We’re in the Autumn Quarter of the year called Lammas or Lughnasadh, as of August 2nd.

My We’Moon calendar says: “Try this out. Let go of everything around you. Let go of everything in you. Let go of the body. Let go of space. Let go of time. Just hang out in Noplace Notime.” Sounds like a treat we all need. For me it would be Noplace Notime Nanaimo.

In my last blog I included a quote by Charles Eisenstein from his chapter “Nondoing” in The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible (North Atlantic Books, 2013). He says at the end of that chapter: “Doing nothing is not a universal suggestion; it is specific to the time when a story is ending and we enter the space between stories. I am drawing here from the Taoist principle of wu-wei. Sometimes translated as ‘nondoing,’ a better translation might be ‘noncontrivance’ or ‘nonforcing.’ It means freedom from reflexive doing: acting when it is time to act, not acting when it is not time to act. Action is thus aligned with the natural movement of things, in service to that which wants to be born.”

“If we like,” Miriam Dyak, writer of the We’Moon article says, “we could indeed begin to harvest all we physically/psychically/energetically planted months ago in the ground of our lives. But reality turns on a lot less than a dime these days – no telling if what we chose back then is what our world needs now. Out here in the field every moment is an opening for birthing brand new stories.”

Lughnasadh is a “Holy Day of protecting and rechoosing what it is we will ultimately harvest. Nothing is set in stone. Everything is up for our most outrageous imaginations,” Miriam writes.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI really like that approach of “rechoosing” and I’m glad everything is up for grabs in our “most outrageous imaginations.” I also appreciate Charles Eisenstein’s wisdom regarding the “space between stories” and being “in service to that which wants to be born.”

I’ve been choosing dates for fall writing circles as I was very inspired and energized by the July writing circles I offered in my living room. The themes on the three mornings were: Mapping a Memoir, A Memory Map, and Mapping Your Spiritual Journey. (The latter theme will be continued in one-day writing circles I’m offering in Victoria and Nanaimo.) I’ve been writing further on the themes for a potential “writing guidebook” and planning the August circles: Maps of the Possible, The Place You Already Are, and Mapping a Plan.

Talking to a fellow writer recently about her ideas for projects and being stalled on a particular one, I thought of lots of advice to give her about having a plan and working towards a goal. Then I asked her a question I posed to myself: How do you want to spend your days?

I also have ideas for several projects that are in the midst of being created. But I like to go where the energy is and so each day, I choose, based on that energy, what I will focus on. This is a way of life and a practice for which I’m very grateful.

Things do get finished. It just takes longer. I’m very much about the process as much as I love a finished product, a book, in my hand.

I’ve kept an article by Phillip Moffitt for many years. It’s called “The Heart’s Intention” and it’s about setting intentions, quite different from making goals. His Dharma Wisdom is based on Buddhist teachings.

“With goals, the future is always the focus. Are you going to reach the goal? Will you be happy when you do? What’s next?” Phillip says.

Setting intentions is not oriented toward a future outcome. “Instead, it is a path or practice that is focused on how you are ‘being’ in the present moment. Your attention is on the ever-present ‘now’ in the constantly changing flow of life. You set your intentions based on understanding what matters most to you and make a commitment to align your worldly actions with your inner values.”

Phillip says: “Ironically, by being in touch with and acting from your true intentions, you become more effective in reaching your goals than when you act from wants and insecurities.”

Here’s a link to the whole article.
nourishcafe 001blogI was glad to see in an interview Susan Musgrave did for The New Quarterly magazine (Summer 2016), that writing for her is about the process, or at least that’s her intent. She said: “Writing, for me, is, and should be, about process. But we live in a product-oriented time. It’s always, ‘What is your next book going to be about?’ when you are on a book tour, promoting your latest tour de force.’ “

In January of this year, Susan said she had a “real epiphany.” She set herself a task of writing a poem a day first thing in the morning. She was inspired by a daily reading from Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening. She chose one word or phrase in the teaching, and wrote whatever was triggered by that word or words. She gave herself permission to write what she wanted to “even if it verges on the sentimental or self-indulgent, whatever. The astonishing thing is, I’ve had a whole month without being depressed. This is a rare occurrence for me. What’s even more astonishing is that I should be so surprised. I’ve known, since I was fourteen, that poetry keeps me ‘sane.’ Why do I forget, time after time, what it is I need to do?”

I don’t choose to spend my days working on a future goal that may detract from living my life right now. Also, I need to remind myself I’m still recovering even though it’s a year since I started radiation treatments. There are still the effects of it in my body and the after-effects of surgery too which are fairly long lasting.

Each day I choose writing as my practice with an intent of being open to that which wants to be born. It’s the daily planting that informs the big picture. And as for knowing when to rest, and “nonforcing,”, the trees know how to do it. I see the leaves turning already.