This week for Wishcasting, Jamie asked, "What is your spirit wishing for?" I think my spirit and my writing are longing for the same thing--direction.
I am a deeply curious person. I'm constantly asking, "What is that?" or "Why does that work that way?" Children's questions, some would say, but that's fine with me. I really just want to know things, learn things, see new things. And mostly this is good.
But this tendency has left me with a problem. I know around eighteen million ways to plot and plan a novel and six hundred thousand ways to pray and worship and meditate and be spiritual. This is great, right? I know all sorts of things I didn't know before I started all of my reading and searching and learning. Lots of the things I've learned have really added to my life, if only because I spent time thinking about them. All of this has also left me kind of confused and disoriented and stuck because I have too many choices and can't figure out which way to go.
I am longing for something to speak to me, some way to step out in front of the others and say, "Come this way, over here, this is the path for you." That's not going to happen, of course. And there's not really one right way anyhow.
Was it Buddha who said, "All paths lead to enlightenment"? I just need to pick a path, step out along the way and keep going (it was definitely Buddha who said, "There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting."). I have to tell all the other pretty, shiny ideas, "Not now. I'm going this way." And then I have to stick with what I choose long enough to actually let it work.
That's all. I don't have any proclamations of "I choose this path!" right now. I just have the knowledge that I need to choose, and I need to move forward, and I need to keep going for long enough to really see where the path leads. My grandfather always used to tell me, "Do something, even if it's wrong." I need to do something and keep doing it long enough to know whether or not it's wrong.
8 comments:
Yes, with practice/path, it is good to pick one and sink deeply into it. It's like the difference between reading six books at once, or reading one over and over, really knowing it. I only "know" any of this because I am super curious and a truth seeker and had the same issues, until I got older and too tired to follow after every interesting thing.:) As you wish for yourself, so I also wish for you.
The butterfly personality effect... That's what I call it, at least. So much out there is so bright and beautiful (and so danged interesting!) it is a struggle to focus on one direction at times. (At times I wondered if that might not be my path, to flutter about on the wind, without a direction of my own, until I somehow landed and either nurtured the earth where I was, or provided someone a glimpse of beauty pressed between the pages of a book... hmm, that last part doesn't sound all that terrible when I think of it....)
Still it's great you've found yourself a direction to follow and the determination to stay the course. That's a brave leap.
Great wish. As Kim wishes for herself, so I wish for her also.
I'm a great believer in wanderings. I am also endlessly faithful to my passions.
I often wander of my preplanned path, off the trail, into the nebulous and chaotic.
I find vast riches there, and I know I wouldn't have, on the arranged route.
I am highly intuitive. If i were not, I think my approach and needs would be very different.
To write, I have to dream. Without one, for me, the other can't exist.
Purpose and intent serve me better than well-marked plans and definite destinations.
Intuition needs space and options and flexibility.
Structure needs form and boundaries and parameteres.
May we both have an abundance of just what we need to live our passions. =)
As I read your wish, it reminded me of this Kahlil Gibran quote:
“Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.' Say not, ' I have found the path of the soul.' Say rather, 'I have met the soul walking upon my path.' For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.”
I love the last line...the soul unfolds itself! As you wish for yourself, so I wish for you!!
Yes, there are often several paths competing for our attention. One good thing to keep in mind is that if you start down one and it isn't working, you don't have to stay on it. You can switch paths.
Best wishes with the remainder of your ROW80!
I gave you a blog award!
Ooops - and the link is... http://www.ruthiestickney.blogspot.com/2012/03/awards.html
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