Many thanks to Estrella Azul for introducing me to small stones. Small stones is a “mindful writing challenge” created by Fiona Robyn of Writing our way home and it has been a tremendously positive influence in my life these past few weeks.
All you have to do is take a moment, each day, to notice your environment, to truly open your eyes, ears, nose, mouth and feel what’s happening around you rather than just glancing over it as we so often do in this busy, busy thing called life. Then simply write a line or two, (or seventeen if you want), showing that observation. Many people participating in the challenge post their small stones on their blog sites each day, (and they are beautiful).
One of the main reasons for writing small stones is to learn to take yourself out of the observation, to see the world around you rather than yourself in it. Although I immediately began writing small stones as soon as I read Estrella’s post, I was a bit reluctant to share them. Because of the Major Life Change I’m experiencing right now, I’m having some difficulty removing myself from the equation (as you will see when you visit my small stones page). While small stones may be intended as a writing exercise, helping us not only to write great description but also to edit, I am currently leaving mine “as is”. In a year or so I want to look back on the raw emotions I’m feeling now and [hopefully] marvel at how far I’ve come.
As I write a small stone each day, I can feel that I am indeed paying more attention to the world around me, rather than the struggles I’m facing inside my own world. In other words, writing the small stones is helping me to heal. And for that, Fiona and Estrella, I Thank You Very Much!
I hope you’ll join the challenge and feel the same healing power that small stones is giving me.
This Side....Over Yonder 