Is it time to dig around under your rocks? Crawl out? Write your mind? Write your life? Rich, wondrous treasures lie in those darkest places of your psyche.
French philosopher and poet Gaston Bachelard wrote,
"What is the source of our first suffering?
It lies in the fact that we hesitated to speak.
It was born in the moment
when we accumulated silent things within us."
It lies in the fact that we hesitated to speak.
It was born in the moment
when we accumulated silent things within us."
He also wrote: "A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream."
Read more of his quotes on this site:
Besides alleviating pain and spending time dreaming, here are a few more reasons to crawl out.
1. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? Find out.
In her forward to Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones, Judith Guest wrote, “Writers do not write to impart knowledge to others; rather, they write to inform themselves.”
2. RABBLE-ROUSE (at least that's how I spell it!)
In 1839, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (English politician, poet, playwright, and novelist) wrote in his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy, "Beneath the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword." Your words might be able to cause a large number of readers to change their opinions to yours. Your written ideas could be the tipping point.
3. ADD ANOTHER DIMENSION--BECOME AN OBSERVER
If it feels like you're drowning in your life, you can do that AND float on the surface of the water at the same time. Just start observing it. In Buddhist terms, become mindful. Have you ever said to a friend, "You should have been there!" Well, if you'll write it, you can put us all there.
4. WHO ARE YOU? YOUR DESCENDENTS MIGHT WANT TO KNOW--OR MAYBE NOT!
I know one thing: having a street named after you won't tell anyone who you were. When I drive though a city on "John Branburg Highway," I have no clue who he was, but I think it's likely that he was wealthy and now probably dead, so I picture an old man lying in a coffin in his best Sunday suit with his hands crossed over his chest. That's not for me.
I'll write more about writing soon. Can't promise when. Life keeps turning my face in a different direction.
3. ADD ANOTHER DIMENSION--BECOME AN OBSERVER
If it feels like you're drowning in your life, you can do that AND float on the surface of the water at the same time. Just start observing it. In Buddhist terms, become mindful. Have you ever said to a friend, "You should have been there!" Well, if you'll write it, you can put us all there.
4. WHO ARE YOU? YOUR DESCENDENTS MIGHT WANT TO KNOW--OR MAYBE NOT!
I know one thing: having a street named after you won't tell anyone who you were. When I drive though a city on "John Branburg Highway," I have no clue who he was, but I think it's likely that he was wealthy and now probably dead, so I picture an old man lying in a coffin in his best Sunday suit with his hands crossed over his chest. That's not for me.
I'll write more about writing soon. Can't promise when. Life keeps turning my face in a different direction.
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