'We should write because it is human nature to write', says Julia Cameron in her friendly and encouraging book The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life. I've always loved words and one of my childhood wishes was to 'be a writer' but I've struggled with my right to that wish.
Back in 2002, I wrote the following regards my 'writing spirit'. I was in love and water was the medium and mediator for that love. I can't agree now that there 'is no gushing or turmoil' in my writing but I'm working on that!
At school I won prizes for my stories and longed to be an artist. I obsessed for weeks on words like 'spin' and 'queen' for their esthetics. My family called me a 'dreamboat' and counseled that a sensible education should precede those dreams. So, training to be a scientist, I found relief in reading the metaphysical poets - and felt guilty. In my career as an editor, my forte was balancing accuracy with poetic license. Publishers liked my work but pompous authors sometimes got miffed. Writing copious letters to my much-loved family, I sometimes felt ashamed of the emotion that colored my expression. No-one ever wrote back like that. I was always a little shy about saying what I thought of others; and I thought a lot, being an intuitive type. People astonished me and I wanted to know more.
Eventually, I stopped doing science, stopped editing other people's writings, started just being me. It took about five years to relax those habits and start dreaming again. Writing begins when I'm walking or floating in warm-water. A phrase comes that is beautiful and I'm in the flow again. It's a delicate place of patience and persistence. I'm watching the bubbles of a deep life force rising to the surface. Whatever the subject, the insight is magical and unpredictable. Now I can see that the apparent 'limitations' of my development have served me well. There is no gushing or turmoil in these words but rather clarity, like a reflection on still water. I am both writer and writ on - science meets spirit.
You'll find in my three weblogs a mixture of all sorts of examples of my writings from concerns about gravel mining in creeks, to critiques of green-washing in the spa industry, to unorthodox research on the effects of water therapy, to very personal short stories and poems. All linked together one way or another by Water.
Water is the element of personal discovery. Water sweeps us out from inside ourselves. It forces us to face our personal realities, to reveal our inner realms of being, if only to ourselves. Water is the element of naked truth. And many more associations can be made and will be made. Your own?
PS In researching links for this post I discovered another book by Julia: Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance! It is now top of my Wish List and I hope to review it for you here in the new year.
