summer reading

Those of us who read the books we read, fiction or non-fiction, because we want to get into another character’s brain — I think we’re voyeurs, and that’s what we’re looking for in our books. -Nancy Pearl, NPR interview

This morning I wanted to share with you this short spot from NPR about good summer reads. All of the books sound fabulous, and the cover art and titles alone make me want to rush out and buy a few of these.

The quote came at the end of the radio interview, and I totally resonated with the idea of wanting to get into somebody else’s brain or life. (A few months ago, helping a friend pack up her things for a move, I happily busied myself wrapping photo frames and packing books, allowed passage into new territory in this friend's life.) Thankfully, Ms. Pearl's observation encourages me to channel my voyeuristic tendencies into reading a few of these books instead of romping around facebook.

On my summer reading list: The Chronicles of Narnia (already finished the first two books), hopefully some E.M. Forster, and I've been meaning to read Silent Spring. Hopefully also some poetry.

What are you reading now, or this summer? And what are your goals in reading? Purely educational, escaping into a new story, getting into someone else's skin?

staggered by their own luxuriance

I meant to post this yesterday in celebration of the first day of summer, but the day got away from me. The photos are of the peonies I bought for my desk at work yesterday (hence the faux wood desktop in the background). Few things will encourage coworkers to stop by and chat like beautiful flowers (and pending deadlines -- but that's a different kind of conversation!).

The poem below is one of my favorites. Enjoy!

Peonies at Dusk

White peonies blooming along the porch
send out light
while the rest of the yard grows dim.

Outrageous flowers as big as human
heads! They’re staggered
by their own luxuriance: I had
to prop them up with stakes and twine.

The moist air intensifies their scent,
and the moon moves around the barn
to find out what it’s coming from.

In the darkening June evening
I draw a blossom near, and bending close
search it as a woman searches
a loved one’s face.

Jane Kenyon from Constance (1993)

on courage, wishing and flirting

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'

What one has to do usually can be done.

-all Eleanor Roosevelt, via this post

I am going to be a bit more vulnerable with you than I’m in the habit of being. I feel ok doing this because I think I know my audience, and if I had all the time (and money for plane tickets) in the world, I’d probably sit down for coffee with each of you and spill about this anyway. So here goes.

Do you know what came to mind when I read each one of these quotes? I had some quick flashes about my dreams for my writing or challenges I’m facing in my professional development and habits, and about running a marathon. But the biggest challenge in front of me right now is this (don’t laugh): flirting. Ok, you can laugh now, because I did just now when I went back to read the quotes. Especially the one with the word “horror.”

Flirting comes easily to some people, but I am not one of those people. If we were together having that coffee, I could tell you some of the reasons for this, but writing them here is a little too self-indulgent, I think.

Instead, I will tell you about how I’ve been thinking about my openness to new things and new people, and how I want to be sure that as I age I stay flexible. Play will be important, I think, and yet doesn’t come naturally to my use-all-time-efficiently attitude toward life. Flirting is a kind of play that I’d like to learn.

Oh yeah, and there’s also this huge looming question of marriage, one that’s at times as heavy and tiresome as the June gloom we’re experiencing here in L.A. It makes me want to get back in bed and close the blinds until the sun starts to peak through and I can run outside and soak it all in — because I don’t know what the answer to the question is, and however hard I try I just cannot figure it out myself. Some trusted friends have suggested that flirting, while not the answer, could help my outlook. It could help me to bear with the gloom. The beach can still be fun even if the sun isn’t shining.*

The quote that stuck out the most is the one about energy to wish and plan. I’m such a planner (see the part about using time efficiently). Wishing, like flirting, seems frivolous; I’d rather pursue the possible, the concrete, the lasting. Are you making the connection with me? When it comes to my desire to be married, I just want to find the person and get it done. But it’s very possible that planning isn’t all there is to it, that I need some of that energy to wish and flirt and play and grow into it in some very intangible way.

Thank you for reading this very rough, journal like entry, and for having this virtual coffee date with me. And since we’re pretending to be curled up in oversized chairs (those are my favorite kinds of coffee shops) with steaming cups of coconut mochas or dirty chai lattes (I have a story about that to come), tell me what you think. What helps you to flirt and play? What do you think of when you read E.R.’s quotes about courage? What do you need courage for?

*Being single and desiring marriage isn’t all gloom. I enjoy my freedom, my friendships, and my work. But it’s still a very real question, an unfulfilled desire that has real weight in my life.

listen to me

It was not in my nature to be an assertive person. I was used to looking to others for guidance, for influence, sometimes for the most basic cues of life. And yet writing stories is one of the most assertive things a person can do. Fiction is an act of willfulness, a deliberate effort to reconceive, to rearrange, to reconstitute nothing short of reality itself. Even among the most reluctant and doubtful of writers, this willfulness must emerge. Being a writer means taking the leap from listening to saying, “Listen to me.”

-Jhumpa Lahiri, in Trading Stories, published on The New Yorker website; bold mine

(And of the bolded sections I'd argue the same is true for any act of creating...)

post-it quotes: the primary benefit

"The primary benefit of practicing any art, whether well or badly, is that it enables one's soul to grow." - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (I forget where I found this one...)

I know a lot of people say that life is about the journey, but I am a results kind of gal. Give me a Saturday and I'll make a list of errands and chores to check off -- and if I'm not careful, the checking off will be one of the most enjoyable part of my day.

This is one reason why practicing creativity is good for me. Though I still love to get to a finished product, creating is so engaging that I usually experience something good from the process. Eating is fun, but so it chopping vegetables and maneuvering through a new recipe. I'm experimenting with water color, and while my results aren't museum-worthy, there are so many ways to play with the paint and paper that I can sometimes get over the crappy results. (Sometimes.)

My results-orientation can take hold and give me a good shake at work, accusing me, "who are you if they don't end up using the proposal or your copy is revised into something completely different or ... " Certainly not a writer, is the implication. Legitimate writing is required if I'm call myself a writer with any credibility. At work, being creative and playing with words can be overlooked or even become a chore unless I choose to remember this wise advice -- that the real reason I write or do anything creative is to grow.

Here's a quick list of ways I know I grow through creating:

• I grow to be more like my Creator.
• I grow in courage when I face an empty page and attempt to fill it. (Check out this recent post by my friend on this subject.)
• I grow louder in voice as I learn to express my unique perspective and my stories.
• I grow in self-awareness and in my understanding of the world around me when I describe what I see and feel.
• I grow in love for people around me when I express my feelings for them through creating for them.

What are your blocks to creating, "whether well or badly"? How do you see yourself growing when you move past these blocks? I'd love to hear!

******

Post-it quotes is a series. Each post features a new quote that's made it's way to a post-it note on my computer at work, combining two of my loves -- wise words and post-it notes -- with my desire to stay focused and develop excellence at my work and craft.