A place where you can be human.
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Pablo Picasso
Writing is the one place in this world where you can go and anything can happen. It’s a place where, if you are intentional enough, you can learn from situations before they happen. You can change the past and dream up a brand new future. It, for me at least, is a portal to a freedom I have never known.
To learn to write is one of the greatest gifts I have ever received.
What does writing do for you?
“Life is like a wheel. Sooner or later, it always comes around to where you started again.” – Stephen King
This vacation started out anime-themed, but I was quickly drawn into a couple of series based on Stephen King’s writing. Currently, I’m watching 11/22/63 and enjoying it; it keeps my attention. I also was sick and it had me laid up. For some reason, I’m still not feeling 100%. Seems like the regular ol’ winter cold takes longer to recover from these days. Anyway, this is my vacation, and I’ll do what I want. So, all the Stephen King movies/shows it is!
“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
Acceptance speech
Man, I needed this. This speech just about brought me to tears, but before that, peace washed over me. It was like, ah ha, there it is. That is what I’ve been looking for. I heard his words before I even realized it was his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize. I am just filled with so much gratitude for what he left behind for us. How perfectly timely it showed up. And how oddly it still works for today.
If you’re in need of some peace and inspiration here’s link to the full speech https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/acceptance-speech/
“A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” – Paul Cezanne
I don’t know if this is a fair statement, but my art starts that way, so I can’t argue. No feeling, no art coming out of me.
Mastering art takes discipline, which means some pieces must be done without feeling to master the technique right?
What do you think? Do you think something created without feeling should be considered art?
“Find out what you’re afraid of and go live there.” -Chuck Palahniuk
“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.” -Salvador Dali
There’s a million reasons to be afraid. There’s a million excuses you can come up with to avoid the one threshold you just can’t seem to cross. Let’s not talk about it much. Let’s talk about you. Do you know all the hoops you had to jump through just to get there? Sit with that for a moment. That door is yours and yours only. I know you already know that no one else can open it for you. I’m not here to tell you that. I’m here to remind you that regardless of what’s on the other side of that door, you’re still everything you hoped you could be. The moment you walked up to that door, I knew you were ready, more ready than you ever realized you were. This doesn’t have to be some big thing. It can be a quiet step across the threshold. We can make more noise later, when you’re ready. For now, just know you’ve got what it takes.
Getting it Right
“Lying in front of the house all
afternoon, trying to write a poem.
Falling asleep.
Waking up under the stars.”—Jack Gilbert taken from nicolemgulotta.com
Now, that is the life. This quote lifted my spirits and gave me a vision of a place where I can find peace. I need a couple of these weeks of napping and writing poetry.
I’m feeling a little distracted from my writing lately, but I just need to remember that I am invested in improving myself and my community. This means that I am doing my part. And even if I spend the day napping and writing poetry, I’d still be adding goodness to this world. I always try to keep in mind that I can’t change the people around me, but I can change myself.
“What’s a bigger mystery box than a movie theater? You go to the theater, you’re just so excited to see anything – the moment the lights go down is often the best part.” -J. J. Abrams
Yes! going to the movies lights my fire. It’s interesting though, when I first started writing, I dreamed of a book with a movie deal. I wanted that so badly. Now that I finished this novel, I don’t want this story turned into a movie because I want the images from my novel to be very personal to each reader. Not that every novel I write will be written that way. I’d love to see my work on the big screen someday, and I look forward to that experience. Mostly because I love movies.
How about you? Do you dream of seeing your work on the big screen?
“It is perfectly okay to write garbage as long as you edit brilliantly.” – C. J. Cherryh
It’s not about being perfect the first time. That first sentence is to myself. I’m not out here looking for perfection. I’m looking for honesty. I’m looking for guts. Write, delete, and edit all you want, but if you aren’t being the person who makes you proud, I can feel that. The world can feel that. I think Cherryh’s quote has its place. At the same time, editing brilliantly is not the priority here. The priority here is knowing what your priorities are and living by them. Letting them bleed into your work, your beliefs, your entire world. And when they change, because that’s what priorities do when you’re human, you adjust to welcome the new priorities. It’s not about perfection or brilliance, it’s about you being you.
I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.” -Joseph Campbell
Some of us find the experience of life and then go searching for the meaning of it all. I don’t think there’s any particular way to do things, but I do think you need a healthy balance of both meaning and experience. When I say experience, I don’t mean you have to get on a plane and travel the world and go deep-sea diving. I mean experience as in appreciating the here and now. In yesterday’s blog, I said it’s what we do in those tiny moments. That’s where I think experiencing life lives. When you can do that in the monotony, you can do that while you travel the world too.
“I believe that we form our own lives, that we create our own reality, and that everything works out for the best.” -Jim Henson
One piece at a time. One day at a time. Rolling one sentence into a paragraph into a chapter into a novel. Ok, you get the picture, but I really think people underestimate the value of doing one small thing a day toward your finished goal. Not bangin it all out in one night. I’ve never been that type of person. I need time and focus and bursts of life in between. We get to create our own lives over a lifetime, some less, some more. But it truly is what we do in those tiny moments that really brings it all together.
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