Daily Zen - Friday, November 30

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

                    ~ Mark Twain

Daily Zen - Thursday, November 29

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

                  ~ C.S. Lewis

Daily Zen - Wednesday, November 28

Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.
...live in the question.

                ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Daily Zen - Tuesday, November 27

Where you stand, where you are, that’s what your life is right there, regardless of how painful it is or how enjoyable it is. That’s what it is.

                     ~ Taizan Maezumi

Daily Zen - Monday, November 26

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.

                    ~ Elbert Hubbard

Weekend Zen, November 24-25

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.

                  ~ E.B. White

Daily Zen - Friday, November 23

Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. Patience achieves everything.

                   ~ Teresa of Ávila

Thanksgiving Zen - Thursday, November 22

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

                   –Thornton Wilder

Daily Zen - Wednesday, November 21

If there is to be any peace, it will come through being, not having.

                  - Henry Miller

Gathering And Giving

Posted By: Timothy Juhl

It is just about 45 hours before we all sit down to our Thanksgiving dinners and indulge in turkey and dressing and gravy.  Lots and lots of gravy.

It is a day when we gather with family and friends, and when you sit down to that meal, make sure you remember all those you love and those who are no longer here to share in giving thanks.  This will be my second holiday season since my partner, Jeff, died and I can finally smile when I think of his peculiar bent for jellied cranberry sauce, for 20 years, he had to bring his own can to my mother's because no one in my family ever liked cranberry sauce.  It was his own little tradition.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of my friends, both old and new, for supporting me in all my sorrows, my triumphs and my flights of fancy.  And I want to thank, Jeff McKown, for trusting me with his blog and giving me the opportunity to express my opinions, my tastes, and my humor.

And don't think this will be the last time I post something here.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Daily Zen - Tuesday, November 20

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the 'Titanic' who waved off the dessert cart.
                          ~ Erma Bombeck

Daily Zen - Monday, November 19

When in doubt, ingest carbs.

                        ~ Rachel Cohn

Weekend Zen - November 17-18

The world is three days: As for yesterday it has vanished along with all that was in it. As for tomorrow you may never see it. As for today, it is yours, so work on it.

                         ~ Hasan Al-Basri

Daily Zen - Friday, November 16

It is bad luck to fall out of a thirteenth story window on Friday.

                         
                          ~ American Proverb

Daily Zen - Thursday, November 15

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.

                          ~ Rachel Carson

Daily Zen - Wednesday, November 14

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

                    ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Daily Zen - Tuesday, November 13

Heaven on Earth is a choice you must make, not a place you must find.

                          ~ Wayne Dyer

Daily Zen - Monday, November 12

By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.

                         ~  Marcus Aurelius

Such Times

After spending the weekend with my father, sorting the accumulated ephemera of my grandparents' lives,  stacks of saved birthday cards, their 1935 high school diplomas, the marriage license, my father's birth, grandkids, retirement, my grandmother's death 20 years earlier, I was reminded that we should remain in the moment. 

And to remind myself (and you), I offer this meditation from the late, gay author Christopher Coe:

There will always be one final everything; the last word, of course, the last breath; there will be one last check you write, one last nap, one last artichoke.

There will be a last time you chop scallions, a last movie you will see, a last time you fly to Rome.  It doesn't matter how many coins you leave in the fountain.

You will make one last photograph, and be photographed one final time by somebody else; there will be one last time you will walk on a particular street, one last time you will go out from your house or come back into it.

You will have one last dream, one last orgasm, one last cigarette.  There will be one final time you will see or be seen by the man or the woman you have loved, or the people you have known, unless of course, you outlive them all, which is not likely.

You will lick one last stamp. You won't know it when you do.

Weekend Zen - November 10-11

The brightest stars emerge out of the blackest darkness.

                         ~ Shri Radhe Maa

Daily Zen - Friday, November 9

Whatever the world dishes up, we take it on -- not on our own terms, but on the world's.
                         ~ Steve Hagan

Daily Zen - Thursday, November 8

You don't think your way back to joy; you open to it.

                         ~ Donna Quesada

Daily Zen - Wednesday, November 7

It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean.
                       
                         ~ Jon J. Muth

Daily Zen - Tuesday, November 6

Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing.

                         ~ Zhuangzi

Daily Zen - Monday, November 5

I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.

 

                         ~ Groucho Marx

Write Like It's November

 
Most writers know November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, we say as if speaking an alien tongue).  The challenge: to write every day for the month to achieve a total of 50,000 words, a good chunk of a novel.


This is my third year participating, my second year participating as a poet (NaPoWriMo?) and the challenge is to write a poem every day for 30 days.

In 2011, I did it just to see if I could.  I'm not a prolific poet.  Sometimes an idea for a poem will run around in my brain for weeks before it finally comes to rest on paper.  The concept of generating a poem every day was daunting, but I followed the daily prompts from the Writer's Digest and persevered, ending the month with 30 poems.  It's Day 4 of the 2012 challenge and I've finished today's poem, and it's barely after 8pm here in Iowa.

I have learned a few things about writing a poem every day.

1. I can only do it at night, staring out a dark window.

2. The soundtrack to 'The Hours' is mandatory. 

3. Prompts are simply leaping off points, write whatever comes.

4. I ain't writing epics here.

5. And I ain't writing brilliant verse every time, but if I get one or two decent poems out of 30, and a handful of salvageable lines to be used in another poem one day, I have succeeded.

6. Whether you're writing a novel or 30 poems, just fucking write.

Weekend Zen - November 3-4

There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.

 

                         ~ W. C. Fields

Daily Zen - Friday, November 2

Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you'll be a mile away and have his shoes.                       
                            ~ Steve Martin

Twelve Stages of Novel Writing Grief

In support of those who plan to launch themselves headlong this month into NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I have identified twelve known stages of novel writing grief. 

1. Idea.
2. Enthusiasm.
3. Procrastination.
4. Self-doubt.
5. Angst.
6. Procrastination.
7. Disgust.
8. Procrastination.
9. Despair.
10. Procrastination.
11. Commitment.
12. Writing.

Note: The first 11 stages typically occur over the course of a decade. The 12th stage lasts six months, give or take a year. (Time frames may or may not be compressed for NaNoWriMo participants.)

Daily Zen - Thursday, November 1