“Life expands or contracts in proportion to one’s courage” ~ Anaïs Nin
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” ~ Albert Camus
What is it in the universe that’s sending so many words of wisdom my way lately?
Maybe I’m just paying attention. It’s a good time to be observant, at least here in my corner of the world, which is blessed with white snow covering the scars on the ground, blue skies that range from palest aqua to intense, nearly purple depth, bare trees that reach up up up like so many finely wrought sculptures. The beauty here, as it almost always does, stuns the eye and the mind, and especially this week, when we’re all wrung out by powerless sympathy with the too-traumatized people of Haiti, it provokes intense attention and gratitude.
I wrote a post a while back on The Sister Project about the tradition of the commonplace book. Also known by the insanely evocative Latin phrase silva rerum, meaning ‘a forest of things’, these are journals of bits of found wisdom, collections of quotes and sayings and our reactions to them. We do this now, of course, whether in our Moleskines or our Facebook pages or our blogs, but the naming of the practice is all but lost, and I think that’s a shame. How do you keep track of the words you discover that move or provoke you? Can you share some of them with me, here, or over at The Sister Project?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
suzi banks baum 01.30.10 at 12:04 pm
Dearest Paige,
I love this thought. I spent 4 days last week in the cold territories of my homeland- the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Plying the vibrant library shelves, I found a couple of amazing books- who reads them there in my little town, I don’t know, but I poured over them in front of the fire. And copied in to my little Moleskin travel sketchbook some passages that caught my fancy. I posted one on my website, which I know you will love.
I also keep a little sketchbook in my purse at all times for moments when one of my kids says something pungent or someone suggests a good book. My Travel journal is the container of the next level of inspirations…stuff I might use as jumping off points for writing or collage. Here is one I copied from the book titled “Assemblage” published in 1961: “The assembler is especially akin to the modern poet, however, in which using elements which (unlike ‘pure’ colors,lines, planes or musical tones) retain marks of their previous form and history. Like words, they are associationally alive. ”
Don’t you love that? I will scan a few of my pages and put them on the slideshow at the laundry line for you to see.
I love your site here and the Sister Project. I am looking for ways to interact here. Thank you for this invitation! Love, S
suzi banks baum 02.03.10 at 9:44 pm
Hi Paige. I did it, finally. I am the slow learner at the back of the class who you least suspect to get it. I am getting it. Love…and how gluey are you? I hope you are all better. xoxoxo S
Karen Arp-sandel 02.15.10 at 9:24 pm
Taking some time to read and browse the blogs and web pages of friends on this 15th day of February and I found myself HERE with YOU!
here are some words I wrote today on the first page os a new notebook today “We are made of weather.”
The way I keep track of the words that provoke me – is by keeping my Visual Journals and adding writing , often, as I read, or listen to music, adding the things that resonate. Often the page will dialogue with its own contents- and the mixture of art and words stimulates my creative process. Stream of consciousness- making connections with intuition.
Just today I recorded “Sila”- Inuit meaning both weather and consiousness.
Consider how land-ocean-atmosphere, solar and galactic cycles are inextricably linked. And so are we.
I love your photos of this lovely time of snow! And your words.
karen – Your mama of Dada!