a grand tectonic shift

I spent last week at a writing workshop at Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, NY. Usually, when I go to Omega, I spend an inordinate amount of time in the bookstore, and I come home with a small fortune in books I can't wait to read. But something changed this time. I walked away empty-handed again and again. It dawned on me that I had read what I wanted to about Buddhist psychology, meditation, healing, and consciousness. Of course, what I know is barely the tip of the iceberg, just a smattering of the literature, the teachings, and the practice. But leaving the bookstore with nothing, it struck me: It's time for me to start writing my book. 

"If there's a book

you really want to read,

but it hasn't been written yet,

then you must write it."

~Toni Morrison~

I felt a twinge of panic. This is going to be hard.

"Write about disturbs you,

what you fear,

what you have not been willing to speak about.

Be willing to be split open."

~Natalie Gildberg~

What will I write about? This is about those tectonic shifts that dismantle the foundation our lives. That make us question what we have always believed, or been taught is true, or have tried to live by, and where we go from there. Sometimes it concerns physical healing...when cancer strikes, or the heart gives out, or a disabling injury occurs. Sometimes it requires emotional, psychological, or spiritual healing...from trauma, or abuse, or shame, or guilt.

"If you never heal

from what hurt you,

you'll bleed on people who

didn't cut you."

~various attributions~

When did it happen to you? How did it change you? How will you heal? When will you begin writing about it?

"We write out of revenge against reality,

to dream and to enter

the lives of others."

~Francine du Plessix Gray~

jan