SUDDEN INSPIRATION
If you have been reading along this month you may have noticed that some of the post topics might seem to have randomly assigned to certain letters of the alphabet. This is not however a random process. Sometimes I come up with a phrase that I know I have to use. Often this coming up with is actually a mere writing down what I seem to have come up with while asleep. I woke up within a week of the start of the a to z challenge at three a.m. and created the list of 26 topics I wanted to work with for a group of essays. I knew that if I can stay ahead of the day / letter assignment I will have no problem finishing my 26 essays. The letters are related to the topic in whatever fashion my associative mind came up with, and as I just said, this is not necessarily a conscious construction. My best ideas have always just assaulted me with their presence. “Write me down,” they scream. The first time I really noticed this was when I was taking a bus in Lafayette, IN in to the Purdue Campus in West Lafayette in the early 1980s. I remember the notebook, a small notecard sized spiral steno-ish notepad on which I scribbled as quickly as I could,
"send me a dozen long-stemmed obsidian blades with which I will gladly cut out my own heart tribute to what I will never have..."
The words for the poem poured out of me in one great sob, mourning the end of an affair that I had hoped would become a relationship. I do not share the whole poem here, but it was good. I titled it, three archaeologies of high tech death. I can be a good poet when I give myself room to be one.
Women should record, write down, or somehow capture inspirations and insights. I trust my brain dumps to capture something. I may not know what I’m capturing at the time. Often, years later, I will re-read something I wrote years earlier, and understand that I knew so much more about what was really going on as a whole, than I had given myself credit for.
This fact of finding my own wisdom is why I wrote this line for another article I am working on,
“I’ve hired organizers and loved the process of getting rid of excess – the spartan, minimalist, hard-edged world of KonMari® hurts my heart.”
One of my fears for the world is that the fascination of young and midlife women’s, their preoccupation, with Marie Kondo, has created a point in the future in which many of these women, when they will want to recall, reminisce, or remember something they experienced, wrote about, or felt quite deeply, and that they will not have the bit of memorabilia or the few written words that they need to process or reframe that earlier experience.
Of course we cannot keep everything that might remind us of something. And we should be prepared for loss from fire, flood, or war/ terrorism as the material world is fragile and there are no guarantees.
THE SPEED OF THOUGHT AND PRAYER
To take a break in action (Interlude) or intercede on behalf of someone (Intercession). These are not just “I” words to fill up a space in a challenge post. Though I have been guilty of such slap dash treatment of the challenge in the past.
No, I really want to talk about the use of interludes and intercessions in women’s lives. Intercession can be taken to mean prayer for action to happen for someone else. Coming from some Anabaptist philosophy and some Protestantism as a child I never really got how you could ask God for specific favors or actions, not even for critical things for others. Prayer for me was never asking for anything other than guidance to do what is right. To me intercession is when we collectively work to right a wrong or promote understanding. An interlude is when we catch our breaths when an activity or situation stops before another activity starts.
That catching my breath , breathing deeply, introspection and opening up to silence and inner peace is where I find inspiration, my prayers are what I try to give to the world.
I know I have to write occasionally about what gives me hope and motivates me. I hope that women who want to share their wisdom will share what inspires and nourishes them, even if it does not fit someone else’s model.