Reading & Writing a Life

Carla Pineda's blog

Monthly Archives: December 2020


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New Year’s Eve 2020

It is early on this last day of this year. It is cold. It is raining. I am at my writing table, rereading my journals from this past year and writing down thoughts, fragments, questions in my final volume for the year. Since I have filled 10 volumes this year this entry from my first volume of 2020 made me smile.

“I cannot find words this morning. I feel at a loss for anything to write…no questions, quotes, prompts surface. I just know I need to be on the page. I need the discipline, the practice, the commitment, the feeling of being loyal to the blank page. “Just be here” comes before the physical words begin to appear.

“Just be present to the pen and the paper. Trust that something will reveal itself on the tabula rasa journal page and will in turn reveal, perhaps, a nugget of wisdom or a question needed for the next step. Just show up.” (from my personal journal entry of Jan. 12, 2020)

How did you show up on the pages of your journal in 2020? Are you ready to begin another year on the blank page? When you just show up, trust the process, the journey, and practice the discipline, you may find yourself with 10 (or more) volumes too!


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Questions and Stilling Water*

This thing about questions…there being no limit to how far one can travel (John O’Donohue)

Where does the question travel from? Where is the question going?

Me and the question going on a journey together, to the recesses of my mind, of my heart, we sit together, still and quiet

The question rolls around inside of me, most likely it begins with sharp prickly edges

Then after time, living with it, the edges smooth out, like a rock in a tumbler

Is this living, quietly into the answer, somewhere along the way (Rilke)

Not at Point A or Point B, but just somewhere, gradually, without any thinking on my part?

The question is answered, revealed, comes into focus, a reflection on the surface of stilling water.

*from a journal entry dated August 7, 2020 in the midst of the pandemic


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The small things

It is the morning after Christmas

Yes, it was different

Yet, it was Christmas and that is what matters

A “less is more” day (and year)

We had tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner

Something very comforting about ending the day with those foods

Basic and fulfilling

It is the small, is it not?

#readingandwritingalife #writinglife #journaling #journals #creativelife #creativity #reading #gratitude #cronewisdom #wisdom


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Winter

I am sitting amidst the sounds of the washing machine and the coffee pot

It is a new day, the Winter Solstice, my sister’s birthday, the week of Christmas

A candle flame glows gentle

I take time for a pause in this time of a long dark

I sit slow, move gentle

Immerse myself in this place of unknowing

Embrace the darkness

It is good for the soul

#readingandwritingalife

#writinglife

#journaling

#journals

#creativelife

#creativity

#reading

#gratitude

#cronewisdom

#wisdom


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A Small Thing

First chore of the morning is to fill the bird feeder. Lately, they go through a feeder full of food a day. Before I fill it I can hear them in the bushes and see them come in for landings as they wait…

They flitter, they flutter, the December morning chill must make them frisky. They push, they shove, they hover, wait their turn maybe…on the railing below or watch for a dropped seed to snatch up.

What is it about this little scene out my back door that brings me pause? Makes me smile, even laugh out loud, settles my heart in joy?

#readingandwritingalife #journaling #journal #writinglife #gratitude #wisdom