Who needs another blog on wellbeing my two children protested; we debated as usual, “Dad we are currently inundated with numerous blogs on the Internet like the numbers of stars in the sky and the innumerable grains of the sand on the seashore”. The famous mystery writer Phyllis Whitney once said, “You must want it enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any other Artist you must craft then you can add all the genius you like.” Since I am constantly exposed to different genres of great writers, you may come to agree or perhaps disagree with me that Language influences our worldview. Like Geraldine woods in her book 25 Great sentences, “I paced the hall of my library and spent far too much many hours bouncing around the Internet discovering and pondering on gems from established writers.” At times, I am oblivious to my surrounding and time travel into the world of great literatures. The inevitable question for me during my writer’s journey is to continue to learn, challenge my old assumptions, and become an open cup.
I am not suggesting that I am going to do a great job during my writer’s journey (Jante’s law, just in case someone from the Nordic culture is reading this blog). However, given my awareness of the use of my non-dominant hand to do mundane tasks recently, it’s no brainer to give this a go! My family, friends and Community have been a great source of encouragement particularly my two young children who are language enthusiasts and want to be writers one day. My writing journey won’t be complete without mentioning many mentors who have encouraged me through their amazing voices and books. Most people think there is a big element of luck involved when a Book breaks out Big (in my case writing a blog!). But as the old maxim says, luck is where preparation meets opportunity. During my recent nature walk through my neighborhood to observe the eclipse of the moon, a neighbor who is also an inspiring writer asked me what happens if you are not successful with your writer’s journey, we were both silhouetted by the eclipse of the moon, I summoned the courage to tell her I would take full responsibility for the failure and fail forward in my writer’s journey.
Is that what you do for a living my daughter asked me the other day with surprise in her voice, do you help people recover from the Black Death? Indeed, you heard me right, she asked about the Black Death in the 21st century. Interesting, she has been learning about the History of Modern Europe in school, turning points in history particularly the devastation of the Black Death. The conclusion of her recent essay asserts, “we humans don’t learn from history!” I wish I had taken history classes more seriously when I was in high school, I didn’t know any better; maybe I would have started my writer’s journey earlier.
I am not suggesting that I will be able to write as frequently as my audience would like me to but hopefully putting pen to paper would inspire myself to live healthier, stronger and Longer. Like the famous psychotherapist Carl Young said “Until you make the unconscious conscious it would direct your life and you will call it fate”. Clearly we can now extend that axiom: as I put pen to paper I will make the unconscious conscious and become more aware of my thoughts, ignorance, incertitude and constantly changing environment.
“Like Oscar wide once said, there is only one thing in the world worse being talked about, and that is not being talked about”. If you know a friend, family member and colleague that desire to live healthier, stronger and longer in the New Year, please share this blog with them.
Ayez un repos conscient de la semaine!
Blog edited by Annabelle