From a Tweet to a the Writing of this Post
What prompted me to write this post? I had one of those emotional kicks-in-the-butt that pushed me to write this blog post. The kick came from two sources. Each source of inspiration was about writing. But they were different enough to create adaptive tension in my mind.
One source of inspiration was a twitter post by Maureen Hannan of Digital Scribes http://www.digitalscribes.co/. Maureen posted a Ray Bradbury quote:
You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something you live for.
Normally, I am not a fan of quotes on twitter. Many feel like thoughtless, automated feeds of questionable valuable. You’ve probably seen the genre along the lines of: “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
But Maureen’s Bradbury quote struck a chord. I thought it was very important. If we all figured out what we lived for, and worked passionately with that knowledge, wouldn’t the world be a very different place? Wouldn’t we be very different people?
I am a writer at heart,
but I often leave the heart out of my writing.
Pressures to Produce
There are so many pressures in society to produce (papers, books, blog posts, presentations, reports, consumer goods…). The “what” and “how quickly” often consume the “why.“ Maureen and I got talking. We both needed a reminder about writing something you live for. Maureen was basking in the experience of having done just that a few hours before. She had pushed the “too busy mantra” out of her head. She had created something important. Her posting the Bradbury quote was authentic and thoughtful.
Maureen’s Tweet Collides with a Story from a Horse Trainer
My second source of inspiration was different. Yet the two collided in a positively powerful way. It came from Heather Nelson who is a horse liberty trainer http://www.heathernelsonlibertytraining.com/ In her case the something she loves and lives for is a bi-product of her writing. Let me explain…
A liberty trainer works with “naked” horses: no saddles, bridles, halters or ropes. If the horses spend time with you, walk with you, bend, flex, stretch, reach self-carriage, jump…it is because they choose to do so. I have known for some time that Heather sits in her horse field, where she journals. But I didn’t get it. When I imagined doing that myself, blocks came to mind. How do I know what to do when the horses behave in different ways? What do I write about? Is this a commitment to do a daily journal about progress with my horse for years?
Writing to Connect with Horses
Heather’s journaling isn’t any of those things. As I’ve described in my book: “Riding Horseback in Purple,” horses are in-the-moment animals. And that is what Heather’s journaling is all about. “If anyone read my journal, they’d be really bored” she said. “The entries are like “I hear a raven in the distance.” Heather is being as in-the-moment as possible. She is becoming as horse-like as possible. And the horses love it. The product on paper doesn’t matter; the product is the relationships she builds.
“Shed the Shoulds” and Write
Many of us who write create dozens of reasons not to. We’re busy. We’re un-inspired. The first sentences don’t look promising. Writing is powerful. Write. Write something you love or live for. Write to connect with yourself. Write to connect with nature. Write to connect with horses. Write to become a more rooted, unique you.
The post Many Reasons for Writing appeared first on Alice MacGillivray.
