December Greetings

December greetings, 

The why or the how of holiday celebrations are not so important as the core essence of what we do and say and believe.  This year, let’s take the opportunity to acknowledge the people in our lives who mean so much.  Let’s embrace the gifts of the Season of Light and share our gratitude with those around us.

Gratitude is a Gg word, one of its greatest gifts.  Thankfulness is an attitude that precipitates happiness.  When we reflect on the things in our lives that truly fulfill us, we become acutely aware of the people whose presence make our life meaningful.  We remember the greatest gifts are really time spent with family and friends.

Amid the busy holiday schedule, take time to reflect; pick up your pen and write a few g’s — the graceful figure-8 Vimala g’s.  

Best wishes for a Holiday Season filled with friends, family, laughter, and always love.

Alphabetical blessings, Susan

alphabetpenadink.com 

©Susan Govorko - alphabetpenandink.blogspot.com - All rights reserved

The Blank Page

The Blank Page

Sitting down to write, we pen our thoughts onto a blank page.   The paper represents our personal world, where we live.  Ruled paper is very conforming, whereas clean, unlined paper offers us the opportunity to set our own parameters.  How we fill the page is comparable to how we fill our life.  

I often say to clients, ‘breathe into your writing’ meaning allow space on your page — space to breathe, to think, to make time for the really important people and things in your life.  Sitting down to write, take three or more deep breaths into your tummy:  placing a hand on your lower abdomen, breathe so that you can feel it expand.  Breathe deeply, beyond the chest.  These are cleansing, calming breaths.  You will feel a difference.

Next turn to your blank page.  

Setting up our blank page, we give our writing margins, spaces between the letters, spaces between words, spaces between sentences, and spaces between the lines.  Margins frame our page.

•  Margins are usually about an inch from the edge of the page, although 

  the right margin may be slightly less because that’s where our lines end, 

  and the words cannot line up exactly.

•  Our top margin is an expression of respect, giving space to the reader.

•  Spaces between letters allow our handwriting to breathe.  Spaces       

    between the letters are about the width of half of a lowercase cursive a. 

•  Spaces between the words indicate how much ‘elbow room’ we give to

  others who share our life.  Spaces between words are ideally about the 

  full width of a cursive a.     

•  It’s important not to tangle our handwritten lines.  Sometimes the upper

  loops or stems of letters like d, h, l, f, or t touch the letters in the 

  line above.  

  Sometimes the lower loops or stem of letters like g, q, p, y, j, or z

  touch the letters in the line below.  It’s important to allow enough space 

  so that each line is clear and doesn’t invade the line above or below.

•  Moving our pen, we work our way across the page from the left margin to 

  the right side.  We move steadily, evenly across each line making our 

  baseline level across the page.  

The blank page represents our world, the environment we live in.  How we fill the page is illustrative of how we fill our world, our life.  Is there enough time and space in it to enjoy all the things we want to do?  Are we crowding too much into every hour?  How present do we feel?  What does your page say to you?  

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

        -Arthur Schopenhauer

©Susan Govorko - alphabetpenandink.blogspot.com - All rights reserved

Movement on the page

   Give a toddler a crayon and some paper, and she will begin making marks this way and that.  She will move the crayon around the paper; or she might move it back and forth or up and down.  The first experience any of us have with drawing or ‘writing’ is movement!  What fun to move the crayon and see the new images appear on the blank page.  It isn’t just scribbling — it’s thoughts on paper!

   In handwriting, there is movement of thought on paper.  Thought moves through the hand and the pen and onto the paper.  Direction is a fun element to play with and, in cursive, direction is meaningful.

   In our Roman Alphabet, our words read from left to right.  When we write any letter, it’s important to always end it on the right.  The left is where we are coming from; the right is our next moment, where we are headed.  The pen point is our present moment, and the direction we move our pen represents which direction our thoughts tend to move.  

   Ending letters and lines to the left keeps our thoughts mulling over what’s happened in the past.  Ending letters and lines to the right puts our minds looking forward to what’s happening next.  While there’s nothing wrong with remembering good things from a long time ago, it’s not how we want to live all the time.  

   When we write we are drawing patterns of form onto paper, and we are also making patterns of thinking that become our habits.  The process becomes automatic, and it is amazing because everyone’s handwriting is so distinctive — no one else in the whole world thinks or writes exactly like you!  Or me, or anyone else.  Each of us is unique.  

~~~

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice. To make an end is to make a beginning.    T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

©Susan Govorko, October 2016 blogspot