I digress. Thank you for seeing so many books through me. Thank you.

~annie

Perhaps Gaiman is right that we need the safety of fiction to allow certain truths to permeate past our boundaries, but I still have faith in the straightforward written word telling true-life stories such as you share. Knowing that something is real, that it happened this way, can be powerful too.

You wrote: “I need a Sunday as long as life to write about my father.” How beautiful. Thanks for slowing time just a little on Sundays to write about what is most important.

~lucy

~lucy

Wishing you and your mama a wonderful mother’s day, today and everyday!

All my love ~ Dawn

As are your portraits of light and shadow. Thanks for sharing the photo of the fountain.

I just started a book by Thomas Matus on yoga and hesychasm and on finding one’s way in converging traditions. He writes:

I cast the anchor of my life down, and I let its line run deep into the unfathomable God on whose bosom I float. In this situation, two certitudes reassure me: the one, that it is not madness to be afloat in God, and the other, that I am not alone on this sea.

Despite his nautical imagery, all I can see are lotuses after reading your piece! And it feels very fitting — in harmony with this book’s exploration of Hindu and Buddhist yoga, Eastern Christian meditation, and experiencing the blazing Light in this very life.

thank, as always,
~lucy

As always, the mosaic of thoughts you assemble provides much to think about!
Thanks.
~lucy

Many thanks for your time and generous thoughts and sharing your story. I appreciate it. : ) Also thanks for the support

Gratitude,

~a.

I don’t think whatever you have added per se negates anything I wrote. I don’t think it is possible to contact many people often enough and that is precisely the reason the desire for creating an impression of intimacy. Real intimacy requires work. And in that space when we can’t create the time and effort we are often asked to be “friends” with ourselves. : )

thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. I don’t think it is every about adding enough or not enough when one brings oneself to stillness. I believe my writings and thoughts do demand a certain amount of stillness (literal and within) therefore whatever comes forth is just the right thought. We are all in different stages on the same road.

gratitude,

annie

Loved the Chuck Miller quote.

Sometimes we can be a little hard on ourselves about the art we create or think we should be somewhere else with it at this point in time. But perhaps putting your manuscript on the back burner, on a slow simmer for a while longer may just be what you need.

I’ve put paintings away for long periods of time, only to come back with fresh eyes and a renewal to finish it. Others, not so much and that’s OK too.

I think surrendering is the hardest part of all, moving ourselves aside so the true art can flow out is the hardest part/challenge. To really quiet the mind to let it just flow out – the story, the painting, the song, etc….

It takes years and years to write a novel. Seeing first hand with Michael, the patience that is required. He started his 1st book in 2004, in 2006 re-wrote and cut out just about everything and practically re-wrote it again then spending a little over 3 years of editing it. I love a saying he once told me “I learned to write a book by writing a book”. No courses or classes can really teach you this. Only in doing can one really learn.

But when there is something within tugging to come out, we just need to get out of our way and in it’s own time, will be revealed. And once revealed it will pour out and be that great manuscript, painting, dance or song. What ever it is working its self out will come out. For me, my job is to not manipulate it with what I think it should be, learning to surrender to what it should be is quite the challenge!

With all of that, we can’t escape who we are either, if you are meant to be a writer, it will be there in the back of your mind, even while we work day jobs or fulfill other responsibilities we need it, its always there, reminding you that you must do it. So whether you start from scratch or use parts of what you have now, it will all come together in its own time.

I have been meditating on cities as well. They way the call us, draw us, transform us and even repel us. “Cities and towns are living, breathing entities to me.” Yes, I feel the same way. And I think here feeling is key for there are some things that one can’t justify, explain, express even with the most lucid logic. And yet you offer a pathway to beginning to understand such mysteries in a very visceral way. Bravo!

In a day and age when most people are disassociated from their environment, unaware of this complex and vital relationship, I love your fervent love for place, not just any place but a place dear to your heart, a place that opens you up to hear the world and makes you come alive, truly alive.

When I saw glimpses of NYC through your eyes, I felt a current of love, a love I could relate to, simply because it is a love I understand so well. Thank you.