F R E E D O M
“Soon they were at the bottom of the pile, free to spin the cocoons that would give them wings…”
-from When the Heart Waits by Sue Monk Kidd
She is referring to Stripe and Yellow, the caterpillars in Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus. It is a fascinating story which metaphorically depicts the realization of authenticity.
Stripe and Yellow mindlessly climb the pillar of all the other caterpillars in an effort to get to the top. They engage daily in the grind of Herculean effort. Eventually, Stripe and Yellow begin questioning the aspiration of reaching the top, and soon lose the will to claw and clamor their way there.
And they become still.
Once they quit moving, they are climbed over and over by the others until they find themselves at the bottom of the pile. It is at the bottom of the pile that they find their true work. The work that gifts them with wings; the work of spun stillness.
The miracle of transformation does not occur apart from it.
THE PLACE OF REAL
“What is REAL? asked the Rabbit one day… It doesn’t happen all at once, said the Skin Horse. You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept…“
-from The Velveteen Rabbit by Marguery Williams
Become means “begin to be.” The story of becoming is the story of our lives. Our story begins when we are born and ends on our death bed, when we arrive at the final destination of who we have become.
All our days add up to the death bed whether we like it or not. No more good, bad, or indifferent decisions. No more chances to get it right. No more chances, period.
My heartfelt hope is that I use life to become real, knowing every day is a new opportunity for growth or regression. The journey is every-day life and every decision along the way. The Skin Horse tells us what to do to reach the destination of Real.
First of all, let the weight of pain be something we choose to bench press instead of something we allow to crush our hearts. That’s how we grow strong and flexible, not brittle.
Second, let difficult circumstances in life be the sandpaper to smooth our sharp, rough edges, not a hammer that shatters fragile egos.
Finally, choose to be the wildflower that grows and survives anywhere, however possible, despite not being carefully kept.
This kind of work takes time, a commitment to stillness, and a ton of acceptance. It’s well worth the effort though, because it gifts us with a meaningful life and a comfortable death bed.
THE ROOM
There is a room
in each of us
where we live all alone,
without space for another.
No costumes, no scripts, no audience.
Just a stark surround
to envelop us as we become
who we were all along.
The still place that holds our music,
and our smiles;
not the dazzling smiles,
but the knowing ones.
POWERLESSNESS
“To heal a wound, you need to stop touching it.”
–Unknown
Birds have uncanny instincts when it comes to taking care of themselves. More frequently than I wish, I have seen one unsuspectingly fly into glass and BOOM! Stunned, she falls to the ground with a thud.
A tiny thud.
What she does next is a miracle. She becomes still. Wing askew, eyes closed, she appears lifeless. But her little heart beats on as she lies there, so beautiful in her vulnerability, instinctively aware the recovery will take some time.
Acceptance of powerlessness is the miracle. Choosing to exist in woundedness and making no effort to eliminate or heal it.
Cleansing occurs when we open up to feeling the pain, and every bit of the fear, trusting that the power within us will eventually propel us forward on our journey to wholeness.
Quotes on Writing...
“Write what should not be forgotten.”
-Isabel Allende
“If you wait for inspiration to write
you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.”
-Dan Poytner
“I must write it all out at any
cost. Writing is thinking. It is more
than living, for it is being conscious
of living.”
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“Writing is a product of silence.”
-Carrie Latet
“The first thing that distinguishes
a writer is that he is most alive
when he is alone.”
-Martin Amis
“We are a species addicted to story.
Even when the body goes to sleep,
the mind stays up all night telling
itself stories.”
-Jonathan Gottschall
“In my view a writer is a writer
because even when there is no
hope, even when nothing you
do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway. -Junet Diaz
“Writers see the world differently. Every voice we hear, every face we see,
every hand we touch could
become story fabric.”
-Buffy Andrews
“A day will come when the
story inside you will want to
breathe on its own. That’s
when you’ll start writing.”
-Sarah Noffke
“I can shake off everything
when I write, my sorrows
disappear, my courage is
reborn.” –Anne Frank
“Get it down. Take chances.
It may be bad, but it’s the only
way you can do anything good.”
-William Faulkner
“I want to be clear about this. If
you wrote from experience, you’d
get maybe one book, maybe three
poems. Writers write from empathy.”
-Nikki Giovanni
“Very few writers really know what
they’re doing until they’ve done it.”
-Anne Lamott
“The role of a writer is not to say
what we can all say, but what we
are unable to say.”
-Anais Nin
“This is how you do it; you sit
down at the keyboard and you put
one word after another until it’s
done. It’s that easy and that hard. “
-Neil Gaiman
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
“Fill your paper with the breathings
of your heart.”
-William Wordsworth
“Stories have to be told
or they die, and when
they die, we can’t remember
who we are or why we’re here.”
-Sue Monk Kidd
“Here’s the thing: The book
that will most change your
life is the one you write.”
-Seth Godin
“As a writer, you try to listen
to what others aren’t saying…
and write about the silence.”
-N.R. Hart
“When we read, we start at
the beginning and continue
until we reach the end. When
we write, we start in the middle
and fight our way out.”
-Vickie Karp
“Start writing, no matter what.
The water does not flow until
the faucet is turned on.”
– Louis L’Amour
“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”