Dancing in the Rain

This week's quote reads, "The art of living consists in dancing in the rain instead of waiting for the sun."

On a metaphorical level, I couldn't agree more. Now is always the time to get out and do what makes you happy, regardless of the whatever else is going on. Procrastination "I'll do it when I feel more confident / I've lost ten pounds / I have an entire free day / I've finished my work / make up your own excuse" is not only the thief of time, it is also the thief of happiness. Sometimes, the right thing to do is to drop everything and simply dance in the rain. Which stands for any spontaneous action which brings us joy.

The "waiting for the sun" is the toxic part of the quote. Because, let's face it, our lives will never be perfect, never be ideal. Most of us will be able to come up with a dozen 'good reasons' for not doing something new, something brave, without even having to scratch our heads very hard. It's never quite the 'right time'.

It takes a lot of courage, and a good dollop of the willingness to be vulnerable, and a certain amount of faith, to dance in the rain - to risk trying something new, that we've never done before, that we're not sure about. But being brave, being vulnerable, having faith in ourselves, in the universe, is how we grow into our best selves.

But on a literal level, I have issues. I hate being wet through... And yes, I appreciate the truth of the saying, "there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." I'm quite happy to walk in cold weather, bundled up in warm coat, hat, scarf and gloves. It is invigorating. But walking in the rain (let alone dancing in it) is not my bag. Especially now I wear glasses all the time. Call me a wuss, but that is one occasion I'd rather "wait for the sun". I have done it, and will doubtless do it again, but it's not my favourite thing to do.

Simply Staring at the Water

 This week's quotation, by Bengali poet and writer, Rabindranath Tagore, says, "You cannot cross an ocean by simply staring at the water."

And it made me realise that is what I have spent most of the time since Christmas doing. At least so far as my writing is concerned. Towards the end of 2020, I felt I had got the first volume more or less done, and started on volume 2. By the end of December, I had written the first eleven chapters, nearly 40,000 words, and with each additional chapter, I felt more and more unhappy. The well of inspiration was running dry.

I started to fiddle around with those eleven chapters, re-writing scenes, changing this, altering that. But none of it worked. I realised I hadn't got a clue where I wanted the story to go, and that I really didn't like one of the new characters I'd introduced and couldn't think how she was going to further the story. Had I bitten off more than I could chew? It was clear that just trying to bull through wasn't working. Each scene became increasingly difficult to write, and after a couple of weeks, I was ready to give up.

So I started to listen to American writer Brandon Sanderson's latest series of lectures on writing science fiction and fantasy, from which I've learned heaps. And this time (he posts them on YouTube each year) as I listened to the two lectures on character, I finally understood how I could stop staring at the water and get writing again. He explained that each scene has to be written in the light of the character's motivations. So in the middle of this week, I spent my entire rest day writing character arcs for my ten main characters. As I wrote, new ideas began to come, and now I have a much better idea of where I'm going. So I'm working my way back through volume 1 to make sure each scene moves the point of view character along, and am going to completely rewrite those eleven chapters. All sorts of exciting possibilities are spinning round my brain, and I have my writing mojo back.

It is said that a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. And sometimes, that first step is the most difficult one to make. It helps if we have a map, or at least some idea of our destination. And the motivation to get up and walk out of the door. It can be so tempting to stay in, huddle under our blankets and choose not to change. But I believe that it is always, always worth it. If we are to live our lives to the full, we have to stop staring at the water, and dip our toes into that ocean.

One Step at a Time

Like many of us, I can become disheartened by the sheer volume of what I need / would like / feel I ought to do. So this week's quotation, by Saadi, gave me fresh heart. It reads, "It is not an art to conquer the world; if you can, conquer a heart."

It reminded me of another quotation, by (I think) the American Unitarian Universalist minister, Forrest Church, "Do what you can, where you are, with what you have."

In other words, we don't need to "conquer the world" right off the bat. Changes are made by individual people, doing what they can from where they are, day by day, using the skills that they have, and being open to change and growth.

I would guess that all of us can make a list of "things that are wrong with the world". They might include poverty, war, homelessness, exploitation of the planet, violence... the list is endless, and depressing. And overwhelming. What can we, individual little people, do about it all?

The answer, I believe, is in Saadi's quote, "if you can, conquer a heart." Use the mind, heart and abilities we have been given, to change *one* person's mind, to pick up *one* piece of litter, to choose to buy *one* eco-friendly bottle of washing liquid, to sign *one* petition, to attend *one* protest. Then, to further the washing metaphor, "rinse and repeat".

image by Bill Stilwell (Flickr)

This approach also applies to tasks which feel "too big". When faced with a serious and complicated task, it is human nature to procrastinate, to do that which is easiest, and to ignore that which is difficult and overwhelming.

I know this from my own experience. Each time I add a new piece of software to my PC, which I know will *ultimately* make my life easier, it is such a massive temptation to carry on using the same old, less-efficient software I know so well. Because the struggle to learn how to use a new piece of software efficiently daunts me.

This has happened this week. I've downloaded a free trial edition of Scrivener, the writing software, and spent last night going through the tutorial. I can see that once I've got to grips with it, it's going to make my novel so much more fun to write. BUT there are so many features with which I am unfamiliar, I am finding the prospect incredibly daunting. So... I'm going to take my own advice, order a copy of Scrivener for Dummies and give it a proper go. I am sure that once I've taken that first step, and actually engaged with the software, it will become easier and easier.

But the first step is the most difficult. Conquering one heart is the most difficult. The greatest amount of energy is used when we start moving. From still to first step takes more energy (certainly more emotional and spiritual energy) than the following steps. A sort of virtuous feedback loop is set up, and as we form a new habit, it becomes easier to maintain it.

And remember...

image: Flickr

Running out of mojo

This week's quotation is by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "Aller Anfang ist leicht, und die letzten Stufen werden am schwersten und seltesten erstiegen."

Which being translated, means, "The beginning is easy and the final stages are the most difficult and rarest to climb (reach)."

Jury's out on this one, for me. Yes, I agree that we often start new projects with great enthusiasm, and then, once we get down into the nitty gritty and hard grind, our enthusiasm can peter out and we have to call on all our reserves to finish the job properly. It takes great determination and dedication to do this, as I have blogged before here.

BUT, sometimes beginning something is the hardest step - not easy at all. Especially if we believe that the task ahead of us is going to be difficult, or complicated. It is only too easy to put off beginning, to do other things to distract ourselves from what we ought to be getting on with.

I'm usually quite good at getting things done, but creative writing is the one exception to this rule. Faced with a blank page, is is only too tempting to fool around on Facebook, or on Wikipedia, or make another coffee, go for a walk, even do some housework!... almost anything except get some words down onto that terrifying blankness.

And then, if we do manage to make a start on the task, it is easy (but fatal) to listen to the voices of self-doubt in our heads. "This is no good." "You can't do this." "X is so much better / cleverer / more artistic than I am - what's the point of even trying?"

We have to get over this self-doubt by telling ourselves: "I'm doing this. It may not be the best [whatever] in the world, but it's my task, and I'm going to finish it, because it has to be done."

Where do you fall? Do you find beginnings easy and completions hard, like Goethe? Or are beginnings the hardest thing of all?

Thief of Time

I am District Secretary of the Midland Unitarian Association, and we had a meeting on Saturday, which was very good, and very rich, but generated a lot of minutes. And my job for today is to type those up, and to disseminate them, and to generate a to-do list from them.

And I've been putting it off. Some of the things I've been doing this morning were quite legitimate - going for a run, checking & dealing with e-mails, but I've spent an inordinate amount of time on Face book, and have even found myself cleaning the kitchen, just to avoid starting those minutes.

*sigh*

But at least when I became aware of what I was doing, it gave me the idea for this blogpost. One of my favourite quotes about time-wasting is "procrastination is the thief of time", so I went onto Google to find out who said / wrote it, and it was Edward Young.

However, on the website I looked it up on, there were a couple of other really splendid quotes about procrastination, one on the side of judgement, one on the side of mercy. The one by Pablo Picasso really frightened me:

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone."

 

Well, gosh, OK. I'll get on with them, I promise. Just as soon as I've finished this blogpost.

 

The other, by Denis Waitley, who is an American motivational speaker and writer, I found much more forgiving and soothing:

 

"Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow."

 

"You still have an entire tomorrow." Isn't that amazing?  And isn't it hopeful? Whatever we have done in the past, each new day is full of new possibilities and new hope. So I give thanks to God, who has given us Time in which to move and live and hope and dream.