What is NaSmaStoMo?

A new and exciting “international project to encourage people to engage with the world through writing a short observational piece every day during January.” The project was created by Fiona Robyn of Planting Words and A River of Stones.

This is what is called a ‘challenge,’ and it is one for both writers and ‘non-writers.’

Why?

“Because choosing something to write about every day will help you to connect with yourselves, with others, and with the world. It will help you to love everything you see – the light and the dark, the happy and the sad, the beautiful and the ugly,” Fiona writes.

This idea reminds me of the concept of ‘mindfulness’ in Buddhist meditation and its attention to the present moment. It also brings to mind Haiku, capturing a moment of insightful openness to the world by an individual human being. A haiku moment from a mindful being. I have recently become fascinated by this aspect, as well as other possibilities, of haiku and have been trying my hand at it. (For Zen and the Haiku moment see here )

In this sense, writing down our observation of a moment of stillness in our daily lives, wherever we are, is an act of meditative awareness, of fully inhabiting our selves in the present and creating a mark, a polished stone.

I am going to be writing my daily stones, and collecting them in my ‘A Stream of Stones’ in this website and elsewhere.

For more information on the A River of Stones project, please see here

Why not join the fun and the mindfulness yourself?

Sharpen your pen, polish your keyboard, cream your hands, and then, stop, look and listen!

15 December 2010