0
Share on bsky
View this post on Instagram
What happens if you listen to the softness, the pauses between the breaths…
Isn’t that what this journey is all about? Slowing down enough to savor beauty?
I have been evolving for what feels like years now.
I am not exactly stuck; I am going through the same experiences repeatedly because I refuse to learn a lesson. But now, after decades of work, I can see the sparks, the glimmers, and follow them down a slightly different path.
But have I changed?
No.
Not fast enough for my ego at times.
I have been like this before typing a hopeful article for Elephant, because Elephant Academy taught me how to write. They even published my writing a few times. I feel I should give back on a more consistent basis to the community that got me through some of the darker times of my life.
I am pretty sure I had an intention about a year ago to write at least an article a week, to keep Elephant alive, even sharing this insight with an Elephant editor, and I failed to keep my word.
Instead, I got lost in life for a while until I dove into “The Artist’s Way” with Julia Cameron. I committed to morning pages which has changed my entire thought process and life.
But am I still asking the same question I did during COVID when I started my writing journey, after my first article got published.
How do I write? What do I write? If I tell my story, would people read my words?
Again, Have I changed?
Yes.
Soul searching—that’s what yogis and writers do.
I know I am good enough, I know I have a story to tell.
How do I turn my morning pages into a book? I bought a book to try to figure that out, a book by Natalie Goldberg. Isn’t that what writers do? Writers read?
Have I opened that book yet? No, I have not. I have been exploring creative writing prompts on the pages following my morning pages and my affirmations.
But today, I followed a different spark.
I opened my computer, a new page next to “My Book”, which I started writing in 2021. I pause and I glance out at the dreariness of this winter storm to hear the birds chirping because they are also enjoying the pause. A smile escapes my lips because there has been a shift in the air. I sip my lukewarm coffee from a mug that reminds me of a trip to the Outer Banks where we saw the turtle hatchlings make their way back to the ocean.
I am getting distracted. Is this also what writers do?
Yes, its what I do and I am a writer.
So, I reign myself in. I recall Waylon’s latest email in my inbox, just shy of an hour ago.
Are these words different from all the articles from last year that I did not publish?
It doesn’t really matter.
Today, I listened, I found my heart, a pause, a glimmer, a path. And before I could talk myself out of it, I reread my words aloud for the last time and I hit the button.
~
This account does not have permission to comment on Elephant Journal.
Contact support with questions.