog post from Zen Habits about how to transform anxiety into inspiration. It was actually written by Mary Jaksch of Goodlife Zen. This post was particularly refreshing to me because it reminded me of exactly why I began meditating and embracing yoga: to learn how to live in the present and control the irritation and knee-jerk reactions my own anxiety causes. I'm not quite there yet, but I see improvements all the time.