I have been in my head on what I can do here on this blog.
Do I share my writing? Do I invite you to post your healing writing? Do I need photos?
Is this about writing? Is it about healing – how to heal?
Is there such a thing as an answer to “How to heal?” And I could keep going on asking myself, and you, questions and questions.
Do I ever answer them? Sometimes.
Are there always answers? Probably. Not always the ones we want to hear.
On the other hand, if we are open to writing, simply writing – free form , with no intention other than to write whatever comes out, then usually some answers appear, often totally unexpected.
Off and on for years, I have been following Julia Cameron’s recommendation for “Morning Pages”, which I first read about in THE ARTIST’S WAY: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity . It’s also one of the core practices covered in each of her subsequent books. For those unfamiliar with them, “Morning Pages” are three pages of free flow writing, longhand, first thing in the morning. I have gone through periods where I have done this faithfully, daily , and I know the practice frees up my day. I will admit there are mornings where e-mail first wins out AND I still manage to go back to my spiral notebook.
One of the “rules” is to not look at the pages for at least two weeks after writing them. I often keep a separate pad beside me to jot down the “to-do’s” that often surface during those 15 or 20 minutes. This morning I started writing in a fresh book and to my dismay I discovered I had inadvertently purchased the “college-ruled” rather than the “wide-ruled” pages. Heck, I may be a “good girl” and do my three pages of writing daily, but I don’t want to write more than I have to, plus those narrow spaces are confining.
Being one who usually finds a way to “bend the rules” and still be “right”, I decided I would simply count the number of lines in the wide ruled books and do perhaps one and a half spaces for each of my lines. Instead of simply counting spaces in each of the books, I realized I could simply go to a book already used up and count the handwritten lines…easier to do also.
Interestingly, the book I picked up from a pile sitting near by was one in which I had written two days after Sam died. A couple of scattered pages throughout that notebook also had some other “healing” writing…writing from prompts in my writing group. I was moved by what I read and reminded that I’ve been thinking about going back to older writings and putting them together.
Then I read about the NaBloPoMo – National Blog Posting Month – Challenge, which is writing every day in one’s blog. I decided to take it on. The 30 day count-down begins the day we start. It will be a great discipline for me and a practice in non-perfection.
I know I often go into long stories, then edit, wonder, “The point is?”, and continue on down the path of “presumed perfectionism”. The intent here will be to simply post daily (could be old writings) and know that from the practice conciseness will come. And, it will be OK if it doesn’t.
The blog in which to take on the challenge is this one. For “all writing is healing.”
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Great goal, Sheila. I may have to take it on, too, seeing as NaMoWriPo and NaMoPoMo have been so great for me.
(Is July NoBloWriMo or is it whenever one decides to take on the challenge?)