Monday, June 2, 2014

Writing 101, Day One: Unlock the Mind

Today's assignment:  Loosen up.  Unlock the mind.  Free write for twenty minutes.  Don't think about what you'll write.  Just write. 

And for the first twist?  Publish this stream of consciousness post on your blog. 

I occasionally write 750 words of unfiltered thoughts at 750.words.com so this is somewhat similar.  The challenge in doing this today will be actually writing the gibberish and then posting them.  

I went to see my primary care doctor for to have my INR(international normalized ratio) levels tested.  I developed a blood clot in my leg in January and have been taking Coumadin(blood thinner medication for the last four months).  

I haven't been to the doctor for four weeks and I was hoping that my INR level would be within the acceptable range between 2.0-3.0.  

Bummer, the INR came back at 1.71 which is too low.  So tonight I have to double up on my Coumadin dosage and then go back to the normal dose and then go back next week to find out if this week was a fluke or if I have to adjust my dosage yet again.  

I will be so glad when this episode is over.  Two months to go and hopefully the blood clot will have resolved itself and I can donate blood again and put this behind me. 

Every Monday I receive an e-letter from Hannah Brencher, a young writer who made a strong offer in the world several years ago to write everyone in the world a love letter that needed it. 

Her wisdom for the day:  "You. Don’t. Get. To. Do. This. Again."  This is our one life to be lived.

One of the many blogs that I receive updates from posted a cute song that was written about of all things, writing code set to the tune of Barry Manilow's, I write the songs.

I am always so amazed when I see the creativity that other people have.  Creativity envy.

I have kind of gotten away from writing.  Every year the frequency of my published posts diminish, although my draft folder has over one hundred items in it now.  Why I keep them I don't know.  I am a pack rat even in cyber-space.  Hoarding data, thoughts unpublished over the last six years.

I have posted a few times lately on Medium which I think has a fantastic community of writers.  I enjoy stopping over there and reading interesting stories.

I particularly enjoy reading the inspirational stories that I find them.  A bunch of uncovered jewels to sift through.

Sometimes that does bring up the comparison trap, I can't write as well.  I am not creative.  I enjoy re-tweeting the articles that I find and sharing that work in the world.

Two of our dogs are older now, Harley is 15 plus years and Rocky is almost 13.  I don't want to think about how much time we have left with them.  I want to enjoy the gift that they are in our lives.

Ah, that worry about the future.  Truly the biggest thief of joy that there is in our lives.

I began listening to a mediation by Mastin Kipp about forgiveness.  I wonder if other people have breakthrough's when they listen to this meditation.   Forgiveness is the gift that I give to myself, why do I resist it so?

I am not looking forward to the NBA championship finals.  The thought of another Miami Heat championship makes me cringe.  I am a huge San Antonio Spurs fan.  I love the ways the Spurs play basketball and to me the Spurs stand for everything that I love about basketball, playing as a team, setting picks, running the give and go.  Tim Duncan is one of the most underrated players of all time and he is one of the fundamentally sound players I have ever seen and his bank shot to me is truly a thing of beauty.

The Miami Heat represent everything that I hate about the NBA product.  One on one basketball dominated by arrogant and selfish players.  Brute force basketball.

Time is up.

Daily Post June Writing Challenge

I haven't been writing much this year and each year the postings become more infrequent so in the hope of getting back to writing more regularly, I am going to participate in the June 2014, blogging challenge.  Each day, Monday-Friday during the month I will receive a writing prompt along with an additional twist to complete as part of the daily assignment.

So the goal is to write and publish twenty times this month.

Now on  to day one!