Pausing the frame to catch my breath...

At times, it feels like life is standing still. At others, life feels like it is slipping through my fingers.

A line from my book...

Dream of love,

and love will dream of you.

Donald V. Phillips 2011

The Three R's: Rest, Relaxation, Rewriting My Book

I love this spot. No computers, no cell towers, cut off from the outside world except for a gravel road. I spent some time here last week to fly fish along Penn's Creek. I caught fish, spent time with my brother and a mutual friend of ours who went to the same college we did. You would think time stands still here. But it didn't. I spent almost a week fishing and writing. Time flew by so quick it made my head spin. Time seems to do that as I get older. Time is fleeting like this humming bird...

Notice that the feeder is almost empty. We replaced it soon after this picture was taken. Sometimes I feel like this Humming Bird, so busy looking for places to find sources of nourishment. (More for the soul than the body.) This is the place where I recharge. Even when I'm recharging I gain ground on creative energy. I was able to edit eight chapters of my WIP (work in progress.) I wonder when I will be finished. Everybody wonders when I'll be finished. I've packed up and returned home. I've been pretty much constantly writing since I returned. I'm already contemplating my return next year. Perhaps I'll get to sit in this chair and think back to when I finished my book and found a publisher. Perhaps...

So until next year, I will write and dream of cool streams and Humming Birds. I'll try not to wish away the time, because every second is precious. I will borrow from the energy I found here.

May you find a similar spot to draw on the energy of rest and relaxation.

Don

Growth

Growth, I've found can be painfully imperceptible. It seems to be akin to watching a pot boil which local sayings say won't happen just because one is watching. But let attention be distracted and ta da! the pot boils.

We have marked the lines of growth of our boys on the walls with their names and dates of measure. It's strange to look at marks of my sons and have to look up. They've surpassed me in stature. Good for them. There is still more growth for them.

I recently entered a house being prepared for demolition and discovered, we're not the only ones that do that. It was sad to see the marks of forgotten occupants. Where were they now?

I've been noticing the growth in myself these days as well. New skills are forming, new understandings have sprouted and taken root. I've got a new motto, "live and let live." I'm always looking for new seeds to plant in my imagination to take root and sprout into ideas and ponderings.

The Humble Student

I've often thought of myself as an eternal student. Those closest to me know that isn't so. I tend to run on and on about any subject until I discover I'm out on a limb. I'm always trying to fill the teacher shoes while wearing the student persona.

My teenage son just recently reminded me, "You don't know everything." He is right. I don't. At times, I believe I know enough. At other times, I don't know enough but am confident I can discover what I need to know. And then, there are other times, I am completely without an answer. It is the answerless times that confound me and give free reign to emotion. I think I'm comfortable with calling these times... being lost. They have the feeling of being adrift at sea with no land in sight and no passing ships to call out to for help.


When I reach these moments, I'm ready to become teachable again.

Shaping a Character

When I was writing my novel, "The Touch Me Nots" I discovered I needed to create a lot of characters. I had to visualize them in every day situations. I determined what gave them meaning in life and had to install their passions and quirks so that the story flowed with their energy. I found the process to be very similar to this Dragon I carved about a year ago. I started with a piece of cherry wood a friend had given me and began to visualize the creature before making the first cut. As the work progressed things changed slightly here and there and it turned out differently than I had first imagined. I'm pleased with the end result.

My characters in my book were created very much with the same process. I just needed to discover what facets to emphasize in the story line to turn them into a hero, a villain, scary, friendly, powerful, controlled, male or female.

The interesting part of the whole process was trying to discover what influence I would have over a reader's feelings for the characters as they suspended disbelief and entered into the drama of the fictional characters. I used a focus group that would read parts of the manuscript and give me feedback. These folks were more than happy to read the story and at times, applied pressure for the next section of the book to be written.

I think it may be time for the next novel to take shape and emerge.

Living in a Virtual World

I see it everywhere. People are watching television in the doctor's office on their cell phone. They are driving down the road texting on their PDAs or Blackberries.

I watched as two people who were close enough to talk to each other are texting each other instead. What is it that makes us pour all of our attention into a device that strips the communications of all but the sense of sight and perhaps hearing? Is it the pretty colors? There is no sense of warmth. There is no hot or cold, only words that are UPPER or lower case. Emotions are communicated by emoticons. Words are recorded by clicks or taps coded into a bit stream and sent at the speed of light to a cell tower, satellite, or through a DSL cable. The other end displays the communication with beams of photons emitted by the excitations of the electrons on an liquid crystal display.

Perhaps people have been hurt by living in the real world. They are overly sensitive to the harshness of experiencing sound, touch, smell, taste and sight. People would rather buffer themselves behind digitally pixelated plasma screens. The experience of eye to eye contact has been replaced with an invitation to join someone in chat or be added to their friends list on face book or instant messenger.

Even so, it is a sign of the times. Humans adapt and adopt. Even now my son is enrolled in a "virtual academy." The classroom is in front of a computer and participation is in a chat room. Every once in a while he will meet face to face with other students. They will travel great distances for a single event to gather and introduce themselves to each other.

All the while a smattering of super computers collect and log every data bit traveling the virtual world. Who knows who is watching, reading, listening to our cybersation?