the challenge
Our challenge for today is focused on creative exploration. The Seed we will use is Piece of Heaven, which is one of those Seeds which is so open for interpretations, you could probably write a story based on it.
But today we will use it to observe the world mindfully.
Let’s start.
my insight
I found the first Insight today soon after I left home. I saw it just briefly. I was in a hurry so I didn’t take my phone out and photograph it,
It was a broken kite colored as a rainbow lying on the pavement. From a distance it looked like a piece of heaven that fell to the ground.
As I continued walking, I wondered whether I should have stopped for a second and take a picture. It’s what I would normally do. But the more I thought of it, I saw the potential in having just a memory of this Insight. So, when I sat down on the bus, I opened my Insight Journal and wrote what I saw. More or less…
A piece of a rainbow was lying on the ground.
Nobody seemed to notice.
People walked by, not even looking down. Not even looking up.A piece of a rainbow was lying on the ground, waiting for someone to make a wish.
Nobody could think of anything to wish for.
Not because they were all happy,
but because they didn’t imagine they could be.
reflection
The day started with a feeling of missing an opportunity — an opportunity to capture something interesting I saw. But then I realized that I didn’t miss anything — something did catch my eyes. Something did triggered my imagination. The fact that I didn’t have it captured in a photo didn’t mean I couldn’t use it. So I did.
In his book Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method, Gerald M. Weinberg coined the term Collecting Fieldstone. Anything interesting you see or come across can be used later for your writing project, the author claimed. And this idea inspired me.
When I read the book over 13 years ago, most people didn’t carry a super-computer with a powerful camera in their pockets. When Gerald Weinberg thought of collecting fieldstone as raw material for future creation, he thought about writing what you see, and not photographing it.
But the medium is not important. It is the noticing part — observing and recording — which is the essence of collecting raw material.
I can safely say that this book was one of the source of inspiration for seempli. I wanted to help myself and others develop the ability to notice things and to use them out of context for creating something new.
In that sense, Weinberg on Writing was a fieldstone collected years ago, and used later to create a new thing which in turn helps others do the same.
mental notes
- Look for raw material even if you can’t imagine what it will be used for in the future.
- Record what you find.
now it is your turn… be creative!