Presbyterian Church Structure
The Presbyterian structure operates on several levels. These levels are made up of representative bodies.…
Sometimes You Just Feel Like Writing
It is true. Sometimes you just feel like sitting down, pen in hand, or better yet, keyboard under fingers, and spilling out something on the page. There is an undeniable therapeutic quality in it, at least for me. I think it stems from the notion that I am taking an essential part of my humanity and making it permanent. I am not expelling something from myself, rather I am extending myself.
I think we can extend this to any creative process, and procreation too, for that matter. And yet all things are ephemeral, except God, who is eternal. So the writing fades on the page. Our thoughts get lost in some obscure file on some old laptop sitting on the top shelf of a closet under a few old sweatshirts that you can’t bear to get rid of. Someday no one will even know how to access that hard drive. But the words will still be there in bits and bites, until the sun explodes a couple of billion years from now.
And yet we must remember that God created us, making us in the image of the divine, and one of the great qualities of God is that creative process, beginning with light and finding its end in humanity. So, perhaps we can view our own yen to create, to make something in our own image, as an extension of that divine movement. We are, in our own creation, part of God’s ultimate divine will in the making of all that was, all that is, and all that ever shall be. Amen.
I definitely like to write just for the sake of writing sometimes. However, unlike you, I often do so to “can” my round-and-about thinking so that I can let it go and move on to other things. A trash can of sorts, if you will.
Of course, I honor your perspective of the writing being an extension of you. Oft times I do have the same experience of putting it down for posterity sake. There are so many journal entries hand written or printed just waiting for someone to discover them.
From a Taoist perspective it would be the laying out of another possible path for others or even yourself in the future.
From a Buddhist perspective it could be shining like one of the millions of Buddhists for others to experience and become closer to their true magnificent selves. (I encountered your writing and became closer to my magnificent self! Thank you very much!!)
Hey LSM, great comment. Writing is indeed a great tool. It can be used to “can” some things that have been weighing on you. I often also write for perspective and reinforcement. Writing helps me organize my thoughts, but also helps me to remember ideas. Even when I read a book I will write definitions and repetitive notes in the margins in the hopes that somehow that will be an aide in recalling something I want to remember later.