What does meditation look like?

Be honest. When you saw the title of this blog, a vision popped into your head. Something probably like this:

But I've been thinking: If meditation is for ME, to help ME, does it have to look like this in my world? I've sat like this in yoga class before, enjoyed it in yoga class before, but honestly, I don't sit like this outside the classroom. I think I am going to do it, but then I never do, for various reasons ranging from not enough floor room to my feet falling asleep. Does that mean I am never going to meditate?

The short answer -- no. I've noticed that naturally I fall into more of a contemplative state when I moving in a way that I don't have to think about. And I have to be outside. Like swinging on a porch swing, or jogging down the street. My mind is just enough occupied with the movement that it pauses the racing thoughts and I can just be. Not necessarily empty of thoughts but letting thoughts pass and being in the present. 

Meet my newest meditation tool, Bessie the Beach Cruiser. I designed her myself at Affordabike, and she is a pure vision of turquoise and white meditation with a smile. 

So don't be stuck in how you think you should do something or what that something looks like. Just think about what feels right to you. And find a space where you can just be, whereever and whatever that looks like.

Time is Of the Essence

Ok. I am obsessed with time as a concept, a "reality" and a fleeting thing. Yep. I've always been one to feel like I am running out. Want to get inside my head a little (you asked, right)? Here are some common time-related thoughts:

1. Fitzgerald had his first novel published at 25 and was a sensation, so I am really behind.
2. On the other hand, William Carlos Williams didn't start his poetry career until he retired, but let's be honest, it wasn't like he was slacking. He was a doctor.
3. While I'm drying my hair upside down for volume, I can catch up on my reading (been doing this since high school).
4. One day ...

But despite sounding like a bit of a jumpy jackrabbit, I've always had a particular view of time. I view the calendar as a track oval, not as a timeline, and when I visualize the calendar year, it's in 3D in this formation. I haven't come to construct this "calendar track" in my mind -- it's simply always been there.

While in graduate school, I wrote a big paper on time in the works of Faulkner and Toni Morrison and asserted that the past, present and future exist simultaneously both in their fiction, and in the world. And although I love my track idea, I envision the yearly track as part of a larger uneven spiral where occasionally the rings come very close together.

similar to how I envision

As an author who has written numerous accounts of ghostly encounters, it makes sense to me that in those close spaces of the spiral are when the dimensions are more detectable.

I know it's Friday, but are you with me???

So, you can only imagine that the amazing television series, Through the Wormhole, is rocking my world. The DVR is set, and this week I watched the episode on Does Time Really Exist?, and it discussed simultaneous time states theory. Perhaps cheering in my living room in response was a major nerd-alert moment, but I am pretty much way past that point now anyway. Watch this show, then ask yourself, what is the "essence of time"?

Doing it just for fun

Sometimes, we get too wrapped up in the reasons behind "doing things": everything from who you connect with, what you do with your time, and even what you eat. Ever hear any of the following in your head?

"It's good business sense."

"This is what I should be doing."

"I've been taught this way."

"I've been doing this [profession, relationship, recipe for chicken] so long, I don't know what else to do!"

Well, today I remind you of a reason, another reason to do something. You used to use this reasoning a lot, when you played. I'M DOING THIS BECAUSE IT'S FUN!

Find something today to do just for fun. Here's mine. I'm putting up this video just for fun. It makes me laugh. I love parodies, football, and Peyton.

Getting rid of the dead-ends

A few weeks ago, I got to chat with Jody Cedzidlo of Flytrap Studios, an apparel design studio in North Carolina. We had a really good talk, especially about supposed dead-end jobs that are actually amazing tools and not "dead-end" at all.

Most of the creative people I know, and I'd lump myself in this category as well, have had what we thought as "dead-end" jobs. But Jody doesn't really call them that, she calls them cul-de-sacs. Perfect! That means you don't have to start over, turn around and trace the same path you just came to get to this big stop. No, it just means that you need to explore the curve then gently redirect on down the street.

Usually when you're in one of these jobs, you have a gut reaction at some point that just says "no." Then the fight or flight mechanism kicks in.

Fight: "This is not what I was trained for."
Flight: "I don't want to be here."
Fight: *Maybe non-verbally* "All you people here need to see that I am better than this job."
Flight: "What's the point -- I can just blend in."
Fight: "Ok -- I learned x lesson or y lesson, universe, so I deserve to be released from this dead-end cage!"

These reactions hit close to home for me, and spiritually, emotionally and mentally, I've been there. But think about the image comparison of a cul-de-sac vs. a dead end. It's really open versus closed, and I don't know about you, but I've been in many neighborhood where I accidentally turned down a street that ended up being a cul-de-sac (open). However, there are usually warning signs for a dead end street (closed) and sometimes I even have to put the car in reverse to get out of there!

Thanks Jody, for this imagery, and oh yeah, for the great clothing designs!

How she maneuvered out of her cul-de-sac is in the article I wrote for Go Triad, so read for inspiration and ask yourself, what is my cul-de-sac?

A Connection to Inspiration

So far in the life of "From My Little Desk," you've been able to read lots of my articles and learn more about the people and the places I write about. We've been to various locales, such as the wildly exotic Knoxville, Tenn. -- hey, I fed a giraffe there! -- and met musicians, painters, potters, farmers and chefs.

But the evidence of a creative life (in my case, published articles) is really only the surface of "what I do," which is what people are often asking that I explain. How do you come up with things, Steph? How do you find these people? How do you write every day? How do you get artists to show up at an appointed time for an interview?

The articles only show a bit of the story of my life. No, stop holding your breath. I am not going to start posting pics of my dogs or my award-winning butternut squash here, although they are both deserved of multiple snapshots. And this is not going to be a laundry list of daily activities, vacations or how I am obsessed with various styles of chicken salad.

It's more about a sea change here at The Little Desk, which is defined as marked change, or a transformation. The articles are but an apartment door peephole into my creative life, which has always included an eye for inspiration and a yearning to connect to it, and now includes my creative consulting and pr business The Beehive.

The articles will still be here, but authors such as Elizabeth Spann Craig have really set me to thinking. She writes a daily blog about the writing craft, creating a resource for writers but also giving her a space to think about her own work, dissect it and study it and feed her creativity in the process.

So this will be my connection to inspiration and creativity. Pull up a chair at the desk. There's room for you here too ...