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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

NO MATTER YOUR WINTER, SPRING WILL COME

Your unconscious speaks to you all the time. Usually, the din of our present moment drowns it out.

Usually.

But the unconscious is a tricky little bugger.

As I was driving tonight in the blinding rains, courtesy of the storm front punishing much of the country,


a car darted recklessly in front of me. I drive as if everyone around me is suicidal and moronic -- so there was no accident.

Through the blurred windshield, I spotted the bumper sticker on it. I thought I read:


NO MATTER YOUR WINTER, SPRING WILL COME.


When the windshield wipers sqeaked me a clear view, my impression wasn't even close to the true words of the sticker.

Don't ask. Just content yourself with the fact that it matched perfectly the mindset of a suicidal moron.

But it got me to thinking as I drove to Beaumont. My unconscious mind was right.


Life is a circle of seasons. No winter stays forever. No summer is endless. Trauma will end. Healing will begin. And no joy lasts forever.

My blog friends email me:

some are struggling in the middle of their novels;

some are just trying to overcome the inertia of pushing the beginning of their narrative over that first hill;

while others are brooding about revisions:


where to prune, where to further illuminate.

Whatever season you find yourself struggling in,


know that with the trials, there are also pleasures involved with each season.

Both blessings and blights have expiration dates.

Life is both less and more than you may think. It is a fragile tangle of perceptions that exist in a fleeting moment in time.


This moment.

See? It is already gone
:
 
that moment when your eyes first spied the title over my post.

And that is something my half-Lakota mother taught me as we looked out over Lake Michigan at a frosty sunset
 
while she spun me tales of the Twilight of the Gods, and what it meant to be courageous.

Suddenly, she turned to me and said:
 
"Breathe each breath, little one. No two are the same. Remember the colors that paint this sky. Remember me, little one. Remember, and this sunset ... and I ... we will never leave you. Never."



Last week I wrote of Emily Dickinson. Writing of that sunset from so long ago has reminded me of her "Blazing in Gold." Here is a snippet:

"Blazing in gold and quenching in purple,
Leaping like leopards to the sky,
Then at the feet of the old horizon
Laying her spotted face to die…."


Another favorite comes from Christina Georgina Rossetti's "From Sunset To Star Rise":

"I live alone, I look to die alone:
Yet sometimes, when a wind sighs through the sedge,
Ghosts of my buried years and friends come back,
My heart goes sighing after swallows flown
On sometime summer's unreturning track."


We write our tales, spinning them of the silk of our imagination and perceptions. We sail the dark seas of longing and desire ... to be published?
 
No.
 
I think we sail for a shore other than the need to be heard.
 
No, we sail upon the Sea of Dreams to connect to others of like spirit out in the darkness.

That is why we sail upon uncertain seas to tell our stories ... to reach another heart like ours:
 
hurting, hoping, and helping.
 
That is a star worthy of charting our course by.

What did John Masefield write?

I must go down to the sea again,
to the lonely sea and sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship


 
And a star to steer by.
*****************************
 

5 comments:

  1. I love the Masefield quote. Taking a new breath is what I've been about lately.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What you say in this post seems very true. We seek others of like minds. Some seek group hugs.

    As I cruise the blogosphere I see changes, writers gathering in 'like' groups, writers awarding writers, and other ways of gathering strength (?) or bunching together for comfort (?) This type of behavior seems very self-serving. Perhaps that's okay. I'm stating this as an observation, only.

    If blogging continues down this path, I'll eventually lose interest and slip away to another incarnation.

    Driving brings interesting thoughts to your mind, Roland.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wendy:
    May each new breath bring new freedom, peace, and beauty your way. :-)

    D.G.:
    It is only natural to seek out those who see life as we do. But you are right: we only grow by exposing ourselves to views contrary to ours.

    I, too, have seen writers band together to hawk their books in one venue. I have never been a joiner. I have always sought the solitary path. Me and Thoreau.

    Of course, I am selling about as many books as Threau did in his lifetime, too! :-)

    As for group hugs ... that is what bothers me about NaNo. It is more about being in on the IN THING. Oh, everyone is doing it. The ghost of Mark Twain is chuckling over that.

    A to Z has drawn as many members as some third world nations. Too many to visit them all.

    I have decided to just be me. I will write posts I believe are interesting and write my books even if no one buys them.

    I hope you do not drift away! I would miss you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I would always remember those 'special' bloggers. I, too, want to be myself and just write my stories.

    Everyone still remembers Thoreau, they don't always remember those other writers of prose who sold more in their lifetime. They became dated, Thoreau remained timeless.

    The 'cog' that doesn't fit, may cause a new design. . .

    ReplyDelete
  5. D,G,:
    I feel better now. You'll visit, right?

    Thoreau does remain timeless. I use his thoughts in THE LAST SHAMAN.

    I can only hope to be me. The status of Thoreau is too loft for me. :-)

    Wendy:
    Thanks for the gift. It means a lot.

    ReplyDelete