Up: [[Life Writing]] Created: 2023-05-23 A couple of days ago I was going through my Book Buddies app, listing all of the resources I have that might support any of the four expert sessions I’ll be doing for Nick. I realized just how many books I have that feed my interest in and desire to fully explore and [[Savour]] something about my day; to write something in any form, and to accompany that writing with a visual, again in any form. I used to make hard distinctions about the writing. A bead, after [[Marion Milner]], would be a personal association filled with sensory detail. A spark, after [[Nick Milo]], would be a curiosity, eventually fleshed out through various notemaking strategies. A bit of contemplative writing, after [[Rachel Rose]] or others, would be prefaced by at least 10 minutes of meditation and plenty of inner stillness. Hundred day challenges and my own lockstep approach had me seeing visuals as unrelated to the writing, as something on top of, in addition to, whatever I wrote. I’ve started multiple page a day sketchbooks, vowed to take at least a photo a day, stalled at making art because I convinced myself everything in my day should build on a single idea. No more. My driving desire in life is to *Pay Attention. Be Amazed. and Tell About It.* The very best way I can do that is to take something/anything from my day; anything that sparkles or even anything that causes despair, and work with that [[Image]]. Be present to it, explore it, communicate it. It may be the tiniest moment in time — a photo with a two line caption. It may be an evergreen note, even an essay, with half a dozen paintings. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that I pay attention, am amazed, have told about it — even just to myself. I’m giving these pieces a new name. They will be called beams because each one of them, whatever the topic, will be the result of what matters most to me and will bring light to darkness, sacred to the mundane, sometimes life-enhancing insight to uncertainty or upheaval. And then of course there is the other wonderful meaning of beam — to gleam, glow, radiate, shine, laugh, grin, or smile broadly. I will surely feel that kind of beam by living my purpose of paying attention, being amazed, and telling about it. You might call this a Beam or a Spark or simply a connection. It really doesn’t matter. It’s simply the kind of note that I would love to see in my daily note as often as possible because, as my friend J put it > [!Orbit] J, friend from Zen Camera > Beams are like mindfulness meditation practice, but with documentation.