tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11955179440082028952024-03-19T00:42:33.267-07:00Writing from the Deeper SelfNaomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-51077166850779628492012-03-27T14:42:00.000-07:002012-03-27T14:42:57.315-07:00I switched to another blog--please follow deep writing (in another incarnation) thereDear loyal friends who may be reading this,<br />
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This "deep writing" blog has been replaced by another blog called "Coming Up Roses." I did this because I already write a monthly newsletter on deep writing (you are invited to receive it if you wish--just go to <a href="http://www.essentialwriting.com/">http://www.essentialwriting.com/</a>, and click on the "Newsletter Archives and Sign-up" page. I needed a subject that was fresh to me, and infinitely interesting. And so "Coming Up Roses" is it.<br />
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It alludes to not only my last name, Rose, but also to the publishing house that has emerged out of the Writing from the Deeper Self process, Rose Press. And the "Press" part is what allows the deep-writing process to come into the picture. There are, when I start to look into it, so many fascinating parallels and concurrent threads between the process of distilling roses into perfume (an alchemical process) and the process of taking what is inside you, somewhere, and drawing it out into a book. So much happens inside the person doing the writing, and that is the alchemy. The "perfume" is what's left on the page for readers to discover and take inside themselves.<br />
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So thank you for having followed me here, thus far. Please join me instead on "Coming Up Roses." The URL for this is <a href="http://rosepresspublishing.blogspot.com/">http://rosepresspublishing.blogspot.com/</a>.<br />
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May the depths of being and expression bless your life.<br />
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~ Naomi RoseNaomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-78918402392092108602011-06-09T12:58:00.000-07:002011-06-09T12:58:29.459-07:00Writing as a Path to Wholeness<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For a long time, I have approached writing—especially writing a book—as a path to healing and wholeness.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">No less a health authority than Dr. Andrew Weil, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">the medical doctor who has spearheaded the movement toward wellness and integrative medicine, cites research providing evidence that writing about emotionally meaningful topics is good for your health. Already-healthy people who made room for writing made fewer doctor visits, and some ill people improved their health considerably. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have experienced this, myself—the profound inner cleansing that can come after a spate of writing, leaving me feeling like a clear blue sky after a rain, or the peace at the bottom of a lake, its stillness untouched by the ripples on the surface above. It’s possible that when we write—provided that we are writing about something that has life within us, and not just abstract concepts—the energies in our bodies have a place to spend themselves, rearrange themselves, release, and balance. This can be true whether you are writing about something that you experience as difficult (in which case, the act of writing heals through telling and catharsis), or writing about something that you experience as beautiful (in which case, the act of writing is inspiring).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dr. Weil was talking about journaling. But if journaling can reduce </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">pain and fatigue; help reduce high blood pressure; help terminal patients sleep better; and more—then just imagine the rewards to healthy living that writing a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">book </i>might make possible.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Writing a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Book </i>as a Path to Wholeness: Giving the Soul a Voice</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Even beyond body-healing, writing—especially writing a book—opens a door to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">soul-healing</i>. Our deepest being … knowing … yearning … seeing … desires expression—ideally, in some way that reveals us to ourselves in the very moment of looking within. “I was a hidden treasure and wanted to be known,” as one mystical text puts it. Ordinary life, precious as it is, gives too few outlets for an extended exploration and expression of this treasure within us.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Writing a book from the deeper Self allows us to engage our deep nature in an extended relationship of discovery, intimacy, and, ultimately, praise of life. Despite the obstacles that can come up along the way (fear, doubt, disappointment, even despair), the engagement with yourself that writing a book can be is a profoundly wonderful, transformative, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">healing</i> experience. Throughout the process of bringing what lies in your heart to life—the conception, gestation, labor, and, finally, birthing of the completed book—you are transformed by what is in you interacting with what has been revealed to you through your own writing process. In the end, you have a book—ta da!—a living record, between covers, of your wish fulfilled and able to be passed on to others who will read it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Yet more than the “product” that this book is often seen as, the healing transformation of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">writer </i>is the real blessing of the process. At the end of writing a book, you are no longer quite who you were when you began, with an undeveloped awareness. You are deepened and refined by your experience of writing, and by who you have become along the way, which has since blossomed into the deepened human being who can truly claim authorship to the book.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">In this and other ways, you can write yourself into wholeness. What a gift to yourself, and your readers-to-come! Why not “take the cure”?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Copyright © 2011 by Naomi Rose. All rights reserved.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Naomi Rose is the author of Starting Your Book: A Guide to Navigating the Blank Page by Attending to What’s Inside You (Rose Press, <a href="http://www.rosepress.com/Starting-your-book.html"><span style="color: purple;">www.rosepress.com/Starting-your-book.html</span></a>). The creator of “Writing from the Deeper Self” (<a href="http://www.essentialwriting.com/"><span style="color: purple;">www.essentialwriting.com</span></a>), she is a book developer in private practice in Oakland, CA who works in person and long-distance with people seeking to write the book of their heart. </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQwwYZs7CwfLjKgQmIopAxmtzipAIw1OAHDKbcrjWAfH8IRhlSdgVaZUkrt4mqLQO9m1oxbWkn0doQiBqkNnTZckH1W24waJh0MFQr3gRvsvan7xVgxeLpSjptgy0osyBENm0MCbN8rns/s1600/Sailboat+on+the+bay.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQwwYZs7CwfLjKgQmIopAxmtzipAIw1OAHDKbcrjWAfH8IRhlSdgVaZUkrt4mqLQO9m1oxbWkn0doQiBqkNnTZckH1W24waJh0MFQr3gRvsvan7xVgxeLpSjptgy0osyBENm0MCbN8rns/s320/Sailboat+on+the+bay.JPG" t8="true" width="320" /></a></div>Naomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-74794883537056132522011-03-29T12:59:00.000-07:002011-03-29T12:59:16.509-07:00The Lengthy Sentence Contest ~ What This Judge Is Learning from the Courageous EntrantsI have never initiated a contest before now. I have thought, actually, that I don't like contests, pitting entrants against one another, creating losers in the act of creating winners. Yet I turn out to be glad that I initiated a contest, because I am learning so much from the writers who entered it.<br />
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The premise of the contest was to write in lengthy sentences--not the short, to-the-point, Hemingwayesque bullets of prose that have come to stand in as the prose standard, but sentences long enough to breathe in, long enough to give evidence of the length of the writer's breath in writing.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeFfDcGVdN_RPF7wrrL-ZfSC5L0bcNEHTVy4kdWf1TbtqUV7XX-Cak9lZmJ-0PadKVi8NMiPD28WxsFH63TApP3Tdy3yJLI2mCFUApmaP5OwyhyCWjPNvfQV55injCbfDFUwhxgWnbSuc/s1600/Grandfather+%2526+grandson+at+marina+%2528%25231%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeFfDcGVdN_RPF7wrrL-ZfSC5L0bcNEHTVy4kdWf1TbtqUV7XX-Cak9lZmJ-0PadKVi8NMiPD28WxsFH63TApP3Tdy3yJLI2mCFUApmaP5OwyhyCWjPNvfQV55injCbfDFUwhxgWnbSuc/s320/Grandfather+%2526+grandson+at+marina+%2528%25231%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>There were 12 responses. Not a huge response, but heartfelt in each case. Twelve courageous people took my challenge to heart, and wrote about things close to theirs. I came into the "judging" (oh, what an unusual place to be: a judge who isn't internal and about to pounce) with the idea that I would simply give each entrant a prize (there <em>are </em>prizes), categorizing each entry with its own captioned domain. I liked the egalitarianism of the idea: everybody wins, nobody loses.<br />
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But in the actual act of reading the entries, I saw that I could not apply this top-down notion. I was grateful to each and every person who had taken the time to take my suggestion seriously, and had had the courage, perhaps hope, to send it in. Yet I could not simply label each entry and award a prize, for some clearly sang at length, and others could not find their way into that inner singing-place.<br />
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As a writer, I've certainly been in both places: the long song, and the knocking on the outside trying to get inside. Perhaps that could be one definition of "deep writing": finding your way into the long song hidden in the breath. So I feel sympathy for the entrants who did not find their way in. Even if I can't award a prize, I want to acknowledge how human it is to have something to say--something heartfelt, sincere, cared about--and not be able to get past the perimeter of the telling. Where you are still telling your own story, but not the reader's.<br />
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What is the alchemy that allows you to talk about the perceptions and experiences of the "I" that is the "I" of the writing ("I felt... I knew.... I went.... I saw....") and yet become the reader's own "I"? That makes a reader grateful, rather than tolerant or bored, that you have made the effort to articulate what is in your "I"? There must be some depth that must be gone to--not necessarily a dark, abyss-like depth (though, sometimes), but a deeper-than-surface contact with what's inside and being written about; and that contact evoked, rather than kept close to the chest of idea-words and -thoughts, so that what lives in your "I" lives in the reader's "I" as well.<br />
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I certainly had not expected, in becoming a judge of the contest I devised, to learn so much from the people who sent writing in. I always thought of judges as busy, professional, fast-paced people, making decisions based on some set of arbitrary rules as to who was best, who worst. But you can't really tell what it's like until you're there, can you? I was quite moved by some of the entries--not only the content, but the breath inside, the breadth of feeling, the impressions in memory that rise up to mark and illustrate a longer-breathed moment in writing.<br />
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Lengthy sentences seem to work to bring me as reader into the writer's own "I" and make it my own, when the writer stops and quiets down long enough to walk through the writing slowly, rather than skim the surface or prove anything at all. When this happens, the length of their breath triggers a lengthier breath in me, and then I am reading their writing from that deeper, quieter, slower place. Gratitude pervades me: this place was where I was trying to get to, all along.<br />
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Deep writing is not always lengthy or slow; but when it is, and when you can feel it inside your own body, your own thoughts quieting down to receive what is there, then you and the writer are one in that moment. You and yourself are one. So writing can help you get to that place under the noise, that place under the separations; and as soon as you are there, whether as writer or as reader, you know where you are, and there is no place else to be.<br />
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Stay tuned for the results of the "Lengthy Sentence" contest--here, on my Writing from the Deeper Self newsletter, and on Creativity Portal. May long breaths sustain and bless you.Naomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-11014993138293538992011-02-17T13:55:00.000-08:002011-02-17T13:58:28.439-08:00How Can It Be All About You If It's All About Me? (Or, the self as lens)I recently was honored to receive an award for my book-development and editing work. I don't know how it happened, exactly. True, I was taking my own design of flower essences for writers, including "Shining Star" which amps up the inner wattage on self-worth and making a contribution. True, I had been praying to reach people of like mind and heart. Maybe it was that.<br />
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When I was told that I had won the Thumbtack.com Elite Service Award, and would be featured in their "Spotlight," after I got through my "is it real?" skepticism I became quite thankful, and gladly answered the few questions they asked about my work. The results were beautifully put together on a very attractive page, and every time I look at it (you know I do), I see my own image looking back at me (a really nice photo, I admit, by photographer Lucie LeBlanc) ~ my own words coming back to me ~ and all sorts of nice perks and encomiums in the vicinity of my face, words, and name.<br />
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This is great. This is lovely. I'm delighted. I'm happy. It's good to be "chosen" ~ and the word "elite" already does something for a sagging ego, not to mention the "only 1% of services merit this award." So there is a wonderful external sign of my inner work and workings, up on the Internet for all to see. I'm #1. Sometimes it's great to think of yourself that way.<br />
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At the same time: If your real work is to mine the limitless treasures of what it means to be a human being (dark and light, hidden and revealed, universal and particular), as I believe is the case with great writers, sensitive therapists, dedicated artists, and the like ~ then putting yourself in the spotlight may need to benefit more than only you. Putting yourself in the spotlight is good for you, if it means that you get to shine in ways you want to, and let people know how trustworthy, talented, loving, etc. you are. But how is it good for others when you are the focus of attention?<br />
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It depends, I think, on whether you are saying, in effect, "Look at me, me, me!" or saying, "Look with me into me so you can see you." That's what mystics and artists do: make the warranted assumption that if they can relate to something from within and open it up in such a way that it's there for everyone to relate to, they are giving others something precious by focusing on themselves. It's perhaps the difference between whether the "I" is opaque, not allowing any light to return out (only taking it in) or transparent (bringing back from one's inner travels something universal that can only be found within individual experience).<br />
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Lots more I could write on this, and probably will. For now, two things:<br />
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1. Notice how I took the subject of my own "Spotlight" and turned it into something that might also be applicable to you. And,<br />
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2. Check out my Elite Thumbtack Award. The interview is interesting, and the photo, I must say, is great. I'm a little older than that now, but the spirit is still there. <a href="http://www.thumbtack.com/ca/san-francisco/editor/">Thumbtack Elite award, Spotlight on Naomi Rose</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUEjoioTct1WaW5gAMlc5ZEQsK94BasfWEJtWjlAlXrkNA2oAk3wTaawdBH0q70Z-1QH_6WNVxN_TYugxI8Hxf23TaTzjfw0-upT9p1YBNOGG7acICTh1oVhkDJR_JFkeNnACUMogfaQk/s1600/Photo%252C+Sausal+creek%252C+Ralph+and+my+shadows+together.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUEjoioTct1WaW5gAMlc5ZEQsK94BasfWEJtWjlAlXrkNA2oAk3wTaawdBH0q70Z-1QH_6WNVxN_TYugxI8Hxf23TaTzjfw0-upT9p1YBNOGG7acICTh1oVhkDJR_JFkeNnACUMogfaQk/s320/Photo%252C+Sausal+creek%252C+Ralph+and+my+shadows+together.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Once a soul has begun to read, every leaf of the tree becomes as a page of the sacred book of life." ~ Sa'di. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #274e13;">Naomi Rose, Book Developer, creator of "Writing from the Deeper Self"</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.essentialwriting.com/">http://www.essentialwriting.com/</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="color: #274e13;">Publisher, </span>Rose Press </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Books & Other Fragrant Offerings to Bring You Home to Yourself </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">(including Flower Essence Remedies for Writers & Readers)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.rosepress.com/">http://www.rosepress.com/</a> </div>Naomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-23645154622275315812011-02-03T13:17:00.000-08:002011-02-07T09:02:13.435-08:00Guest Blogger: Ann Luria<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><strong>Intimate Details Evoked through Writing</strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In the spirit of writing intimate details, as I wrote about in my January-February Writing from the Deeper Self Newsletter (to be posted here later on), I am delighted to present my first guest-blogger, <strong>Ann Luria</strong>. Her beautiful poem illustrates how evocative writing can capture an idea, a feeling, an atmosphere better than abstract, explanatory writing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Ann chose to chronicle her experience of cancer, some time back, in a haiku-like poem. The combination of the insight characteristic of her profession as a therapist with the telling details that bring a reader close in makes for a touching, illuminating, and compelling work that—though it is motivated by the desire to explore what underlies the cancer, as well as what to do about it—is not limited to that, or even just to her. Many people could relate to the feelings and images here.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I am moved by how this beautiful haiku goes deeply into the subject, how concretely it shows the workings of transformation. I love what the writer notices, and how she says it. I love “no way to be perfect now” in itself, and also juxtaposed with her cat Reuben wishing to be human.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Deep writing is not about being perfect. It’s about being so true that something universal is reached. I think that happens, here.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Haiku like</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> I </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Raindrops fall on ground</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Planning another surgery</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I am thoughtful</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">II</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Spidery green leaves</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Burst Open</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Like ducts of cancer</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Waiting to be born</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">III</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">An onion grows old in the cabinet</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Donning a rotten brown edge</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Biting into a crisp </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Blood red-apple </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">With a surprise- </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A decayed part- </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Peeling a firm yellow banana </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Where did its tan crown come from?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Awaiting signs from the universe</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A small re-excision </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Or total breast reconstruction</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">My answer comes in nature’s forms.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">IV</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Addictions melt away</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Shedding their old skins </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The gift of disease</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Breathe</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">There is no way to be perfect now!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <b>V</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Worry melts away </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In nature’s heat</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Doesn't matter what conclusion is reached-</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The moon still bathes the nighttime sky</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Beckoning the world</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">To a new darkness</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <b>VII</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Drinking glacier water </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Standing on melted ice</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">How lucky I am.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <b>VIII</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Cat bathes in the moonlight</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Smiling-</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Chin turned up to the stars</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Light pours in through closed mini blinds</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">How lucky we are.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <b>IX</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Cold air frosts the plants</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Writing pros and cons of surgery and which type-</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Anxiety generates heat –</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Will I ever make a decision?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <b>X</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Angular cells </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">with jagged edges</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Multiple nuclei -</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Unlike their circular cousins-</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">My doctor draws each -</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Explaining why surgery is the only option</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Thank G-d for him –</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Like a pearl in an oyster </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A small column of ductal cancer </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In situ -</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Is unexpectedly found.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <b>XI</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Shadows come alive</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Stretching out tall like giants</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Others root sideways </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Widening and get smaller</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Some ant forward</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Flickering on and off </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Like well lit candles</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In the sun’s rays-</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Breaking free of human forms.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <b>XII</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Paw prints in the sink… </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Bathtub…</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Reuben is caught again – </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Drinking water from dripping facets</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Nourishing himself -</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Wishing to be human.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> -----------------------------</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> Copyright © Ann Luria 2010. All rights reserved.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Ann Lurie is a therapist in private practice, so that the transformative healing journey is part and parcel of her work and being. </span></div>Naomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-46088810651327195332011-02-03T12:38:00.000-08:002011-02-03T12:38:05.284-08:00Ursula LeGuin on How Your Book (or Story) Can Become What It Really Wants to BeI've tended to avoid reading books on the writing craft, in recent years. Too much emphasis on technique, too little on attending to your inner experience and finding ways to articulate that. <br />
<br />
However, I came upon a book by the astonishingly prolific writer Ursula K. LeGuin that I read from cover to cover. It has an interesting, metaphoric title: <em>Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing fro the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew</em> (Eighth Mountain Press, 1998).<br />
<br />
And though LeGuin has deep and meaningful things to say, she manages to keep it light. In addition to her praise of long sentences (I loved that, because that's my heart's natural way), she offers a perspective on ego-free writing that, differently, meshes with what I have come to know: that something in us wants to be written through us, and in that process we are transformed.<br />
<br />
She says it differently, and valuably. Here it is:<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Some people see art as a matter of control. I see it mostly as a matter of self-control. It’s like this: in me there’s a story that wants to be told. It is my end; I am its means. If I can keep myself, my ego, my opinions, my mental junk, out of the way, and find the focus of the story, and follow the movement of the story, the story tells itself.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Everything I’ve talked about in this book has to do with being ready to let a story tell itself: having the skills, knowing the craft, so that when the magic boat comes by, you can step into it and guide it where it wants to go, where it ought to go."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">I've experienced this, myself. So have the wonderful writers who become my clients. You start with one book, and it turns into what it really wants to be ~ and wants <em>you</em> to become, in the process.</div>Naomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-58563707492060990722010-12-22T18:39:00.000-08:002010-12-22T18:39:28.560-08:00THE ROLE OF COMPASSION FOR YOURSELF IN WRITING YOUR STORY<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">When you get to a point in the telling of your story where you think, "That part is boring and unnecessary. I’m going to skip over that," <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> there is an unfulfilled, disconnected feeling inside you, that usually means that you are so judging yourself for the unwritten part--the part you lived, or now perceive--that you would just as soon turn away from it. But the remedy is not in diminishing its importance; it is compassion, invariably it is compassion for yourself. Somewhere in the original experience and your subsequent interpretation of it, you judged yourself, you rejected yourself; in shame, you don't want anyone else to see, not even you. </span></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And that is the paradox of this way of writing. For the <span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">story that you have cast out seeks to be taken back in, embraced by your compassionate seeing and heart. To hold yourself within to the unloved experience with as soft and kind a heart as you can. That is what allows the details that are blanked out to come into focus, the words to stream up out of your heart. And as you cradle yourself, the energies locked inside that judged experience come out in the writing and infuse your being. Now </span><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">you have the missing piece of writing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> a missing piece of your being back. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">_________________________________________________________</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">To help the process of self-compassion come about, why not use the <strong>Rose Press Flower Essence Remedy for Writers</strong>,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1b7733; font-family: 'Calligraph421 BT'; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><strong>Self-Compassion: Rewriting the Past.</strong></span></span>" Sometimes what we write brings up old, unforgiven places in our pasts. Writing a book offers a wonderful opportunity to go back into the same events, feeling tones, or patterns in service of the story ~ but now with the compassion you are capable of in present time. "A writer gets to live twice," it's been said: "once when you have the experience, and again when you write about it. <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1b7733; font-family: 'Calligraph421 BT'; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><strong>Self-Compassion: Rewriting the Past </strong></span></span>Flower Essence Remedy allows you to live deeply and fully by mining your past for its hidden gems and bringing them into the present, thus benefiting your actual life as much as it does your writing. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">$15 for a 1/2-oz. dropper bottle, available from Rose Press: <a href="http://www.rosepress.com/other.html">www.rosepress.com/other.html</a>; by emailing <a href="mailto:naomirose@rosepress.com">naomirose@rosepress.com</a>; or by calling 510/653-ROSE (510/653-7673). </span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: #1b7733; font-family: 'Calligraph421 BT'; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><strong> </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAoS6KnIPeNQdHLY1AyZhVynPtwIOHXVPOHDw37q9Qw1mvp0mOFSVrGIbZ6_2xhiNHOq8C6uKWxWr6oyirB5H3fvlXo-oKwXPh_QS3gIDyxXw5nYi6SX2P62QeVDF2jqv67ufMDoU9Fe0/s1600/Photo%252C+Rose+Press+flower+essences%252Caerial%252C++circled+by+flowers.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAoS6KnIPeNQdHLY1AyZhVynPtwIOHXVPOHDw37q9Qw1mvp0mOFSVrGIbZ6_2xhiNHOq8C6uKWxWr6oyirB5H3fvlXo-oKwXPh_QS3gIDyxXw5nYi6SX2P62QeVDF2jqv67ufMDoU9Fe0/s320/Photo%252C+Rose+Press+flower+essences%252Caerial%252C++circled+by+flowers.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">For a healing experience of writing ~ and living.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b></span></em></div>Naomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-53364664708181078732010-12-11T12:55:00.000-08:002010-12-11T12:55:27.167-08:00More on art, the artist's process, and the art that comes out of it, by Hazrat Inayat Khan<em>Hardly <span style="font-family: inherit;">had I finished</span> posting the blog just below when I read more from that same volume by Hazrat Inayat Khan which I quoted there, and it so captured my soul and imagination that I wanted to share it, too, with you. So here are some further quotes from this great Sufi master and teacher. Although he is writing about sculpture, here, it is simple to translate the essence of his thought to include deep writing. As you read, see what is moved and uplifted in you. If you come away with a sense of recognition ~ or even longing ~ then his writing is successful in awakening, and nourishing, your soul.</em><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When we come to the art of sculpture today, it seems as if the artist is searching; he is trying to reach something that he knows is absent. The soul of the sculptor is seeking for something that seems lost. First of all, by lack of appreciation around him, the artist is discouraged. Next, he is put in the midst of the business world; and the relief which should be given to the heart of the artist, so that he may think of art and nothing else, is not to be found today. There was not so much thought of competition in ancient times; there was not a fixed price for art. Art was invaluable. The admirers of ancient art never considered a work of art as having a fixed price. They always thought that they could never give enough for real art. In that way, art progressed; it was admired.</span><br />
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Besides, the direction of art today is not of the same nature as in ancient times. The direction of ancient art was towards spiritual realization. Love, harmony, and beauty were seen by the artist in their highest aspects. And when the artist loses that direction, then he comes down to earth; instead of going upward, he is going downward....<br />
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The scientist is sooner contented with what little he discovers, but the better the work of art, the more the artist feels that there is something still missing; his heart is longing all through his life to produce something more than that. Consciously or unconsciously, every artist is craving for that something which is missing. And if this goes on, no doubt the artist will find it; and on the day when the mystery is found, art will again become a language.<br />
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The meditative quality and the practice of concentration should be developed in art, and also the higher ideal; but the material world forms a barrier to all these. It stands in the way of the artist's progress. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that a real artist is always spiritually inclined; he is only hindered by the world, and therefore it is possible that tomorrow the art of sculpture will evolve. It will evolve in fineness and in beauty, and sculptors will also develop their imagery. Then art will culminate in that greatest of achievements, when the artist will really be able to produce a living statue.<br />
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The motive behind the whole of creation is to put life into everything. That is its sole objective. In other words, every rock is longing for the day when it will burst out as a volcano, and when all that is valuable in it will come out. Sulfur, diamonds, gold, and silver; everything that is in its heart must come out one day. That is its purpose. <br />
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Every tree is longing for the day when it will bear fruit. Love expresses itself through every channel, and it manifests outwardly in order that God may see Himself face to face. And so it is with a work of art. People think that it is the artist who has made it; in reality, it is God who has perfected it. As it is God's pleasure to create the world, so it is also God's pleasure to create through pen and brush and chisel, to give life to what is lifeless. If there is life, it is God. And what is God? God is love, and thus the desire of that love is to manifest in the form of beauty in the realm of art. <br />
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[From the book, <em>Sufi Mysticism: Art Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,</em> by Hazrat Inayat Khan]Naomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-43210813006618014212010-12-11T12:35:00.000-08:002010-12-11T12:35:31.100-08:00"When the Artist Loses Himself in His Art, Then the Art Comes to Life"<em>The great Sufi mystic and teacher, <strong>Hazrat Inayat Khan</strong>, was also a great musician, and he often wrote about art as a mystical path of union with the Divine. Below is a quotation from among his writings that addresses the process of what it is to become fully engaged with the process of bringing forth what is in you: the art that comes out of it, and the inner experience of wholeness. </em><br />
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<em>I hope you will feel as blessed by this quotation as I do. Hazrat Inayat Khan's message and writings have certainly influenced my own experiences of deep Being, deep writing, and my writings about deep writing. </em><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><strong>When the artist loses himself in his art, </strong></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><strong>then the art comes to life.</strong></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One must not only <em>be </em>an artist; one must <em>become </em>art itself. Then to the one who is so absorbed in his work that he forgets himself, that capacity, that intuition, that skill will come naturally. He begins to do wonders, and his art becomes a perfect expression of what he had in mind. ... People think that it is the artist who has made it; in reality, it is God who has perfected it. As it is God's pleasure to create the world, so it is also God's pleasure to create through pen and brush and chisel, to give life to what is lifeless.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The artist who has arrived at some perfection in his art, whatever his art may be, will come to realize that it is not he who ever achieved anything; it is someone else who came forward every time. And when the artist produces a perfect thing, he finds it difficult to imagine that it has been produced by him. He can do nothing but bow his head in humility before that <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1292098449_3">unseen power</span> and wisdom which takes his body, his heart, his brain, and his eyes as its instrument. Whenever beauty is produced in art, be it music, or poetry, or painting, or writing, or anything else, one must never think that man produced it. It is through man that God completes His creation. Thus there is nothing that is done in this world or in heaven that is not divine immanence, which is not divine creation. ...<br />
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What is art? Art is the creation of beauty in whatever form it is created. As long as an artist thinks that whatever he creates in the form of art is his own creation, and as long as he is vain about his creation, he has not learned true art. True art can only come on one condition, and that is that the artist forgets himself -- that he forgets himself in the vision of beauty. ... We are vehicles or instruments that respond. If we respond to goodness, goodness becomes our property. If we respond to evil, then evil becomes our property. If we respond to love, then love becomes our possession. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(From the book, <em>Sufi Mysticism: Art Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow</em>, by Hazrat Inayat Khan)<br />
</span>Naomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-55736686470488594372010-11-29T18:08:00.000-08:002010-11-29T18:08:49.467-08:00When Your Long Written Work (e.g., Book) Honors YouThe days I make time to write deeply are days I feel arise from within me, rather than my reacting to them. There is something about simply stopping to listen to what is inside through writing that reminds me of how much there is inside me, all those treasures waiting to be noticed, called forth, brought into form.<br />
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It is not the same, for me, as writing down a dream or dashing off a journal entry. There is something about writing a <em>work</em> ~ most often, a book ~ that seeks not only deep exploration but coherence, like tracking the threads of your life in the trust (sometimes, wobbly trust) that they truly form a pattern, and a beautiful, radiant, inspiring, worth-it-all pattern. There is something about writing a work, a longer work that asks commitment and endurance and willingness to risk and find everything, that calls me back to it again and again, even when I am a forgetful devotee. It reminds me that even despite all the awkward beginnings and utterly too many pieces of paper drafts, I have given my soul to this; I have set a creation in motion, and that creation now has a life and wants to honor mine.<br />
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How will this creation honor my life/yours, your life? Perhaps by the public's adulation-to-come, and the best-seller-status and financial rewards to come. But for now, in the writing process, the honoring comes by what I get to remember in the writing, and that ~ in its more revised, developed incarnation(s) ~ it holds the great, deep love and energy of the very thing I was seeking when I set out (boldly, ignorantly, tremulously) to write it in the first place.<br />
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My current book is <em>Living in MotherWealth</em>, a sequel to my book, <em>MotherWealth: The Feminine Path to Money</em>. <em>Living in MotherWealth</em> began as a wish to have my daily, my moment-to-moment being in that place I called "MotherWealth," which I "fell into/was forced to my knees into" in the story recounted in the first book. I thought perhaps, God willing, there could be a way to live in that Being place, where everything is given, without having to sacrifice everything one had, was, and knew.<br />
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At first, this sequel was mostly a litany of my deficiencies ~ difficult to read back, but cathartic to put down on paper. Over the years, about 3 years now, the "deficient" script began to wear thin; and in its place has come an awareness of incredible wealth, inner wealth, that every human being has inside them. My discoveries of such wealth through the writing began to percolate in my cells, in my consciousness, in my daily life: brushing my teeth and feeling the pleasure of that cleansing instead of just getting it done. Taking a shower and feeling the caress of the hot water, hearing the plink-plonk of the droplets touching down on the bathtub floor: music. Music and being here have become a gift from the book to me, once I returned and returned again to it and said to myself, "This is what I have been looking for. This is what is in me. This is who I am."<br />
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To come back to writing my long work, although much yet remains to be done with it and much yet exists to let go of, reminds me that I exist beyond all the outer forms, beyond all the to-do's, beyond all the ways that this book, once it becomes a "product," might serve my more material needs as well as emotional and spiritual. This long work is a kind of a life, in chapters.<br />
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And are not our lives like that, as well?Naomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-81171463467050066952010-11-24T09:09:00.000-08:002010-11-24T09:09:00.665-08:00The Important Role of Silence in Writing (a book or anything else you care about)<span style="color: #4c1130;">If you have ever been on a silent retreat, or been in nature for a period of time in silence, you already know from experience how incredibly fertile that bed of silence can be. As the usual chatter fades, the things that pull us away from our in-the-moment inner experience (things to do, places to go, errands to run, emails to send, worries to keep circulating, etc.) show their true colors as mind-distractions and perhaps –addictions, and just don’t seem as compelling as they had before. Something in us begins to relax, then; to stop always being on alert, ready for the next action, the next item on the to-do list, the next thought/opinion/decision. We drop into ourselves, and into the moment. We are that most essential of things: here.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;">It is in being here that we are available to revelation ~ whether that revelation is of the epic, prophetic kind, or simply a deeply felt, spacious awareness of the beauty of life because we are here to know and feel and experience it. And it is when we are most deeply here ~ present, spacious, appreciative, and gratefully willing to encounter the blessings that arise (both from within us, and outside us as what is within us is available to meet what is outside us) ~ that deep writing is possible.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;">I know for myself that in a single workday, I can sit at the computer and accomplish a whole roster of things that I can tick off my to-do list, and sometimes still have room to do more. Yet none of that is usually done with inner silence. There is most often an accompanying sound track that is commenting on what I am doing, or going ahead to the next thing to do, or fretting about what I haven’t yet done but should. No wonder there can be a sense of putative accomplishment, but energetic depletion at the end of such a day. And if I try to fit a writing session into such a day, most often what I write is simply another thing that I can tick off my to-do list as having accomplished.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;">For me, doing deep writing is a sacred act, and that includes the need to set it apart from my usual actions and ways of seeing life. It is the setting it apart from the prosaic, the getting-things-done aspect of ordinary life, that reminds me of what is potential within me. It is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">silence </i>that allows the words ~ the music, if you will ~ to arise.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;">There is that place in me ~ is it in you, too? ~ that is convinced that I need to keep doing every moment in order to ensure not only my own personal survival but that the entire universe keeps on going. Of course, the latter is not true at all; the universe’s cosmic order does not depend on my doing everything, only what is mine to do. But when the absence of inner silence grows louder and greater, I fall into a place that on the surface looks like I should get some kind of prestigious medal of recognition from our culture, for I am doing up a storm. And yet, in that storm of doing, where is my true being? Subsumed under all that activity and noise. And what would a cultural medal of recognition for having devised and fulfilled my to-do lists then get me? Just more noise, more stress, more time on the treadmill.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;">The cultivation of inner silence from time to time is medicine not only for our writing, but also for our entire being. It is in silence that what is real has room to show itself, whether that “showing” is in images, in sounds, in sensations, in energies, or in nothing. There is a “nothing” that is so full that it is the pregnant potentiality from which all manifestation, all “somethings,” come. We can orient ourselves in that direction, towards the silence, the inner quiet, the place where “nothing” is “happening” ~ until something reveals itself to us, and we know we must and want to follow it. That is the beginning of writing from the deeper Self. First we need to be present to the deeper Self. Then, writing from it is a following of what we receive; an encounter with something true that we do not have to invent or make up, original though it may be. It is a dance of what we don’t know with what we do; it is a harmonious song sung by our finite self and our Divine Self. We can’t make the words happen, but we can always make ourselves available to that quiet place where what divinely wants to grow and tell itself to us can grow and tell itself to us. We can make ourselves available to become “pregnant” with what is there for us, uniquely, and to carry that seed through to term, until it is complete.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;">And once we have done that ~ once we have given ourselves to that inception of truth, beauty, whatever other deep and redemptive qualities call us to them ~ we know that we are not “producers” or “manufacturers,” but lovers. We have loved our creation into being, even if along the way there was doubt, despair, frustration, the equivalent of morning sickness, procrastination, and all the other ways we humans have of denying our greatness. Once the creation exists (it is a book! it is a paper! it is a painting! it is a song! it is a relationship with a human being whose every gesture, yawn, and aspiration matters to us!), it lives not only in us but also for us. It lives to give us back the joy and pleasure we put into it. It is our child, in a sense, and we have no wish to abandon it to the world, but to bring it into the world like the treasure it is.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;">And what happens when the world receives it? I don’t mean in terms of, “Did you get on Oprah?” I mean in terms of what happens inside the individual people who receive it. My conviction is that they receive it in the same spirit in which you wrote it. If you wrote it with silence as your base, then your book takes your readers into that same universal place, and there they can touch into their own deep nature. Who would not be grateful for that?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;">Not everyone has the opportunity to go on a silent retreat, or even to spend a stretch of time in nature. But what we do always have with us is our own deep nature. I bless you that if you are writing, or wish to write ~ a book or a shorter work ~ that you can do so from within the sacred silence of your own deep nature. Whether this means setting aside a morning to write in which you do nothing else ~ or clearing the papers off your desk or table, and lighting a candle accompanied by a conscious intention or prayer ~ or even taking a flower essence for writing, such as Rose Press now has available ~ setting aside the world’s concerns for a time, so that you can hear the silence within you and allow it to give you something wonderful to follow in words written down, is a gift you can give not only to your writing project, and not only to your eventual readers, but to your own soul.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;">And this silent, sacred space and time <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will </i>help to heal the world. Just your doing it. Even before your book hits the stands. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This</i> is a way you help the universe keep on going: by being there for it. And then allowing its gifts to take root in you as writing.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">--------------</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: #4c1130;">Copyright <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">ã</span></span> 2010 by Naomi Rose. All rights reserved.</span></div>Naomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1195517944008202895.post-11739213702962368132010-11-15T22:52:00.000-08:002010-11-15T22:52:49.056-08:00Opening the DoorI was reading Barbara Wilder's very fine blog, which she announced as her replacement for her newsletter--a way of coming into the 21st century. Well, I know blogs, and I have resisted them, because for one thing I already send out a newsletter.<br />
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But then I saw how, if you are a writer for real, at heart, a blog could give you room to come in close to things that were just lying around in your inner closet, waiting for a chance to make their impression on your conscious awareness. A blog could let you dream and follow it, without requiring a linear justification or scaffolding. A blog could let you share your writings, your views on what it is in us that seeks to be known through writing (and reading), and really, anything.<br />
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And, a post is usually moderately short.<br />
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All these reasons conspired to lure me into the blogworld. I have so many wonderful treasures to share.<br />
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I have shared these treasures at length on my (two) websites: "Writing from the Deeper Self: Bringing Your Treasures into the World" (my book-developer work): www.essentialwriting.com. And the organic fruiting of that way of seeing writing, the published books (as well as flower essences for writers, and other wonderful healing treats): Rose Press: www.rosepress.com. So I will not repeat myself here. (Though as you can see, I have no false modesty about pointing you in those two directions, where you can read to your heart's content.)<br />
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In future blogs, I will write about such things as: <br />
<ul><li>Money and the inner life (how one fosters and heals the other)</li>
<li>The real ground of creativity (it's not just about lots of ideas)</li>
<li>How musical harmony captures our souls, and translates to human relations</li>
<li>Growing into love</li>
<li>My books and their healing intent</li>
<li>How writing and reading can have communion at its center</li>
</ul><br />
If you have read this far, thank you. It is almost 11pm, and I'm less perfectionistic than I'd be during the earlier hours. Random thoughts may be replaced, with sufficient rest, by deep and healing rhythms.<br />
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Meanwhile, I want to thank my friends for all their support and love.Naomi Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17726454586459633514noreply@blogger.com0