Invitation

Yes, it's been a while since I've been here. Seems like a long while, but it's only been four days. Five? Okay, five. Whatever. Things were busy the last time I was here, remember? Well, it got busier.

I went to the laundromat the other day. Exciting, huh? But what was different this time was that when I got there, I realized that I'd forgotten to bring something to read. Quel domage! (If that's how it's spelled.)

Fortunately, someone had left a book behind. Turns out to be a book about writing. Now, I already have at least a couple of those here at home and I've been avoiding reading them, because I was afraid they'd make me miss writing even more than I already do (though I'm very, very good at avoiding those feelings, burying them so deep you'd hardly know they're there). But, there I was, in the laundromat with nothing to read. I can be alone with my thoughts just fine, thanks (and, really, aren't we all "alone with our thoughts", come to think of it?), but not for an hour and a half at the laundromat.

Besides, it wasn't a book about writing that I would have normally chosen for myself. It was written by a Zen Buddhist writer. Not that I have anything against Zen Buddhism, but I was afraid it would be too, oh, I dunno, touchy-feely or New Age-y or something.

And, okay, it was a little of that. It was also (and I only got about halfway through the darn thing) a lot of stuff I already knew, had read before or heard in group discussions or on TV or something. But a couple of things stood out. Again, stuff I already knew. This was more of a reminder. (Okay, Sharon, enough with the stalling.)

You have to make a commitment to writing. Now, I suppose this could be said about anything. In fact, a couple of days ago, I heard about a neuroscientist who's done research that shows that change is perceived in the brain as pain. Which explains why change is so very, very difficult to achieve. The only way to get someone to change or, in this case, to change one's self is to think a lot about what you want to change and why and then make a habit out of the new behavior. You really have to understand the change you want and then pretty much force yourself to behave in the new way and then, slowly but surely, the change occurs. So, if you commit yourself to writing every day, even for a short period of time, eventually you will have written something and you'll be a writer.

Okay, nothing really new there, except for the change=pain thing. But there was one little Buddhist nugget that got me and I'll probably have to explain why some other time, because it's complicated and I'm not sure I do want to go into it here, but...

It's important to let your writing go. That is, you have to show it to others, share it with them, or it's not as good as just keeping it for yourself. Now, as you can see from the title and subtitle of this blog, I did not intend to share this. Which is not to say I haven't toyed with the idea of opening it up to others, but I haven't told anyone that it's here at this point and I didn't really think I was ready to do so. And maybe I'm not, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to choose two people (one of whom I've already picked out), for starters, and see what happens. Maybe nothing. But I will offer it to a tiny portion of the Universe and let the Universe do what it will.

Welcome, friends.