Tag Archives: life lessons

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.

What? It’s the Next Question

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I’m rewriting this post after initially making it another two for one thing. One of those two questions had been: ‘What is prayer?’. As in what form can and does prayer take, my prayer that is.

Then I realised that all the thoughts, all the contemplations and reflections I came up with in answer, belonged more correctly in the How question which will be coming in due course.

Which means, that in this post we will be looking at just the one question, which also is only about my own personal prayer life.

What do I pray for?

As it happens, I have already spent a little time on this question in the Why do I pray? post back in November. I think it would be a good start to begin this post with a quote from that one:

  ‘So,’ you might ask, ‘you pray without any ulterior motive at all? You don’t pray to get things? You don’t pray for healing for others or yourself? You don’t pray for peace and happiness for the world or for yourself? None of these things?’
  These are good, valid questions. And the short answer is yes, of course I do. I do pray for healing for others and myself; I do pray for communal and personal peace. As for happiness, well who doesn’t pray in one way or another for a just a little happiness now and again?
  However, I do draw the line at praying for material things, like money and material objects to possess, none of those kind of things. I believe I don’t pray for such things. I think so anyway.

Now, I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that those two last little sentences are broadcasting a very clear message: Obviously there is some uncertainty in my thoughts about what I actually in fact do pray for.

Somewhere, sometime, recently I wrote to the effect of that there is nothing to pray for, and that there is nobody to do the praying. This, of course is not a notion we can really get to grips with while living in a material body in a material Universe.

It’s nore for those dwelling in some transcendental realm where everything that exists has ceased to exist, and all that remains is pure consciousness.

So, obviously while we continue our existence as embodied beings, living in a material universe, there is much to pray for and there are many of us who do pray. Speaking only for myself personally, I know I could pray more, better, and deeper. As I’ve mentioned many times, my aspiration is to make my entire life – physical, mental, spiritual, – a prayer.

Okay, that’s all very good and fine, but I still haven’t answered the question: What do I pray for?

Well, as I mention in the quoted passages above, I pray for healing and peace for other people, the world, and for myself. I pray for happiness, health, and freedom from suffering for all beings.

But it’s not that I’m directing my prayer to some being up there in some heavenly realm who sits arbitrarily dispensing favours or denying them, and who acts according to the quality and quantity of prayers sent their way.

No, it’s more about, as I talk about in Who do I pray to? the post before this one, directing my attention, thoughts, actions and everything else, to the symbols that represent for me the natural flow of the laws and order of the Universe. Why?

Seeking alignment, I think that’s the best answer. By praying I am seeking to align myself, to put myself in sync with those natural laws, with the flow of that natural order.

Referring to the quote above, the peace and healing I pray for are like affirmations of my desire for that alignment, and that the entirety of Self itself be in alignment. That Self I speak of is of course all that exists in the Universe.

It’s similar when talking about praying for material ‘things’ while remembering too, that healing and peace are also in fact ‘things’ of the material world. Perhaps the best way to put it is to say that it is not the ‘things’ themselves that I pray for. With the risk of sounding like i’m repeating myself, it is correct alignment with all material existence that I am praying for.

Actually, it is more than that now I think about it. My prayer – and my life – is actually about my seeking to properly and fully realise that (to quote the glorious Desiderata:

No doubt the universe is unfolding as it should

We suffer when we label that unfoldig or a person, a thing or event or whatever as good or bad, desirable or undesirable; when we think there is a them and there is a me or an us always separated; when we are compelled to gather possessions and yet still think we never have enough. These are the dualities of material nature.

My prayer is to realise, not just know in my mind, but realise in my heart, that there are no dualities. There is only … Ummm. Well, perhaps that’s it: There is. Only. Nothing else. Only. Is.

May all beings come to know their Isness.