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Reading and Writing


 #attunedpracticetuesdays: where we share the rituals and routines that are aligned with our sense of peace and wellbeing

A couple of months ago, while working on a commission project, I started a new practice. I was listening to audio books while working since the project required my eyes but not my full attention, and since it was fairly labor intensive, I took the weekends off (not something I would normally do). Lacking something to do with my hands, the first Saturday I decided to put my speedy reading to good use and read a novel in one sitting (my preferred method, anyway). Then I read another novel the next Saturday. And now it has becomes a weekly thing. The only rule is that it has to be fiction - I read enough non fiction that a novel a week isn't going to hurt anything (and it wouldn't anyway, reading is reading). Helping out with Paper Heart Books and attending a bring-your-own-book-club meeting last week helped restock my dwindling supply. I like to get hard copies and then put them in a Little Free Library box (unless I end up wanting to keep and reread them, which does happen sometimes), but if I keep up the one a week system, I'm going to have to start getting at least some from the library.

Another wordy practice I started recently was compost pages. I have an unfortunate underlying belief that everything I produce should be of shareable quality, but that's just not realistic. If I want to have writing material, I have to do things worth writing about and I also need to practice writing as a practice without always expecting it to be "good." Hence, compost. As near as possible to first thing in the morning, and at night before I go to bed, I free write at least a page. I've got a spiral notebook (not the cheapest possible, but definitely more cost effective than the Leuchtturm1917 journals I use as planners) and a nice pen that's set aside for that purpose (ironically, the pen is a Leuchtturm1917), and it's taking me about two months (and two pen refills) to fill a notebook. I then skim it for keepable content, copy that over, and toss it in the trash. Their purpose is to fuel more productive/coherent ideas, not to be anything in themselves. Besides improving my writing, I've noticed it also helps me concentrate during the day and fall asleep more quickly at night, since I've gotten everything out of my head and onto a piece of paper that I can reference if needed.

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