small stones

A while back Kat W. mentioned that a blogging friend of hers was working on a project called A River of Stones.



I was intrigued.  Fiona and Kaspa, the originators of the challenge define a small stone as "a polished moment of paying proper attention."  I've been trying to pay better attention to things in my everyday life and I thought that starting the year with this challenge would be a perfect way to make sure that I do.  Although small stones aren't necessarily poems, I thought that this would also be a good way of incorporating some more poetry in my life, something that I've been wanting to do (and haven't always been very successful with doing) for a long time.  January 1st rolled around and I was poised to observe and describe beauty in the everyday.  I had a notebook handy where I'd written a bit of poetry and I scribbled my first small stone there.  Since then I've captured moments nearly every day, carefully choosing my words, consulting my thesaurus and jotting down lists of words.  I'm not sure how polished my stones are, some of them are still a bit rough around the edges, but I'm so glad that I've incorporated their collecting into my everyday.  It really only takes a few minutes, but observing like that and thinking about language seem to color the way I look at the world around me during the whole day.

Are you up for the challenge?  You don't need a blog.  And even if you do have a blog you don't need to post your stones.  Just keep your eyes and ears open and observe and then jot down what you observe.




It's that easy.

Comments

  1. Anna, that sounds like a wonderful challenge. I've always remind myself to pay more attention to the little details in my daily routine! WIshing you a lovely merry happy day and love to yoU!

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  2. Anne, I think I need to use more words and write more. There was a time when I would write short stories and even a little bit of poetry. i had all these big dreams. But the reminder of taking things thoughtfully and slowing down enough to jot things down is a point well taken. Great post!

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  3. 'A polished moment of paying proper attention.' I like that. I like that a lot. I am going to see how many 'small stones' I can collect throughout the day. A lovely thought provoking post.

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  4. Sounds cool! I´m doing the 365 photography project. This year is going to have visual stones. :)

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  5. Once again, a wonderful post Anne! I would imagine your poetry is very
    thought provoking and beautiful. I like this idea very much - thanks for sharing.

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  6. Very inspiring thank you for sharing...I haven't tried my hand at poetry..maybe I will add it to my current art..

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  7. I'm happy that you've been finding AROS enjoyable and worthwhile. Thanks for the link back.

    Kat X

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  8. Thanks everyone. I hope you'll all try your hand at collecting some small stones.

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  9. I always remind myself to live this way, to notice the details in life. And when I do life is sweeter.

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