« Today’s Take Action Prompt: Movie of Your Life | Main | Today’s Take Action Prompt: Writing With Your Heart »
What Do We Believe?
By Sandra Lee Schubert | March 18, 2008
“Creativity is…seeing something that doesn’t exist already. You need to find out how you can bring it into being and that way be a playmate with God.” ~ Michele Shea, Author(1992)
Seeing is just not seeing. We grow up in the same families and still our memories are different than a sibling. Ten people witness a crime and have 10 stories to tell. You walk down the same hallway everyday and suddenly realize the color of the paint is blue. Don’t just look - observe. What color is the sky at dusk? Notice how shadows play on the sidewalk. Feel the wind and give it a name. Pay attention to what is around you. Absorb it. Breathe in your environment. Notice the texture of your skin, the feel of a doorknob. Imagine what it would be like to inhabit another’s body. Listen for what is unique. Uncover what is special.
“I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.” ~ Walt Whitman, poet from Song of Myself
What does it mean to be alive in every sense? I sat at my computer one night and heard the sound of rain outside. You know the kind… rain that comes suddenly and unexpectedly hitting the ground with big plops of water. The sound intrigued me - rain was not forecasted. I looked at the window and was stunned and a bit fascinated. It was not rain but the sound of dry leaves blowing down the empty street. Hundreds of dry leaves. The image was so striking. There were so many leaves. I could not see any wind blowing in the trees right in front of my house. I had no real idea what was driving those leaves down the street in such a hurry. They appeared to be running away from something.
Is that an image that would intrigue everybody? No. It was my moment to see something extraordinary in an ordinary event. Look at life with those kinds of eyes. If you stir up one sense, the others will awaken too. You will feel that special buzz of life coursing through you and you will only want more. Make your writing become alive with tastes, smells, feeling and color. Venture into new territory. Take chances. Challenge yourself to see the world with new eyes.
© 2008 Sandra Lee Schubert www.writing-for-life.com
Technorati Tags: Observation, Senses
Topics: Observation, Senses |