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Yes. All I can say is "yes." As a fellow writer, I totally agree with what you say here, and also that it could not have come at a more appropriate time, so thank you.

sandra

"There are days when nothing can move me, so I move myself."

And there are days when I can't even move myself. I hope you are spared such days. Here's to hoping the new day is better. Life rolls on.

Lauren

As usual, wisdom and insight from the Preacher. Profundity in simplicity and real life. Heavens yes.

Although sometimes what is being written is a salvo in the battle.

I got to fire off at what was bothering me the most today and do it in a constructive manner. I just finished writing a report to a committee I'm on reflecting on the past year. In the process, I got to express some hurts and pains that have come up in the last few months.
--
"The writer is either a practicing recluse or a delinquent,
guilt-ridden one; or both. Usually both. "
Susan Sontag

"Anxiety is a pre-emergent creaticide."

This post is pure poetry. Good stuff. My wife struggles with anxiety. Her favorite verse is "Perfect love drives out fear."

On that note, I'm pretty sure everybody here loves you. It may not be perfect love, but hopefully it is good enough to be an encouragement.

Mark

That last bit:

"Let these days go because there will be other days. Life is made up of days, and they keep coming, one after the other."

It's not especially profound, it's not a truth I've never heard before, but I've never heard it phrased quite that way. Thank you.

This is a universal truth to take comfort in when you have bad days, bad writing or otherwise. The days do keep coming and we're all in this together. Reminds me of a little poem by a friend of Thich Nhat Hanh's:

I have lost my smile.
But don't worry-
The dandelion has it.

Thanks for the honest look into you. "Life is made up of days, and they keep coming, one after the other." It made me think of Peter and John in Acts 3 going to pray. It gets set up with, "every day they went to the temple" then it says, "one day." One day. That was the day the crippled man walked for the first time. They must have seen him 'everyday' because it says he too was there everyday. But one day. One day something very different happened. Everyday they prayed. Everyday they saw him. Everyday they walked past him again. Did they say hello before? I don't know. But one day, one day there was hope (or not) and one day there was a miracle. I am glad the days keep coming, one after another. Maybe one day... gp

Amen, bro; I had one of those days today. You know it's a bad writing day when all you can write about is celebrity gossip.

Day by day. Day by friggin' day.

- n

You must become what you want to save. - Derek Webb

What you say strikes a chord, Gordon, not that I write professiionally, just blogging and similar things. However, writing is often the process I use to sort my anxious and bleak thoughts out, so the very time when I need to write most is the time I would be best advised not to write.

But maybe as it's a different kind of writing that rule doesn't apply. It's true what I write then is probably pure indulgence and of little value to anyone else. What I think of as my more productive writing does happen when I've got my thoughts sorted out and don't feel there are tasks I've left undone and should be doing instead.

interesting.

I love the scripture which says castyour anxiety on Him because He cares for you. (1 Peter) That is the remedy. If we hold onto our anxiety it grows and starts to get a life of its own. So much of our fear is based on Performance Orientation and the lie that we aren't lovable if we fail to perform. I'm not free of this, but recognising it helps. Thanks

You should heed the call of duty, but you should also know that nothing kills your muse faster than clapping your feet into cast-iron shoes and dragging them through the earth. If you are in that place in life, I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe not write.

FWIW... I think the thing to do then depends on your goals. If the only important thing is enjoyment of the process, then stop writing and go enjoy some other process. But if the important thing is to have finished some writing, the thing to do is keep writing--which is how I took your "soul cannot be found" passage.

The writers I know write regardless of whether the muse has left the building. They don't ever expect it to greet them at the laptop. In my experience, writing attracts muses. They like to see you make the effort before they'll show up.

It's also been a surprising lesson to me that what I write when the electricity flows through my fingers isn't much better than when every word is a slog. It all gets brutally chopped and carefully polished up so the lines between origins aren't apparent anyway.

I think muses are sturdier than we often give them credit for.

Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited by personal outlook.

...nothing kills your muse faster than clapping your feet into cast-iron shoes and dragging them through the earth. ... In my experience, writing attracts muses. They like to see you make the effort before they'll show up. It's also been a surprising lesson to me that what I write when the electricity flows through my fingers isn't much better than when every word is a slog ... Do whatever it is you do, but do it now.

I love how the Spirit sends messages. She makes certain passages ring out in the stillness; they resonate differently from the rest. Gordon and Keith, I needed these. They are (1) where I am, (2) what I have seen to be true with my own writing but keep forgetting, and (3) what I need to do. Thank you.

Couldn't have read you -- for the first time -- at a more appropriate moment. Not only am I reminded of the humanness of dullness and anxiety and feelings of worthlessness ... but I have been inspired to go back to our church's neglected website (of which I am the webmaster) and make it glorious.
Thank you.

Sounds like some very good advice.

http://scapegoat-mo.livejournal.com/

I ran across this the other day. It sings to me. I hope it does for you, as well, Gordon:

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
-- Leonard Cohen

Errata:
Third paragraph, "bluff our seduce". Believe you mean "bluff OR seduce".

Jonah
http://jacsongs.blogspot.com

The days feel much the same here in Marshfield. Life is full, but the words to describe it all have not yet ripened. I'm working to not let the anxiety be a creaticide (great word!) so things can bloom all in good time.

And, regardless of how the days come and go, I do think time is ultimately good.

Peace,
Milton

Is that why the psalmist asks "teach me to number my days aright?" Thanks for the post!

Tom V

yep.
time for recreational explosives.
Nothing like building bottle rockets to find my muse.
********
or bad rhymes like:
when the muse gets the blues kick it in the trews before you lose 'cause you've paid your dues. Good news? Who knews? Hugh's Muse? It was a ruse! Her name is Bette.
*********
reverend mommy from CPE never-never land.

maybe I should delete that, 'cause I think I'm getting punchy....
************
reverend mommy from CPE never-never land.

Dear rlp,
When you wrote: "Here is another tip for you: You need to win a battle before you write. So win one - even an easy one - and get all that stuff out of your mind.", did you mean that it's okay to write about what's making you angry, and let others share that anger, or are you suggesting, rather, that you deal with the anger constructively before sharing your thoughts with others?

I understand. That's how it is with writing; I cannot force it either. I've attempted the 'artist's way' kind of disciplined writing. I have two notebooks filled with crap as a result. But when I write when my mind is quiet, with nothing breaking my focus, and I'm writing because I want to, feel compelled to, I then write good stuff.

A huge problem with writing was that I had been approaching it as a way to work through battles. Recently I realized writing is not like that, it's not nearly as self-indulgent as all that. Writing for the sake of writing results in something that takes away from its audience, demands something from the readers. Writing from the heart after the battle results in true communication, beauty, art.

This is true- good point. And is exactly why I can write technical manuals and doohickeys and software crap all day long, but when it comes to nonutilitarian quote-unquote 'art', I cannot force it. When I do, it's not honest. It's not real. It's definitely not live.

I love your writing, Gordon. I really do. You're right up there in my opinion with Ray Bradbury and Walt Whitman. You've mastered your craft and please please keep doing it. You're touching far more people than you realize, and making the world a better place becasue of it. The world needs more beauty and not in the form of poetry or fiction. The world needs inspiration, a real live preacher who is one of 'us'. Your religion, your personal experience, your everything that makes you you- it does not separate you from your audience. You become one with the audience, because even if the details and circumstances of your story differ from your reader, the core does not. And that is why someone like me, an agnostic technical writer with no kids and two cats, can read something you write, as a Christian minister from Texas, and feel like I'm a part of something quite spiritual and earth changing indeed. Because when you get right down to the nitty gritty of what it means to be human, what it means to love, and what it means to be a community in body, mind, spirit- that is universal. Especially the love part.

Thank you. So very much.