Open Places

"The wound is the place where the Light enters you."

a Path, a Purpose

Photography by Nancy Falso

Hi everyone. Sorry it has been so long since I’ve written anything here, but that is likely going to be changing. This month I decided to take a writing sabbatical to try to make some significant progress on my novel and also an opportunity to make some real changes in my life and especially my health. I’m more than half way through this journey and it has lead me to some interesting places. The other day Jonathan Gunson posted to the Writer Unboxed group on Facebook the question of; “Are we writing for ourselves, or to be heard? A lot of us found this really thought provoking.

I write because I must. If I don't it will grab hold of me, wake me up in the middle of the night, and torment me until I give in and write it down. It’s been like this since I was a kid. For me the experience is like trying to hold back a river. For however long it chooses I am the path it flows through until it is done, and leaves me on some other shore - sometimes like a fallen, floating flower blown loose from some distant tree. At other times it leaves me shambled, bruised, and battered mess like earlier this week when I was writing about the death of my main character’s father. I slept over 10 hours that day. Living in the emotional state of one’s characters in an effort to be authentic and be a bumpy ride. I must confess though, for it is in its shimmering brightness that I find myself and allow myself to be seen by others. Still it leaves me wondering, how much of these stories are mine, and how much belongs to something unseen - something greater than myself? I find myself contemplating; how much does the land shape the water, and how much does the water shape the land? 

Lastly I want to leave you with this . . . Don't put your purpose and your passion in someone else's hands; it is your responsibility, and no one else will care about it as much as you. If you want to move forward then it is going to have to become a “Must!” for you. Stand up for your own intuition, because you know you, and do you better than anyone else. You are the person you have been waiting for.

Imaginary Location-Location

All Things Sonya:

Well it’s that time again, time for another muse to tickle your creative fancy. I sit here drinking a bit of tea and eating an imaginary sheep. Hee-hee I bet you weren’t expecting that. Actually it’s a sugar cookie but it, at one time, looked like what a local baker imagined a sheep to look like. Einstein, one of the most brilliant minds of our time said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Why would such a brilliant man say such a thing? Well, for a number of reasons I suppose: Knowledge can be taught, but imagination can only be fostered and imagination is what lets us learn beyond what we already know. Imagination is what asks the question, “What if . . .?” Imagination is a VERY dynamic tool and the source of something VERY powerful – creative innovation. We are loosing our creative innovation: children don’t “play” they are scheduled, they don’t draw – they color, they don’t run around an make up games and build imaginary forts – they play scheduled sports that they are taught or sit at a computer or TV and play video games. Arts and music, some of the best ways of teaching children how to think outside the box, to be independent through constructive ways of self expression, to build confidence in their accomplishment, to teach vision, to learn that there is more than one way to successfully realize a goal, etcetera are being lost - stripped away in the name of budget. What a steep price to pay and so many don’t even realize yet what in the long run it will cost them and in such devastating ways. So, what does all this soap boxing have to do with the challenge, the weekly muse? The point is to let your inner child come out and play. Time to reawaken your imagination from its slumber and get to work. This week paint, photograph, draw, collage, sculpt, whatever you like – an imaginary place. Let yourself daydream. ANY PLACE. An imaginary island on an imaginary planet, a home among the clouds, or a tree house in a purple tree that has orange leaves, anything that tickles your fancy. Have fun and let your innovation dance. As ever, I look forward to seeing your creations.

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