I recently stumbled upon an insightful and inspiring blog, Fearless Project: On Being Broke and Happy. The author is Sara, whose homeschooling family is dealing with economic change and uncertainty:
“I call this space the ‘Fearless Project’ because I live daily as though I’m stepping off a cliff and find that not only am I not falling, but that I sometimes find myself happier than ever. My intention is to be as honest as I can about what it’s like to raise a family on the financial razor’s edge. The fearless project isn’t only about money, however. Due to these economic times, money fears are in the foreground, but I know from experience that even when the bills are paid and there is money in the bank the fears creep in; it’s usually in the early sleepless hours before dawn. I’m using these money challenges for insight into fear in other disguises. This situation is my laboratory to investigate the nature of my fears and learn how to cultivate happiness despite the uncertainties of this life. I am the project, the work in progress.”
Sara’s words remind me of an essay I read only yesterday in the March/April 2010 issue of The Writer’s Chronicle. Reg Saner writes that “writing creates you as you write it.” He argues,
“the interface between words and your sense of this world is a virtual place, and the locale where writing happens. Figuratively speaking, it’s an ecotone, the biologist’s name for a transitional boundary between diverse communities of life forms. It’s therefore also a zone where unexpectedly interesting things may happen….In essence, it’s a place where self-organizing, which is to say self-evolving, happens through interaction with the written word.”
We don’t just write about our experiences and transitions; our writing is part of and contributes to our experiences and transitions.
Saner also suggests that we have different topics or places or issues of “interactive intensity.” For example, although he grew up in the Midwest, he rarely writes about his birthplace, because it doesn’t make him go “gaga.” If you are a writer or an artist or a creator of any kind, and what you are creating isn’t making you go ga-ga, if it’s not a place where interesting things are happening, ask if a different subject or place or idea is calling to you, one that you are drawn to as much as for your own self-organizing and self-evolving as anything else.
How does your writing contribute to your self-creation?
'"self-organizing, which is to say self-evolving, happens through interaction with the written word."We don't just write about our experiences and transitions, our writing is part of and contributes to our experiences and transitions.'This is spot on, exactly what I'm finding is happening to me with the challenges we're going through. Writing about it, and just as importantly, sharing it and hearing about others experiences, paints it in a light I never would have seen otherwise. Even if I'd just journaled about it it wouldn't be the same.I look forward to reading more!
I had never thought of it quite that way before–writing as self-evolving–but it definitely fits with my experience. It's a bit of a different concept from the usual "writing as self-discovery." I'm very glad you connected with the idea, too!
I find the idea of "self-evolving" via our writing intriguing too. I've often noticed an interplay between events in my life and my writing, even when, on the surface, my current work-in-progress seems to have little in common with who I am, such as when I'm writing a picture book. Thanks for sharing this.CarmelaTeachingAuthors
Carmela, yes, I know what you mean about self-growth or self-evolving not necessarily being connected with the content of our work. I'm seeing that the simple act of writing, when I do it regularly and mindfully, is what is important in terms the transformative aspect. Interesting!