These days we don’t need the Buddhist teachings to remind us of the principle of impermanence. Two and a half years of living with the pandemic has certainly made us more aware of the fragility and uncertainty of life. And while the apocalyptic scenes of climate change being played out around the world, make us feel like the world is falling apart, is it really? And if it is, what can we do about it?
The answer could simply be…
Write.
Write what? Surely everything on topic has already been written? Who needs another voice adding to the cacophony.
Write, don’t think about it, just write.
Don’t write for something, for someone, just write.
Write to find out what it is you want to write.
Write in secret if you have to, in the middle of the night, write all the things you wish you could say, you wish you had said, you wish you may one day have the courage to reveal.
Write.
Write on toilet paper, write on stone, write in ink, in faint pencil, in your own blood…
Write in big fat books, in teeny tiny ones, on the back of shop dockets, ticket stubs.
Write in the sand, on the earth, in the air!
Write anything, it doesn’t matter what.
Just write…
When you feel like shite, write.
When you feel like you can’t go on, write.
When you feel like it’s all ok again
Write.
If you don’t end up writing a masterpiece
at least you will feel better.
You never know, the things you write in your notebook labeled
All the Things I Cannot Write
might just become your best seller.
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Books to read about Uncertain Times
Draft Busters Online next monthly module begins on Sept 12.
Sensing Italy, June 3- 10, 2023.
Story Hunters, India Nov. 4 – 19, 2023.