It is not uncommon for me to be driving somewhere, on my way to one event or another when I see something I absolutely must photograph. I must recollect it, somehow. I must keep the image fresh so that I may use it later in my creativity. Maybe.
And maybe not. I don’t feel the need to get attached to whether or not I will ever write about the row of abandoned shopping baskets in an alley near an incredible mission church I found driving home from East High the other day.
I don’t feel the need to get attached to whether or not I will incorporate a photo of a moon blossom into a collage.
I did, however, make sure I included my strong attraction to a certain volunteer palm tree growing on the corner of 20th and A streets in Downtown Bakersfield Saturday, in my writing because I did so nearly immediately.
I remember once a quote that says something like “Write what you can’t stop thinking about…” Not “write what you know” but instead, write what keeps you awake, write the image that causes you to turn your car around and go investigate.
Less than a half hour after I changed my path to get a photo of a volunteer palm growing between another tree’s roots and the gutter, I wrote about it. For those who don’t know, a volunteer palm is one who just grows someplace without being intentionally planted by a human.
These are not uncommon in Bakersfield. I have one in my backyard who went from being a toddler to a now svelte teen in what seemed like overnight.
This palm, though – she cried out to be noticed. She was so small and so cloaked in so many other things happening in such a dense spot, why would a normal person rushing from one place to another even glance in her direction?
I had a writing prompt later and I wrote “My poetic mind is the volunteer palm, a Mexican fan – inserting herself insistently between the massive tree trunk the curb the gutter the sidewalk.” Here you can barely make her out, just like my poetic mind at times goes underground. With people who can't hear her, she stops talking. She is still there but only for those who notice her.
Amidst all the other trappings of life, my poetic mind stands tall, even in the most unlikely spaces.
The key is to stay alert for these tiny awarenesses to speak to you.
If you live like this: completely, passionately alive, you will notice nuances you have never seen before, right in your neighborhood or maybe even reflected in the eye of your closest friends and loved ones.
Be alert to surprises and lead a more fulfilling life. Sure, you can spend your days complaining and fault finding and forgetting the beauty and wonder that surrounds you. Life is just so much better when you allow shopping carts and volunteer palms and nearly invisible smiles take the place of a shallow, neverending whine of some sort or other.
What will you choose to be alert to today?
Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot
© 2012 by Julie Jordan Scott
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She facilitates Virtual Writing Camp & will be hosting the final session of the 2011/12 season next week. Register before it is too late: Writing the Journey: Memoir, Life Writing & Travel Writing Intensive.
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