02 Apr Moved to relate

Desiree of Let’s Change the World was moved to relate after reading of my Writing lows:

Writing has always been my great passion and like any great passion there have been times where I passionately hated it! I can’t tell you how many diaries I started and never finished as a child myself. So many things I started and never finished. I couldn’t even count the unfinished novels that I’ve written or perhaps I should say haven’t written. I love to write so I’m not really sure why I’ve had such a difficult time keeping it up in my life but blogging has really been the answer for me. I’ve been blogging now for 3 or 4 years and I guess there is just something about having an instant readership that appeals to my motivation. I don’t know…I’m babbling aren’t I? Well I really just wanted to say I can relate.

Hey thanks Desiree—you’ve certainly hit the nail on the head with the appeal of an instant audience when blogging—I still drop everything whenever I see a comment appear in my email in-box, and sometimes a single comment is enough to start me on a new, wonderful tangent. Or turn the corner to productivity.

Babbling is good I say. I think, although ‘feel’ would better suit though less easily coined, that I enjoy writing more as a stream of consciousness than process of patchwork honing and refining, though the latter does have its place also—and since when can I ever leave a story once written alone? Running is better than walking usually, but you see the scenery a little more clearly at a slower pace…

I should admit that I may have been, as is my tendency and writers prerogative, a little melodramatic in my description of recent writerly trials—four or five days between the last couple of posts, and a number of started but ne’er finished pieces when in the middle of an insanely busy couple of weeks is not really so bad, and with the exception of the prolific blogger and frequent commentator here Camille (thanks for that), I suspect I am more at ease—and productive—in my writing than most, and aware that such requires not a post-graduate qualification but a degree of gratitude, never expectation nor demand.

I am half-way through a post on this theme, and for anyone who may find writing harder than I, take heart from the fact that I really haven’t been stringing letters together for very long, and credit most of my ability, and more importantly my inspiration, to the practise of meditation—more so than anything I may have brought with me into this world.

It is worth reminding self, again and again, of the power of meditation, and also the distinct lack of power—for power autonomy and authority may equally be inserted, in relation to writing and otherwise—of my little ‘s’ self.

And in the case of meditation, like writing, there are certainly better authorities than I…

Sri Chinmoy on the benefits of meditation

“We make tremendous improvement through meditation. This is the only way of improving any part of life; there is no other way to make abiding progress. But we don’t ignore anything. The negative aspects of life are also part and parcel of Mother Earth. If we ignore them, what will happen? They will come again and attack our near ones and dear ones. So what we do is try to change them, transform them. In the beginning we do not pay attention to them precisely because we want to be strong. If you are weak, how are you going to protect others? But if you become strong, then you will be in a position to help and protect others. And it is meditation that makes you strong and powerful.

“So first we become strong. Then we will be in a position to help others. But we do not ignore anything; only in the beginning, we pay attention to Beauty, Light and Delight. When we get Light and Delight, through this Light and Delight we can be transformed. We try to pay all attention to the positive aspects of life so that we muster courage, strength, will-power in infinite measure. Then, when the negative aspects turn up, we try to change the fate of those who are in the world of darkness and indulgence.”

From My Heart’s Salutation To Australia