From the writer’s journal, February 2015
The challenge is to keep it simple. On retreat here in Thailand, I have only my own schedule, minimalist with its morning ritual and daily editing quota, to maintain. Then there is the hovering push toward book launch on March 1. After that, the event branches into multiple responsibilities and opportunities: readings, conferences, web announcements, social media engagement, followup blog posts, book orders…
I return to the basics, my crucible of creation: writing the next novel, or revising the next one in the pipeline, with its daily quota, letting the rest subside. That is the matter of priority: the discipline, and the blessing, of a vocation—a calling. Yet even in that root calling, the opening to share with primary content and craft, I return to the meditative mode, the root below the calling, which is simply being. Removing the stress or anxiety element, by returning to the basics: being alive, at home in the skin, breathing.
There is an ongoing paradox, then, or dynamic. Being at ease, at peace, opens the way to deep inspiration, to expressing and creating from a fundamental need, desire or manifestation of personal vision. Once begun, that path brings consequences to pursue: publishing, marketing, commentary, outreach, each a major trunk leading to ever more complex branchings of activity and engagement. As the outer world of manifestation expands, the visionary and creative self shrinks under the burden of proliferating to-do lists, subsidiary inspirations spawned like heads of the hydra at each lopping of an item from said list.
Back to the breath, the primary work, the root and trunk: writing again. Keeping the body healthy, respect for nature intact, humility in the face of life’s limitations… and gratitude for the live connections along the journey.
