Online - Why?
Having failed miserably, over many years, to keep a journal I have decided to try to use the online habits, which I have learned from posting other blogs, to force this journal into being.
There is no shortage of advice about how to write, or how to keep a journal alive. However most of them require an organisation and diligence which I have chosen for my mind not to follow.
This journal will not be organised, other than it will be often visited. It will be contemporaneous, for instance today I followed Eckhart Tolle's Presence Meditation in search of the self...If there are no words there is no thinking, if there is no thought you have found the presence.
All my quotations will be attributed, the quotations themselves though may not be entirely accurate, but hopefully the essence is always there.
I mention Eckhart Tolle, for one thing because I like namedropping, but also because his Presence Meditation I find to be extremely immersive and silence provoking, which is quite a contrast to the Acem Meditation that I have been practicing daily for several months now, and where I used to love to let my thoughts freely drift.
I have made a weekplan for 2021 which includes photography. From a combination of sources, and to be both a Christmas present, and a birthday present, I have acquired a new iPhone camera, with a telephoto capability.
This image shown here is from a more traditional camera, I will use it as a benchmark for the new bit of high technology kit.
Although I do hope to be more spontaneous with the iPhone camera, indeed that is a major basis for the purchase. That and my eight year old iPhone now having a broken screen, and also not being able to keep up with the operating systems and the apps.
How can I encourage interaction with the journal? If you like it I am sure there is a box to tick. If you don't like it hopefully I have excluded that box. If you are keeping an online journal I would love to read it, and pinch a few ideas if you don't mind.
Will I keep it going. That is the big question. Will I be inspired to be inspirational. That is almost a non question, or at least a question which I couldn't possibly answer.
Right, that's it for today. Now to my Medium blog, or my Youtube Channel, then back to the writing. Oh, and here is a piece of my work from yesterdays Louth Monday Morning Creative Writing Zoom group.
Sleep (I Want To)
No one sleeps on their backs with their legs crossed at the ankles, or do they, so why do you try that.
No one works out if there is enough time to take another tablet before the waking is due, or do they.
No one has enough ego left in the middle of the night to write something compelling, or do they.
First then a meditation on everywhere you have ever been, that should lull you off to sleep.
No, well then a meditation on everyone you have ever known, being mindful to put the bad folk first.
No success there either, then get out of bed, go downstairs, make a drink, kick a few things with your bare toes and say bollocks before returning to your bed.
There to meditate on all your favourite songs, or poems if you are feeling literate.
It’s not going to happen is it, so resign yourself to starting the day early, remove the alarm, get up, make the tea.
Say a few more expletives to yourself.
Before becoming calm, before entering the presence of nothingness, as Mr Eckhart Tolle guides you.
Without words there is no thinking, without thought there is only presence, without doubt, there is only sleep.
Au revoir
Christopher
