I find that they are always best. Simmered thoughts. Anytime I feel the urge to transcribe my heart into the air I always find that it is best when thoughts have simmered a bit. A constellation of colorful expression brilliantly placed alongside a sea of feeling. A slow cooking of perfection, a lucent idea, crafty creativity, and steamy emotion kept just below the boiling point. Always showing up within those moments of contemplation and stillness. Somewhere between inspiration and writer’s block, a reflection on the world you carry inside of yourself is sure to produce a tasty remedy. A collection of thoughts, and experiences, and advice not yet given, boils down into a sudden birth of writing. We will see what becomes of it.
Tag: inspiration
Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Non-Essentials
Today’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday is from Lin Yutang:
Have you ever known a pack rat? Are you the pack rat? The person who just cannot throw anything away? As such the garage, the storage room, the extra bedroom, or the closet overflows with all of your things. Not just anything, but things. Things that are no longer usable but take up space. This quote reminds me of that.
Anything in life that cannot be used for the benefit of moving forward is a non-essential and is just taking up space. If I cannot make use of this computer, if it is broken and it has proven to go beyond restoration, then it is no use to me. It must be undone. Left alone. I try to look at life in terms of value and quality. Anything that I add to my personal space: relationships, writing, goals, friendships, and even blogging, if it does not assist me in some way, does not add value to my life in some way, then it must be left undone. It is a non-essential. I cannot use it.
The Point of it all? Learn to do away with anything that no longer grows you.
Lin Yutang (October 10, 1895 – March 26, 1976) was a Chinese writer, translator, linguist and inventor. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, and his compilations and translations of classic Chinese text into English were bestsellers in the West.
Don’t forget to join us every week for Writer’s Quote Wednesday, Hosted by Silver Threading.
The Repetition of Thought
As I strolled through the internet I found this quote. It’s right on point too. The mind is authority over the flesh. Keep thinking about something, good or bad, and it will eventually manifest itself. That’s motivation for your motives alright. Something to think about over the weekend indeed.
Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Happiness
When I saw this quote on the Book Rags Facebook Page, I knew I wanted to use it for Writer’s Quote Wednesday:
I had to read this a few times before ascribing to understanding its meaning. Then, I had to read it again because of its beauty. Here are my thoughts on its meaning:
Happiness is such a nourishing feeling that it does not resolve to be stagnant. Happy people are continuously striving to be happy. They are smiling people, complimenting people, grateful people, and they have something good to say about each day. Even in the midst of trial, happiness will always seek that excitement. While it may have settled to drink of its own glory, its wings will still move toward the direction of that which is good.
“Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place, but there is always a little corner that keeps flapping.” – E.L. Konigsburg
I am not familiar with Konigsburg, but interestingly enough I was not surprised to find that she was a writer and illustrator of children’s books and young adult fiction. To me her quote became so much clearer, since there is something fresh about young people that is always exciting, especially small children.
She is one of six writers to win two Newbery Medals, the venerable American Library Association award for the year’s “most distinguished contribution to American children’s literature.”
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Writer’s Quote Wednesday, every Wednesday on Silver Threading.
Special Places
I find you in diverse places: coffee shops, libraries, community centers, parks, even out on the front lawn! Writer’s sprinkled miscellaneously about the earth: polished glasses, warm tea or iced coffee (depending on the weather), Mac books, PC’s and a 3 1/2 pound miracle between their ears. Is there a special place you go to write? You can’t see it, but it’s there; the invisible surge of energy that powers creativity. Electricity is all around us–the power of technology beating through our cell phones, lights, computers, and dishwashers. Yet technology has not its hold on electricity, for it exists beyond the tangibility of anything we can explain. We have not precisely deciphered its definition or explained the beauty of lightening. Energy, it pulses its way through nature, and slithers its way through our fingers.
The table circles its way around my small dining room, with four chairs to keep it company. One of these chairs props itself against the wall and faces forward. From here I can see the landscape of everything from the living room, to the kitchen and peer out the window at the same time. The swimming pool is naked of bodies and is in need of attention from maintenance. It’s a nice day in Shreve City; right now the community is as quite as it often is on Sundays except for the elderly woman walking her puppies. There is nothing special about this view, yet it is where I go to charge when I have not the solitude of being away at the office. It is an unusual place, yet being here is incentive enough to write. Here I may fulfill the need of written expression the moment I sit my bottom in this wallflower of a chair, revitalized by the invisible power that charges our anxious need to build.
Why We Are Broken
“Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.”
― Derek Walcott
Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Igbo Proverb
Today’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday, as part of Silver Threading’s weekly cup of inspiration, is from an Igbo Proverb:
“No one gets a mouthful of food by picking between another person’s teeth.”
– Igbo Proverb
There is such powerful symbolism here: Food is what we give the body for energy and nutrients. Food is the substance needed to keep our bodies burning fuel and operating accordingly. Food can therefore be symbolized as anything of value we wish to accompany our lives. Anything we wish to hold on to, to swallow, and to make part of us in a way that will give us nourishment of spirit. Something like a kind word, a friend, understanding, a spouse, or writing itself, anything of substance. The world would be such a happier place and filled with happier people if we all learned to mind our own business. If you are not here to help change the world, you are here to help hinder its growth. Stop looking for flaws in other people since in doing so you will never see the flaws in yourself, since you will never get a mouthful of anything by picking between another person’s teeth.
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