Honored to Write

Honored to Write

Your creativity is a gift from God;

your use of your creativity is your gift back to God 

–Julia Cameron, Letters to a Young Artist 

A rainy quiet Friday, it’s a day of the calm after a hectic few weeks of traveling, school and Gala preparations.  Today, I am feeling an intense pull inward.  In my house, in my inner self, and by myself, I write.  Honoring the need for silence and quiet I find myself wanting to venture inward not outward.  My foundation work is complete, the time has come to relax and enjoy the experience whatever it brings.   

This week I read a book by Julia Cameron, a writer.  The book formatted around the idea of letters to a young artist.  Her advice, to rid yourself of the illusion of writing and writers, such has finding time to write, needing inspiration to write or being an interesting writer.  She offered practical tools to assist any and all artists, whether your craft is writing, painting, or perhaps music. 

Her ideas included: 

• writing daily for at least 15 minutes(no exceptions)
• walking to clear your mind
•  giving up reading for a week to become in touch with your own thoughts
• traveling on small daily adventures to observe life
•  writing authentic 

Write your life.  Write to write for your own needs of expression and ultimately for personal healing.  In your authenticity others will find interest.

Today is a day of honoring.  We spend a lifetime honoring others, honoring our country, our church, our family, our friends, our job and especially the needs of our children and spouse.  Honoring my need to be by myself and not attend my daughter’s field trip.  By honoring myself, I honor God.  By serving myself, I serve God.  This is not a selfish endeavor, on the contrary.  God made each of us unique.  We need to honor what makes us unique. 

“When you place your creative nature first, you are placing God within you first” -Julia Cameron, Letters to a Young Artist

For me I require a balance between doing and being.  Sensitive to the imbalance life often brings recalibration is in order.  In the honoring of my soul, honor comes to those in my life.  On her field trip, the needs of my daughter today are self-reliance and independence, which I am gifting her at the same time.  We are all connected.  By listening to and respecting your requirements, you sometimes unknowingly mirror those same qualities to those around you.     

Love, “with a heart of peace”,

Susan J. McFarland

April 2014