Instead of Habit

art by Sandra Guiloff

Musing...

What if you did one thing differently this week? This is like “stop, look, and listen”, or more accurately, “stop and switch”. Nothing dramatic here, we’re talking about something as ordinary as switching which shoe you put on first – if it’s always the right, stop and start with the left instead.  

This silly and serious advice came from my coaching instructor (thank you, Jeff Kaplan) in a demo of life coaching for student learning purposes.  I was challenged to do several things differently in the course of a week, to shake up routine, break habit, open the doorway to change.  What was the result? More on this next blog but in the meantime –

Get Fired Up:

Choose one thing you are willing to do differently than usual 

a. Every time for a week  (till our next blog post)

b. It has to be something that involves action (e.g. putting on shoes, getting ready for bed, walking around the back/front of your car to get to the passenger side)

c. Okay, go…

Caught in the Act of Being Yourself

Musing...
My orchid had a magenta bloom on it this morning; it couldn’t help it.

My passion fruit is blooming and beginning to bear teeny spheres that will mature into soft yellow orbs.  It can’t help it.

My papaya tree is dripping with oblong golden orange fragrant fruit; it can’t help it.

Even my basil seedlings, only a quarter inch high, smell like pungent basil when I stroke their leaf tops as if I were feeling the top of a crew cut; and they can’t help it either.

They are simply living out the life they were meant to live; they are doing what they were born to do.

Kate’s Turn:

We all came to be out of an act of creation.  We grow and mature to our individual expression, evolving from that original seed that just keeps expanding into more of who we are.  We are creative by nature; we are creative by design.  We just can’t help it!

New Moon Planting -- Timing is Everything

Musing...
Did you know that today is the new moon? How does this relate to planting, and to your creative garden? 


Gardening by the phases of the moon is a technique that can speed the germination of your seeds by working with the forces of nature. Plants respond to the same gravitational pull of tides that affect the oceans, which alternately stimulates root and leaf growth. Seeds sprout more quickly, plants grow vigorously and at an optimum rate, harvests are larger and they don't go to seed as fast. This method has been practiced by many for hundreds of years, and is a perfect compliment to organic gardening because it's more effective in non-chemically treated soil.

The lunar phase controls the amount of moisture in the soil. This moisture is at its peak at the time of the new and the full moon. The sun and moon are lined up with earth. Just as the moon pulls the tides in the oceans, it also pulls upon the subtle bodies of water, causing moisture to rise in the earth, which encourages germination and growth. Above ground plantings should be done during the waxing of the moon, from new moon to full moon.  ( This information partly excerpted from www.gardeningbythemoon.com.)

Timing is an important factor in tending to your creative gardens.

Get Fired Up: 

• What are the gravitational pulls that are calling you to new creative expression this new moon?
• What are the seeds of creativity that you are considering planting?
• How can you capitalize on different resources to cultivate those creative sprouts and bring them to fruition?

Ready or Not, Here You Are...

Art by Sandra Guiloff

Musing…
Have you written a triolet (4/30 post)? Taken a mindful walk (4/22 post)? Listed your ideas along with your vision of the joy you’d receive from them (3/26 post)? Has something stirred in you by reading our musings (1/24- 4/25 posts)? Or, has something else contrived to happen? 

Charise’s turn:

I’m sitting in the ER with my fifteen-year-old daughter who has a swollen wrist, impact of a fall.  We wait for the x-ray results. In two minutes, the poetry reading by former Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin will begin at the Folger Shakespeare Library. My ticket for that event will be unclaimed.  Wasn’t it John Lennon who said,” Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans”?