Spring waterfall
grows by the day as ice --
somewhere -- shrinks.
Tag Archives: Flow
The Deeps [Lyric Poem]
Surrender [Lyric Poem]

Let the flood sweep
one away — out
of the shallows,
into the deeps.
Don’t ever cry;
Don’t ever weep;
Just feel the speed
Carry one on.
Fish Wu Wei [Haiku]
“To the River” by Edgar Allan Poe [w/ Audio]
Fair river! in thy bright, clear flow
Of crystal, wandering water,
Thou art an emblem of the glow
Of beauty—the unhidden heart—
The playful maziness of art
In old Alberto’s daughter;
But when within thy wave she looks—
Which glistens then, and trembles—
Why, then, the prettiest of brooks
Her worshipper resembles;
For in my heart, as in thy stream,
Her image deeply lies—
His heart which trembles at the beam
Of her soul-searching eyes.
PROMPT: Three Books
List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?
Steven Kotler’s The Rise of Superman changed the way I looked at mind-body development.
Water Margin [a.k.a. Outlaws of the Marsh] convinced me a sprawling epic could be worth reading if it was done well, it kicked my love of Chinese Literature into high gear, and it started me on the path of learning Chinese.
Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson had a major influence on my early philosophical development — especially the titular essay.
Now, I’m thinking I should’ve pushed one of these out for Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, but perhaps another time.
PROMPT: One Small Improvement
Use a timer to create distraction-free zones in your day. When you’re working on a task, set the timer for some reasonable time (say, 1 hour.) [Do not try to do many hours at a time, you should move and ruminate on a regular basis.] Until the timer goes off, social media doesn’t exist. YouTube doesn’t exist. Snacks do not exist. Visitors do not exist. Phone calls don’t exist. Texts don’t exist. Only the task at hand exists, and only dire emergency should be allowed to interfere. This facilitates Flow.
BOOKS: “Wild Thing” by Mike Fairclough
Wild Thing: Embracing Childhood Traits in Adulthood for a Happier, More Carefree Life by Mike FaircloughMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher Site — Hay House
This short self-help guide aims to encourage adults to recapture some of the bliss-inducing traits of children. Over six chapters, it examines the virtues of play, rule-breaking behavior, imagination, resilience, gratitude, flow, daydreaming, discovery, exploration, and awe.
Each chapter, in true self-help fashion, ends with a bulleted set of practical tips and practices. The book has an Introduction and Afterward, but no other ancillary material.
I felt the book was at its strongest when the author was discussing his personal experiences. Otherwise, the book can dip into the “no-duh” plight common among self-help style books — where it seems to state the obvious without adding depth of insight.
I enjoyed reading this book. It’s a nice, short pep-talk — though it’s unlikely to leave readers with any burning revelations or new insights.
View all my reviews
Music Mind [Free Verse]
PROMPT: Fun… Exercise
In the Flow.





