Drishti

Unbelievable, I changed my journal writing routine. A simple but profound question is added. In the beginning I ask myself now: What do I want to write about? Then I stick to it. The effect is huge as I indeed stick to a topic. Writing becomes that way like searching mushrooms. One moves away the leaves and finds one mushroom i.e.. Where there is one, there are others too, usually. It's good to move the other leaves, too and voilà, here we go. And it's the same when writing: One story leads to the next.

Yesterday I wrote about my early writing experiences. It's was a topic that I found in a book by Kate Thompson. I remembered that we had to write beautifully in school. Minimum 2 hours every week we exercised this skill. Nowadays I'd call beautiful "readable". Then I remembered our boring composition test in school: these, antithese, conclusion. I thought this was it, but then my first love letters came into memory. My first boyfriend studied sports in another city and he wrote me daily. Very detailed he described his day and what he's learned every day. Sometimes he also made little drawings to show me what he meant. Very special were the little funny sentences on the envelope. I had to write him back of course which was not such an easy task. Often I wrote one letter several times. I had not sooooooo much to say. And then I remembered my first journals, the postcards that I used to write. To write postcards is a nice habit. It's a bit of time spent and brings a lot of joy.

What I wanted to say: To have a topic gives direction and depth can happen if one sticks to it. Surprises happen. It's amazing what is stored in the memory.

It's the same with photography: Most people, me too, walk around with a camera on vacation i.e. Then they see anything, a red car i.e. or a monument and then they take the picture. Then the next and the next, that's it. Work and I use this word in a most positive sense starts when a topic is given. Darren Rowse gives every week a topic, i.e. once we had the topic: refrigerator. How to present this? Ah..............

Also when I practice yoga I usually have an intention. Years ago I couldn't stick to it. I.e. I wanted to observe the breath, but after the sun salutations this was forgotten and my mind was busy remembering what comes next and I wondered what a pose is aiming at and so on. My concentration improved. It became easier to stick to a topic. I'm able to go further when this practice becomes challenging.
I discover the dristhis in my practice. Don't look in the direction you don't want to drive I learned when I learned to drive a car. We had to drive at night once. A car was coming from the opposite direction. The eyes automatically looked in the direction of the light, which is very dangerous. It's very likely that one drives in that direction. Dristhi to gaze at a certain point, to keep the eyes calm, calms the mind and gives focus. Intensity happens and this is satisfactory.

Never look in the direction you don't want to go.

Mysore class is on the schedule this morning. Dristhis shall be my focus, looking in the direction I want to move.