Brain Stimulation

I have trouble being focussed on on these bitterly cold days. My brain is lively so I am not bored and appreciate a real source of renewal with "Fridays with Friends" at the Art Gallery of Ontario. We enjoy lunch and conversation in the subdued and classy lounge in the Grange then head off on unplanned journeys through the galleries. I can rarely remember my way around so the sense of adventure and discovery is exciting. We move from the salon of Canadian Impressionists with dappled light, shadows on snow  and golden haired girls to huge, jarring sculptures of waste industrial iron. I love  everything from the shiny, bigger than life Michael Snow Walking Woman sculptures in the entrance to the enchanting curving staircase of Frank Gehry offering snapshots of the city at every turn. We travel together in the uncharted territory savouring a taste of everything, stopping only briefly to let the beauty seep in. This experience is definitely one of the luxuries of retirement. #ArtGalleryofOntario#AGO#retirement

Still thinking not writing!

I have not yet put any of my essay on "belonging" to paper, but have decided on the essay format not a short story for my first effort.  The exercise of writing this blog is providing some discipline and practice in the meantime. Now that I have left the world of work, I am seeing things with new eyes and feel cut adrift from any frame of reference. Sitting in a course on "The Art of the Essay",  I  realized that I am not accustomed to attending a lecture for nothing more than the sheer pleasure of learning something new. In the past,  I accumulated knowledge for repurposing in my work life more than anything else. Now I might be hoping to enliven my brain rather than reach a linear destination. The light sculpture pictured below by Dale Chiluly will be my inspiration.  

One of the ideas sparked by my lecture this week, was the use of a commonplace book  to organize all the scraps of ideas that I have been capturing as I explore the idea and art of writing. Wonder why  I have never heard of it before?

"Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile  knowledge usually by writing information into books. Such books are essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas. Commonplaces are used by readers, writers, students, and scholars as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts they have learned. Each commonplace book is unique to its creator's particular interests. "