FoundArt is full of excelllent ideas. To participate in a Soul Food 'Found Art' activity simply cover an inexpensive notebook, using symbols and images that will inspire a writer and leave it in a public place with a note to say it comes with compliments of the Soul Food Cafe.

This month's writing tip:

The Joy of Words

Writing is joy -
so saints and scholars all pursue it.
A writer makes new life in the void
knocks on silence to make a sound
binds space and time on a sheet of silk
and pours out a river from an inch-sized heart
As words give birth to words
and thought arouse deeper thoughts,
they smell like flowers giving off scent,
spread like green leaves in spring
a long wind comes, whirls into a tornado of ideas
and clouds rise from the writing brush forest.

from The Art of Writing: Teaching of the Chinese Masters. Shambhala.

Stillness: Scott Russell Sanders sheds "a feeling of decadence for sitting here alone, idle, on a Sunday morning." Stillness is a wonderful reminder of the sheer joy of writing.

Manhole Cover Project

Manhole Covers Project - "The notion of our inner world being beneath a manhole cover is one way of explaining why some of us are reluctant to enter an inner world. Some of us may be prevented from doing this because the manhole cover is so tightly fitted, so heavy, that we quite simply cannot go within". Visit The Soul Food Cafe - A treasure of of site!

From the Bookshelf

On Writing : A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King.
King gives you a whole writer's "tool kit": a reading list, writing assignments, a corrected story, and nuts-and-bolts advice on dollars and cents, plot and character, the basic building block of the paragraph, and literary models.

The New Diary by Tristine Rainer This one's a must for your library of journaling/writing books.

A Joseph Campbell Companion by Diane K Osbon

Diving into Soul Food

After diving into Soul Food Tony Anthony, author of Beneath Buddha's Eyes wrote that "Being there, in the site, is something like being under water, looking up at the sun’s rays reflecting off the blue liquid."

When you come to Soul Food it is easy to get lost in the labyrinthine corridors and to miss some of the exquisite beauty of this cyber cafe. One place you can really get lost in reverie is amid the residences of Patrons who have retreated, if briefly, to this quirky cyber cafe. Go now and check out the International Banquet , Student Folios and the Patron's pages. You will find some very beautiful, inspired writing and art work amongst them.

Meet Tony Anthony
author of Beneath Buddha's Eyes

Tony Anthony has followed a life-long spirit for adventure beginning the summer he graduated from the New Hampton School for Boys and traveled on a 250cc BSA motorcycle through six countries in Europe. Not long afterwards, he found himself drafted into the Army — assigned to the infantry as a Combat Correspondent for the 1st Batallion of the 52nd Infantry, 198th Infantry Brigade, Americal Division in Vietnam.

Thus began the author’s career as a photo-journalist. It was his black and white ink sketches that first gained the notice of a larger audience. Using a self-made bamboo pen, he illustrated a spread of soldiers celebrating Christmas in the field for the Americal Division newspaper. With his work suddenly in demand, the author’s stories, drawings and photographs began to appear regularly in Army publications including Stars & Stripes.

After the war, Tony headed to California where he found work on an anchovy boat. It was the captain of the boat who introduced him to the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Following Vietnam, with the life and death and the questions it raised, it was a natural progression to turn to Eastern philosophy for answers. As it turned out, Tony worked as personal photographer for Maharishi in Europe and India for six years.

Anthony’s first book, LIFE IS WAR But You Can Win, was published in 1994 and was inspired by the author’s recovery from Post Traumatic Stress. The book was bought by VA hospitals and Vet centers across the United States. Dr. John Gray wrote: “Tony Anthony’s account of what he learned under fire inspires us all to take control of our lives, to move forward with greater awareness and courage.” The Dallas Morning News said, “Gutsy and sometimes as grisly as war itself.”

Featured Visual Journal Exercise
Make Retablos

Cynthia Korzekwa's exploration of the Aesthetics of Appreciation is nothing short of extraordinary. "If you're lucky and don't know it, it's like not being lucky at all" writes Korzekwa. She suggests that to keep your luck alive you need to recognize it by making Retablos Retablos are a means of offering thanks for this luck. Personally I think Korsekwa is on to something big.

As an aside, my primary concern about linking you to Korzekwa is that I may never see you again, simply because there is so much to explore and be inspired by. Make sure to take Ariadne's thread so you get back here to Soul Food again.

Upon return try recognizing your luck as an artist or writer by writing a Hymn to the Muse and posting it in the Muse Hymn Box.