HEALING, FORGIVENESS, WRITING<\/p>\n
Healing doesn’t happen in a
straight line. It\u2019s not definitive like that. We get sick, the worst of it
passes, we think we\u2019re better, we feel sick again, we have chicken soup, take\u00a0naps and then one day, we realize we\u2019ve been feeling good for a while and we\u00a0hardly noticed. Healing is a unpredictable journey as we ride the waves, the\u00a0ups and downs, the calm waters and the turbulence and finally we level off \u2013\u00a0until something else takes us down for a while and off we go again.<\/p>\n
Forgiveness doesn’t happen in a\u00a0straight line. It’s not definitive like that. We get angry, we feel betrayed,\u00a0we try to meditate and think kind thoughts, we get a respite for a while, the\u00a0anger returns, our heart feels heavy and then we feel it lighten up again.\u00a0Forgiveness isn\u2019t an event. It\u2019s a practice. We don’t just forgive and forget.\u00a0We work on it every day, we ride the ups and downs, until one day, we realize\u00a0we haven\u2019t been angry for a while. Forgiveness is an unpredictable journey as\u00a0we ride the waves of anger and release and finally we level off \u2013 until someone\u00a0does something else we don’t like and off we go again.<\/p>\n
Good writing doesn\u2019t happen in a\u00a0straight line. We get an idea, we start to write about it, we get blocked, we\u00a0water the plants, we make a few phone calls, we find an opening sentence, we\u00a0throw something down on the page, we hate, we edit it, we feel embarrassed\u00a0about it and then we decide it isn\u2019t so bad. Writing is an unpredictable\u00a0journey as we ride the waves of acceptance and shame and pride in what we\u00a0accomplished \u2013 until we get to the next chapter and the process starts all over\u00a0again.<\/p>\n
Whatever life throws at us, whatever\u00a0we do to cope, patience is always the answer. We have to slow down, cool off\u00a0and practice taking things as they come. How many times have you had a
brainstorm, rushed to the computer, put your hands on the keyboard \u2013 and then\u00a0nothing? If we get up and leave, we call writer\u2019s block. If we stay and find\u00a0some patience, we call it a breakthrough. Your inspiration will come on its own\u00a0time, not yours, so you might as well maintain a good attitude. I don’t think\u00a0you can wait patiently. If you’re patient, you\u2019re present and free from\u00a0expectation. If you\u2019re waiting, you’re in the future, a frustrating place to\u00a0be.<\/p>\n
Pema Cbodron says, \u201cPatience is the\u00a0training in abiding with the restlessness of our energy and letting things
evolve at their own speed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Things don’t happen fast enough for\u00a0us. It\u2019s hard to wait for a phone call. It\u2019s hard to be in a traffic jam on the\u00a0freeway. It\u2019s hard to wait for the server to bring our order to the table. It\u2019s\u00a0hard to heal, to forgive and to write. When I face the blank page, I don’t expect\u00a0perfection. I just start putting down words with no particular structure or\u00a0topic in mind. I let them spill out and let my hands fly on the keyboard with
no connecting threads or tidy segues. But I stay patient. I don’t wait for\u00a0something better to come, I stay with what I have and pretty soon, inspiration\u00a0comes knocking at my door.<\/p>\n
Maya Angelou said, What I try to do\u00a0is write. I may write for two weeks \u201cthe cat sat on the mat, that is that, not\u00a0a rat.\u201d And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When\u00a0I\u2019m writing, I write. And then it\u2019s as if the muse is convinced that I\u2019m\u00a0serious and says, \u201cOkay. Okay. I\u2019ll come.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u2019s talking about patience, not\u00a0waiting. She\u2019s talking about a journey, not a straight line. The longer you\u00a0live, the more familiar you become with the lifts and dips that occur. In his\u00a0magnificent song, \u201cHallelujah,\u201d Leonard Cohen wrote this about music:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt goes like this, the fourth, the
fifth,\u00a0The minor falls, the major lifts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The more you write, the more you\u00a0become familiar with the falls and the lifts that carry your words through the\u00a0atmosphere. The journey is always different. One day, the words pour onto the\u00a0page. The next day they squeeze out, one at a time. And on the next, they hide
in your subconscious and refuse to appear. But with patience, eventually it all\u00a0evens out and you start to believe you can do it.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when the satisfaction comes.\u00a0Not at the end. It comes with the path along the way, as we machete our way\u00a0through the dense hallways of our minds and we find a clearing in front of us.\u00a0We breathe, we slow down, we feel the stress dissipate and we are grateful we\u00a0can get up tomorrow and do it all over again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HEALING, FORGIVENESS, WRITING Healing doesn’t happen in astraight line. It\u2019s not definitive like that. We get sick, the worst of itpasses, we think we\u2019re better, we feel sick again, we have chicken soup, take\u00a0naps and then one day, we realize we\u2019ve been feeling good for a while and we\u00a0hardly noticed. Healing is a unpredictable journey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2207,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206\/revisions\/2207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}