When I first typed I Believe In…. I thought, oh my, do I believe in magic? Maybe I do.
In reality, I believe in the magic of nature, the magic of words, and the magic of life.
Let’s first speak to nature. Is it infused with magic or does it offer something more concrete? Is it something we can put our finger on and say this is what nature is? For me, nature exudes the essence of life. The more time we spend in nature, the calmer we become, the more in sync we become with its energy. And this is really important.
What started in Japan in 1982, the business called “shinrin-yoku” or “forest bathing” has now become popular around the world. Japan spent millions on researching the effects the trees have on our health, but in all actuality, the positive effects of being in the forest among the trees were discovered long before. Some of the most profound writings came in the 1800s when John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman and many others extolled the power of being out in nature and wrote about it.
John Muir is quoted as saying, “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”
For those who discover its joys, they can feel nature’s embrace. As John Muir reflected on his time outside, many of us feel the same. But of course, there is a caveat. If you drop into its (the forest’s) glory and let yourself be nurtured by nature, you will reap the benefits quite easily, but then there are those who go into the forest and fight its soothing balm. They want to manipulate its energy. It takes nature much longer to calm a person with an agenda. There will always be those who really don’t want to ‘sink’ into the energy of nature but, if one stays out long enough, they too will fall under its spell.
As a writing coach, a writer, editor and online writing instructor, for me, nature is the salve that heals. Nature allows me to breathe and to settle in. In this space good writing and coaching take hold and it is in this space of calmness where I meet my clients.
We have all chosen a path of expression that is so much harder than others. Robert Olen Butler wrote in his book, From Where You Dream, “Every other art form is irreducibly sensual. Dancers move, composers work with sound, painters with color; even abstract art isn’t abstract at all – it’s color and form.” But not words. For us, life is different. We’ve chosen words.
Remember the paper dolls of our childhood, or maybe you remember younger siblings with their paper dolls out. If we asked them about the doll, they would tell us all about how they named her, what she does, where she is going, who her friends are, and it would go on and on. Their imagination filled the doll with life.
When we write, and build characters and story, our words can easily fall flat, no matter how hard we try. They are waiting to be infused with emotion and feeling. That is our job as writers.
By opening our Emotional Centers we can infuse our words with emotion, Without emotion, we have no feeling, and without feeling our characters are as flat as the paper dolls.
You have happened upon this blog, and I thank you for stopping by. I just wanted to take a moment to introduce you to my philosophy and yes, it is based in nature. Each writing, and I promise you there will be many, will be about writing and how to bring JOY back to your writing.
I love my work and I love words, and I love life. I hope you will join me as we explore into the depths of good writing.
Stay well, Susan