Month: September 2015

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Quote For The Day 9-30-2015

“We should be told: Write fast, write close to the bone, write for ten hours straight until you’re not thinking in words anymore, but in colors, in smells, in waves of memory. Right what you care about. Don’t write one more word you don’t care about. Don’t waste any more of your life on what does not matter to you. Write only what matters to you—those scenes, those dialogues. Get messy. Before you get neat, get very, very messy. Write until you are more alive than you have ever been before.”
― Bonnie Friedman, Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction and Other Dilemmas in the Writer’s Life
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Quote For The Day 9-29-2015

“I write because I am alone and move through the world alone. No one will know what has passed through me… I write because there are stories that people have forgotten to tell, because I am a woman trying to stand up in my life… I write out of hurt and how to make hurt okay; how to make myself strong and come home, and it may be the only real home I’ll ever have.”
― Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
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JSW Prompt 8-27-2015 response

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That’s the curse of being a writer.  If I could show you the worlds inside me, the multiple dimensions all narrowing down to one single pin-head point – me – then you might understand.  Not that I hold out hope.  How can you comprehend a hundred worlds inside me, a thousand characters telling stories, clamoring to be heard.

I had invisible friends as a child.  Everybody does.  Friends with which I played and talked; friends who were inside me. But, I never outgrew my invisible friends.  They grew away from me, into their own, but never left.  Though many of them have merged and morphed into other characters or combinations, none are forgotten, not unless they have died in my imagination.  And, truthfully, even not then.  Some names of the dead have been lost, pushed out by the living, but the character is never forgotten.

Having a hundred characters inside my head, inside my body, is normal for me.  I don’t understand how other people live without them.  Stories are always spinning through my mind, one character or another settling over me as I walk or talk or work.  I see through their eyes, talk through the mouths, hear through their ears.  I touch through their skin.

Understand, when you talking to me, you are talking to both me and whatever character descends like a shroud over my being. Could I live without them?  Without their stories.  I don’t think so.  I would be too alone in the silence.

Would I want to live without them, those names and faces which have carried me through so many days.

No, not even for you.

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Reflections

Another insightful posts from Lynn-

dancing leaves

file251341936484[1]Reflections

Life and the world reflect back to us our inner being, our inner truth.  And it’s very simple as to how and why.

We all tend to look around us to the outside world for confirmation of our inner beliefs – whether religious, spiritual, political, or philosophical.  We also look for confirmation of our fears, hopes, joys, and even our self-esteem.  Whatever it is that we hold within us, we look for validation.  And guess what – we find what we are looking for.

If you feel angry or victimized and want justification for that, you will find confirmation.  If you feel loving and caring and act with kindness and compassion, you will find that in the outer world.  If you believe you are worthless and have no value, you will perceive or find validation for those beliefs.  If you believe that you are strong, powerful, and magnificent, that…

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Grace vs. Excuses – re-posted from ruth@livingwellspendingless.com

Grace vs. Excuses

  • Grace says ‘mistakes aren’t fatal’; excuses use mistakes as a reason to quit.
  • Grace realizes that progress is more important than perfection; excuses use perfection as a reason to procrastinate.
  • Grace says ‘I am not my mess’; excuses let the mess define them.
  • Grace understands the bigger picture; excuses fixate on the small details.
  • Grace recognizes that people aren’t perfect and offers forgiveness; excuses use the failure as a reason to write someone off.
  • Grace is big; excuses are small.
  • Grace offers courage; excuses propagate fear.
  • Grace brings hope; excuses make you feel hopeless.
  • Grace gives you the ability to try again tomorrow; excuses allow you to give up.

My challenge for you this week is to simply decide which one you will choose—will you give yourself grace, or will you make excuses?  In the end, the choice is up to you.

Live with purpose, friends, and have a wonderful weekend!
xoxo, Ruth

To read her whole newsletter, go to ruth@livingwellspendingless.com

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Poetry Moment

Storm

The winter silence
reaches in
from beyond the ridge
of quilts,
burrows into my eyes,
settles like the wings
of a grey heron sleeping.
In the dark
I can only see
the milky white of your
underbelly,
the imagined lines
that curve upwards
to your closed eyes–
are you really still there?
You stir, sigh
like a cat in a dream,
and curl up around me
like a mother
hugging her child
to keep from freezing.

 

CS Knotts