Reading Archives - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
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Reading

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Posted on April 20, 2026
in #Reading Poetry, #Story Telling, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Reading, Reading Books, Sharper Brain after Retirement
2 Comments

Loneliness, Oil on canvas, 1977 Whether reading for pleasure or personal growth, what you enjoy depends on your interests and experiences. What you choose to read is as unique as what you enjoy eating or wearing. When you select a book to read, what are you seeking? Pleasure, growth, transformation? It is not what you choose to read but what happens to you when you are absorbed in reading – that pleasurable feeling of forgetting who and where you are, temporarily experiencing life through someone else’s perspective! I read to be entertained, to learn, to adventure into unknown worlds where my heart is slashed, where my guts are punched, or a brick falls on my head. With each book I read, my emotional and intellectual sensibilities emerge and deepen. In 2003, a group...

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Thursday, April 16, 2026

Posted on April 15, 2026
in Awareness, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Reading, Reading Books, Sharper Brain after Retirement, Well Being
6 Comments

Lady in a Sari, 1980, Oil on Canvas After reading the nightmarish poem, “A Dream” by Hermann Hesse in his book, The Glass Bead Game, I shuddered. A feeling of restlessness creeped in. The only way I could eliminate that feeling was to journal about it. I wrote what ended up being a short short story.  Here is a summary: I walk to the monastery on the hill and enter the building. Its walls are lined with books from ceiling to floor. The spines of the gilded lettered books glitter in the morning light. I pull out the one closest to me. The spine reads, Meaning of My Life. The leather cover tooled in gold promises a story still untold. What wisdom will the book reveal? I read the front folio aglow with words, “Learn to...

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Thursday, January 15, 2026

Posted on January 14, 2026
in Cooking, Journaling, Nonverbal Activities, Reading, Walking, Writing
4 Comments

A sketch from "Writing Meditation Practice," 2019 When you shine the light of awareness on yourself, you begin to awaken to an authentic life. With the help of daily journaling you begin to become conscious of what masks your Authentic Self. You pen down passing thoughts and emotions running through your mind like a broken record and leave them on the pages of the notebook. Journaling daily clears your mind and lightens your heart. More importantly, things about yourself are revealed to you which you were not even aware of.  So place the bubbling thoughts, not under your control, of bitterness, anger, resentment or sorrow triggered by a family member, a friend or social event on the pages of your notebook. Then watch the petty or vindictive thoughts, careless actions or unnecessary...

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Thursday, December 18, 2025

Posted on December 17, 2025
in Creativity, Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Nonverbal Activities, Reading, Spirituality, Walking
4 Comments

The final month of our arduous yet calm and creativity stimulating, mind clarifying, heart-warming year-long journey has arrived. I hope the year provided you perspectives on every significant aspect of your life: physical, intellectual, creative, and spiritual. That it underlined how fundamental sitting in stillness, spontaneous writing, walking, reading and creating help you make a strong bond with yourself and strengthen emotional bonds with family and friends. You have almost finished reading, Unblock Your Creative Flow. This was the first rough look or the clearer second read. Starting from the New Year we’ll begin once again to explore the gift of each day as it unfurls, partly as we plan it and partly to let the universe lead us. With pure intentions, determination, patience, make certain that the combined habits of meditation, journaling, reading,...

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Tuesday, 16 December 2025

Posted on December 15, 2025
in Creativity, Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Reading, Walking
6 Comments

Meditation, journaling, walking and creative practices are built one day at a time. We come out of the fog of living in the past and see how we are now and could become in the future. We move closer to our true self, witnessing ourselves in meditation, noticing our strengths, and discovering things we can improve while pouring out our thoughts and emotions in our journal.  You’ve come a long way at your own speed. And you continue to mindfully pace your creative and spiritual path. Think about the goals you have reached this year. Thanks to your practice, you are kinder to yourself, compassionate with others, and more forgiving, generous and filled with gratitude. Look around you, take a few deep breaths and be thankful for being HERE NOW. You have...

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Thursday, December 11, 2025

Posted on December 10, 2025
in Daily Reflections 2025, Meditation, Reading, Spirituality
2 Comments

Potala Palace, Dalai Lama's Residence, Lhasa, Tibet In today’s world, you’re faced with a constant bombardment of information and social media overload. You are pressed for time, hurried, and not even conscious how overwhelmed you are. Meditation and Journaling Practice trains you to slow down. Being slow does not imply being sluggish. In a time when doing multiple things at once and rushing are considered positives, being unhurried is a good thing to cultivate. A calm and quiet mind is a kind mind. Don’t get caught up in the rat race which society pushes you to join. Do one thing at a time with an undivided mind.  Each thought is a seed that turns into action and words. In time, those thoughts bear fruit. Remember the seeds you sow in a hurry...

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Thursday, October 30, 2025

Posted on October 29, 2025
in Awareness, Reading, Reading Books, Writing
4 Comments

You know well the benefits of writing alone behind closed door as well as meditating and writing with others at retreats and groups. You’ve come full circle back to where you started as a beginner on your way to an advanced writer. How much pleasure do you feel as you practice in your study, at your Sacred Power Spot? Through years that space has accumulated a presence due to your meditation, journaling, and deep reading practice. It emits a spiritual aura that you sense when you enter the room. No longer do you feel alone. You feel grounded in the source of your creativity, your AS. The walls of this space are lined with books which you know well. The story of your writing life echoes from the pages of these...

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Thursday, October 16, 2025

Posted on October 15, 2025
in Creativity, Meditation, Reading, Writing
6 Comments

Once you dedicate yourself to something you feel passionately about, when follow your calling, the universe listens. It augments the skills required for you to do that you deeply desire to do. So stay in touch with your Authentic Self and pay heed to its whispers.   I experienced the guidance of my Inner Self in the spring of 2009. For years, I had been meditating, journaling and writing alone at home. I had reaped the benefits of these two practices in heaps and wanted to share them with other writers who were struggling with isolation and dithering before the creative flow would stream forth. At the same time an urge to invite writers to meditate and write together repeatedly nudged me.  I hesitated. What would I say? Who would want to meditate...

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Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Posted on August 4, 2025
in Journaling, Nonverbal Activities, Oral Stories, Reading, Travel
4 Comments

For Month 8 “Mindfulness and Travel, I’ll share the story of how the country to which I arrived as an immigrant in 1974 became my home. A trip with my husband tracing the last leg of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition from the east to the west coast was an adventure of a lifetime for both of us, especially for me.  After reading two hefty volumes, Undaunted Courage and Journals of Lewis and Clark I was “called” to go on the same journey. My husband and I took a flight from Pittsburgh, PA to Portland, Oregon. From there we embarked on a boat that carried us upon the waters of the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The third American President, Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) had envisioned an expedition that would boldly navigate the heart and the west of the country,...

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Thursday, June 12, 2025

Posted on June 11, 2025
in #Reading Poetry, Creativity, Imagination, Reading
4 Comments

In Praise of PoetryPoetry grows on us. Reading poems aloud can turn into an enjoyable exercise, but more importantly, it helps refine our thinking and enhances journaling. You may not want to become a poet but you learn to have a grasp on words and how they have power to stir deep feelings and emotions in you that you may not have experienced before.  Reading poetry is a private, intimate experience. It widens our emotional space by stirring self-examination. It helps us deal with paradoxical emotions we don’t understand. Poems have messages that speak directly to us. When a poem links with our heart, it feels like the poet has shared a secret. The relationship between the poet, the poem, and the listener inspires awe and delight. A boy reading sitting...

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