ALEX NOBLE - WRITING JOURNAL-2015

Money & Life: The Movie

 

 

Writing Assignment:  Reflect on your sense of abundance, and your relationship with money.  What opportunities may exist to upgrade this relationship in the midst of the current global financial crisis?  Are you finding that there are things you can do without, while at the same time improving your quality of life? Are you finding that you are placing less importance in material wealth, and spending more time cultivating spiritual and creative resources?  Is it possible that as there is less money to work with, you will discover more of what matters most in your life? Are you finding new ways to experience abundance, and share this with others?  Write Now!  GO!

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Can we use the opportunity of the economic crisis to heal our relationship with money and re-discover true wealth?

Alone Together: Why We Expect More of Technology and Less of Each Other

 

 

 

Writing Assignment:  As you watch this video, and read the overview of Alone Together below, reflect on your current relationship to the tsunami of digital technologies that threaten to overwhelm us.  How are all these tools affecting your life? Are they adding to your sense of peace and happiness, or detracting from your quality of life?  Are you wanting more connections via these many options, or are you starting to unplug?  if you are serious about being a writer, or even about being able to think clearly about your life and make intelligent decisions, you will need to create boundaries for yourself in terms of how much time you spend absorbed in the brave new  Orwellian digital world.  Write Now!  GO!

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Sherry Turkle's New Book:

Alone Together: Why We Expect More of Technology and Less of Each Other

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Facebook. Twitter. SecondLife. “Smart” phones. Robotic pets. Robotic lovers. Thirty years ago we asked what we would use computers for. Now the question is what don’t we use them for. Now, through technology, we create, navigate, and perform our emotional lives.

Music for Reflection: On the Road Again - Bob Seeger

 

 

 

Journal Assignment:  Music can be a powerful catalyst to evoke memories, moods and hidden feelings.   I have always loved what I call "Road Songs", which would include the Eagles, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and many others who sing compelling songs of the open road, of freedom, of being out on the long blue highways of the Soul. 

Who Are You? Quotations from Erich Fromm

"If I am what I have, and I lose what I have, who then am I?"

- Erich Fromm

Journal Assignment:  The works of Erich Fromm are filled with inspiring and provocative thoughts, such as the one above. If you need a catalyst for some introspection and reflection, use your journal to write something in response to the quote above, or pick one from  the collection of quotes from Fromm, below.  You might ask yourself: "What am I afraid of losing? What would I be if I lost this thing (or these things) that seem so important?"   What if a forest fire was approaching your home, and you had to walk out and leave everything? Who would you be if it all turned to ashes?  What would be left?

Poet Antonio Machado writes that "What the poet seeks is the deep YOU."  What is the 'deep you'?

Spend a few minutes writing a poem or passage which describes what would be left if you lost everything?  Write Now!  GO!

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More wisdom from Erich Fromm:

“Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision.”
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet "for sale", who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence - briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing - cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity. He cannot help suffering, even though he can experience moments of joy and clarity that are absent in the life of his "normal" contemporaries. Not rarely will he suffer from neurosis that results from the situation of a sane man living in an insane society, rather than that of the more conventional neurosis of a sick man trying to adapt himself to a sick society. In the process of going further in his analysis, i.e. of growing to greater independence and productivity,his neurotic symptoms will cure themselves. ”
― Erich Fromm

Dare to Change and Feel Alive Again!

 

Alex Noble: Are you ready to make bold, radical changes in your life? Or maybe even modest ones, which nevertheless challenge entrenched patterns which have become boring and which stifle your inner genius and Divine Being? 

Can you see clearly where your old patterns tend to undermine and sabotage innovation and exploration?  Open up your journal, and with pen or pencil in hand, set a timer, and write fast for 15 minutes about changes you can make immediately to liberate yourself from an outgrown past and from toxic and dysfunctional ways of being. 

Closing Cycles - Paolo Coelho

A useful reflection at the beginning of a new year is to become aware of what cycles in your life are closing, what is now outgrown, what has served its purpose and is no longer needed. It is healing to be conscious of endings, as well as new beginnings, and honor the endings with gratitude so that one may move on, liberated and lighter in spirit, leaving the past behind where it belongs.

What cycles are closing in your life?  What work might you need to do to finalize these closures? Your journal is a good place to take notes on this subject.  Endings are excellent material for poems. Be honest!  GO!

You may find it helpful to read Paolo Coelho's excellent essay below on this subject, or at least an essay, attributed to him, which he has adopted and edited.

I am also including one of my own poems, The Clean Break, which was originally written as a journal entry.

Planet: One - Alex Noble

   

"There are many who believe that it was the picture of Earth, seen from the Moon, that launched the global environmental movement and awakened a universal change in perception. This historic shift related to our collective responsibility to take care of this fragile, unique spinning planet that Bucky Fuller called Spaceship Earth. When that beautiful blue, green and white photograph entered the hearts and minds of global humanity, a new era was born. Whenever I see that picture, it is a powerful reminder of where I live,  and that the “third rock from the sun” is deserving of my best efforts, not only for all living beings who share this space with me, but also for its oceans, rivers, forests, and atmosphere.