Monday, August 19, 2013


“Reverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows the plentitude of the soul.”  Gaston Bachelard

 

This blog is begun, knowing the plentitude of the soul that there is to be celebrated through meditation, and the crafts of writing and sketching.  I hope to gather perspectives from among the arts and live here the joy that is to be had in a moment of reverie.

 

Pursuing clarity through writing whether one is in a creative, academic or reflective pursuit of life will pave the way for action springing from authentic desires and convictions.  I believe this is one way, in a proverb, to “guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

 


Meditation is not for navel gazing; rather it can facilitate the reconciling of the inner man and outer man, making him ready for action.  A man who knows himself is like a musician who has mastered his craft; he at once commands the notes and is ravished by them.   Slow artful living requires silence and meditation, but this centering oneself makes life worth living, for, “The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

 


The art of the written word is a discipline and a pleasure not often indulged in our digital generation. I will also be providing here some delights in the art of bookbinding.  Writing allows us to interact with the inner man through the tangible art of the hand written word, and a hand bound book contains many of the same tactile joys…The connectedness to the earth, to humans, to friends, to the work of our hands, and to unseen hope.  There is something missing when we do not write.  Indeed, I must agree with Hemingway when he says, “A writer must write what he has to say, not speak it.”

 
One can move from the push of time into the gracious expanse of calm, where we can breathe.  “The imagination needs moodling,--long, inefficient happy idling, dawdling and puttering.” –Brenda Ueland   At times I can think of nothing more beautiful than a large, earthy, blank page open before me.
 
 

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