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Conscious Living

“I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I have been asked many times, “When are you going to publish your book?” “Why have you not published your memoir?” I think there are several answers to these questions. One is simply, because I'm too lazy to go through all the work and expense of publishing a book. Also, because writing this daily blog IS the way I publish my work. No, I don't make any money from doing that, but that's not the point. This blog is my spiritual practice—it's how I ground myself in what's important to me at the beginning of each day. That way, I get off to a good start from a right-headed place—or at least, I try.

For someone as introverted as I, writing is the way we check in with ourselves. Sometimes, we don't know what we think or how we feel until we see it in print. Anne Morrow Lindbergh was that way, as are many people we label “writers.” Writing is by its very nature a solitary act. One sits for long stretches of time with pen in hand, (or in my case, laptop) and goes inside oneself to take the pulse of what's living there. Our consciousness of “life” happens within. The stories that novelists write are composed of inner landscapes and characters that exist nowhere except in their imaginations. To be able to do that, one must have a rich inner world that touches this everyday reality only in the mind of the writer. I remember once hearing Ann Pachett being fussed at by a reader. Why did she allow a child in her book, State of Wonder, to be killed by a snake? The reader was quite incensed about the whole thing. Pachett's response was, “Well, I just made him up. If you want the story to be different, you could rewrite it any way you like.”

I wonder how you become “conscious of living.” Are you aware all of the time? Do you sometimes operate on auto pilot? Do you talk to uncover your thoughts, or perhaps write to take a peek? Whatever works for you, it's worth the journey. The world needs more conscious people.

                                                          In the Spirit,

                                                              Jane