Sunday, November 28, 2010

SHOWING UP IS STEP ONE

So here is a comment on yesterday's post, so that you don't have to go look it up.


What is it you are seeking? Is this practice for something with a longer development cycle? Or is posting daily the only goal? Either way you are doing fine, but isn't there something more you want out of writing than this? Is it a forest for the trees kind of thing?

From what I understood this blog was practice, a way to get into the routine of daily writing. It is doing scales, training your hands and mind to be prepared for taking on more involved work. 

Writing and publishing everyday, with no plot, no story curve, how could that not be diffuse? Is it becoming an empty task? Think beyond the blog, write outside of the blog. Dig deeper into the hows and whys and wherefores of writing if nothing else, though I am sure there are other things to write about. You have it started, the seed has germinated, now grow it into something bigger and more complex.


Maybe it is too much information, or exposing a deep weakness, but writing every day, sitting down and thinking of something to say that is at least valuable to me as a moment of progress and attention, is challenging.


I don't see it as an empty task at all. Showing up is step one. 


Reading a little further in Ravindra's Wisdom of Patanjali's Sutras, I find this:


"Whenever searchers engage in impartial self-observation, they recognize that it is difficult to have the kind of steady attention which is needed for any sustained study. The cultivation of a non-fluctuating attention requires a discipline, a sadhana (practice). The sadhaka, the one who undertakes sadhana, needs to have the attitude of a disciple—a willingness to search, to listen, to change. There is a mutuality of relationship between a discipline and a disciple: there can be disciple without a discipline, and no discipline can endure without some disciples. 


Steady attention, sustained study. That's where I am starting. And, so far, that may be as far as I've gotten. I am thinking about writing everyday. And I am making a point of writing every day. 


Who knows when the next step will come?


I may have more to say on this comment tomorrow.

4 comments:

  1. the yoga of reading, the reading of yoga....
    i find myself looking forward to each new day of your blog.
    keep on keepin' on sista!

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  2. Hey, thanks so very much. I need the encouragement. That's a nice way to wake up.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Wow! I am today's feature. Hmmmm, did my comment come off as discouraging? Certainly not meant that way. Was trying to tease some meaning out of your "diffused" feeling.

    I encountered a great concept in learning to program. Basically it says there are only two things to be thinking about/working on at a given moment: the next biggest thing and the next smallest thing.

    I could not figure how to include that in the previous post though it was at the heart of what I was thinking. Since you felt your blogging was becoming diffuse it seemed that maybe having another thought in mind beyond the daily practice, beyond just showing up, would bring some focus to the activity.

    So to continue as the thorn in the paw, the sand in the oyster, what is Step Two? Next time you feel diffuse think of Moe Howard and ask: "What's the big idea?"

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