Writing meditation

Blue, looking up, March 2008

Attended a short writers guild workshop last night on the topic of self-censorship in writing: too much or sometimes not enough. The presentation by Ronna Jevne made me want to be her. Lives in the country, writes professionally, does some teaching, takes pictures for art and therapy, does something called writing meditation that she says is part of the Soto Zen tradition (I have to learn more about that!), and seems very comfortable in her own clothes.

What I really took away from the night is that I need to work on my personal vision statement. Clearly state to myself what I would like to do with my life or what I AM DOING with my life. I've never done that to the level I could. Part of me resists the idea of creating a fixed reality to focus my efforts on. What if something unexpectedly wonderful comes along? What's wrong with what I have now? But she has me thinking that writing down my goals, my personal truths, would be useful. The trick is to write meaningful goals. Instead of "I see myself traveling the world with the money I earn from my books," the goal should be something like "I write to offer compassion and beauty to the lives to all living beings." Something like that, but not exactly that. More me. Metaphysical I think. I'm not sure it would be something I would share (talk about self-censorship). This is where the idea writing meditation puts up its hand and waves at me through the fog. Hello, come sit down with me. See what arises.

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