Tag Archives: connections

A Writer’s Gotta Write

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‘A writer’s gotta write.’

So says a character in a movie I watched a couple of nights ago. So, here I am, writing. Not that I’ve been writing much lately. Actually, I’ve written nothing for months! Certainly not in the literal sense of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).

Of course writing isn’t only about that literal activity anyway is it? A writer must wait for the lightning bolt (or soft whisper) of inspiration to come; for ideas to be found for subjects to write about. There’s always going to be some thinking to done, facts to be found, and a heap of other activities to go under the vague heading: What do writers do?

I’ve never liked ‘making excuses’ for not writing. For not putting pen to paper, for having a mind bereft of ideas, for being totally empty of inspiration. Of course there are always reasons for doing or not doing something. Reasons or excuses? A fine line depending on your perception.

But. So what if inspiration is nowhere to be found? What of it if there’s an idea drought? No bursts of pen on paper or fingers on keyboard? What’s a writer (or at least this writer) to do to get the river of words flowing again?

Be. Cultivate stillness. Practise being quiet, as in don’t talk so much and keep a quiet mind. Listen. Of course if you’re not quiet on the inside and the outside, then it makes it hard to listen, to hear the idea when it arrives, to be aware of inspiration when it strikes.

It isn’t a passive silence of waiting. Being quiet is actually quite difficult; silence is an art to be developed; it takes effort and discipline Be patien: it also takes time.

For a blogger (me) committed to sharing snippets of the life being lived, and already aspiring to a life of quiet contemplation and solitude, this all seems to make a lot of sense.

I guess the lesson – for me – is to learn that writing is like everything else in my life: it comes or doesn’t come when and how it does (or doesn’t). It’s not be chased after or fretted over when things don’t turn out in quite the way I’d  planned or wished for.

See what’s happened? A ‘random’ line from a ‘random’ movie quietly entered my mind, sticking there to then bring forth a flood of words to share with you. Important words for me, interesting word for you to read I hope.

Again I’ll say: a life lesson for me. No need to wait or chase, no need to fret and worry. Just be, and the life to be lived, the ideas to be had, the words to be written (and spoken), the action to take, all of it, will be there exactly when and how it is meant to be.

Let go and let God.

We All Get to Stay

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Sharing our prayers this morning, the hermits each reciting a prayer to the other so each can pray, and talking about the oneness of life (prompted by one of the shared prayers), the dependence of one species upon another.

As we reflected on that idea – of interdependence – it occured to me that perhaps, there might be a problem in how we as humans, interpret its meaning. We can maybe call it a kind of paradox, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

Our dependence – as humans beings – on so many other species is actually a well known, and I hope increasingly accepted, reality. For food, for shelter, for water, air to breathe. Everything.

In any case, an aspect of this interdendcence idea that struck me as perhaps missing, that I’ve not really heard before (I haven’t researched this; just winging it thought and contemplation wise) is this; If, say, bees disappeared, or all trees were cut down, would humans survive? Definitely not.

On the other hand, let’s say that in an instant or even over time, all humans on Earth disappeared. What would happen to all the other living beings? All the bugs, the fishes, the animals of all kinds, trees, grasses – all the living beings?

It seems to me that all those other species, all those beings of all kinds, would not only survive, they would most likely thrive.

Actually, now I think about it, I remember during the COVID lockdowns, people in various places around the world were amazed at the return of birds to usually busy polluted cities, and how the air seemed fresher in some places when in ‘normal times’ it was getting hard to breathe. And beaches and rivers looked a bit cleaner than usual.

Fewer people commuting; fewer planes flying; less goods being transported on congested roads; less waste going into rivers and the oceans. Seems life on Earth was doing better when we (humans) were out of the picture, even for a short while.

Which is to say, humans may not be necessary for the survival of planet Earth and the other life that lives here. Putting it very simply: We go, they thrive; They go, we go too.

But, my thought train races along its newly discovered track here, what if I’m wrong? What if I’m looking at the whole issue on just a superficial level? What if all I am seeing is the gross material level of the whole question? What if I’m missing the real point of it all?

Well it seems to me that on that purely physical, surface level, my theory (borrowed as it may be perhaps) might be right, the irony true: we go, they thrive; they go, we all go; they stay, we all get to stay.

But who are ‘they‘? Who are ‘we‘? For me it’s clear that we are not all simply and only our physical bodies and our minds living here in the material world; that’s all temporary and comes and goes. No, there has to be more to it than that.

Which is what I end up coming back to so very often: there is only one. No separation; no you and me; them or us. Just one. Without a second. Only Consciousness.

I think the best thing to do, just to be on the safe side is to look after each other – regardless of the particular body we happen to be inhabiting at the moment.

That way, we all get to stay, and we’ll all thrive