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Newsletter Archive: August 2007
August 2007
Welcome to the Dare to Blossom newsletter.
To sign up for your own copy direct by email every month click here. If you do not wish to receive future editions, please email me to unsubscribe. Everyone who is on the mailing list will be entered into a draw twice a year (at the end of June and the end of December) with a chance to win a prize of six free life coaching sessions.
- book recommendation ‘A Year of Questions: How to slow down and fall in love with life.’ - ‘Ordinary and extraordinary’, expanding on the reflections on ‘seeing with new eyes’ last month
Book recommendation I have subscribed to Fiona Robyn’s ‘Creative Living’ newsletter for some time, and found it gently challenging and inspiring, so I am happy to pass on the details below about the publication of her book, ‘A Year of Questions’.
"How often do you find the space to keep track of yourself? What is it like for you to spend time alone or 'doing less'? What do you need right now? This book is full of questions. These questions will nudge you towards parts of yourself that you haven't seen in a while, and open up the opportunity for you to do things differently. This book will offer you a space where you can start to hear yourself. Let this be your year of questions."
Fiona says: Click here to buy your copy. It'll also be on Amazon later in the year.
Ordinary and extraordinary I have been reading some of ‘Writing down the bones’, a classic book on writing technique by Natalie Goldberg. I dip in and out of it occasionally and every time what I read produces some interesting thoughts. Natalie talks about how what may seem extraordinary for one person, is ordinary for another. She says: ‘No matter how large a thing is, how fantastic, it is also ordinary.’ Likewise, no matter how ordinary a thing is to us, it is also extraordinary. This seems to follow on from last month’s reflections on ‘seeing with new eyes’. When we look at anything closely, really look at it and think about what we see, we then see the extraordinary. I wrote in my notebook: ‘The pen I am writing with today is an amazing invention. It has a tube containing the ink, connected to the ball point to deliver the ink smoothly to the page. It has a button on top which links to a spring to extend and retract the point. It is made up of two sorts of plastic: a clear inner piece in a beautiful shade of purple, and a ‘frosted’ effect outer piece with the name, logo and contact details of an organisation printed on it. This also has a clip incorporated in it to secure the pen to a pad, in bag or a pocket. There are probably other internal parts that I cannot see manufactured of other plastics or metals. The whole thing was free to me as a ‘corporate gift’, probably cost very little, and it allows me to put down my thoughts on a sheet of paper in a way that can be conveyed to others. Is this pen an ordinary item? Yes. It is also an extraordinary piece of human ingenuity.’ Things that seem magical when first encountered become ‘ordinary’ with familiarity. When looked at again as I just have with my pen, it is possible to recapture some of the awe that a person seeing a ballpoint pen for the first time might feel. Children are wonderful at reminding us of this. Being with a child when they discover something for the first time or learn to do something new is a joy. Retaining and revitalising our capacity to be amazed at the world around us keeps us young and involved, excited and alive! Take a moment to look at something ordinary around you. What is it made up of? What went into making or growing it? What other extraordinary things are ‘invisible’ right under your nose? If you keep a ‘gratitude list’, either on paper or mentally at the end of the day, what ordinary/extraordinary things can you add today?
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