Stones of Remembrance

One of the biggest contributors to writer's block in my own life recently has been the refusal to allow my words to be of "the moment". I've demanded immortality from them. I have feared their own expiration.
What if I write something that later does not apply or even worse that I find untrue? So the solution has been to say nothing at all. Hmmm.... perhaps I need to rethink this.

"Every minute we change" says Natalie Goldberg in her book "Writing Down The Bones". We need to allow ourselves the freedom to be in the moment while at the same time allowing ourselves to continue going beyond that moment.
We are all in process, on a journey. What may be of no consequence to me in five years may actually help someone else who isn't ready for those words right now. Perhaps it is a subtle pride to expect so much of myself that I would otherwise not write at all unless the words were eternal truths.

Goldberg goes on to say, "We constantly need new insights, visions. We don't exist in any solid form. There is no permanent truth you can corner in a poem that will satisfy you forever. Don't identify too strongly with your work. Stay fluid behind those black and white words. They are not you. They were a great moment going through you. A moment you were awake enough to write down and capture."

I like that. It is freeing. I can capture a moment without forcing it to produce for eternity. That gives it it's own validity. I can move beyond my own words without having to make them go with me.

I can think of it like the stack of rocks the Lord commanded Joshua to leave behind when they crossed the Jordan river. They each put their stone down as a memorial as to what was done that day. After they dropped their stone, they each continued to move on from that place. They didn't stay there with the stones. But their moving on did not rob the stones of meaning. Contrarily, whenever they saw the stones again, they witnessed a timeless story engraved upon them. Their journey that day, though lasting only a moment, also became immortalized.

Take that fearful writer's block.

Comments

Post a Comment