Attention Composition

Consider the foreground carefully.

Shiny spider silk or
an airplane's glint.

The constant river rush or
traffic's ever-exhaling breath.

A breeze blows your hair across your forehead --
the trees, too, or
that dry, cool air conditioner air.

Choose what's less important.
Let it go for now.

What you want more of -- go to it.
Bring it in close.
Bother with the angles.
Wait for the light to shift.
Let another leaf fall.

Consider the foreground carefully.

Many thanks to Austin Hikes for Creative Types and organizer/nature hike leader extraordinaire Joe Lapp for taking me on a great adventure and inspiring this poem.

Criteria Meta-Program Sort

Meta-program sorts describe different ways that people delete, distort, and generalize about what they perceive. You can calibrate someone's meta-program sorts through the words they use. You can also use meta-program sorts to calibrate when certain changes have taken place.

One of the most interesting meta-program sorts, to me, is Criteria. Whose criteria is being used where? I came up with a simple way to think about these, and thought it might be useful to others.

. Name Whose criteria is applied to self? Whose criteria is applied to others? . Self Self Self . Shift -- Self . Simultaneous Self Other . Switch Other --

James Brown Story

This story has been moved to the new blog: http://katieraver.com/2011/james-brown/ Hope to see ya there! ~Katie

How to Write Fast... And Get Even Faster

I've written the shortest possible guide to writing fast. Well, shorter than, "write every day for five minutes; repeat." Let me know what you think.

General Guidelines:

• Timebox the following steps. Set a time for each one and stick to it. When your time limit is up, you're finished with that step.
• You'll improve the quickest if you stop when your time limit is up and move onto the next step.
  
• When you're starting out, just do one or two steps a day for 5-10 minutes each.
• IMPORTANT: Take time to feel really good after accomplishing each step!
  
• You must write badly before you write goodly.
• If you do this process and repeat it, your writing will get faster and more clear.

The Steps

1. Brainstorm. Write your topic and all the related ideas down. Don't edit.
2. Outline topics. Organize your ideas into an outline, like this list. Incomplete sentences, quick blurbs, imprecise grammar are great.
   
3. Outline subtopics of ONE topic. Choose an item from your outline, preferably the one you know the most about or are the most excited about. Break it down into subtopics that will create less than one page of text. Estimate as best you know how.
4. Write one subtopic. Write the content for one outline item, starting with the broadest information and filling in the details.
   
5. Revise the subtopic for clarity.
   
6. Revise the subtopic for grammar, punctuation, word choice, and spelling.
7. Revise again. Do this on another day.

The Rainbow Seed Story

I received my first huayruro seed in 2003, after I’d told the story of seeing a lunar eclipse at Lake Conchas, New Mexico. I was in a deep trance when I told the story. But that's a story for another day! I didn’t know what the seed was, really, but I felt deeply happy when I received it.

Huayruro seeds come from a Peruvian jungle plant. Wikipedia tells me that they’re considered lucky. And inedible. They probably won’t turn into an actual plant if you plant them in most places – they would require just the right amount of relentlessly humid heat, found in few places other than the Amazonian jungle. If you'd like to see a picture of these red and black seeds, go here.

Rainbow Seeds are a tradition created by Tom and Bobbi Best. How many Rainbow Seeds have been given away over the last 20 years? Hundreds? Thousands? I’m not sure.

So, if you’re the recipient of a Rainbow Seed, you’re part of a global matrix of people who have participated in the following way, or some way like it.

Here’s what to do with your seeds.

First, carry them with you. Whenever you feel a strong feeling of love or connection, imagine sending that love and connection into the seed, filling it with that love.

Second, plant the seeds in the following way. While you’re carrying around the seeds, you may come upon a place so beautiful and full of love that you want to honor it with your love: you can plant the seed there. You can also plant the seed in a place that’s devastated and lacking love. And you can gift a seed to a person that’s full of love or that’s devastated, too.

When you plant your seed, imagine a rainbow leaping out of the seed, imbuing the recipient with your love and connecting the recipient person or place with the matrix of rainbow lights that now covers the planet.

Happy planting!