Linda Tate
Laugh More
Lately, I have been clearing my space to make room for more creativity and inspiration when I came upon something from August 10, 1998. It reminded me about the value of everyday laughter as a tool for maintaining a positive mental attitude and as a source of inspiration for creative pursuits. The simple act of actually finding a random piece of paper I had saved from 1998 made me laugh at myself for being such a pack rat, but what is on the paper was worth reading again and definitely worth sharing. It’s from a time when I had been a subscriber to a website that emails its subscribers a joke a day. I went back there and signed up again because I believe whenever we can lighten up and laugh more, something good is bound to happen. So thank you to www.ajokeaday.com/ for the following:
Kids Finishing Sayings
A first grade teacher collected old, well-known proverbs. She gave each kid in her class the first half of a proverb and had them come up with the rest.
Better Be Safe Than… Punch A 5th Grader.
It’s Always Darkest Before… Daylight Savings Time.
Strike While The… Bug Is Close.
Never Underestimate The Power Of… Termites.
You Can Lead A Horse To Water But… How?
Don’t Bite The Hand That… Looks Dirty.
No News Is… Impossible.
A Miss Is As Good As A… Mr.
You Can’t Teach An Old Dog… New Math.
If You Lie Down With The Dogs, You’ll… Stink In The Morning.
Love All, Trust… Me.
The Pen Is Mightier Than The… Pigs.
An Idle Mind Is… The Best Way To Relax.
Where There’s Smoke, There’s… Pollution.
Happy The Bride Who… Gets All The Presents!
A Penny Saved Is… Not Much.
Two’s Company, Three’s… The Musketeers.
Don’t Put Off Tomorrow What… You Put On To Go To Bed.
Laugh And The Whole World Laughs With You, Cry And… You Have To Blow Your Nose.
Children Should Be Seen And Not… Spanked Or Grounded.
If At First You Don’t Succeed… Get New Batteries.
You Get Out Of Something What You… See Pictured On The Box.
When The Blind Leadeth The Blind… Get Out Of The Way.
There is No Fool Like… Aunt Edie.
A Quote
Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
– Albert Einstein
Quotes can be inspiring, and sometimes just the right one appears when we need it most. I have a collection of quotes on my website. Check out my favorites and send me yours. I’d love to hear about what inspires you.
The Source
The source of all creativity, imagination, and inspiration resides in awareness. It is the conscious process of observation, of feeling, of listening, of exploration that feeds the work of every artist, every painter, sculptor, musician, vocalist, composer, writer, dancer, chef, designer, healer, actor, architect, photographer, and anyone who makes or does anything creative. Awareness puts us in contact with our muse, the beginning, the middle, and the endless. It enriches the search for meaning. It sparks the ever-present, at our fingertips, nudge to do, be, go, see. It encourages us to be playful. It presents the question “what if?” and urges us to find out what will happen if the “what” is made manifest.
As we challenge ourselves to be aware, sensitive and present in each moment, let’s share some of what we discover as we observe, feel, listen, and explore.
I encourage you to use this as an interactive, artistic space where we can share ideas about creativity, imagination, and inspiration. What we are creating, how we are creating, and where it all comes from.
Aware
taste, touch, see, hear, feel, look out, look in, take the plunge into all the senses, surround yourself, fill yourself up, breathe, smell, move, stretch, listen, silence, noise, loud, soft, bright, dim, shade, sun, warm and cool, hands and feet, heart and mind, soul and salvation, uncensored, alive, aware, a-w-a-r-e, at all times, in all places, open expectation, drinking life, handfuls, passionate, grasping, letting go, watching, waiting, what will happen next, who will appear, what will I see, what music will fill my ears, conversations, commitments, cavalier, costs nothing, everything, give it all up, take it all back, reach out, dig in, sanctify your space, satisfy your desire, it is there to experience if you are aware, go wherever, come back again, sink down, lift up, spin around and around in circles, global, local, right next door and far away, running, walking, skipping, dancing, jumping, falling, failing, flailing, filtering and unfaltering, genius and emptiness, flashes of insight, darkness and objects turning into other things with just a word or two, imagination at the bottom of a well, a lake of sound ripples across a desert landscape, and a mountain rises behind me, in the distance a coyote stretches its neck and howls to the sky, aware of nothing and everything, i am alive in a small space, fingers twitch and eyes observe the simple and complex, the similar and strange, a diamond, a sapphire, a piece of concrete, aware.
The Geography of Creativity, Imagination, and Inspiration
Sometimes she sings and sometimes she does other things…
Like staring at clouds.
Every new year brings with it the sensation of a new beginning, a chance to start again, to renew our journeys, an opportunity to refresh ourselves and to break with the old, worn out ways that weigh us down and no longer serve our paths. My renewed path in 2011 is a continuously creative one, and in my blog, I will offer a glimpse into my inner and outer creative world in music and life.
If you want to know when and where I am performing, you can go to Live Dates. If you want to listen to samples of my recorded music, you can go to Sounds and CDs. Ah, but here… we can explore together what it means to be creative, what inspires and motivates the art and our lives.
Join me as we navigate the Geography of Creativity, Imagination, and Inspiration.
Photo credit: http://freestockphotos.com/
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