Wednesday Muse #10 : Shinrin Yoku

Hello Wednesday Musers!  Today, we are going to take a forest bath.  A what???  Shinrin Yoku - the Japanese term for forest bathing - immersing oneself into a  a green experience, a tree experience.

We don't all have access to a forest.  We might have access to a park with trees, a walk we take with a tree or trees along the way, a tree seen from our window.

We talk to trees, hugs them, climb them, stroke them.  We look at them from afar or close up.  We look at trees in the mountains, by the ocean, in a city.

Shinrin Yoku - This is the healing way of Forest Therapy.  It is the medicine of simply being in the forest.  So write about tree healing.  Write about how trees soothe your spirit.  Being among trees heal us.  Write about imagine being healed by a tree or made happy.  This is a simple prompt for you all.  It is about healing, it is about peace, it is about calm.

Sunday Muse # 57

"Protector" Photography by Susie Clevenger

To see her other beautiful photos click here

Thank you Susie for providing wonderful inspiration! You are talented in so many ways!


So glad you stopped by today!  You know the shpeel:

 ~Link up, comment and visit others along the way~
  Have fun everyone!
I hope everyone has a good Memorial Day weekend! 

Wednesday Muse # 9 Anniversary

Hello Musers!  I have been thinking about things that occur on an annual basis - anniversaries of a sort.  We all have them.  Wedding anniversaries, birthdays, the time we became engaged, the death of a loved one, pet, friend; the day we received a degree or got the job of our lives, the day we published a book.

So I am making this short and sweet:  write about an anniversary or several in one poem.  Let's try our best to make this true poetry instead of prose broken into lines.  Fireblossom wrote a wonderful article about writing poetry and it woke me up a bit.

I remember when my husband asked me to marry him - to the day!  I think of the day my mother died and the day a friend committed suicide.  I look back on the day I was hired for my first job.  Especially I remember our wedding anniversary!

Some of us even celebrate the day we adopted a pet - a Gotcha Day!  

I think we all remember the day we got various degrees as well.

We remember the day we lost a loved one to another.  We remember all kinds of things that affect our hearts.

So please, share with us an anniversary.  And make it poetric and make it no more than four stanzas.

Enjoy the write!  

Sunday Muse #56

Fireblossom here with your weekly picture challenge! Just train your goo-goo-googly eyes on the picture, cogitate as needed, and then write a poem! Link, visit, feel good about the whole thing. ;-)

Sunday Muse: Wednesday Muse #8 Garden Spot

Hello Wednesday Musers!  I hope you all are having lovely weather!  It is moving into summer and with the thought of summer comes...Gardens!  Large ones, small ones, container gardens, gardens on terraces and porches.

I have moved from a large veggie garden to a small container garden on my back steps.  I grow tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers, and squash.  I am a practical, not decorative gardener.  Herbs and a few marigolds to keep the bugs away.  A container of different radishes and lettuces.  I used to plant a huge garden and can tomatoes and freeze summer corn.  Now I drive out to the country to buy a couple of boxes of tomatoes and dozens of ears of corn.  I also buy peaches to freeze for during the winter.

Besides veggie and flower gardens, there are also large (0r small) water feature gardens, rock and gravel gardens, parks in the city with flowers, and neighborhood gardens.  This year I am going to stop working in a local food bank and volunteer for a local organization that has gardens in the inner city, in food deserts.  They teach kids and adults how to grow veggies and then how to prepare them.  A wonderful group of people!

I would like you all to write a poem about your garden - whether it be one container of a tomato plant, flowers on a terrace, or your entire back yard filled up with statuary, flowers, and roses.

So get out there, and garden!  or write a poem about memories of a garden or gardening, walking in the warm soil of a veggie garden, the smell of roses - anything pertaining to a garden!  How you work out your frustrations or how you find peach - share with us!  BONUS!  Share a pic of your garden, even if at this point it is just a few sprouting plants.

Muse # 55

"Fruition"  Painting by Autumn Skye
Artwork Website

“Note to Autumn: I try to properly credit all artwork, but if I made a mistake and you want your work removed, just let me know. Thank you for brightening the world with your art. Autumn."


So glad you stopped by for the Sunday Muse!
As always; link up, visit others, and comment. We all appreciate being heard. Do not forget that Toni will be hosting Wed Muse # 8 this coming week and I am sure it will be something fascinating and poetic.
Also Shay will be hosting next week's Sunday Muse # 56 and I cannot wait to see what wonderful image she brings us.

Have fun everyone!

Wednesday Muse #7 A Beautiful Mess

Hello Wednesday Musers!  today we are going to explore the Japanese art of Kintsugi and how to make the most of breaks, cracks, mistakes.  Kintsugi is the repairing of a break or a crack with gold. It was created in the 5th century when a shogun broke his favorite tea cup.  He didn't want to throw the cup away but he wanted to continue to use it.

In the 16th century , Japanese tea ceremony users rebelled against the taste of  opulence instead of prizing  simple items marked by time and usage.  The glue or epoxy had been used for centuries - mixing gold with the sap of the rhus tree. Instead of discarding marred or broken objects, the cracks and lines were filled with gold, thus calling attention to the lines made by time and rough use. the art of kintsukuroi emphasizes the beauty of the breaks turning the problem into beauty.

It puts the item into reuse and keeps it from being wasted.  Kintsugi corresponds to the Japanese notions of "mottainai" an expressions of regret and waste and "mushin", the need to accept change.  You don't expect other people to be perfect  It's evidence that we are all fallible, that we heal and grow.

It is absurd to be embarrassed  about missteps and failures. Basho said, "Again and again I think of the mistakes I've made in my clumsiness over the years". .Errors can be the most m most important experiences of all. Things fall apart - life, relationships, jobs...a life well lived can be a source of pride rather than shame.  We don't have to be flawless like we are all brand new objects manufactured for Instagram.  White hair, lined skin, scars, the extra pounds that show your gusto for life. -these things can be seen as signs you're doing something right, that you persist.

The kinstugi approach  makes the most of what already is, highlights the beauty of what we already have, flaws and all.  I would like you all to write a poem in any form about the healing in your life - how you have repaired the cracks and breaks, about your scars, how you have triumphed or are trying to persist.  How you let the light shine through the cracks, how you grow stronger.  Be sure to slink up on Mr. Linky and visit the others who post! Show us the gold holding us all together!

Muse # 54

Fledgling American Crow on Hand  

photo by Robert Langham

Hello everyone, so glad you stopped by today!
 Here is another photo for your musing.
You know the spiel:
link, and visit others along the way.
There is only one demand,
Have fun everyone!!

The Night Sky

Hello fellow musers! Happy May Day!  It is again Wednesday and I am delighted to prompt you all with The Night Sky.  I love the night sky - watching for meteors during meteor showers, sitting on my back steps looking up in wonder and amazement, when I was single driving out to the country in NC and parking somewhere and breathing in the lush summer darkness and the sky.

Write whatever you want and in whatever form you desire about the night sky - gazing at it blurred with city light pollution, in the country when it is black and looking up at the stars, watching the moon rise...anything that pertains to the night sky.

I have a funny story to share.  Years ago when we first moved into our little neighborhood, I would take my telescope and set it on the front lawn and look at the stars.  One night a police cruiser came by and stopped and asked, what are you doing?  I told them honestly I was looking at the stars, an old hobby since childhood.  I invited them to look at what I was looking at.  they both looked and laughed and went on their way.  Apparently some of the neighbors were afraid I was looking at them!!  I visited around the next day, introduced myself and my hobby.  The next night, two neighbors joined and confirmed that I was indeed looking at the stars.  Twenty years later, they have gotten used to my insomniac habits and no longer notice me walking about at all hours or looking through the telescope.

if you have a similar story you would like to share, I'd love to hear it.  So...write away friends.  Visit the other writers as well.  Have fun!