Tonight I hosted my very first creative writing workshop. I have been doing creative writing since 8th grade, and in the last few years I’ve been in high gear due to enrolling at the University of New Mexico for a degree in English. I’ve never taught a class before in my life. I’ve tutored before, but in math, which is much different than writing.
I struggled to prepare the material for the class, unsure of what would work and what wouldn’t work. I fretted here and there, thinking. In the end, I had to sit down over the last two days and just look through stuff. Which of course did not help. I finally made an outline of what I wanted to do, and jotted down some notes, and a few excerpts that I wanted to read from stories to give an idea of what we’d be working on.
It turned out that I didn’t need to plan as much as I did. The outline was wonderful and proved so useful to return to. It gave a nice flow, and a goal. But I didn’t follow it exactly or perfectly. I let the class flow as it would and made sure to involve everyone in the class as best I could.
Everyone in attendance said it was wonderful and they learned something. I did not feel nervous during the whole time; I just wanted to have fun, and hopefully everyone else would too. I’m truly flattered and astounded that the people involved loved it, appreciated it, and learned something. That makes it worthwhile.
I deal with my insecurities by seeking out positive attention, which usually doesn’t work for long. I’m hoping this boost will last some time, and impact my life in a meaningful way. Feeling good, appreciated, and useful is something I don’t experience enough. I’m glad I had this opportunity to teach. Wonderful, smooth, fun experience, and I hope each time I do a workshop it turns out as well or better. Thank you to all who came!
11 May 2010
09 May 2010
Mother's Day Dedication
Mother’s Day is often a time when we give thanks to those women in our lives that mean so much to us. I think this is a wonderful tradition, but sadly we should appreciate everyone in our lives more fully, everyday. I did a wonderful dedication a few years back, and it’s time I appreciate again!
I’d like to thank my mom first and foremost. The top reason being that she gave birth to me, so without her, well, I wouldn’t be. I’d also like to say thank you very much for helping me out with school, and sending little things every now and then. I love you!
Next, I’d like to thank my step-mom. Living with my dad most of my life, it was nice to have a mother figure too. Marilin has been there for me, and in recent years we’ve gotten along better. Thank you for helping me out with school too! Love you lots.
Thank you to my grandma that I live with. Thanks for letting me live here again, after I got done with school and still can’t find anything. You are generous, and I love you very much.
Aunt Joy, thank you! I really appreciated you very much my first year in college with your thoughtful notes, and the extra money to buy TP. I know you struggle, and that made me appreciate your gesture more.
Thank you Aunt Lois, I don’t get to spend I lot of time with you, but I want you to know I love you dearly. I hope that we get to spend some time together soon, because I haven’t seen you in a long time. Thank you for everything.
Thank you Grandma Green for inviting me to be a part of the family. I appreciate your warmth, and delicious bread. :)
Gram Langley, thank you for taking me in, too, and treating me as family. You live far away, but every once in a while I think of you and wish you the best. Thank you again.
Nana, I love you! Sorry I missed your birthday this year. I love you a lot, and hope that I get to see you again soon. Even though we may not agree on everything, I still love you.
Last, I’d like to thank Vicki, may you rest in peace. You meant a lot to me, and your kindness lives on in those you’ve touched. I miss you and I know that you are in a better place. Thank you.
I’d like to thank my mom first and foremost. The top reason being that she gave birth to me, so without her, well, I wouldn’t be. I’d also like to say thank you very much for helping me out with school, and sending little things every now and then. I love you!
Next, I’d like to thank my step-mom. Living with my dad most of my life, it was nice to have a mother figure too. Marilin has been there for me, and in recent years we’ve gotten along better. Thank you for helping me out with school too! Love you lots.
Thank you to my grandma that I live with. Thanks for letting me live here again, after I got done with school and still can’t find anything. You are generous, and I love you very much.
Aunt Joy, thank you! I really appreciated you very much my first year in college with your thoughtful notes, and the extra money to buy TP. I know you struggle, and that made me appreciate your gesture more.
Thank you Aunt Lois, I don’t get to spend I lot of time with you, but I want you to know I love you dearly. I hope that we get to spend some time together soon, because I haven’t seen you in a long time. Thank you for everything.
Thank you Grandma Green for inviting me to be a part of the family. I appreciate your warmth, and delicious bread. :)
Gram Langley, thank you for taking me in, too, and treating me as family. You live far away, but every once in a while I think of you and wish you the best. Thank you again.
Nana, I love you! Sorry I missed your birthday this year. I love you a lot, and hope that I get to see you again soon. Even though we may not agree on everything, I still love you.
Last, I’d like to thank Vicki, may you rest in peace. You meant a lot to me, and your kindness lives on in those you’ve touched. I miss you and I know that you are in a better place. Thank you.
24 April 2010
Open Mic
Last week, on April 24th, I hosted an Open Mic at the Village Book Shop in Glendora. I was surprised at the turnout. We had about 6 people come, and for a first time event, that was wonderful! Sadly, I was the only one to read, but my audience was quite wonderful, and loved my story, Agatha’s Soup, which is currently being processed by www.everydayfiction.com. Everyone at the reading said it was good, so I’m pleased by that. I’m glad I brought something to read! Anyways, I felt for a first event, it went well.
Before doing the open mic, I was on KSGV talk radio for a show! I was interviewed about writing. You can listen to the broadcast here Shelf Talker. The listen button may not work, so if you’d like, you can download the program and listen to it from your computer. The file is about 41MB. Please check it out!
For more about me, or events that I may be doing, add me on twitter, @snowppl or check out my website www.snowppl.com.
Before doing the open mic, I was on KSGV talk radio for a show! I was interviewed about writing. You can listen to the broadcast here Shelf Talker. The listen button may not work, so if you’d like, you can download the program and listen to it from your computer. The file is about 41MB. Please check it out!
For more about me, or events that I may be doing, add me on twitter, @snowppl or check out my website www.snowppl.com.
23 April 2010
Life for Life
I once knew a vegan man, who insisted he ate the way he ate to protect the pain animals experience. He didn’t want to eat something that he could identify with: animals. Plants on the other hand feel so genuinely alien to us. And that leads me to ask, do plants experience pain? We eat life, or what once lived, excepting a few things.
Almost everything considered life kills and eats others for survival. Cows eat grass (but mostly corn now-a-days), wolves eat deer, chickens, etc. To live, means something else has to die. Native American cultures knew this (as we do, but ignore), yet they put different emphasis particularly acknowledging that a plant or animal died so they might live. That is the key difference. We go to the supermarket, and don’t put much thought on the life we eat to live.
I’m not advocating starvation! Far from it, but it is a worthwhile pursuit to think of where and how the food we eat ends up on our plates and in our stomaches. Acknowledge that your nutrition comes from something that once lived, and perhaps lived in the prime of its life, whether vegetable, meat, or fruit.
Not all food has at one time lived. Milk hasn’t lived per se, but offers life to calves. Cheese lives (based on the bacteria cultures). Fruits were alive at one point but don’t kill the plant, it’s like eating eggs in a way, excepting the seed is the “yolk” and the fruit the “egg white.” Many vegetables are like fruit-the new “baby” plants. However both fruits and vegetables once lived, and are now not.
What does it all mean? The next time you sit down to eat something, know that you eat something that lived, or had the potential to live and grow and truly be grateful that you get to eat, that you are not on the plate. This will empower to choose better foods, healthier options, and to experience nature everyday.
Almost everything considered life kills and eats others for survival. Cows eat grass (but mostly corn now-a-days), wolves eat deer, chickens, etc. To live, means something else has to die. Native American cultures knew this (as we do, but ignore), yet they put different emphasis particularly acknowledging that a plant or animal died so they might live. That is the key difference. We go to the supermarket, and don’t put much thought on the life we eat to live.
I’m not advocating starvation! Far from it, but it is a worthwhile pursuit to think of where and how the food we eat ends up on our plates and in our stomaches. Acknowledge that your nutrition comes from something that once lived, and perhaps lived in the prime of its life, whether vegetable, meat, or fruit.
Not all food has at one time lived. Milk hasn’t lived per se, but offers life to calves. Cheese lives (based on the bacteria cultures). Fruits were alive at one point but don’t kill the plant, it’s like eating eggs in a way, excepting the seed is the “yolk” and the fruit the “egg white.” Many vegetables are like fruit-the new “baby” plants. However both fruits and vegetables once lived, and are now not.
What does it all mean? The next time you sit down to eat something, know that you eat something that lived, or had the potential to live and grow and truly be grateful that you get to eat, that you are not on the plate. This will empower to choose better foods, healthier options, and to experience nature everyday.
30 March 2010
Everyday Beauty
I have a fun exercise for anyone who reads my blog. Don’t worry you won’t be embarrassed or anything. Here is a nice poem I wrote to help get us into the mood.
Everyday things, what are you?
The cell phone that rings,
The jeans that you wear?
The pullover sweater,
Or the pen in your hand?
Is it the water bottle you drink from?
The notebook you write in?
Perhaps the humming computer, whirring away.
The plate that holds your food
And the spoon that you use?
Or the table that holds your life together?
A stone on the sidewalk you see passing?
The streetlight or freeway you drive?
Everyday things, everyday places
All around us, all are unnoticed.
Take a moment to really notice what is around you. Here is the exercise you can perform to ground yourself to the here and now. Pick up or find any object you have near you, a pen, pencil, piece of paper, book, cell phone, mouse, anything near you.
Take the object and look at it as if seeing it for the first time, and having no idea what it is or what it is for. What does it look like? How does it feel? Touch the object. Is it rough, smooth, sticky? Does it have any particular fragrance? Spend some time touching, feeling, experiencing what you hold.
Now, try going outside in nature, your back yard, a nearby park, etc, and do the same thing with something natural, a tree, flower, grass, a stone, a brook, or dirt. Anything. Experience what it is, don’t judge it, don’t hold any thoughts but the present moment of nature that surrounds you.
What do you call this? Stopping to smell the roses would work but that’s a tired cliché. Whenever your stressed try this out, when you feel like you need a moment away from the “real” world, experience nature. If your a writer this exercise is invaluable, for you can experience the everyday ordinary as something extraordinary and let your creative mind roam free.
Nature be with you!
PS If you know me, you may have heard me tell you to do this before. :)
Everyday things, what are you?
The cell phone that rings,
The jeans that you wear?
The pullover sweater,
Or the pen in your hand?
Is it the water bottle you drink from?
The notebook you write in?
Perhaps the humming computer, whirring away.
The plate that holds your food
And the spoon that you use?
Or the table that holds your life together?
A stone on the sidewalk you see passing?
The streetlight or freeway you drive?
Everyday things, everyday places
All around us, all are unnoticed.
Take a moment to really notice what is around you. Here is the exercise you can perform to ground yourself to the here and now. Pick up or find any object you have near you, a pen, pencil, piece of paper, book, cell phone, mouse, anything near you.
Take the object and look at it as if seeing it for the first time, and having no idea what it is or what it is for. What does it look like? How does it feel? Touch the object. Is it rough, smooth, sticky? Does it have any particular fragrance? Spend some time touching, feeling, experiencing what you hold.
Now, try going outside in nature, your back yard, a nearby park, etc, and do the same thing with something natural, a tree, flower, grass, a stone, a brook, or dirt. Anything. Experience what it is, don’t judge it, don’t hold any thoughts but the present moment of nature that surrounds you.
What do you call this? Stopping to smell the roses would work but that’s a tired cliché. Whenever your stressed try this out, when you feel like you need a moment away from the “real” world, experience nature. If your a writer this exercise is invaluable, for you can experience the everyday ordinary as something extraordinary and let your creative mind roam free.
Nature be with you!
PS If you know me, you may have heard me tell you to do this before. :)
18 March 2010
Spirituality
Have any of you read books about spirituality or listened to anyone talk about it? A lot of talk about the subject leads to head-ism: thinking with the head. This mode of thought shadows the true experience of the divine and wonder all around us. Wait, what? Follow me for a moment, and I hope I can help you see differently.
We’re all physical creatures, since I don’t see any floating heads. We have arms, legs, hands, and feet. We’re not just heads, and a lot of the spiritual information out there deals with problems of the body and how thoughts can make them go away. Prayers are also used to deal with body issues such as disease. But we are going it around the wrong way.
Newsflash! Your body is your mind. Every inch of your body is part of your mind. Your left toe is part of your mind. Yes, that means we think with our pussies and dicks, because they are part of us and all our body is part of our mind. Mental detachment from the body is not a good thing. This may sound ridiculous and ‘out there,’ but think for a moment. How do you experience life but through the body? Sure the brain is important, but no more important than any other part of you. Disease of the mind affects the body, and disease of the body affects the mind.
There is also a connection between the mind and spirituality/religion. Many think that to experience the spiritual and divine, you must deny the body, the impure. Using one’s mind, one could achieve the ultimate experience of divine.
Let’s take a look at Christian Ascetics. The teaching of many ascetics (including other faiths) expound upon the values of self-denial in favor of becoming spiritual. This includes fasting, restraining from activities that one takes pleasure in, and leaving society. But what does this do to the body? Deny the body and you deny your mind, and thus denying the body/mind you deny the spiritual nature we are.
Open your eyes to the world around you. Touch nature, and you touch the divine. No matter your personal beliefs, it is so easy to appreciate nature. Nature is now being scientifically studied on its effects on people. Nature is divine, and it can heal. Religion’s task is to bring us to the divine, but the divine is all around us. Our bodies are divine, plants, rocks, dead leaves: everything is divine. Look at Native American beliefs, and you see this word-view as well. Rocks don’t have spirits, you say. Rocks are spirits. Now think: we don’t have souls, we are souls. Bringing us back to the body/mind, we just add soul. We are body/mind/soul all in one, not separate at all.
Reading recently about psychic talents, I came to a stumble upon my idea. While some of the exercises stated make sense, there is the tendency to ignore the body in favor of the brain/mind. I call bullshit. Chakra meditation has lead me to understand that my brain is the most overactive part of me, leading me to neglect my body as a whole. I know that after I’ve begun working on balance, I’ve noticed I’ve been healthier. I’ve noticed the world around me is more magical and wonderful without my brain over-thinking. Meditation certainly brings everything back into perspective for me.
We are all physical beings, not brains, not soul waiting to move on. Think about the miracle it is to walk, breathe, run, laugh, talk. We do most of those naturally (talking being less natural) using our body that is our mind. I know I don’t think “Left leg, move.” It just moves when I want it to. I don’t have to consciously think about it. That is how life should be, easy, flowing and beautiful.
So how does this relate to spirituality? Whenever you do anything spiritual, whether it is with God, Allah, Shiva, etc, it isn’t about your head, its about everything. For to look at the world around you, the natural beauty of life, you begin to see that divinity not in our heads, it’s everywhere around us, including our left toes.
We’re all physical creatures, since I don’t see any floating heads. We have arms, legs, hands, and feet. We’re not just heads, and a lot of the spiritual information out there deals with problems of the body and how thoughts can make them go away. Prayers are also used to deal with body issues such as disease. But we are going it around the wrong way.
Newsflash! Your body is your mind. Every inch of your body is part of your mind. Your left toe is part of your mind. Yes, that means we think with our pussies and dicks, because they are part of us and all our body is part of our mind. Mental detachment from the body is not a good thing. This may sound ridiculous and ‘out there,’ but think for a moment. How do you experience life but through the body? Sure the brain is important, but no more important than any other part of you. Disease of the mind affects the body, and disease of the body affects the mind.
There is also a connection between the mind and spirituality/religion. Many think that to experience the spiritual and divine, you must deny the body, the impure. Using one’s mind, one could achieve the ultimate experience of divine.
Let’s take a look at Christian Ascetics. The teaching of many ascetics (including other faiths) expound upon the values of self-denial in favor of becoming spiritual. This includes fasting, restraining from activities that one takes pleasure in, and leaving society. But what does this do to the body? Deny the body and you deny your mind, and thus denying the body/mind you deny the spiritual nature we are.
Open your eyes to the world around you. Touch nature, and you touch the divine. No matter your personal beliefs, it is so easy to appreciate nature. Nature is now being scientifically studied on its effects on people. Nature is divine, and it can heal. Religion’s task is to bring us to the divine, but the divine is all around us. Our bodies are divine, plants, rocks, dead leaves: everything is divine. Look at Native American beliefs, and you see this word-view as well. Rocks don’t have spirits, you say. Rocks are spirits. Now think: we don’t have souls, we are souls. Bringing us back to the body/mind, we just add soul. We are body/mind/soul all in one, not separate at all.
Reading recently about psychic talents, I came to a stumble upon my idea. While some of the exercises stated make sense, there is the tendency to ignore the body in favor of the brain/mind. I call bullshit. Chakra meditation has lead me to understand that my brain is the most overactive part of me, leading me to neglect my body as a whole. I know that after I’ve begun working on balance, I’ve noticed I’ve been healthier. I’ve noticed the world around me is more magical and wonderful without my brain over-thinking. Meditation certainly brings everything back into perspective for me.
We are all physical beings, not brains, not soul waiting to move on. Think about the miracle it is to walk, breathe, run, laugh, talk. We do most of those naturally (talking being less natural) using our body that is our mind. I know I don’t think “Left leg, move.” It just moves when I want it to. I don’t have to consciously think about it. That is how life should be, easy, flowing and beautiful.
So how does this relate to spirituality? Whenever you do anything spiritual, whether it is with God, Allah, Shiva, etc, it isn’t about your head, its about everything. For to look at the world around you, the natural beauty of life, you begin to see that divinity not in our heads, it’s everywhere around us, including our left toes.
25 February 2010
Track Record
I don't have the best track record of updating my blog. It gets lost in the myriad events of online stuff that happens everyday, and I just don't think about it.
With all the technology we have today, you'd think it'd be easy right? I think at some points I become over saturated with writing about my life. I use twitter and I write in my journal. That doesn't leave a lot of time, energy, or (much needed) details, left for blogging.
It all comes down to decisions. Do I want to just use my blog as a diary? I don't think I'm quite ready for that to happen just yet. I don't mind sharing some details, but for the really dirt, I hold back just enough. Some thoughts are better left unpublished.
Anyways, since I can now, I'll give a brief update. I had a really great couple of weeks, due to www.breaktheillusion.com (Davey Wavey) who inspires me to think the best of any situation. He's a truly great person, and I'm glad that we've "met" online. Another great, funny guy who makes me think is http://www.youtube.com/user/JonJonJonnyo. In short, I've had nothing but beautiful things happen in the last few weeks from everything to sleeping better, eating better, and generally being happy. I can't stop myself anymore from enjoying life. Smile!
Positive thinking: try it today!
With all the technology we have today, you'd think it'd be easy right? I think at some points I become over saturated with writing about my life. I use twitter and I write in my journal. That doesn't leave a lot of time, energy, or (much needed) details, left for blogging.
It all comes down to decisions. Do I want to just use my blog as a diary? I don't think I'm quite ready for that to happen just yet. I don't mind sharing some details, but for the really dirt, I hold back just enough. Some thoughts are better left unpublished.
Anyways, since I can now, I'll give a brief update. I had a really great couple of weeks, due to www.breaktheillusion.com (Davey Wavey) who inspires me to think the best of any situation. He's a truly great person, and I'm glad that we've "met" online. Another great, funny guy who makes me think is http://www.youtube.com/user/JonJonJonnyo. In short, I've had nothing but beautiful things happen in the last few weeks from everything to sleeping better, eating better, and generally being happy. I can't stop myself anymore from enjoying life. Smile!
Positive thinking: try it today!
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