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Today's Writing Prompt: "When I put my ear down to my soul and listen to hear 'What is missing?' or 'What is next?' I hear....
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Yesterday we wrote of writing risk. We asked "What are you willing to risk writing?" It is a potent question, one which I "wrote" into via text message last night. That is how risk and writing work together. Sometimes it isn't the lengthy writing that causes us to quake, it is the small writing. The questions we haven't asked because we were afraid of the answers.
Sometimes it is on the positive side: Are we willing to risk being ridiculously successful?
Whenever we label these as "positive" or "negative" or having opinions about either the questions, our writing or our NOT writing, we risk missing out on the power of simply being with the questions, with living the questions, with writing our way into, as Rilke says, "Loving the questions themselves, like unlocked rooms or words in foreign languages."
If you haven't written from yesterday's lesson - I urge you to do so soon.
Today we are going to consider and write into gratitude, perhaps from a different place than you have in the past. Sometimes after writing like yesterday's, we back off. Unwilling to go past the breakthrough or back into writing which we may think is going to stir up more internal controversy.
What is it that invites me to look through the "What is wrong?" lense rather than simply pick it up and investigate, without opinion?
What if, instead, we choose to see whatever is from a perspective of gratefulness for being? What if we just write what is there rather than giving our opinions or judgments of what is there?
I sometimes fall into this trap with one simple question. The question is so simple: "What is missing?" I first looked at this question from a negative stance:
What is wrong? How come I don't have… what is wrong with me that I can not do… what skill set have I fallen short on this time?
People who know my world view might be startled to hear this form of rant because… I am not that sort of thinker most of the time.
My fingers hesitated to finish that last statement. I paused after "I am not that sort of thinker…." And waited… the ending of that sentence could have been so many different things.
I could have said, "I am not that sort of a thinker – or am I?" I stepped into the hesitation, as you may now, with me, about yourself. Breathe it in, "I am not an opinionated, judgmental thinker - or am I?"
I think this is the thread that has the most colorful weave as possible. It might be better with, "AND am I?"
That same "otherwordly" element that held my fingers poised, above the keyboard, is now pushing me, playfully, again and hoping you will play along, too.
"I am not that sort of thinker, or am I? Am I a thinker who rants and raves of the accidentally discarded flotsam and jetsam rather than the intentionally created art all around me every moment?"
For whatever reason I am thinking of a Mom and fellow autism activist I met recently when I attended her support group meeting. I sat down and she started throwing information into my head without asking me a simple question, "What are you seeking" or "How may I serve you?" or "What brings you here?"
Her fine intentions spilled from my skin before they had a chance to land because she started throwing her (highly valued by her) opinions around before she determined why I was there.
Interesting.
Flotsam and Jetsam are too "missings" from my life until this morning because I didn't know, truly, what they meant.
They were fanciful twins-in-language was all, or so I thought.
I read this Martin Luther King, Jr. quote and knew I would need to create art from that poetic coupling of words:
"I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become
a reality."
Interesting, thinking of those words – the flotsam is the stuff that is discovered floating in the water after a boat has sunk. There is a random, without explanation disorderliness about the presence of flotsam. Jetsam, on the other hand, is purposefully discarded. It is actively tossed from a ship in
suffering. There is choice involved.
AND both flotsam and jetsam seem to have the same result at first glance.
Discarded, displaced and floating without a paddle or a sail, in the water.
So how does this relate back to the initial question,
"What is missing?"
My first attempt at writing about "what is missing" didn't include any thinking. It created flotsam and lots of tarnished energy all pointing back to what might be wrong with me. There is a hurried, "Don't look, don't see my responses!' element to it, a constant looking over the shoulder and butterflies in the stomach element.
I made a choice when I allowed my responses to not simply be the unconsciously "What's missing" to be "negative", some "positives" appeared on my list. This surprised me. There are things that are missing for which I am perpetually grateful they are missing.
In my list making response to "what is missing" I swung back and forth between gaps which I can work on filling and gaps which invite celebration.
I tuned into this quote from Anne Sexton this morning. She wrote, "Put your ear down close to your soul and listen." So I did exactly that – I listened to what my soul had to say about the `What is missing?' question.
Let's invite our soul into our writing today. Let's ask our soul to pick up our thoughts and look at them from a variety of perspectives, to sniff and touch and rub at our opinions and labels.
When I put my ear close to my soul this is what heard in response:
"Nothing significant is missing. Nothing is missing I don't have the power to change if this is what is called for, I have the power to engage what is missing and the power to shift from seeing `missing' as a negative rather than just another clue to what is next for me in this phenomenal gift called life."
So what is missing? There is nothing missing that has a big, slash mark red mark. There is nothing missing that is discombobulating or overly messy in an unfun way.
Instead, engage with what feels like it is missing from a space of soul and gratitude. It will consistently bring growth and positive change.
Suddenly it doesn't have that same panicky feeling it did the first time.
Suddenly, I have written my way toward what is so rather than my opinion of what is so.
Powerful.
Passionate.
Purposeful.
Instead of being confused or disoriented or hungry, I am grateful for what is missing.
Prepare to write: Today we will write about putting our ear to our soul and listening there for our "what is next" and our "what is missing" - not from an opinion perspective but instead one that is curious, introspective and conscious.
We will retain the ownership of choice in our lives and in our writing.
Let's take a few moments to consciously breathe into today's prompt.
Today's Writing Prompt: "When I put my ear down to my soul and listen to hear 'What is missing?' or 'What is next?' I hear....
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I am so grateful to be writing together with you.
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