Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow. ~Henry David Thoreau

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way and 30 other books, believes passionately that each of us should live practicing three non-negotiables: write three pages every morning (known as “morning pages”), take an “artist’s date” every week, and take a walk every day.

Take a short walk today and compose lines in your head along the way. Transform the scenes in front of you into moving poetry. When you return home, or to a resting-place, open your daybook and let those words and images flow on to the page uninhibitedly.

What words did you compose while walking today?

Rus VanWestervelt is a writer, photographer, owner of Ravenwater Press, and Teacher-Consultant with the National Writing Project. He is the founder and editor of Maryland Voices, a creative nonfiction journal for high school writers and educators. Rus has published hundreds of articles locally and nationally, and nearly all of them relate to writing and living an inspired life. His latest work of fiction, Cold Rock, was released December 9, 2011 and can be ordered at Amazon or at ravenwater.com. For more information about Rus and his work with writers, you can visit his website here.

           milk

team

                     country

              value

        line

Cara Moulds is a fine-art photographer specializing in zen interior design for home, office and commercial spaces. Her gallery at StillPointe Photography features spa-inspired florals, meditative rock stacks, and peaceful landscapes. Her work is known to infuse environments with source energy that inspires stillness, alignment, and inner peace in all who experience it. She writes on The StillPointe about incorporating spiritual practices into daily life for alignment and expansion.

Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me. ~Walt Whitman

On this Presidents’ Day, many of us have the day off to spend more time with our families, catch up on some cleaning, or simply cherish the solitude of this extra time off.

Seize the opportunity to venture outdoors for yourself, if but for a few moments. Capture those rare moments of solitude and take to that open road,”healthy, free” as Whitman suggests.

If you choose to leave your journal at home, be sure to write — or sketch — the experience soon thereafter.

What new opportunities arose in those cherished moments along that open road?

Rus VanWestervelt is a writer, photographer, owner of Ravenwater Press, and Teacher-Consultant with the National Writing Project. He is the founder and editor of Maryland Voices, a creative nonfiction journal for high school writers and educators. Rus has published hundreds of articles locally and nationally, and nearly all of them relate to writing and living an inspired life. His latest work of fiction, Cold Rock, was released December 9, 2011 and can be ordered at Amazon or at ravenwater.com. For more information about Rus and his work with writers, you can visit his website here.

Place: a public storage center
Character: a fairy godmother
Object: one dozen bagels
Time/Date:  summer 1980

Cara Moulds is a writer and photographer. Her fine art photography is online here and on permanent exhibit at the Claudia Mayer Cancer Resource Center in Columbia, MD and has been included in the Howard County Council of the Arts Juried Silent Auction for several years. Limited prints for sale are here.  As a writing and career coach with National Board Certification in English and an MLA from Johns Hopkins University, she inspires others to dream big and achieve their goals. She also writes on her own website here.

There should be more sincerity and heart in human relations, more silence and simplicity in our interactions. ~Anton Chekhov

In this age of immediacy and virtual living, how sincere have our human relations become? Write today about the sincerity of your relationships. Are they more or less sincere than the relationships you had ten years ago?

Does it matter to you? To others?

Rus VanWestervelt is a writer, photographer, owner of Ravenwater Press, and Teacher-Consultant with the National Writing Project. He is the founder and editor of Maryland Voices, a creative nonfiction journal for high school writers and educators. Rus has published hundreds of articles locally and nationally, and nearly all of them relate to writing and living an inspired life. His latest work of fiction, Cold Rock, was released December 9, 2011 and can be ordered at Amazon or at ravenwater.com. For more information about Rus and his work with writers, you can visit his website here.

A druid finds an ill elf in the crook of a tree.

Cara Moulds is a fine-art photographer specializing in zen interior design for home, office and commercial spaces. Her gallery at StillPointe Photography features spa-inspired florals, meditative rock stacks, and peaceful landscapes. Her work is known to infuse environments with source energy that inspires stillness, alignment, and inner peace in all who experience it. She writes on The StillPointe about incorporating spiritual practices into daily life for alignment and expansion.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple. The philosophy is kindness. ~Dalai Lama

We can get bogged down in the day-to-day challenges, and life can seem pretty hard sometimes. But what would be possible for us if our philosophy, our foundation, was this simple?

Write about simplifying your philosophy, your foundation. Write for several minutes about your personal philosophy, then review it, paring it down to just a few, simple words.

When you finish, we invite you to put your simple philosophy in our comments section to this post.

Rus VanWestervelt is a writer, photographer, owner of Ravenwater Press, and Teacher-Consultant with the National Writing Project. He is the founder and editor of Maryland Voices, a creative nonfiction journal for high school writers and educators. Rus has published hundreds of articles locally and nationally, and nearly all of them relate to writing and living an inspired life. His latest work of fiction, Cold Rock, was released December 9, 2011 and can be ordered at Amazon or at ravenwater.com. For more information about Rus and his work with writers, you can visit his website here.

           shocking

                          familiar

        battle

                      van

           learn

Cara Moulds is a fine-art photographer specializing in zen interior design for home, office and commercial spaces. Her gallery at StillPointe Photography features spa-inspired florals, meditative rock stacks, and peaceful landscapes. Her work is known to infuse environments with source energy that inspires stillness, alignment, and inner peace in all who experience it. She writes on The StillPointe about incorporating spiritual practices into daily life for alignment and expansion.

True love begins when nothing is looked for in return. ~Antoine de Saint Exupery

No Conditions…

Giving birth and nourishing, having without possessing, acting with no expectations, leading and not trying to control, this is the supreme virtue. ~Lao Tzu, the Tao te Ching

Love Never Fails…

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love Never Fails. ~ Holy Bible, 1 Corinthians 13

Today, reflect on any of the three quotes above, and focus on the unconditional love that resides within you.

Rus VanWestervelt is a writer, photographer, owner of Ravenwater Press, and Teacher-Consultant with the National Writing Project. He is the founder and editor of Maryland Voices, a creative nonfiction journal for high school writers and educators. Rus has published hundreds of articles locally and nationally, and nearly all of them relate to writing and living an inspired life. His latest work of fiction, Cold Rock, was released December 9, 2011 and can be ordered at Amazon or at ravenwater.com. For more information about Rus and his work with writers, you can visit his website here.

Place: within ancient ruins
Character: a voice ‘from above’
Object: a mysterious object
Time/Date: January 1st, 2100

Cara Moulds is a writer and photographer. Her fine art photography is online here and on permanent exhibit at the Claudia Mayer Cancer Resource Center in Columbia, MD and has been included in the Howard County Council of the Arts Juried Silent Auction for several years. Limited prints for sale are here.  As a writing and career coach with National Board Certification in English and an MLA from Johns Hopkins University, she inspires others to dream big and achieve their goals. She also writes on her own website here.