A grandson asked me to explain how my writing comes about.
How I give birth to things and the meaning of some articles and poems.
Some authors and musicians have said that the words and music are
heard with an inner ear. Often writers will say they are writing with the flow.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said we must keep the pipes free and clear so that
we will hear the muses speak. And with me the words will be there and it
is all I can do to put them down as fast as I can or like Emerson I am
in dialogue with the muses. Other times when I am out of sync, I
struggle for words. To be able to say this means that time has been
given to learning what life means to me and how I respond to it. I had to
find a balance with what I was taught and what I was experiencing.
It is not easy to make inroads. It is not easy being different. In another
time I would be called a mystic. This is someone who has an inner
life with a connection to things invisible and intangible, but altogether valid.
To me life is a continuum. We come from a somewhere and
we go to a somewhere we have earned the right to be.
I grew up in a family that took life seriously. I wish we had laughed
more, just as I wish I had not spent 18 months in a hospital when I
was ten with a bone problem. (Penicillin came to market two months
after I was discharged from the hospital.)These were conditions that
shaped me. The worst being separated from my siblings. There were
eight of us and even though the country was still recovering
from the Depression, I felt rich. There were six brothers and
two sisters so how could we be poor? We had each other.
The previous post on the loss of our son’s baseball tournament I
realized was also for me. I needed to see the words written to realize
that the rules applied to me as well. The same rules applied to
everything I have done in my 80 plus years. First and foremost were
family and home and all that implied with its care. All the other things,
the writing and independent study which I did when the rest of the world
slept were to make inroads for me. What have I learned by digging
beneath the rock of who I am? That there is a substance, a weight,
a something metaphysical hidden in all of us within our skeletons.
There is a fountain of lore within us. When we apply what it is we
have learned in this life we come up with things that tell us where
we have traveled spiritually. I make connections. Some people have
difficulty with this. I connect life’s events and draw my invisible lines
and see no division in any of it. It unites in my thinking and I wonder
how it has escaped those in power in high places who have the clout
to do something. I have a son who told me that I make vacuuming a
spiritual experience. Perhaps I do for am I not a steward of this
place I inhabit? This continuous thread has been mine since childhood.
I link everything to All That Is. Some would call it God and others
Jehovah and still others what they think Highest and Best. I see
this link in games of children to those of adults as they dress
their lives with needed illusions. The rules are for real and the
stakes are us. We either are the victory and our gods the victors or not.
A friend tried to convince me that this is an impersonal world
and not to be taken personally. I say this is my world and I will do
what is mine to do to the best of my ability because I do take it
personally. We must or else it will perish. Every action has
consequences, good or ill. The roads connecting us to All That Is
are peculiarly ours because of our thinking. What we learn are codes
or Beliefs to live by. If the rules work in one place, they should without
bias work again. If our rules do not have favorable results, we must
dig deeper and work some more. We are talking about life and it may
take the rest of our lives to find the why of it. Worth it? Utterly.
The principles apply. Universal principles apply and will work in
other places and times. These are known as true values. True
values do not change. Because the substance of them has a
weight our hearts will recognize instantly.
Quantum, sumus, scimus. We are what we know.
4 responses to “How And Why”
This was great and covered a ton of topics perfectly! I love you and the information you give in your writing – keep them coming!!
Jessica, thank you for responding. You are an example of one who takes her world personally. We need to keep this classroom afloat. There is no other like it.
Veronica, I love this so much, it made my eyes moist and my breathing change as I read, you are wonderful!
Terri, thank you. When I put my thoughts down and look at them, I realize that they are a given. Which means there are Givers. I am grateful for your input, for to me you are a gift also.