What You May Have Missed in My Blog Garden

Here on The Positive Slant On the Path, “The Completion of 7,” finishes my series on numbers with the most significant number of them all!

From the Files, Scenes and Musings, “True Aim” is a scene with an archer and a tiger who helps her find her true aim.

The Positive Slant On Writing – “The Magic of Words” A snippet about the power of words and how we need to use them wisely wherever we may be.

From the Files, Rants and Raves – “Telemarket-saurus,” My rant on the outdated mode of cold calling at home.

What if

What could you achieve if you’re never told what you’re doing is silly (or otherwise shouldn’t)?  What if you were always encouraged to keep doing what you love to do?  And that approval was mirrored back to you in everyone around you?

I was just wondering . . .

What if you were constantly told you could, no matter what might strike your fancy to do?  If there was always help, at every turn, to answer your questions, show you how it’s done.  Someone who would hold your hand and keep whispering to you how wonderful you are, how capable you are, as you step into foreign territory.

It kind of piqued my curiosity to wonder what you could become.

As I wrote about earlier, it’s so easy to undermine someone’s confidence with the “wrong” words.  No matter how well meaning.  But what if you never heard those wrong words, never even thought them?

I imagine we could all be so much more if we had someone (or 2) to nurture us as we stepped out of our comfort zones.  Wouldn’t it be so much easier to try new things if we knew we had someone to catch us?

Everywhere I look, I hear of these young people – 18, 19, 20 or so – who seem to have no limits on what they can accomplish.  Musician?  Sure.  Artist? Why not?  Film maker?  Of course.  Designer?  Yeah, that too.  I might be concerned that they’ll spread themselves too thin.  But I don’t think it works that way for them. Maybe they’ll just have a lot more fun, be happier, more productive and creative than any previous generation.  Who knows what they might discover?  How they might be able to change the world, solve its problems?

What if this freedom is tempered with love and care for their fellow humans?  Then what?

Blank Verse

The words aren’t coming. Sometimes they get caught up when I’m focusing a lot of effort on something else.  I can feel it.  It’s not about being a writer and being blocked.  It’s about being a human being with issues and responsibilities.  And allowing them to take over.  It’s all there.  I know it is.

There are a few solutions I’ve found to release the clog.  One of my favorites is taking a vacation.  Even if that means taking a day or even an hour.  If I do it that fast though, I have to mean business.  No washing dishes, doing the filing or just doing this one thing . . .  I have to be serious about resting and/ or playing if I want the full effect.

Speaking of playing, hearing live music always opens me up.  I’m not sure exactly how that works. But almost without fail, when I listen to musicians (all right, they have to be half-way decent musicians) playing, within 24 hours, I have something to say.

Another remedy is to make a practice of doing one small thing for myself every day, for a few days in a row.  For best results, I must be sure to do something that’s really good for me.  Giving myself the chocolate sundae I’ve been wanting will only offer a momentary buzz.  It wears off quickly and won’t produce the kind of writing worth the calories.  It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate or expensive.  A few moments of quiet may be all I need.  Perhaps it’s a talk with a good friend.  Sometimes I just need permission to write whatever I feel like, instead of what I’m trying to write.

One of my favorite and most effective ways to get things flowing again is to work my muscles.  I’ve spoken before of Natalie Goldberg’s  Writing Practice.   What an amazing thing that is!  I’ve often thought it would be really cool if Natalie would offer weekly (or even daily) writing prompts.  She’s very good at it.  There are quite a lot in her books.  But I can also pull a topic out of a hat.  Write for 10 minutes about hats. Many times I have opened the gates after a few days of writing practice.  If you don’t use your muscles enough they tighten up, too.  I stand by my statement:  Nothing breeds Writing like Writing.

Sometimes it is a matter of what’s going on in my head.  This does require a little sorting out of the priorities.  Writing about it always helps me. 

 But in the end it always comes down to just putting pen to paper or fingers to keys.  Voila!  457 words. (And I thought I had nothing to say.)