Author: dianathormoto

Ideas not Laptops

/ dianathormoto

Where do you get your best ideas? What inspires you? I get my best ideas while walking. Sometimes I get ideas while doing something else, but usually it’s walking. I was reading Austin Kleon’s book, Steal Like an Artist, last week and came upon the following quote that I just had to reproduce:

We don't know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops." John Cleese

I love it. Have you ever gotten your best idea from your laptop? I haven’t. I spend hours on a computer for work, but my ideas don’t come from it. I learn things, but those flashes of insight and sparks that make me want to drop everything and pick up a pen don’t come from sitting in front of a screen.

So I hope you take some time to get away from your screen, be it a desktop, a laptop, or your cell phone. Take some time and get some fresh air, do something, make something with your hands. Doodle, sketch, write, create something–anything–away from your screens and wonder at the ideas that come.

I hope you have a lovely week full of new ideas, even if you don’t know where they’ve come from. 🙂

Saturday Short: The Police Telephone on the Path

/ dianathormoto

photography of old police telephone box on pole“I don’t think it works, do you?” Ana asked.

Rita shrugged. “How would I know?” She bent down so she could see the underside of the blue box attached to a rusted line on the side of a telephone pole that looked like splinters would jump off and attack if she got too close. “Do you want to use it?”

Ana laughed. “Of course not, but makes you wonder why it’s here when everyone has cell phones now.”

“Because some people you cannot reach on cell phones,” said a voice behind them that was as rusted as the nails long ago stuck into the side of the phone poll.

Both women spun around to find themselves staring at nothing, but the other side of the empty path. There was no one else around.

Ana laughed, but this time it was tinged with a wavering note that set the hairs on the back of Rita’s neck on alert.

“Let’s get going. I think I’m getting light-headed,” Rita said and took off down the path. “I could use a coffee.”

“Me, too,” Ana said, her voice still pitched too high.

Neither woman looked back as they walked out of the woods and neither ever mentioned the incident, but they also didn’t walk on that path the next time they were in the woods.

Roads and Friends

/ dianathormoto

Does the end of the month give you wanderlust? Does it make you want to move? Do you get a creative burst of energy as you check off the days leading to the flip of calendar’s page? Or does the end of the month make you feel tired? Like you just want to curl up in bed because there really ought to be another day slipped in there in secrete just for rest? Whatever your feelings are about the end of the month, we should all remember:

The road to a friend's house is never long. Danish Proverb

Whether we feel energized or tired, ready to take on the world or ready for a break, making time to see friends is always a good thing (even for introverts!). We know this in our bones and science backs it up with more studies showing the importance of friends and connection. (Side note: I just read a great article on this in the latest print issue of Scientific American Mind, but it looks like it is behind a paywall so can’t link.)

So let’s use the end of spring, a time of growth and energy and change, to connect with our friends. Time flies by and without deliberate planning, we may find that while the road to our friend’s house isn’t long, we haven’t been there in a while. I look forward to using the longer days for connecting with my friends. Maybe we’ll inspire each other on top of chatting and eating good food!

I hope you have a wonderful week full of creativity and connection with your friends. 🙂

Saturday Short: The Blacksmith’s Sign

/ dianathormoto

photograph of blacksmith sign

“I’m sick of practicing,” Erika whined. “Let’s go get some cotton candy.” The Blacksmithing sign remained untouched, much to her annoyance.

Her sister, Meredith, sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Give me patience, she thought. Why am I always stuck giving her lessons? The headmistress should be overseeing Erika’s woeful attempts at sign manipulation. It wasn’t fair, but that was life. “How ’bout we make a deal?”

Erika smiled. She liked making deals. Usually she got the better end of a deal, except where her sister was involved. She’d have to be careful. “What kind of deal?” Her eyes narrowed.

“You finish your lesson and I’ll buy you cotton candy.”

“That’s it?” Erika pouted.

Meredith smiled. “And I won’t tell Mother you skipped your last three practice sessions.”

Erika’s heart skipped. How did Meredith know about that? She had been gone for over a week.

“Deal?” Meredith asked.

“Deal.” Erika turned and resumed staring at the Blacksmithing sign, beads of sweat forming on her temples as she tried to will the letters to rearrange themselves into the font Meredith had chosen.

Meredith sat down with her back against the lamppost and took out her book. With her sister’s lack of practice, they’d be here until the sun set. At least she’d be able to finish her book.

Change and Growth

/ dianathormoto

How is 2016 treating you? Has it been a good year, full of growth and discovery? Or, are you feeling like the year has gotten away from you? Or, perhaps it is a bit of both. The year has been flying by, but it’s still spring and there is still so much time left to make the year great. This quote speaks to this for me.

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely. Karen Kaiser Clark

Sometimes I just want things to stay the same, so I can get my feet under me and feel like I know what I’m doing and where I’m going. It’s a common feeling, I think. But the world and life doesn’t work like that. Life is change, which we see especially in spring. But, unlike blooming flowers or hatching birds, we have a choice about what we do with the inevitable change. We can grow or we can choose not to grow.

I hope we all choose to grow and change for the better. That we stretch and reach for those dreams that we barely whisper to ourselves. That we share generously our new insights and creations. And, I hope, maybe just for a weekend, that we can slow down and enjoy instead of rushing around because in those small moments are when we can get our best ideas and truly break forth in a great growth spurt.

I hope you are having a lovely spring. For those doing Camp NaNoWriMo, how’s it going? I hope wonderfully well. 🙂

Saturday Short: Dragon in the Snow

/ dianathormoto
photograph of a metal dragon sculpture half buried in the snow

Photograph by Nelson Wakimoto

“Be careful of the dragon!” her mother called after Lisa.

Lisa laughed as she jumped through the snow to get a better look at the dragon sculpture. “It’s not real, Mom!” she called back over her shoulder. Her mother should know she wouldn’t fall for something like that. She was nine and a half, not a baby.

“He could be hibernating,” her mother called.

Lisa walked around the dragon before petting him on the head. “You’re just a statue, but I like you anyway.”

Her mother caught up and stood beside Lisa, her breath puffing out of her mouth like dragon’s steam. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned down at the sculpture. “Seems shifty to me. What is it doing way out here?”

Lisa shook her head and pointed to the building behind it. “Probably belongs to them. Let’s go! I want to get cocoa!”

“Okay,” her mother said and let herself be pulled away from the dragon after giving it one final look.

Lisa clung to her mother’s arm, chattering a mile a minute. Her voice meant that neither heard the metal grown behind them nor saw the steam rise from the dragon’s nostrils as it watched them go.

Happy Spring!

/ dianathormoto

It’s been over a week since spring’s official beginning, but I just had to say:

Happy spring!

I love spring. The flowers and hills turn gorgeous where I live around this time of year and the birds sing their hearts out. The sky looks beautiful dotted with fluffy clouds that sometimes cause an unexpected downpour with hail (!), but that only adds to the wonder that is spring. It’s a time to shake off old habits and get energized for new things. It’s full of wonder and opportunity that sometimes brings surprising results.

I hope your spring is full of new delights and happiness. For my readers who are writers? Are you doing Camp NaNoWriMo? I’m trying it for the first time this year. It’s my something new for spring. What’s yours? 🙂

Saturday Short: Toadstools

/ dianathormoto

photograph of clumped toadstools

“Ohh…look! Toadstools!” Erin pulled her hand out of her sister’s and ran ahead. She bent low, her nose within an inch of them.

“Careful,” Sarah said. “They’re poisonous.” She stood beside Erin. It would be three more hours until there mother came home from the market and she was relieved of babysitter duty.

“No, they’re not!” Erin said her mouth forming the pouting face that signaled an oncoming tantrum. “They’re fairy houses!”

“Well, don’t get so close. The fairies might take you,” Sarah said without thinking.

Erin jumped back. “They wouldn’t do that, would they?” Her hand found Sarah’s again and squeezed it.

“Don’t worry,” Sarah said giving Erin’s hand a reassuring squeeze. She couldn’t stand to see Erin scared. It was worse than a tantrum. “Let’s go so you can have a turn on the merry-go-round.”

“Okay!” Erin started skipping and Sarah had to run-walk to keep up.

Behind them, out of the shadows of the toadstools’ caps, blinked a pair of miniature, emerald green eyes that followed the sisters’ progress down the street with interest.

What We May Be

/ dianathormoto

Spring is a wonderful time of year, isn’t it? Except for the allergies, of course. I love spring because it really does seem like a time of new beginnings and change.

"We know what we are, but not what we may be." Shakespeare

I picked this quote because it seems like a good encapsulation of my feelings of spring (even though I’m well aware that this quote doesn’t mean that in context of the play, but I take my inspiration how I can). If we are self-reflective, we know who we are now. After all, we just have to look back over our history to see where we’ve come from and where we stand.

But it is an entirely different matter to know what we may become. No one knows that, which is either hopefully or scary or something in between, depending on your attitude and outlook. To me, it is hopeful and delightful and wonderful. We are still in the process of becoming, no matter who we are. Our art, our writing, our living, everything still has possibility. That makes me want to dance, then get back to creating.

I hope spring has blossomed in your part of the world. If it is still covered in snow, I hope you feel the hope of spring in your heart. I hope you are energized to create and to become what you’ve always wanted to be this spring. 🙂

Saturday Short: Flowers in the Wall

/ dianathormoto

photograph of small purple flowers growing out of cracks in old stone wall“Momma, why do the flowers grow there?” Sheila looked up at her mother as she pointed at the red tendrils spilling down the grey stone wall from which delicate lavender blooms and clover-like leaves clung.

“Because that’s where the flowers can get through from the other world.” Her mother smiled.

“Really?” Sheila’s eyes widened.

“Of course. See there?” Her mother pointed to where the flowers flowed along the horizontal crack between the stones in the wall. “If you squint, you can see the other side where there are lovely green meadows and the sun is shining.” She looked up at the clouds in the sky that matched the stone wall.

Sheila strained on her tip-toes trying to see through the crack. “Lift me up, Momma, please! I want to see.”

Her mother lifted her up and Sheila pushed her eyes up against the crack. Her face broke out in a smile. “I see it, Momma! It’s wonderful!”

When Sheila’s feet touched the sidewalk as her mother put her down, she reached for her mother’s hand. They resumed walking down the street. Behind them, it looked like a ray of light was highlighting the flowers trailing down the stones. But it was probably just a wishful thought before the rain.