Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing,
of just going along, listening to all the things
you can't hear, and not bothering.
- Winnie the Pooh
Piglet, Pooh's Little Instruction Book
The days become a blur when I don't write about them.
I can't decide. Are they a blur because they are so busy and that's why I don't write? Or are they a blur because I don't write about them? Am I carried along by urgent demands because I have not stepped aside from the daily stream of them and so I lose track of the days and myself in them?
One thing is sure. Writing changes my life. It changes me. I live a different life when I write, because I write.
Writing about my life gives me a chance to stand outside it and view it from a third-person perspective. As I consider what is happening, I can see that I have a spectrum of choices. I don't simply have to react. I can ponder and live deliberately.
In doing this, I come closer to the purity of what drives a story. Any story. Whether it's a real flesh-and-blood life or one I create on a page. Sure, there are a lot of things that happen to us which we can't control. But we are always in the process of choosing what to do, how to think.
And this, more than anything else, drives the stories that we live.
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What's one important choice you made in the past that changed your life?
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6 comments:
Anias Nin wrote:" We write so we can taste life twice"
I agree with her and you...that is too why I write
I just made the choice to blog less....write more...there is a book that needs to be finished....
Becoming a mother. I no longer have the time to sit and think, mind racing and pen scribbling, but the time spent with my children enriches me, teaches me humility, and I get to read all the best children's books over and over and over....:)
I agree with your insights. And I love this about being a writer! It's like a hypersensitivity to everything around me, because if I allow it, it affects my writing.
Good luck on getting your second novel done!
Cassandra, I just came across a quote (not word for word, I suspect) by John Powell, author of 'Why Am I Afraid To Tell You Who I Am?'. You may know of it already. (I haven't read it, but will now!) Anyway, the quote is 'until we articulate our inner thoughts and feelings we don't really know who we are.'
Deciding to end my marriage was probably the most life-changing decision I've ever made. But then, so was getting married in the first place.
I love this and I really need to read this today. I've been feeling lost trying to fit in as much as I can with a couple of child free hours I have had this week and still feel like I have got nothing out of it. I need to write more, and paint, maybe even paint words. Writing is wonderful for me because it makes me slow down and when it's personal I'm completely who I am, I totally need more of that.
I completely agree. Writing helps me sort out this thing called life. I loved what you said about looking at our own lives in third person and the quote someone shared about tasting life twice. So true and so good!
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