Flo

People tell Frank Warren their secrets.  All Frank does is ask for them.  Frank has been collecting secrets for the past four years and to date, has collected more than 200,000.

On April 26, I wrote of going to hear Frank, the author of four PostSecret books. Listening to him speak about PostSecret and meeting him afterward showed me how big his heart is.  It showed me how genuinely serious he is about collecting secrets and “protecting” them.  You might think the word “protecting” doesn’t apply, after all he has published four books and posts 20 postcards on his PostSecret.com website weekly ( 20 of approx. 1,000). By protecting, I mean he doesn’t allow himself to be in situations where the secrets or the process can be ridiculed, for instance he choose not to be interviewed on the David Letterman show, for that very reason.

Think about your secrets.  It can be a difficult thing to do, particularly if you consider yourself to be honest, forthright, honest, direct, and again, honest.  We all carry stories with us, memories of humiliation from grade school, embarrassing moments, and then our more serious and even debilitating secrets.  By simply sending him a postcard, Frank gives everyone an opportunity to voice those secrets, create momentum that moves a person in the direction of healing.

The presentation ended with the lights dimmed and Frank giving audience members the opportunity to share their secrets.  I sat there thinking “there is no way anyone would do that” and was I wrong.  Often heartbreaking and sometimes hysterically humorous, the audience members bravely shared their secrets with us.  While getting my books signed, I tried to thank Frank for all he has done.  My guess is, he hears this all the time.  I think I’ll tell him in a postcard.

Namaste’

Frank Warren, the creator of the PostSecret series of books and the postsecret.com website, is speaking tonight in Fort Collins.

I read the first book when it came out in 2005. Entitled ”PostSecret“, Warren begins his introduction “In November 2004, I printed 3,000 postcards inviting people to share a secret with me: something that was true, something they had never told anyone.”  He left the postcards in art galleries and library books, and the preaddressed postcards started arriving in his mailbox.

The books are full of secrets.  The response has been and continues to be overwhelming.  Checkout the website and I’ll be back after the presentation to tell more.

Flo

On a weekly basis Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate prints “American Life in Poetry“.  This week’s poem is by Trish Dugger and here it is below:

Spare Parts

We barge out of the womb
with two of them: eyes, ears,

arms, hands, legs, feet.
Only one heart.  Not a good

plan.  God should know we
need at least a dozen,

a baker’s dozen of hearts.
They break like Easter eggs

hidden in the grass,
stepped on and smashed.

My own heart is patched,
bandaged, taped, barely

the same shape it once was
when it beat fast for you.

Enjoy.

Today I am reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat Pray Love” and I’ve decided she is a woman after my own heart.  Not only does she describe herself as eating her way through Italy (similar to my recent experience in Seattle, Washington) but she talks about her meditation struggles in a manner I understand and are quite descriptive of how my mind operates.

“Like most humanoids, I am burdened with what the Buddhists call  the “monkey mind” - the thoughts that swing from limb to limb, stopping only to scratch themselves, spit and howl.  From the distant past to the unknowable future, my mind swings wildly through time, touching on dozens of ideas a minute, unharnessed and undisciplined.  This in itself is not necessarily a problem; the problem is the emotional attachment that goes along with the thinking.  Happy thoughts make me happy, but - whoop! - how quickly I swing again into obsessive worry, blowing the mood; and then it’s the remembrance of an angry moment and I start to get hot and pissed off all over again;  and then my mind decides it might be a good time to start feeling sorry for itself, and loneliness follows promptly.  You are, after all, what you think.  Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.”

If you get a chance to read this book, I’d recommend it. 

Saturday, I went with a friend to the Boulder Book Store.  The first book I saw when I walked in was SARK’s new book “FABULOUS FRIENDSHIP FESTIVAL - loving wildly, learning deeply, living fully with our friends”.  You were probably thinking I was done with SARK.  I know I was, however, the cover was so tantilizing, so bright I couldn’t resist buying it and now, sharing it.

As with all of SARK’s books, the writing is creative, colorful and uplifting.  A new addition to this book is actual photographs of SARK and her friends.  The book has three sections:  Celebrations, Challenges, Integration, and 12 chapters, from Self-Friendship to Managing Time and Energy in Friendships (and everything in between!)

Perusing this book will take quite some time and I’ll share insights and thoughts as I go. 

“Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it, one cannot be freinds with anyone else in the world” –Eleanor Roosevelt

“Just write”.  Sounds like instructions I’ve received from Natalie Goldberg at workshops I’ve attended in Taos, New Mexico.

There are times I sit down to write and my mind goes in 90 directions.  It’s actually like what my mind does when I sit down to meditate.

First, I take a deep breath.  I notice my breathing.  I notice the sound and feeling of the air from the ceiling fan.  I notice my breathing.  I notice the sound of the attic fan.  I notice my breathing.  Then, I notice thoughts.  I think about emails to write, emails written, thoughts of clients and my husband, conversations held over the last few days.  I notice thoughts of paperwork that needs faxed, reports that need written and some things that need filed.  At some point and before my meditation time is up, I eventually notice my breathing again.

When writing, particularly blogging, it’s a little more effective to others not to wander in my thoughts.  Today I meditated before I wrote.  That seems to help me stay a little more focused.

Namaste’

I have traveled to Seattle, vacationing while my husband works.   As I read the morning newpaper, it’s challenging to feel optimism and hope.  The headlines are full of things like:

“Suicide bomber hits tribal chiefs…”

“Jetlines create carbon crunch”

“Natural gas prices at highest since Dec.”

I can read letters to the editor about a man with TB and everyone is so focused on the process that let him travel, yet who is being compassionate about the fact that he has a serious disease that can have significant health complications for him?

As I keep reading, I read of Paul McCartney’s new album, (I love that new CDs are still called “albums”) being distributed by Starbucks.  There is a brilliant picture of a small, shiny aubergine frog with purple markings called a “psychedelic frog” and considered to be a new species.

It took reading three sections of rather unpleasant or highly unpleasant news before landing on Paul McCartney and the cool picture of the frog.  It would be nice to find a newspaper that would have this news on the front page and leave the stories about Libby and California’s sprawl in the back.

impossible
means
I’m possible
- SARK

It was in the 1990’s that I discovered SARK.  I madly started collecting her zany, creative  and inspirational books with titles like “Prosperity Pie”, “Succulent Wild Woman” and “Living Juicy”.  A visit to her website will give you a brief glimpse of her style and brightness.

I can remember receiving a newletter subscription and anticipated my monthly installment of inspiration and wisdom.  Reading treasures included stories about her travels, her cat, speaking engagements and friends. Her website now offers an e letter that seems to serve the same purpose, in a more technologically savvy way, while remaining highly creative and appealing (who else writes in crayon?!)

This month I’ll be sharing snippets of her wisdom.  I hope you get a chance to check out this wild woman’s approach to life.  It’s amazing.

“This is My Best” - it’s the title of a book I periodically read, an anthology of writer’s self-proclaimed “best”.  No one else chose the writer’s best writing.  They chose for themselves.  Some writers chose a specific chapter from a book, others chose essays.

David Sedaris, who I previously wrote about, included an essay from his book “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim”.  He prefaces his presentation by stating he would “feel much more comfortable contributing to an anthology titled “This one’s not so bad” or “Here is my least worst”.”

Even people who have received acclaim for their work have self doubt and struggle when asked to state their “best” aloud or in writing, for all the world to see.  Today I’ll find one thing that is my best. What is yours?

Last summer, while reading the Fort Collins Weekly, I was introduced to a poet, Gloria g. Murray.  I googled her name, emailed her and purchased four of her self-published books of poetry.  She has a wonderful ability to transform daily life into poetry.  This poem is what I’m sharing today:

FIVE AM ANXIETY

at five am
to ease my anxiety
I make tea
sit in the velour recliner
turn on cable TV
catch the weather
the ads for flat abs
and wrinkle free skin
at seventy
and the evangelists
who offer us Jesus
before we’ve even had
breakfast

then scribble out
a poem
on the back
of a grocery list
try to remember
my dream
for my next therapy
appointment

and by now
the sun and the world
are up
the world
I grab on to
like a train I almost miss
until a caring commuter
sees me waving
frantically
and holds open
the door because
dammit
I still need
to get
on

–Gloria g. Murray

Happy weekend, Flo